Replies to '12/26 "I Am Right!"'
|
October 18, 2005, 12:43 pm PDT
 Quote From: kellywillm I am a proud homeschooling mom. I have been homeschooling now for 8 years. We had a problem in a Christian school. My husband and I decided together, our son had to come out of this school during the Christmas break. A friend of ours, also took her daughter out of this class, we started homeschooling them at the same time. Our son will tell you, he does not want to go back to school. Everyone wants to talk about the social aspect of homeschooling. Well, I will tell you, I just got home at 9:30 after being gone since 12:30 today. Our 11 year old son, had a social group from 1-4pm, then my husband brought our oldest son to me, and picked up our 11 yr old son. Our 13 yr old son, then had his social group from 4:30 - 8:30 tonight. Our social groups are children playing all kinds of funny, made up games, ping-pong, and air hockey. We have food for them as well, they also get time to just sit and talk. Homeschool parents don't just stay home and do school. We have support groups, that help plan field trips, social game days, Christmas parties, Valentine parties and so on. There are so many things we do with our children, that you can not go to everything, because you would not get the school work done. One thing that I love to hear about my 3 children, is HOW WELL THEY BEHAVE! Homeschool children, for the most part, are very well behaved, respectful to other adults and children. In our area, business love for us to come for a field trip because of our children showing respect and being very well behaved. I hope that Jylana will get all the information about homeschooling, so that she can really show her husband the great things about homeschooling their son. He will only miss out on things, if they keep him home 24/7. Some of the really great things about homeschooling; you have more family time, your child/children are not at school for 7-8 hrs a day, then come home and have 2-3 hrs of homework to do before going to bed. Another one, we get to take vacations ANYTIME we want! October or November is a great time to go to Disney World, all the other children are in school, great weather, don't have to worry about long lines for rides. You get to go to different places and learn about them first hand, not just from a book. Instead of just reading about Washington D.C., Jamestown, Yellowstone Park, and the Grand Canyon take the kids there and learn about thoses places first hand. My husband tell people, when they ask about the social part of homeschooling, "There was a lot of social things, kids learning from kids, he could have done without!"
And, Jylana is determined to home school her son, but her husband, Mike, says he'll miss opportunities and become socially stunted.
If Mike wants to say that my children are socially stunted because they have not learned about sex, how to tease other children, how to just be plain mean to others, how smoking is cool and how to do drugs, then I am very happy they are socially stunted!! Our oldest son only knows what his dad had told him about sex, not what other children think about it and do.
I am a very proud homeschooling mom!! I have a very different take. I teach college, and I've found that those who are home-schooled are more likely to be childishly inflexible and demanding. I think it's because of the type of home-schooling, in that they always get to do it *their* way, never have to back off because for common courtesy or sharing power in groups, etc. But I don't think they *have* to be that way. I think that that now that home-schooling is including more group-oriented activities and more structured academic and play opportunities, it should improve the outcomes.
I also think public school was different when the track system was used and kids were in with people who were at the same level in IQ and ability. I think that trying to mainstream everyone together is misguided--people seek to make it fair, make others more tolerant, etc. Instead, it makes it horribly boring and frustrating for smart kids and overwhelming for those with challenges. The talented and gifted programs are useless--you either go to all T&G or none, and most of us have strengths and weaknesses.
Right now we have an old model operating in the schools and teacher education hasn't caught up with what we know about learning. things like Neurolinguistic programming and using timelines, and understanding learning styles and when it works to let kids find their own way or receive coaching or mentoring is just now in its infancy.
Home-schooling also is in its infancy. It's starting to grow and we're starting to understand it better. I just say do it for the right reasons. Don't use it to balkanize your children so they don't participate fully in life. Don't do it so you can indoctrinate them without outside influence. Good parenting means let them go in the water, but guide them.
I think whatever parents do home-school, public school, or private school will succeed if it's done with love and commitment and with the best interest of the child's growth, development, and happiness. If there are problems, parents and school officials need to take their heads out of the sand and confront them, experiment, and then implement things that seem to work more universally. |
|
Return to the Message Board
