Homeschooling

[ctwins]

I noticed there are a lot of people on this forum who either homeschool their kids, were homeschooled, or advocate homeschooling.

I was thinking about it and realized I don't think I've ever talked to someone who was homeschooled.

What reasons did you have for choosing it?

I started homeschooling when my kids were babies because I thought I could provide a better academic education for them one on one than they could get in a classroom. I am not positive it has worked out to be a superior academic plan to public school, but it has had a lot of benefits that I didn't know were worth having when I started. I love that we have flexibility with our schedule and can study or travel or work or rest as needed. As I've caught snips of the garbage and drama at public schools, I have been thankful to not be subject to bizarre education requirements, illogical or immoral teaching and kids being rotten to each other without relief.

My five kids are doing fine academically--they have their strengths and weaknesses in the standard subjects. One thing I really like is that they have had many hours to develop interests like music, blacksmithing, beekeeping, sewing historical clothing, small engine repair, horseback riding and more. They are odd--I didn't see that coming. But they are odd in ways that I can live with--they honestly don't care about fashion for anything but practical purposes, they most enjoy people who can engage them intellectually and really DO things, and they are self-motivated learners and workers, etc.

Education is always brainwashing. It always sets up a perspective from an adult view and imposes it on a defenseless young mind. I do not believe my personal goals for the good of my kids are in line with the goals that a government would want its citizen to have (lots of unquestioning workers.) I want to be able to teach my kids to think and reason, not only about math and science but also about their personal beliefs about God, humans and the world. I think the public school system tends to be heavy handed in dealing out a perspective that precludes objectivity.

As for sheltering, we certainly have shielded them from what we thought were obnoxious experiences when they were young. But we have also been intentional with exposing them to what the world is like as they get older, forcing them (at times) to deal with people and situations that are immoral, or sad, or stressful. They have had chances to mess up or make bad choices, but it is hardly an issue--there is no draw to lie, get drunk, be stupid, etc. Risky behaviors haven't been outlawed but rather discussed and revealed for what they are. They don't suffer from the twist of peer pressure. I didn't really know that would be a result of homeschooling, but it has been a positive perk.

[Leebo]

When you say they don't face peer pressure... they have friends, don't they?

[ctwins]

When you say they don't face peer pressure... they have friends, don't they?

I'm not saying they don't "face" peer pressure--only that they aren't willing to compromise to do what everyone is doing. They have friends. We have always spent an average of 2 days per week out among a peer group of some kind (church, AWANA, homeschool group, volunteering, art school, swim lessons, etc.) They just don't seem to suffer the "Oh, what if I don't fit in??" pain that I did as a teen. I thought that was an inevitable reality and apparently it isn't.

I'm surprised that people are so hostile about this. The people that I know who homeschool aren't perfect, but very few of them are heavy handedly religiously manipulative (like about 1%--probably not far off the total population figures.) Those that are saying that as a norm religious homeschool parents abuse their kids are ignorant of the reality of the love, tenderness, study, investment, and effort that is put into homeschooling. I would never want this schooling option to be eliminated because of a few bad eggs. It has been overwhelmingly positive for our family.

[Leebo]

I don't think anyone has said that a majority of religious families indoctrinate their children. I've expressed concern about a few specific things. One of these is teaching the denial of science, which specific people in this topic have said they use homeschooling to do. I've also responded to people saying that public schools teach children to be gay. It's not been a particularly pleasant conversation and I've regretted starting it.

[Westerner]

Evolution has its own thread, and there are very compelling reasons to not believe it. As for the homosexual-friendly in schools...
CA gives transgender students restroom, sports choices
Transgender 6-year-old wins right to use girls' bathroom
Transgender teen to play on Azusa High's girls' softball team*-*Los Angeles Times
California Board Of Education Moves To Comply With Gay History Law « CBS San Francisco

We homeschooling families simply don't want our kids to be exposed to that constant kind of stuff without being taught God's view on it.

[Leebo]

Just to clarify, you understand that gender and sexual orientation are two different things, don't you?

[defscarlett]

We homeschooling families simply don't want our kids to be exposed to that constant kind of stuff without being taught God's view on it.

You don't think public school families teach their kids that they believe God says homosexuality is wrong? That's why these rules, regulations and laws are being passed, to protect the innocent. While yes, I do understand that bullying and so called "religious intolerance" are two different things, they do go hand in hand.

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/conten...stics.html

[Leebo]

EDIT: I think this is a good time for me to stop.

[sanantone]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but this documentary was recommended to me by YouTube. I think it's interesting. I know they are a small minority in the homeschooling community, but I had no idea until this documentary that Utah practically has no regulations on homeschooling. Some might think this is a good thing, but I think it's sad that these kids can't read and that they're taught that Warren Jeffs is the president of the United States.
[video=youtube;oBL1AmdkO2k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBL1AmdkO2k[/video]

[mrs.b]

Goodness, I haven't checked in for a while, and look at all the shenanigans! (Woo! I needed to work that into a sentence today.)

Our family became a homeschool family when my special needs son was bullied relentlessly and the administrators made promises and spoke fantastically about how they were taking steps to prevent it, yet it continued happening. On top of that, it was becoming clear he was being "soft graded." (He came home with As but could not explain or show any of the knowledge that he was graded towards.) My sweet, happy kid turned into a scared bundle of nerves and terror the closer to the school that we got every morning for nine months of the year. After one particular bullying incident, we realized we could not keep putting him through it. We'd kicked around the idea of homeschooling each time something went wrong, but we finally had to do something. It was cruel to continue to send him to an environment where he did not feel safe, and we honestly did not know if he was since administrators made all sorts of promises but the issues would not have continued if they were actually being implemented.

Public school works fine for many people. I got a fantastic public school education. It just didn't work for my child. Withdrawing him was the best thing we could have done. He was two years behind in the knowledge he could demonstrate (we had him tested) and his self-esteem and stress level was at a point that a little kid should never experience. He's caught up to grade level after just one year, and tested above grade level on Science, Spelling, and History, and he's my cheerful boy again who doesn't hide behind me when a kid near his age comes around.

As far as sheltering, indoctrinating, and all that... As far as sheltering, we go out of our way to get our little guy around people other than immediate family. It's tough since we both work full-time, but it's a part of the program. As far as indoctrinating, to each their own. We live in a part of the Bible Belt where indoctrination was already being done in public school (there were a few incidents where we considered reporting them). We have our faith, but were not comfortable with others imparting their brands of faith on our kid. We're very much of the opinion that faith is a sincerely individual decision, and all individuals should have the choice to make an educated decision without others' influence. We answer our kiddo's questions when he has them but he's not pushed to believe what we do...which is good, because my husband and I actually have some slight differences in belief. Since we are not fans of indoctrination and we do not want to confuse or overly influence our son's decision, we use secular curriculums that are available and quite good. We've been focused on getting him caught up on standard academics, but are hoping to be in a position next year where one of his courses will be Religions, where all the majors will be touched upon. Part of the goal of most academic education platforms is to open a child's mind to the variety of knowledge and experiences in the world, and we see that as part of the package.

Anyway... Hope that at least sheds some light on the point that homeschool families do not all look alike. Religion had absolutely nothing to do with our decision, and in our community at least, there's an entire group of families that are solely in it because the education system in our area is lacking and they want their children to have quality educations; the rule of get-togethers are that topics remain secular in nature because the families come from such a wide variety of religions (and lack of) and we all want our children to learn to socialize with people different from them, not nitpick the differences because they're there. Pure academics and our son's well-being were our primary motives to make the change, and it's gone so very well, we are not looking back.