I know it is a difficult decision for many people. Do we homeschool, use a private school or public school? We've done all three. Here is what we found:
Public school in Virginia was pretty good. My daughter had Kindergarten and 1/2 of first grade there. I liked the school and the methods, except for teaching reading, but my daughter was reading by the time she got to school anyway. They were into "whole language" which pretty much did not work very well for most of the kids. Public school in Florida was a nightmare. Which brings us to.....
Private school in Florida was OK. They went to the Catholic school and actually had a good education there. for a while. They did with 30 kids per classroom what the public school could not do with 20. However, they also were still into "speed drills" for math and had some teachers who were just not very good and perhaps not really qualified to teach. But they were Catholic, as though that made up for the rest. Sigh. My kids got to be abused while we paid for it.
Which brings us to why we homeschooled. I pulled them out of the Catholic school after seeing the harm that was happening to my kids. Frankly, my daughter did fine there for the most part, but she was getting to the teen years and I could see the writing on the wall. My son had an abusive 3rd grade teacher who did not like his auditory learning style and was not compassionate about his hereditary dyslexia. She was totally toxic and completely changed him after all of the abuse. He got good grades, was a quiet and obedient kid, but she just could not stand him for some reason. Luckily she only taught one more year then retired. I do not wish her luck in her retirement. My son had vision therapy and reads all the time now with no problems. Duh. Here was a woman who clearly hated kids and mostly hated the boys, so why on earth was she teaching? Why on earth did they continue to allow her to teach?
My kids ASKED us to homeschool them. We had talked about it for about a year and they made the decision. Every year after that I would ask if they wanted to go back to school and every year they said NO. My hubby was a little worried that having the kids competing for my attention all day would send me to the looney bin, but it turns out that they never had to compete for my attention. They always had my attention.
Our homeschooling started out relaxed and then turned completely to unschooling. It worked. If you allow kids to get educated the way they want to, they WILL get educated. I thought my son would never learn how to spell. Guess what? Once he was in chat rooms online all the time, he learned how to spell. His desire to NOT look stupid was greater than his laziness about spelling. That pretty much sums up unschooling. Desire. If they desire something, they will work towards it!
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1 day ago
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ReplyDeleteI'd like to see every single family evaluate the educational choices for each child they have... one at a time. To make the choice that works best for each individual.
ReplyDeleteOur choice to begin homeschooling was not a difficult one, because school was causing harm to our son,and it was quite obvious.
I can't imagine having raised him any other way, now.
Had I thought about the way he learned and his sensitivity, I would never have chosen to send him for any kind of schooling as a child.
Thank goodness we still have a free country where we are allowed to homeschool! The choice of schooling methods should be up to each family!
ReplyDeleteWe have always home schooled. The oldest daughter thought they wanted to go to school in grade 12 but found she had to have pre-reqs and credits and she didn't want to go through the proof process. My son is in grade 12 and thought he would do better in school as he is driven to get things done and doesn't always get things done. My daughter found that once in the work force she knows a lot, and she found with school friends they didn't learn the things she did. She also finds their writing and math skills to be sub-standard even though she has done little of either formally. She is still working on some grade 12 while working and doing extensive music stuff. She was planning to go to college in music, but not sure if she will.
ReplyDeleteWe have hindsight to see that our homeschooling methods worked just fine! When you are in the middle of it though, it can be a scary prospect! My kids are better educated than most their age and they are self-motivated. What more can I ask for?
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