Homeschooling

[freshlight]

Hello wonderful people out there :)

I'd like to hear all about your experiences with HS. Were your kids always happy with it or did they want to change the situation and start going to school? or the other way round: they've been going to school for several years and then suddenly decided to try the homeschooling.....is it possible?

Don't the children feel a bit lonely if they don't meet their friends every day like it happens at school? or do they find friends somewhere else?
HS seems to be quite a common thing in the US. It is forbidden in this country though.

I'd like to learn more about it and would appreciate it if you'd like to share.

Take care,

Eva

[Zella Juice]

my son plays with homeschooled kids. The parents are really good about making sure their kids get to socialize with other kids. They offer to watch other peoples kids for them and it works out for everyone.

Right now they watch my son after school. And we just swap time with the kids...like last night they went out and brought their kids over here.

Homeschooling can be great if you get involved in your community and can get together with other homeschoolers and other children in the neighborhood.

I wish I could stay home with mine.

[freshlight]

That sounds interesting! Does it mean if you don't know any other homeschoolers you shouldn't do it, so that your kid doesn't feel too lonely? I don't know anybody who does homeschooling here. I'd love to try and do it anyway if it's possible. Thanks for taking your time to answer :)

[Rawkinlocs]

I've been homeschooling for 16 years now and sometimes we connected with other homeschoolers and MANY times we did not. To me, while it was "school hours" they did they're school work...after school hours, they played with their friends who were not homeschooled.

We also got them involved in other activities as well for socialization as well as for the activity itself.

My kids went through stages of wanting to be schooled...and we even put them in school but then they found they preferred homeschooling.

We've done "traditional" homeschooling, we've done unschooling and now we use the public school's version of homeschooling where all curriculum is provided by the program, which is public school-based...the high schoolers were given lap tops, they have teachers and mentors they connect with by email, phone and weekly webinars and they'll get their high school diploma, have their prom and commencement and they have social gatherings throughout the year. It's slightly different than what we've done in the past, but they're adjusting to it.

I think too, if a child is the only child or does not have siblings close in age, it may be socially challenging if they are not exposed to other families, kids or outside activities, but there are 4 of my children so they had/have one another along with any supplemental socialization we chose to offer.

[Rawkinlocs]

Oh...also, most states and public school districts will allow you to enroll your home schooled child(ren) in public school extracurricular activities and even some classes (art, music, P.E. etc.) so check into that as well! Washington state is VERY homeschool friendly so they (schools) are often happy to work with homeschooling families.

[cherrypie]

I am not a supporter of home schooling at all, although I would not deny occasional justification and benefits of doing so.

In my area a lot of mothers choose home schooling and they are all from the very religious/ orthodox sector - I quote-It is evil stuff they learn at schools such as reading harry potter, learning about evolution, which does not exist... and so on.
As a secular humanisticly raised human being that is more than I can take. Or the other set of people in my area who opt for homeschooling are parents who are mentally stuck in woodstock aera .
However, when I lived in the UK I met a lot of parents who did HS as their neighbor hood schools where in dodgy areas, and they simply could not afford to move into a better neighbor hood with better schools- which for made sense thinking of teenage pregnancies, drugs and anti social behaveour

[RawKnitster]

My daughter (and only child) struggled with group participation in kindergarten and first grade. Then she had a very bad experience at summer school. All this caused us to try homeschooling. We were happy doing it in 2nd and 3rd grade. Washington state does have a great system. It even has classes and a partnership with the YMCA that homeschooled kids can enroll in to get that classroom experience, exercise, and meet other homeschooled kids. We found most of the kids were being homeschooled for reasons that had to do with religion and being sheltered. We were outsiders. It was not easy to make friends.

Our homeschooling experience went bad in the 4th grade. She wouldn't do the work. My blood pressure went up to 184. A few months into 4th grade she asked to go back to school. I was so relieved. It was tough for her at first, but she never asked to go back to homeschooling.

Don't kid yourself. Homeschooling is a lot of work. I would suggust taking it on only if you don't live in a neighborhood with good schools.

On second thought....maybe thinking about our experience caused me to miss the point here. If the point is raising raw kids, that by itself would be a big reason to homeschool.

[Raene]

I am intending to homeschool. I was put in Episcopal school when young, then public schools, then Waldorf schools, and back to public. I can honestly say that the things I saw I would not wish upon anyone...and I went to a GOOD public school.

Some of us want to protect our kids and I admit sometimes we shelter them...but honestly, they're children and I see nothing wrong with sheltering. The kids I know who were homeschooled and are now grown are some of the most compassionate, kind, and intelligent human beings. Public school I can't always say the same for.

I know that a lot of people homeschool for religious reasons, but for us we just want to have our daughter be able to study at her own pace. Often homeschooled kids are "done" and ready for college when they're 14 or 15. I myself left high school 2 yrs early and went to college. Because public school teachers have 20+ kids per class to look after and teach, the kids don't learn as much as they would with one-on-one instruction. Hence the faster learning at home. :)

I can't believe it's not acceptable to homeschool in Germany! I usually think German is so advanced in comparison.

[rawstrength]

My boyfriend was homeschooled through elementary school and middle school, and he's probably the most mature and well adjusted guy that I know (okay, okay, I'm a little biased). He also started highschool two years early, and is now taking junior and senior level classes as a freshman in college (a very young freshman in college).

[Patch]

I home school my 3 children and have a 19 year old who was homeschooled as well. I'm from New Zealand so we may do things a wee bit different from you over there. My eldest daughter started homeschooling when she was 12 years old and went right through until 18 when she moved to study in another town to become a nanny. I'm presently homeschooling my 16 year old daughter 12 year old daughter and just started with my 4 year old son. We don't home school for religious reason, we started because my daughter was badly bullied at school. It was the best thing I ever did and my children are the first to state that. It can be hard work if you let it but you get such a wonderful bond with your children and learning can be so much fun. I have found with my children that they take over there education and all of a sudden want to learn. We don't follow the school curriculum but we learn what is important in life. My children know how to balance a cheque book, how to do a payroll, all about taxes, investing, real estate. I'm so proud of my children and what they have achieved since homeschooling, my 16 year old started a part time job and first thing she did was sponsor a child in Zimbabwe. She gets such a thrill out of getting letters from this child it melts my heart. I know homeschooling isn't for everyone or even every child but for us it has worked and I love having my children with me we all learn so much together.

[freshlight]

Thanks for all the answers :)

I'm so glad I can talk to REAL homeschooling mums here!

If we ever decide to move away from here then I'd consider to go to Washington ;)

Unfortunately hs is still forbidden here......I've talked to some people who plan to homeschool as well, and they told me that the only possibility to do it is either moving to Britain or somewhere else where it's allowed to do hs legally, or stay here and behave like an undercover agent which wouldn't be a very safe thing to do.

It's a fascinating idea though. I can imagine what a strong bond you get by spending so much time with your darlings, what a gift!

If you have some more interesting stuff to share about, feel free: I love reading your posts :)

In Germany there are some "free schools" as well, where the little ones can decide what they want to learn and when......that would be an interesting alternative to hs-ing.

Take care,
Eva

[Raene]

Eva,
Do you know about the Forest Kindergartens in Germany? Those look amazing!

[cherrypie]

freshlight,
i know people in germany who do home schooling but it only works when you live close to the dutch border, they again do it for religious reasons. they moved to holland just accross the border but still work in germany. but i still don't really get why you want to home school when you live in a country that offers really great alternatives (waldorf, montessori, otto hahn, kinder forest, nena) to the conventional school system and all these school have affordable options for people on low incomes.

[freshlight]

Hey Raene, yes, they are great! I've been thinking of opening one myself but they suddenly started popping out of nothing and now there are lots of them all over the place :) They are for preschoolers though.

cherrypie,

you seem to have a negative attitude towards hs-ing.

I opened this thread in order to learn as much as possible about hs-ing. The info you have about Germany and the schools here is not correct.

Montessori ones are everything else but affordable, waldorf is not an option and nena's school is in Hamburg. We don't have Otto Hahn here either, but thanks for your input :)

Take care, Eva

[seRAWnity]

Hey there.... I homeschool my kids here in the US, they are 5 and 7 years old. As a family it works great for us. Strict schedules just don't work, we are a bunch of free spirits!

My daughter attended public school for Kindergarten and then half year of the first grade, we never gave too much thought to homeschool because like SAD food it's just what you are programed to do... We didn't have a terrible time with public school it was the almost 8 hours schooling that one on one only takes about 2 hours to cover. My daughter was an absolute bear from being over tired by the time school got out and I picked her up. Also, this is just my opinion, I thought once my kids are both in school what right do I have as a mother to just sit home on my fanny... shouldn't it be my responsibility to educate them in all aspects of life? Why not, so far I have been the ones to teach them all they know, I didn't send them away to learn to tie their shoes or wipe their little butts on their own!! So we had a small farm at the time and enjoyed a simple way of life, so I said why not, as a family we talked about it in great length and said let's do it! For thousands of years people were taught at home with Mom and Grandma, they learned side by side with their elders.

We don't follow any strict curriculum, nor do we homeschool for religious reasons, this year my kiddos were big into Harry Potter so I turned our homeschool into Hogwarts homeschool, they got their acceptance letters, and we have our spells class were we learn latin, and we have wizards math class, we play wizards chess and so on. It's fun for the kids and makes the day go by faster.

As for socialization I've yet to meet a "reclusive" homeschooler, we have more freedom in our days so most homeschoolers are involved with many activities, there are so many we end up having to turn things down or we'll never have real school! My kids take a music class at a private school with other homeschoolers and we are also part of a magazine club for homeschoolers that produce a magazine each month. We have International night were each family represents a country, the kids have to do a presentation on that country for the participants, friends and family. Also here since you are a tax payer you have access to the public school in your town for anything they may want to take. If I didn't want to teach Math, they could go to the public school for that.. same goes with the arts and sciences.

I could talk forever on the subject! This gives you some insight on our little world of homeschooling!

Take care,
Nora

[freshlight]

what a wonderful report, Nora. Thanks so much ! It's so interesting......

It sounds like you live in a magic world :) You children are lucky they have such a creative mum.

I do also like the system: everybody seems to be so flexible and so tolerant to each other,-wow! If you decide to do homeschooling, you are still welcome to the public one,-what a country :)

Keep writing about your experiences with hs-ing if you want to keep me happy ;)

Take care,

Eva

[LauraPaulsen]

Hi Eva,
I homeschooled both my older dc..and I plan on homeschooling my new baby.

It's a great experience, The closeness you get to have with your children is wonderful. You'll get to know them better then any parent. You are teaching them and you'll really get to see what areas they are interested in.

As for sheltering them: Of course you shelter your child. That's what we're suppose to do. Many parents thought I was nuts...when our children were in High School, they all confessed to me that they wished they had Home schooled. I was so crazy after all.

Also, with home schooling..You can keep your children's diet healthy. The junk they serve for lunch and call balanced is disgusting.

Just wanted to add, My dd is in college and is well adjusted..and this is my last year with my son. He wants to play football so is going to do his senior year at ps.

[freshlight]

Hey Laura, what a beautiful post! I could almost feel your strong love to your children. What a great place this is. I love learning from people like you!

How did you (or do you) deal with the so called puberty when you homeschool? Could you say it's easier to get on with our young people when you homeschool? because of the strong bond you've built throughout the years.

DD=dear daughter? and DS=dear son? I'm just guessing :)

Do you know this book?

http://lowryhousepublishers.com/TeenageLiberationHandbook.htm

would you recommend it?

Have a lovely day :)

Eva

[shine72]

Hi Eva,
I homeschooled both my older dc..and I plan on homeschooling my new baby.

It's a great experience, The closeness you get to have with your children is wonderful. You'll get to know them better then any parent. You are teaching them and you'll really get to see what areas they are interested in.

As for sheltering them: Of course you shelter your child. That's what we're suppose to do. Many parents thought I was nuts...when our children were in High School, they all confessed to me that they wished they had Home schooled. I was so crazy after all.

Also, with home schooling..You can keep your children's diet healthy. The junk they serve for lunch and call balanced is disgusting.

Just wanted to add, My dd is in college and is well adjusted..and this is my last year with my son. He wants to play football so is going to do his senior year at ps.

Hey girlie!

Congrats on the baby! :D I'm not on SL right now (subscrip. ran out). Congrats, Congrats, CONGRATS! :D

HUGE hugs to you girlie! :D

[NicoleF]

I homeschool my two kids, ages 8 and 5. I was a bit put off by the person who said that "it's more than I can take" when learning that some parents think that the stuff they teach in public school is evil. If a family believes that evolution is wrong, how is that so bad? If they think Harry Potter is inappropriate, so what? Are they going to die if they don't read Harry Potter? I'm sure you would be offended if someone judged you by the way you homeschooled. Isn't everyone supposed to be promoting tolerance? Or is it just tolerance for what you believe?

I homeschool because the public school system is failing. They DO teach inappropriate things such as how to put a condom on to a bunch of fourth graders. Public schools are totally biased towards things like evolution. Evolution is a THEORY. Creation can also be argued as a theory. So, why teach just one? Why not teach both? Public schools are getting violent, dangerous, and you can't choose who your child hangs out with. If they are a bad influence, oh well, you're sort of screwed. Once they're in high school and they get in with a "bad crowd" you have pretty much lost them. There are a lot of wonderful public schooled kids out there, but I'm not taking chances with my kids. Keeping them in activities, going to parties, having playdates, and letting them play with kids in the neighborhood keeps them socialized without having them influenced by other peers for 8 hours a day, then they come home, do their homework and go to bed. When do you ever get to actually have any influence on them? Just my two cents.

[LauraPaulsen]

Hey Laura, what a beautiful post! I could almost feel your strong love to your children. What a great place this is. I love learning from people like you!

How did you (or do you) deal with the so called puberty when you homeschool? Could you say it's easier to get on with our young people when you homeschool? because of the strong bond you've built throughout the years.

DD=dear daughter? and DS=dear son? I'm just guessing :)

Do you know this book?

http://lowryhousepublishers.com/TeenageLiberationHandbook.htm

would you recommend it?

Have a lovely day :)

Eva


was puberty easier because of home schooling? I don't think so...not for me anyway. I think because I home schooled I was able to prevent them from making huge mistakes...bigger then the ones they made, but I never segregated them. They were exposed to more then I would of liked. I thought I could home school them AND expose them to the stuff of the "World" and they'd be able to fight against it. I was wrong. Looking back, I was expecting too much. Home schooling doesn't prevent problems during purberty , it just gives you the wisdom and tools to help them deal with it. The wisdom is the love and time you've given them by teaching them and the tools will be the bond you have. Don't let anyone dupe you...it is quantity AND quality time with our children. The biggest lesson i've learned...our children really do mirror us. We will often see in our children what we don't like about ourselves.


Hey girlie!

Congrats on the baby! :D I'm not on SL right now (subscrip. ran out). Congrats, Congrats, CONGRATS! :D

HUGE hugs to you girlie!


(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Sunshine!!!)))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I was thinking about you today!! How are you? How is your Rawtism website going? Fill me in on all i've missed!!

I guess you've seen my little miracle in my avy! What a blessing she is. As it turns out, we are both allergic to hard white wheat and i'm allergic to dairy. She shows a senstivity to it..we went to our chiro who does kinesiology.

SO the best thing to do...GO RAW!! This is my third day of raw!!

[LauraPaulsen]

I homeschool my two kids, ages 8 and 5. I was a bit put off by the person who said that "it's more than I can take" when learning that some parents think that the stuff they teach in public school is evil. If a family believes that evolution is wrong, how is that so bad? If they think Harry Potter is inappropriate, so what? Are they going to die if they don't read Harry Potter? I'm sure you would be offended if someone judged you by the way you homeschooled. Isn't everyone supposed to be promoting tolerance? Or is it just tolerance for what you believe?

I homeschool because the public school system is failing. They DO teach inappropriate things such as how to put a condom on to a bunch of fourth graders. Public schools are totally biased towards things like evolution. Evolution is a THEORY. Creation can also be argued as a theory. So, why teach just one? Why not teach both? Public schools are getting violent, dangerous, and you can't choose who your child hangs out with. If they are a bad influence, oh well, you're sort of screwed. Once they're in high school and they get in with a "bad crowd" you have pretty much lost them. There are a lot of wonderful public schooled kids out there, but I'm not taking chances with my kids. Keeping them in activities, going to parties, having playdates, and letting them play with kids in the neighborhood keeps them socialized without having them influenced by other peers for 8 hours a day, then they come home, do their homework and go to bed. When do you ever get to actually have any influence on them? Just my two cents.

amen sister!!

Why is it ...if we dissagree with something ..we are prejudice, but when everyone else disagrees with us...they are "Enlightened" and we are the idiots..LOL

I wouldn't even argue it.

[LotsaRaw]

As a former parent who considered homeschooling my kids - and had the discussion with them - we decided to keep them in "school," I thought back to my childhood... I would have starved for peer (?) attention had I not had classmates! (regardless of public or private school)....the idea of no structured school - gack! I grew up on several hundred acres, and had lots of fun - what an imagination! But - day in and day out without the bus arriving to "take me away!??" 12 mos of summer vacation - no way! Keep the personalities of your kids in perspective. "School" is not a painful experience for all. My parents were not the social butterflies I was - so they could not quite understand why I was involved in all the activities I was, but they did let me indulge - to a point (there was a time when I had to make a painful decision between gymnastics and the travel softball team!!) I love my parents, but the idea of spending days on end - all day - with Mom - no way! I surpassed her sewing skills in 4th grade! And math - well, Dad (mechanical engineer) and I had wonderful converations about trigonometry and algebra in mid-high school - great memories! Just consider all the people involved.

[LauraPaulsen]

As a former parent who considered homeschooling my kids - and had the discussion with them - we decided to keep them in "school," I thought back to my childhood... I would have starved for peer (?) attention had I not had classmates! (regardless of public or private school)....the idea of no structured school - gack! I grew up on several hundred acres, and had lots of fun - what an imagination! But - day in and day out without the bus arriving to "take me away!??" 12 mos of summer vacation - no way! Keep the personalities of your kids in perspective. "School" is not a painful experience for all. My parents were not the social butterflies I was - so they could not quite understand why I was involved in all the activities I was, but they did let me indulge - to a point (there was a time when I had to make a painful decision between gymnastics and the travel softball team!!) I love my parents, but the idea of spending days on end - all day - with Mom - no way! I surpassed her sewing skills in 4th grade! And math - well, Dad (mechanical engineer) and I had wonderful converations about trigonometry and algebra in mid-high school - great memories! Just consider all the people involved.

I'm glad that worked for you and I've seen many families where public school worked. The truth is that more families are losing their children to their peers and having more problems then I can enumerate here. You are in the minority...if the worst thing you did was have to choose between gymnastics and softball, you were very blessed. Unfortunately you are in the minority.

Home schooling has and is working for my children. We are very , very social, so that was never an issue for us. My daughter who is graduated and attending college has already told me she intends to home school her children. so that tells me that she enjoyed her experience. My son who is 16 wants to go to public school next year, but only for football. You can't go just for football so we are putting him in next year...at his request. He has never requested this until now.

Home schooling is not bad. Public school is not all bad. It depends on what works for your family and how families see the Lord leading them, (For those who believe in the Lord). There are good points and bad points to both. I just get my feathers in a ruffle when someone starts stereotyping home schoolers and saying how bad it is..especially when it's from somone whose never home schooled and has limited exposer to the home schooling sect.

[shine72]

Hi Laura!

The site is going well. Did my first full-immersion program at the end of May into early June. :D

Glad to hear you're back into raw now! I MISS you guys over on SL! I hope to be back on there sometime next year. We switched to unschooling (but SL still fits in great with that). And although I was nervous about doing it for J (the one w/autism), it was THE BEST THING we've ever done regarding their schooling (aside from the initial decision to homeschool)! They are each FLOURISHING! :D

She looks like such a bundle of pure joy! I am SO happy for all of you! :D

HUGE hugs to you girl! :D

[LauraPaulsen]

Hi Laura!

The site is going well. Did my first full-immersion program at the end of May into early June. :D

Glad to hear you're back into raw now! I MISS you guys over on SL! I hope to be back on there sometime next year. We switched to unschooling (but SL still fits in great with that). And although I was nervous about doing it for J (the one w/autism), it was THE BEST THING we've ever done regarding their schooling (aside from the initial decision to homeschool)! They are each FLOURISHING! :D

She looks like such a bundle of pure joy! I am SO happy for all of you! :D

HUGE hugs to you girl! :D

Hey Sunshine!!

You're gonna have to explain unschooling to me...how does it work? What is the concept? I really don't know too much. I asked Browneyedgal once and she sent me to her blog which was very "busy"...Didn't really answer my questions.

I pm'ed you.

[shine72]

Hope you didn't PM me on SL? I'm not on there anymore (my subscr. ran out). Unschooling is child-led or child-directed learning.

And I was really worried that J (my little guy with autism) wouldn't learn anything because he never cared about doing any "school work". But they have all persued their interests AND, J's actually done more that can be "school related" than he'd ever do with my prompting before! :)

I'll give you a breakdown:
T is into zoology and wants to graduate at 16 so he does:
Saxon Math
Zoology
Writing everyday (his least favorite thing in the world to do, so we're building up on that)
He's studying the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt for history right now.
Plus housekeeping skills food prep (he loves to raw chef for us)

I'll tell ya what the other two look like tomorrow. J is pulling me away from the computer to play Skip-Bo with him right now! :D

[Rawmommie]

We have been homeschooling for 6 years and wouldn't have it any other way! I have 8, 13, & 14 year old children and it's amazing to watch them grow and learn, especially the teens!

We have had some great discussions here at RFT on homeschooling, here are the two main threads (I'll bump them too) that have LOADS of info on them! :)

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=308&highlight=homeschooling

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=24072&highlight=homeschooling

[LauraPaulsen]

Thank you ladies..I've been home schooling for years,but never "Un-Schooling". I think i'd like to incorportate the "child-led" aspect into it with my new baby.

I remember my ds telling me.."I don't want to school during the summer". but then spent the whole summer learning and researching about reptiles. He learned more that summer then I could've taught him from a book. He would go out, find repites and then research what they were about..etc. He then started collecting them with his paychecks. Kids would come over to see Bobby's bedroom.
When we did Apologia Biology, they had a classifying project. So he and my dd went up to his bed room. Took pics of the animals and then proceeded to classify them...Kingdom, phylum...etc. It was so cute. They had them hanging in his bedroom. We could've started to charge. lol

[LauraPaulsen]

Hope you didn't PM me on SL? I'm not on there anymore (my subscr. ran out). Unschooling is child-led or child-directed learning.

And I was really worried that J (my little guy with autism) wouldn't learn anything because he never cared about doing any "school work". But they have all persued their interests AND, J's actually done more that can be "school related" than he'd ever do with my prompting before! :)

I'll give you a breakdown:
T is into zoology and wants to graduate at 16 so he does:
Saxon Math
Zoology
Writing everyday (his least favorite thing in the world to do, so we're building up on that)
He's studying the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt for history right now.
Plus housekeeping skills food prep (he loves to raw chef for us)

I'll tell ya what the other two look like tomorrow. J is pulling me away from the computer to play Skip-Bo with him right now! :D


I sent you a pm here...:p

[shine72]

I sent you a pm here...:p

pm's don't post here, but if you click on my name, you can leave a message on my page. Others will be able to see it as well though. HTH!:)

[LauraPaulsen]

What do you mean pm's don't post here? You can't pm people? Why?

[shine72]

What do you mean pm's don't post here? You can't pm people? Why?

This forum isn't set up to do it. You can leave a message on my page though, or send me an email if you don't want it public. :)

Hope you're having a GREAT day! :D

[DawnW]

Another homeschooling family here.

I have 3 boys, ages 10, 9, and 4.

We do interact with a lot of other homeschooling families pretty much weekly.

My oldest particularly thrives on being homeschooled. He is a free spirit and will spend hours with art, music, and golf.

We love the freedom of vacation time during the off-seasons, etc...

And, btw: I just rejoined the SL boards this past week.

Dawn

[rawviveyourself]

I wish I had homeschooled my daughter....but we supplemented as much as we could. In retrospect, it makes me think of trying to go half raw and half cooked - it just gets messy.:)

But I have had the absolute pleasure of teaching adults from all walks of life, and the homeschooled people seemed calmer, more insightful, more together, and more grounded. Just my own little experience.

[Holland_z]

I actually was homeschooled by my mother from 7th to 12th grade and the experience was horrible-to put it politely. She was attending a church that was borderline cult and it taught that the world was bad. She took it to the extreme and decided to homeschool me. I went from being an excellent student, fairly happy go lucky and well adjusted to agoraphobic and severely depressed in 2 years. My mother also had no idea what she was doing, and I ended up getting a full year behind, which was extremely demoralizing for me. She got so frustrated with the whole thing that she ended up getting a job and left me at home all day to do everything myself, so basically I am self taught. My education suffered. I live in NJ, and I don't know how she pulled it off but there was no state supervision, so I didn't have to take any tests or exams that would've showed how bad things had gotten.
In some ways I blame myself because if I had begged my father he would've let me go back to school, but I was extremely agoraphobic, embarrassed by the situation, and so far behind I would have been put in classes with much younger kids, so i was kind of stuck.
I'm biased but i think it should be outlawed!! You cannot be with your child 24/7 for the rest of their lives-they have to be equipped to be functioning adults.

[Rawmommie]

Holland Z, I'm very sorry you had such a horrible experience. These things happen in all walks of life though, I could tell you hundreds of horror stories from public school, but I wouldn't ever suggest outlawing it. There are people that it works for. More than often, parents and children enjoy homeschooling, I know my children say they have no interest in school (other than college when they are older).

[Soka]

I don't have children yet (husband and I are hoping to start trying next year) but I fully intend on homeschooling my children. I am not a religious person, so homeschooling is not a a choice we make based on religion. Though I will teach my children about religions. I want them to have a lot of information about all religions from Christianity, Buddhism, Wicca, ect. That way they can make an informed decision on which religion they want to follow.

I don't like how public schools are today. They are overcrowded, teach only what is going to be on the test, kids falling into bad crowds, ect. I would rather be able to allow my children to explore all aspects of a subject and not just what is going to be on the test. I can also provide a healthy diet. School food is horrible and doesn't provide much for a vegetarian, much less a vegan or raw vegan.

Not to mention I want to be a stay at home mom, so what better way to spend my time than teaching my children.

[Coolexplosion]

I'm biased but i think it should be outlawed!!

It definitely shouldn't be outlawed. The state telling parents what to do in all walks of like is called totalitarianism/fascism. Nowadays more and more kids are being home schooled just avoid all of the deadly vaccines that the public school kids must get.

[freshlight]

you could have a bad experience with nearly everything if you don't do it right, I suppose. I'm sorry about yours,Holland_z.
I love the idea of homeschooling and wish it would be oficially allowed to do it in G. as well.*sigh*
Take care everybody :)
Eva

[Indybreeze]

I homeschooled my oldest, now 19, from Kindergarten thru 5th, then she went to a private school until 11th, we moved to a small town and the commute was too long so we enrolled her in public school. She went from a 3.8GPA to a 2.0 in a year. She was more concerned with what others thought of her and who she was dating. I truly wish I would have continued to homeschool her because now she is out of control and flunked out of her first semester of college.

I also homeschooled my 14yo from K-5 and enrolled him in the public school when we moved. I thought since it is a small town that is was better academically and he would get the attention he needs....wrong! He is still going there and is in 8th grade this year and begs me to homeschool him but my husband is against it.

My 5 yo is in public K this year, I thought I'd give it a try since he is very stubborn....wrong! He has been labeled a trouble maker and has even been kicked off the bus for hitting someone in the privates (which he learned to do at school) His school is on an experimental fresh fruits and vegetables plan and this year even serve wheat bread instead of white but it's still not good enough. I send his lunch but he admitted that he trades, even though someone is supposed to be watching for that.

I am trying to talk my husband into homeschool for next year because I miss spending time with my children during the day. I only get them after they've been in class all day and they're grumpy and want to fight with each other. Homeschool can be a wonderful thing but like others have stated, it is hard some days, but the good days outweigh the bad.

[MaineMomof4]

indybreeze, sorry to hear your husband isn't on board with you homeschooling.

I know that would be really hard to homeschool without any support. I'm a homeschooling mom of 4 and my oldest son is going to be 7 in a couple of weeks and last year when we officially started homeschooling my husband was a little unsure. He was really concerned with how they were measuring up academically with kids in public school of their age and in my opinion I think he wanted to go a little overboard with the schoolwork to ease his own mind. This year things are going much smoother and my husband is much more relaxed and has come to his senses and realized that they'll be just fine and that they are actually doing more than what the kids their age are doing but also that it's not all about keeping up with what the public school kids are doing. We homeschool because we feel that we know our kids best and there's no reason to send them off to be taught by someone else (including their peers) for 8 hours a day when we are perfectly capable of teaching them what they need to know right here at home. We also try to feed our children healthy foods and raw foods and it would next to impossible to stick with that if we were sending our kids to public school. We sent our two older kids to Montessori preschool when they were younger and even though I thought Montessori preschool had some positives (I was a very involved class parent as well) once my oldest son graduated from Montessori preschool my husband and I decided homeschooling was the best option from that point on for all of our children. We have yet to follow an actual curriculum, we do science enrichment homeschool classes at our local children's museum once a week, we do math and language arts from workbooks, we read tons of books, we just recently became penpals with a local Montessori preschool, we're looking into volunteering at our local humane society, my two older kids do Tae Kwon Do, seasonal sports, and all of my kids take swim lessons. We also do projects based on what my kids are interested in at the time and my kids love art, cooking, and even simple things like watering the plants and feeding our cat. We have some homeschooling friends but we also have friends who aren't homeschoolers.

I love homeschooling my kids and I'm so glad they're not at school being exposed to all the crap that goes on. I have a friend whose daughter is in 2nd grade and the boys and girls are already talking about being in love and boyfriends and girlfriends and they all like Miley Cyrus and high school musical and have the cd.s and movies and want to be like these people and act much more grown up and have attitudes at 7 and 8 year old! This is a smaller town with a small school and I can't even believe the things I hear from my friend who sends her two daughters there because she doesn't think she would be good enough at homeschooling. Kids are being programmed at a young age with what's cool and popular and everyone wants to fit in so they just go with the flow or they're an outcast. Sometimes I think school is more about the social aspect than it is about the academics, that's why the first thing anyone who doesn't homeschool is concerned with is how you are going to socialize your child. I think homeschooling is one of the most unselfish things a parent can do for a child.

I think all of you homeschooling parents are awesome!

[MaineMomof4]

If you don't mind me being nosy what are the SL boards?