Topic : 11/24 Great School Debate

What studies is Dr. Phil referrring to that say homeschooling is no longer a mentally healthy option for middle schoolers on up?  I've never even heard of this.

That family portrayed as radical unschoolers was a wonderful portrayal of respectful parenting where trust and freedom are principles to live by, not rules and punishment.

My kids have decided since toddlerhood what to eat, when to eat, when to go to bed, what to wear; they've had unlimited TV and computer time, and they are the most self-regulated kids I know.  The TV hardly gets turned on.  Right  now they're on a Neopets jag, but they're learning so much from that.  They'll break away to go riding, skateboarding, or to play with and care for our dogs.

They clean the house without prompting (usually), there are no arguments.

And you know what?  You reap what you sow.  If you sow respect and trust, your kids will respect and trust you.  How cool is that?

Last year our family went through a rough patch that forced me to work 80 hours a week.  I had to sleep during the day some days, because I worked nights.  And I'd wake up to find that the kids had cleaned the entire house some days, dishes and all, because they wanted to.  Because they knew it would be helpful.  Because I help them when they need it.

My son nursed 'til he was almost 4.  So what?  He needed the closeness and the comfort.  A 4 year old, in the grand scheme of things, is still a baby.

I'm glad they chose radical unschoolers over rigid school-at-home-ers.  Absolutely wonderful.

You may  be naive in believing that all parents of homeschoolers are uneducated persons.

We are qualified to teach our children. Even if we weren't  educated past a high school level(but most of us have been), we would still be qualified to teach our children. It isn't too difficult to teach someone what you have already learned.   If however, a parent has difficulty teaching a particular subject to their homeschooled child, the homeschool group that we are members of, does consist of  educated people who can tutor.

So to answer your question, it would be like a mom who cares for her own child which has a cold or the flu, or a cut on the knee. Mom can do that without taking the child to a physician. However, if the child has something the mom is not familiar with, she would take her child to see a physicain.

I went to public school. Nobody asked me to homecoming or prom. So I sat at home.

Your post shows how little you know about homeschooling. Many homeschooling groups have proms and graduations for their members. And my children certainly don't sit home with me all day long (how boring) we go on field trips with our homeschooling group, they play soccer on recreational teams (the team is even co-ed), they attended cub scouts and boy scouts when they were younger.

Also not all homeschoolers are Christians. We belong to an inclusive homeschool group that is made up of Free Thinking Christians, Pagans, & Atheist. There may be some other religions/beliefs represented but as we don't ask people what religion they are/what they believe I don't know for sure.

You are right about kids needing a college degree. Most homeschoolers intend for their children to go to college. My son took the ACT when he was 15, he scored a 28 which made him eligible for early admission to college. He started college at 16 he is in his second year of college, works after school and made the Dean's list. He also has a scholarship.

You may also be interested to know that Eragon was written by a homeschooler when he was 15, it will be released as a movie December 15th http://www.eragonmovie.com/

I also live in MS; and my 2 oldest  children went to a "mother's-day-out" at a church b4 entering a child care program at 3 years old at our high school.  The program is an occupational class for high schoolers where they "work" in a day care setting.  I know how my children loved it.  We can be out and about in the community and still have some of those high schoolers recognize my children and talk with them and see how they have been and how they are doing in school.  We wanted our children to be around others their age and other adults as well; to learn how to trust those adults.  I agree that our public schools in my county are great.  It may not be that way in other parts of the country.

Most "crack" mothers, as you put it, would not bother to home school their kids because they would rather have them out of their hair all day. Be at rest.....the parents who are educating their kids at home are not "crack" mothers.

We are educated people who want what is best for our children. There are also other ways to home school, as someone said on the show, than just unschooling.  

My kids have a structured environment with curriculum, tests, quizzes, after school activities with other kids (both home schooled and public schooled), and have fun on top of that. My children are taught from books that have weekly lessons. They start the day (8:30 AM) with me teaching their lesson [with use of a dry erase board for examples], then they work on vocabulary words, reading their lesson for the day, answering written questions about the lesson learned for the day, writing essays, doing art, playing music, and having PE. I grade their work using my own brain AND a teacher guide. Then we go over what they missed the next day in class and they spend Friday studying for and taking weekly quizzes or quarterly tests. I do nothing no other Public Schooled teacher would not do. Public Schooled teachers have use of teacher books with lesson plans and answers (guess they don't know everything either) and they teach their kids no differently than I do. I graduated Public School....I do remember how they taught the kids. 

We also discipline our children, teach values and social skills, and give them a reality check when they need it....I am nothing like the parent on this show today. For instance, my 14 year old asked if she could play the violin again. I reminded her that we spent big bucks of private lessons and a violin for her two years ago in (when she was in public school) and she blew it off. She stated, “yeah, I just got tired of it one day and was sick another.” I said to her, “ In the real world...you can't just get tired of work and blow it off; you would be penniless if you did that.” 

Look, I do not have to defend myself or our lives to anyone....we are doing nothing illegal and our kids are doing great. I am not against public school (my child was in public school for a long while) I just do not like our district, have one child with an Autism disability who was getting ZERO help from special ed, and just became so fed up with the area schools that I felt it was better to home school. We own our home and my husband has had the same job for 11 years....we just could not pick up and leave. Unless you have been in my shoes....you will never understand.  

I'm glad you have good schools in Alberta... unfortunately that's not the case across the country.  There are two elementary schools in my area that I would consider sending my child to.  Both would require us moving 30 minutes from town.  There is one junior high that I would consider a good choice.  As for high school, well, there is only one and it's overcrowded and outdated.  We're choosing homeschool BECAUSE of the public school system.