Homeschooling parents?

7,644 Views | 78 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by Zemira
Frok
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Unschooling sounds like a bad idea for lazy people like me. Hey kids, today is Breaking Bad marathon day.
PacifistAg
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Frok said:

Unschooling sounds like a bad idea for lazy people like me. Hey kids, today is Breaking Bad marathon day.
Tbh, there are days like that, but given that you aren't tied to an academic calendar, you can sprinkle those in and still incorporate some aspect of learning. Breaking Bad day = chemistry teaching.

But you are right in that you can't be consistently lazy in it, as it requires an enormous amount of engagement.
Dad-O-Lot
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RetiredAg said:

redcrayon said:

I would discourage unschooling if you think your kids will ever go back to a traditional school.
If you consider college to be "traditional school", then this statement seems uninformed, as many unschoolers go right into college without any problems. In my experience, unschooling results in a greater ability to research and think critically versus a system of being spoon fed information to memorize.
My experience as well.

I was an excellent traditional school student. I made excellent grades all through High School. It came easy to me. I never had to "study". I just listened, did the assigned work, and made As & Bs. However, once I got to college, I struggled at first. Just listening in class was not enough. I had to learn how to learn.

My kids have learned how to learn. How to teach themselves what they want to learn, or how to find the information where they can. This made them more successful earlier when they were in college.
People of integrity expect to be believed, when they're not, they let time prove them right.
redcrayon
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Dad-O-Lot said:

redcrayon said:

I would discourage unschooling if you think your kids will ever go back to a traditional school.

The Well-Trained Mind has some informative homeschool message boards.
Why is that?

Do you consider college to be "traditional school"?

I think it really depends on the child, but we unschool our children. So far all of them have gone on to take at least some community college courses. Two have graduated from Texas A&M and one will start grad school next year.


No, I meant middle school, high school. It's really hard to fit back into the traditional model when you've been unschooling IMO.
PacifistAg
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Exactly. I was the same way. I was great at memorization/regurgitation. I was horrible at actual learning.

Then again, unlike traditional schooling, college isn't the end goal of unschooling. It is if your child has a passion for a field that would require a degree, but many do not. Their passion may lie outside of such fields, and if it does, then great.
Dad-O-Lot
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redcrayon said:

Dad-O-Lot said:

redcrayon said:

I would discourage unschooling if you think your kids will ever go back to a traditional school.

The Well-Trained Mind has some informative homeschool message boards.
Why is that?

Do you consider college to be "traditional school"?

I think it really depends on the child, but we unschool our children. So far all of them have gone on to take at least some community college courses. Two have graduated from Texas A&M and one will start grad school next year.


No, I meant middle school, high school. It's really hard to fit back into the traditional model when you've been unschooling IMO.
You are probably right.
People of integrity expect to be believed, when they're not, they let time prove them right.
PacifistAg
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That's true. It only makes sense. It would be hard for someone who has been using an approach that places a significant emphasis on critical thinking and independent research to go back into a system that is largely focused on memorization/regurgitation.
DixieBelle02
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I appreciate everyone's help and advice. I believe we do a lot of "unschooling" in our day to day lives - farm life provides for daily learning experiences in animal husbandry, gardening, bee keeping, geology, and other forms of science, math, comprehension, problem solving... Plus, in everything we do we try to include our children and teach them whether it's cooking, woodworking, art, music, mechanics, finances etc. Learning hands on and through experiences rates very high on our list.

That being said, I believe transitioning straight into unschooling from being at a private school for 6 years+ would be a challenge for us. I am thinking that homeschooling with an eclectic curriculum, with at least some routine each day would be the best transition for us. From there, maybe that will be what we stick with and maybe it won't. Some of that will depend on if I foresee another transition back into a public high school some day or not. Or maybe I will just alter the curriculum and such each year. I still have so much research to do, but I feel like I have at least been guided in a great direction. I will certainly reach out with any further specific questions I come across. Thank you very much!
Dad-O-Lot
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Best of luck to you and your family!
People of integrity expect to be believed, when they're not, they let time prove them right.
Zemira
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Okay I'm not a homeschool parent (I'm single and childless) but my sister homeschools my nephew. Yes he's an only child, so a bit spoiled but that's not why he is homeschooled.

He went to public school for Kindergarten and 1st Grade and his school administration and teacher were unhelpful in 1st grade. He was bullied for knowing how to read well and he didn't get common core math (he's great at math). It got to the point he was self soothing by chewing in his shirt collars because he was stressed out a 6 because of the testing emphasis (and he wasn't even taking the test). They labeled him as a troublemaker because he was bored (not challenged enough) so he would talk to his friends. He got in school detention in 1st grade because he was done with his work so he goofed off. My sister was volunteering weekly at the school so she could observe him at times and basically the teacher didn't want to deal with him.

Anyhow by mid year my sister decided she couldn't leave him in that school for 2nd grade. They really wanted to send him to private school but their wasn't a realistic way to afford it on my brother-in-law's salary. In theory my sister could go back to work full-time, but the salary gained versus expenses with after school care didn't make it worthwhile.

So then she spent about six months researching homeschooling. She never thought she would be a teacher or one of those weird parents who would homeschool.

She decided to give it a try and if it failed she would put him back in regular school. It took her the first half of the year to get him to unlearn all the bad behavior and habits he learned at public school. He's a great kid and now you can see that. Before he was very aggressive and lashed out. He is definitely an extrovert but he's nice well mannered and around people now.

He will start his 4th year of homeschool this year. For the school year he goes August till Thanksgiving, they take a week for the holiday. Then they go back for 2 weeks and then off for 3-4 weeks. They start back up in January and go till May/June. She isn't super strict on keeping to a schedule so she's got time built in to take short trips during the year or if someone gets sick. During the summer he still had reading assignments and they review math concepts.

For activities he does piano lessons, sports, cub scouts, and art class. He really wants guitar lessons but my sister said he had to master the piano first.

He goes monthly to a class the Houston Museum of Natural Science puts on. He goes there frequently. He also goes to the George Observatory to things HMNS puts on. His dad does frequent science projects/experiments with him.

The last two years he has done Classical Conversations and will be continuing. He attends every Wednesday and this covers Writing, Grammar, Reading, History, Geography, Latin and Science. She has additional reading he does, handwriting, spelling and a separate math curriculum. While he is in class, my sister teaches a different CC class. He does school in the morning (3-4 hours) except Wednesday which is a full day. I imagine as he gets older the length of time will increase. This includes time to do his weekly CC assignments.

There are a ton of homeschool groups. When he was younger they had playdates at the park. Now he will be joining a class to see other kids and run off energy. Around holidays there are at least 2 social events if not more. They often have homeschool group trips to museums and exhibits. They have all sorts of field trips.

He is an extrovert. The kid is always going. He loves being around people and can hold pretty advanced conversations.

Anyhow the myth about homeschool kids being stuck at home is false. My nephew has activities at least 3 days a week when he is not home. The downside is some weeks he goes to a ton of activities and the next week he might only go to CC and piano lessons. My sister is always trying to space out activities so he has time to rest.

My sister is always busy but it's worth it to her to see how happy he is now versus public school. Part of it was the school, the principal and teachers. Since she's started homeschooling she's had at least 10 mom's from the school ask about homeschooling. The school is in a "good" district too.

I don't think any one way of learning is "correct." I will say our public schools are not the same Schools I attended 20-30 years ago.

I always thought homeschoolers were weird and sheltered when I was younger. Yet now I know a lot more and those are stereotypes. Yes there might be some kids and parents like that, but not the majority.

If I ever have a husband and have kids I would seriously consider homeschooling or private school over the public schools out their today.

 
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