My husband and I have decided to home school our children because we do not feel that the public education systems are very good these days. When we were in public school the teachers spent more time trying to control and disipline the class or individual students then they spent teaching. I also feel that the public school system is too focused on passing standardized tests then on real education. And it seems to be getting worse as the years go on. (I have a 13 yr old sister in the public education system and I am appalled at her reading/writing skills!) My husband and I feel that education is important and we want them to have good and strong educations, as they are already very bright children and at three years old, my twins can already spell a few words. Since there are four of them, we're not very concerned about their social skills. My kids have great social skills already, and besides, the husband and I decided we are going to get them involved in other activities that they show interest in (such as music or sports or art) outside of a school setting so they can make other friends and explore their interets. We also live in a neighborhood with lots of families who have young children as well.

However, my mother is so ANTI home school that she says it borders on child neglect and that parents who home school are lazy and bad parents. Yet, she always comments on how smart my children are and she's amazed by how much they know. And I ask her where she thinks they learn everything from? She quickly changes the subject and gets angry if I tell her it's because I'm already home schooling them on a pre school level. She's convinced that public school is the best way to go and I'm horrible for thinking otherwise.

So my question is - for those who home school, AND for those in the public school system to share your thoughts and experiences and how you think it's positively or negatively effected your children? Or if you are a child who has been home schooled/public schooled - your thoughts are welcome too.

I'm just looking for outside input to share with my mother because this is an issue she and I both get very heated about.

Thanks!

*EDIT* My kids already have Florida Prepaid set up so they can go to college when the time comes for that and my husband and I agree that we both feel college is important to their continued education so they can have good careers when they become adults.

pavray

Home schooling sounds like a terrific idea, but it is exceptionally difficult. Curriculum, instructional issues, intellectual group interaction, cooperative and competitive learning, learning styles, and that's just the start. If you are committed to home schooling, contact the local chapter of the home schooling association in your area. They often provide advice, curricula, and opportunities for group "classes". Additionally, the state department of education often provides information and curricula for home schooling. Good luck to you.

asking

I home schooled my 13 year old son for one year and enjoyed it immensely and have no regrets. But I also felt like it was a lot of work. I did it when I didn't have a job, so it was fine. But I knew I couldn't do it if I started working again and I put him back in school. Last week, he told me that there had been a small explosion outside his school and it turned out to be have been done by some teenagers from the home school community. I'm not saying this is typical, but if other homeschooling parents are working and not supervising their teens, I can easily imagine how this can happen. I've read that police say that kids get into the most trouble not on weekends or at night, but between 3 and 6pm, when they are out of school and their parents are not home from work... This is just another perspective, not meant to condemn homeschooling generally.
Asking

michealb

Another problem that I noticed recently with home schooling. Is that most people don't know that they are stupid. Not to say that all public school teachers are smart. They least always understand what is being taught. Lets face it though half of all people are below average intelligence and average isn't that smart.

coolcourtney8

I got to a public school. i say ask the children what they think and maybe some of them might not want to be home schooled and some wo want to go to a public school. try not to control them to much. i would prefer to be homeschooled cos i hate school because someimes the teachers spend more time on the peaople who they THINK need help than the peaople who ACTUALY need it reallii x just saying x

asking

Have you asked your parents about homeschooling you? If you agreed to be self disciplined and maybe set some rules and goals that you would accomplish along the way, they might agree to let you try it for a year.

I agreed to home school my son for one year (he was 12 then and also hated his school) and it was great. We did history by watching history documentaries from Netflix and talking about them. Many school districts have programs supporting home schooling. They'll supply books and other materials, help you stay on track as far as state standards, stuff like that. You could look into it.
Good luck,
Asking

Maricruz

I respectfully disagree, both my children have been in the public school system and my husband and I have been involved with the school from the time they were in preschool. In the primary years we helped in the classroom almost every day or with school activities when necessary. We have always known their classmates by name and we are always on top of homework, activities, etc. There are many parents like that in our school, even those who work two jobs have time to help out.

Even now when the older one is in high school (private high school, that was HIS choice), we are still involved and on top of him regarding homework, assignments, emails, text messages etc. We have all his passwords to his accounts and check them periodically.

So having a child in public school can keep you quite busy if you so choose. Schools WANT the parent's help and it can be fun...

dunno

My step daughter is homeschooled by her mom. And while the mom seems to be doing a good job of teaching her, my step daughter seems to also have some social issues. THe mom runs a daycare so my SD is around lots of other kids. But she never wants to try anything new. When it comes to adults, she doesn't want to be around new ones. She quit one activity because the teacher left and she doesn't want any other teacher.

She won't play a sport because "What if the other kids are better than me?"

I don't know...I just think it depends on the parent. I think the key is getting them in extra curricular activities or enrolling them in a class or two at the public school. Like gym and music...that's what my step daughter was in until her mom pulled her out. But that way, they'd get to know more kids their age and who they also might go to school with someday.

mldubose

I have homeschooled my kids and was very different from many of the parents in my area. For one, we did not do it for religious reasons (I'm an atheist), but for academic ones. I have children who were tested as "gifted", but the schools spent more time getting the children at the bottom to meet the basic requirements for state testing than they did making sure my children had any kind of challenging work. The NEA still functions under the belief that "smart children learn in any environment". Pulling them out once a week to do a dumb project is not any kind of enhancement. Gifted education in Georgia is a joke.

I also had a problem with the schools not teaching their own standards regarding science and social studies. When I started home schooling, I decided to start with the state standards for each subject and to then puchase any materials needed to comply with these standards. I was horrified to see what my children had not learned in school! My seventh grader had not even been told anything about Charles Darwin or evolution, even though the Georgia standards very clearly state that this information is required to be taught. Teachers avoid the topic like the plague, especially when the Secretary of State wanted stickers to be placed in science books to "warn" students that evolution is "only a theory". I wanted to push the woman out of an airplane and let her test the "theory" of gravity.

I was alarmed to see the letters that would be sent home that would have grammar and spelling errors in them coming from my children's teachers. And we live in a "good" school district! I actually sat in the class while the teacher went over vocabulary words and heard her tell the kids the wrong definition for the word "anxious"! Good grief! Had the woman ever picked up a dictionary?

My children are constantly exposed to people from all walks of life, from our friends who live in the city (and are two older gay men) to the religious nuts passing out fliers telling us we're going to hell because we don't love Jesus. My girls also have gotten an enormous amount of "sex ed" because they wouldn't have gotten any of it in school. The parents here keep their kids so sheltered, and they are in the public schools! Even my nine-year-old knows what the term "blow-job" means. She asked. I told her.

I guess mine have had the good experience of doing both public school and home school. But they languished under the tyranny of dumbing themselves down to fit in with other kids in public school. They were bored out of their minds because the rest of the class moved too slow, and their friends were never concerned with social issues. My oldest wore a pin that read, "Another straight person for gay rights", and got stares. They also didn't fit in because we weren't in church every week like everyone else.

But as far as a homeschooling support association, I'm on my own here. I refuse to take part in the local one that is church affiliated because it's the "dinosaurs in the Bible" sort. My kids have had enough exposure to that stuff, and we've covered that "thought process" in our comparative religion topic.

As far as your mother goes, tell her to butt out. I stopped speaking to my MIL over homeschooling. My children are her step-grandchildren, and she didn't want to meet me for the first 2 years I was dating her son because of my children. So she has no right to even have an opinion, even if she is a teacher. My mother-the-teacher wasn't too bad about it, but she beat the hell out of me when I was a kid, so I don't care what she thinks either.

They're your kids and screw what anyone else thinks. Whether it's home or public or private schools, whatever works for you and your kids is the right answer.

mldubose

I just wanted to add that my husband has a PhD in chemistry, and I'm about to start working on a Master's Degree. I do know of parents who have no business trying to teach their kids because they need to go back to school themselves.

I especially think it's interesting to see parents who haven't mastered subject-verb agreement and can't even use lie and lay properly (among other things). If you asked them what a "subjective clause" was, they'd freak out. This is information any high school graduate should know, but most parents don't.

They have read that they don't need teaching degrees to teach their kids. Well, they don't, but mastery of their own language is definitely required. After all, if you can't do algebra either, then you shouldn't even consider trying to teach your kids. Many of them will puchase a curriculum that just lets the kid sort of "teach himself", and the parent has to do nothing but grade everything. This is the idiot version of homeschooling and not any better than teaching your children to be little robots. They need to learn to think for themselves and to have opinions that are different from yours. They also need to learn to question authority (it was inborn in my kids) and to always want to learn, without a teacher standing over them telling them to do a worksheet.

Just more of my opinions. I hate seeing children who are nothing but carbon copies of their parents, and it saddens me to no end to see children who do nothing but mimic their parents' opinions.

mldubose

It sounds like your children have great parents.