Homeschooling? Have you? Pros? Cons?

[lasto]

Originally Posted by UncoderMom

ooh and the state is required to pay for funding too! http://www.k12.com/flva/florida_vip_notification/

And where do u think the state gets its money from - from you lot so u paying anyway.

[Magnumutz]

No offense but you can't expect children to learn via a virtual system even if you make it VERY entertaining for them.

They're not like college students that can understand it's for their own good to learn.
They simply need teachers. Good or bad, they'll build them up pace by pace.
That's how i grew up and think back that i still wasn't paying enough attention in classes, but if i was home schooled, geez i would've turned out bad.
It might not be like that with all kids, but a pretty big part of them. It could be that some of our teachers had THE GIFT of teaching and some simply came to classes for the few money they got.

But there's no thing as good as a public or private school.

[smacklan]

I personally do not want any funding from the government. As soon as I accept that, I give them the right to tell me how to educate my kids...it is a slippery slope. We still have to retain the services of the HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defense Association) each year at our expense just so we are protected from the government barging in and trying to shut us down or legislate against us (which happens all the time across this country and the biggest offenders of these attacks are the teachers unions!). No offense to all you dedicated and caring teachers out there but your unions need to stay the hell out of things that aren't their business! I agree with what others have said...that it's not for everyone but I will tell you this...that is an excuse for many to not even try

[UncoderMom]

No offense but that virtual school scored better the public school did.... yikes!

The virtual school is NOT a replacement for parent involvement. ITs a powerful aid, if you ask me. My good friend from church has a son that scores in the 90th percentile and she uses a private video taught at home school (the school is some where in north fl).

Never before (other then the no child left behind, for private day school) has the government took responsibility for a childs education (other then harassment like your a freak) and acknowledged that they have a responsibility to provide an alternative (they can only try and deni the success rate of home schooled children for so long, what with the drop out rate soaring to new heights). My kids do AMAZING things and learn SO MUCH just from google... even my 7 yr old can type a search phrase for my little pony wallpaper, download it and install it. She can totally organize her desktop and create file folders with her topic names and organize it all. She can type a web address from TV and then print the page. Why, because I taught her. I think people under estimate the little ones. LOLOL Her teacher struggles all week to teach her something but if I go to the class and sit with her she learns it in minutes??? (dont get me started on her teacher either). My child might be strong willed but shes FAR from hard to control. I told her teacher flat out that my daughter doesn't like her... shes hostel and erratic (to the eyes of a child anyway). I watched her in the class room and she TOTALLY has NO sort of patients and was spewing threats in order to ascertain control instead of engaging their attention. She's not a "bad" person... she just majorly lacks behavioral skills. Children are about the easiest things to manipulate. Shall I upload a handwriting sample of her teacher?? haha Shes had STELLAR teachers and shes had two duds. The public school system here is not dependable and lacks consistency. So many of our schools are failing and/or have a C average. Terrible. Billions of dollars and thats the best they can do?

You change the whole structure and success rate when you think outside the box with children (especially strong willed children) When your in a classroom setting its cookie cutter and whats good for one might not be good for the other in the same order. You need the childs attention and if they're not interested your not going to accomplish much. JMO. When you stick a weeks worth of activities in front of a child and say... you pick, which do you want to do today and see what happens. Its the cookie cutter system that is destroying education. Again, JMO. Children need to be engaged in what they're doing. Learning should be fun and easy, not stressful and discouraging.

Florida school system SUCKS BTW! LOL I'm also tired of secular crap being pushed at my child! It has nothing to do with abc's and 123's. DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED. haha Lets not mention the pressure standardized testing puts on kids that are being drilled with its preparation all year. I NEVER had that crap growing up in school. Our worst fear was a pop quiz. My kids stress about FCAT this and FCAT that. The Fcat is a funding test BTW. Federal funding is based on these FCAT scores. BS! Children should be tested, sure, but greed and money should NOT be driving its motives!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCAT (scroll to the Criticism part).

Can anyone tell I'm fed up? hahahahaha Its a shame that the schools can teach a child (even a failing child) to master the art of putting on a condom but yet the vast majority cant name the presidents of the united states. Priorities are WAY screwed up and to many agendas are screwing up the education system. They try and be moral police and what happens? The pregnancy rate goes UP not down. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired!


And Shelley, that teacher should be locked in a room and force to consume 2 gallons of water and not let up until he urinates on himself! WTH?? I'm so sorry for your brother! Not only is that neglect its mental/emotional abuse in my opinion. Let us know what happens today!!!

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Originally Posted by smacklan

I personally do not want any funding from the government. As soon as I accept that, I give them the right to tell me how to educate my kids...it is a slippery slope. We still have to retain the services of the HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defense Association) each year at our expense just so we are protected from the government barging in and trying to shut us down or legislate against us (which happens all the time across this country and the biggest offenders of these attacks are the teachers unions!). No offense to all you dedicated and caring teachers out there but your unions need to stay the hell out of things that aren't their business! I agree with what others have said...that it's not for everyone but I will tell you this...that is an excuse for many to not even try

I agree that still having the government in control can be hard to swallow but at least there is a third party public school in between. I guess its like an online charter school. Classified as a public school.

Its a good step for people like me who want to homeschool but lack confidence and personal funding. Homeschooling can get rather expensive.

[PremierFootball]

I am not a parent, however. I wouldn't homeschool my children, I would like them to have freedom and socialise with other children daily. The thought of them been away from other children does not seem right to me.

[smacklan]

Originally Posted by PremierFootball

I am not a parent...

Check back with us when you are

[Shelley_c]

I guess in some cases home schooling children would work best it all depends on the circumstances, What may work for you may not work for (let's say) another family/child.

I know from experience (explained in this thread) that for my brother homeschooling would haeve been a little more benficial because he's wrapped himself in his own shell and bullied by certain teachers (whilst today he gained pupil of the week) so not interacting with children if he had been homeschooled is happening anyway at school.

The factors in play mentioned and the many others that haven't all depends on lifestyle/childs well being etc x1000 so it's what works est for the child and what the best outcome in the long run will be for them.

[GSeybold]

Amen Unicodermom,!

I'm so sick of this sheet also. The only person(s) that should be teaching children about sex are the parents! NOT on my tax dollar! A school board has NO business telling ANY child what is morally right or wrong, and expecially considering what freeks some of these educators are both in the classroom and personally. Yikes! Education in this country has gone from refined education to an institution of perpetuating social agenda-mostly liberal. Additionally, our "educational" system has also become yet ANOTHER source of welfare for so many irresponsible parents who can't take care of the children they already have and continue to have more. There are some great teachers out there but unfortunatley they are being overshadowed but the nutjobs in this particular profession.

I had to move my family from California because the education was so bad and my only recourse were religious zealot schools at the cost of several hundred a month. Why should I have to double pay for my children's education? Hocks me off. Then I move to Connecticut and my children are so far behind it's pathetic but we caught up, but then had to move to Florida. OMG! Some of the teachers here???? Screaming, dropping the F-bomb frequently, coming to work high with the munchies, blood shot eyes...... My daughter did have several good teachers but they never stayed long.

All and all, if I had to do it all over again, sadly I would most certainly home school my children. THere is so much more to offer a child when home schooling.

Gabby




"Can anyone tell I'm fed up? hahahahaha Its a shame that the schools can teach a child (even a failing child) to master the art of putting on a condom but yet the vast majority cant name the presidents of the united states. Priorities are WAY screwed up and to many agendas are screwing up the education system. They try and be moral police and what happens? The pregnancy rate goes UP not down. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired!"

[UncoderMom]

But but but Gabby.... dont you understand??? If we are left to teach our children morals, we are just raising intolerant bigots??? ROFLMAO.

Sorry hahaha

[davidw]

Our two children are homeschooled. My eldest (five) is almost done with Kindergarten. She got an early start (learning to count to ten at eighteen months and knew her ABCs at twenty months). My three-year-old son isn't in Kindergarten yet he participated in most everything she did and is doing most everything successfully.

There are two or three social groups for homeschooled children here in which my children participate in that they go to once a week. One of these my son was originally placed in a three-year-old curriculum that he was bored in. A week later he was bumped up to the four-year-old curriculum of which he excelled in but was still somewhat bored. He soaks this up like his sister (like a sponge) - and wants to do more.

They are both very intelligent and we are looking forward to what comes next. I was surprised a few weeks ago when my daughter invented her first blueprint of a Rube Goldberg contraption (a mouse trap, coincidentally). She drew it on paper and explained exactly how it worked. She has been writing sheet music (although I don't think she fully understands what she is doing) for about six months now. This started when we gave her a toy piano with a song on it. We've seen so much out of both of them since we started homeschooling.

I hated public school
- I couldn't learn
- I felt like I was being held back (although I stayed in my correct grade levels)
- I had learning difficulties that teachers did not accept nor were willing to help me with.
- I was frustrated due to oversized class settings (until I moved my senior year; my class size dropped from 450 to 17)
- I was bored (even moving to honors classes for advanced learning was boring - I wanted to learn, not read more stories as in English (we were already reading stories)).

I want to give my children the opportunity to learn at their pace and not be held back. I also want to give them an unbiased education (When my wife and I went to school, we both were faced with one-sided discussions about most everything. It was the secular/public school way or we were graded wrong - told we were wrong. I want to allow my children to learn everything, whether right or wrong, so that they can understand. I want them to learn both sides to every argument because when they get out in the real world, they are going to be faced with bias, hate, one-sidedness, etc., and without the knowledge, they will be lost and accept possible fiction as fact.

I'm not against the public school system - I think it has great potential. I don't think that the public school system where we live is adequate for educating my children. I would rather them go where I learned in the Netherlands or the school that I graduated from (which was forcefully shut down in 1994 due to consolidation - some of my classes had a 1:4 teacher to student ratio such as my trigonometry class - but it was an excellent learning environment). In my previous high school where classes were a 1:35 to 1:40 ratio depending on who was there, no education was present; I would come in, the teacher gave the assignment, and the rest of the class was fulfilling the assignment. Nothing was learned.

There are negative things that I can address about what the public school system locally has said in regards to my children being homeschooled as since they aren't in school, they lose those extra dollars - since it is a business to them, but I will leave that out.