Private school all the way through. Did not even consider public school.

No, shielding kids from the real world does them no good in the long run. The world is all about interacting with people, and homeschool takes that important experience away from kids.

Homeschooling family.

DON'T LISTEN TO THESE LYING CONSERVATIVES. PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE A GREAT PLACE FOR KIDS !!

zb008 said:

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No, shielding kids from the real world does them no good in the long run. The world is all about interacting with people, and homeschool takes that important experience away from kids.

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Even if shielding isn't the intent I would agree that's a downside to home or even private school to a lesser degree.

When we chose to live in a good public school district it was because the local elementary was rated a 2 out of 10. That's 1 notch up from Eazy Es public schooling in Compton, though the area was far nicer than Compton. The section 8 housing and apartments hid the underbelly

I doubt we would have moved if the school was more of a mid range type school

Tanya 93 said:

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dermdoc said:

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I have two grandkids ages 4 and almost 6. My daughter is the expert on this and did extensive research. We are paying for my grand kids to go to a private Montessori school. We have visited and love it.

Very low student to teacher ratio and constant interaction.

My daughter's both went to private Christian schools.

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Monsignor Kelly?

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One to Kelly and one to Legacy.

agAngeldad said:

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It's interesting how no one says their kids are behind in homeschool; none have issues, and all are excelling.

Don't mean to be a downer on homeschools. I have several grandkids that are doing homeschool, and of course my daughter did "all the research," and those kids are the "best." However, my other grandkids are in public schools, and all are excelling as well. I hope the homeschool systems find a way to provide extracurricular programs that develop our young kids.

Time will tell how homeschooling works out, but not all public schools are a problem. I encourage my adult kids to buy homes in areas with top public schools where parents are involved.

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If you live anywhere but the inner city, public schools aren't a problem.

If you as a parent want your kid to succeed, and actively mold your child into wanting to achieve said success, they will thrive no matter where they go to school.

It's not the school that determines the kid's future success it is YOU, the parent.

rgag12 said:

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agAngeldad said:

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It's interesting how no one says their kids are behind in homeschool; none have issues, and all are excelling.

Don't mean to be a downer on homeschools. I have several grandkids that are doing homeschool, and of course my daughter did "all the research," and those kids are the "best." However, my other grandkids are in public schools, and all are excelling as well. I hope the homeschool systems find a way to provide extracurricular programs that develop our young kids.

Time will tell how homeschooling works out, but not all public schools are a problem. I encourage my adult kids to buy homes in areas with top public schools where parents are involved.

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If you live anywhere but the inner city, public schools aren't a problem.

If you as a parent want your kid to succeed, and actively mold your child into wanting to achieve said success, they will thrive no matter where they go to school.

It's not the school that determines the kid's future success it is YOU, the parent.

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Agreed, 100%

As long as it's not just a terrible area, inner city for example it's fine


There's no need for special schooling for K -12. This is not where chaos theory and quantum physics is taught, it's K - 12. Any human can learn that given a little effort.

zb008 said:

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No, shielding kids from the real world does them no good in the long run. The world is all about interacting with people, and homeschool takes that important experience away from kids.

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This post shows how unfamiliar you are with homeschooling these days. And for the record, I don't homeschool.

agAngeldad said:

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It's interesting how no one says their kids are behind in homeschool; none have issues, and all are excelling.

Don't mean to be a downer on homeschools. I have several grandkids that are doing homeschool, and of course my daughter did "all the research," and those kids are the "best." However, my other grandkids are in public schools, and all are excelling as well. I hope the homeschool systems find a way to provide extracurricular programs that develop our young kids.

Time will tell how homeschooling works out, but not all public schools are a problem. I encourage my adult kids to buy homes in areas with top public schools where parents are involved.

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Again, my daughter is a freshman in high school and able to take college courses through dual enrollment with her co-op and currently had a 4.0 in those college courses. I don't think she is a prodigy, either. I think homeschooling allowed her to learn at her specific level at her natural pace. That's a luxury public and even private school kids don't get because the teacher has to teach to the group. This often means there will be kids left behind and other kids who could be moving ahead more rapidly.

zb008 said:

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No, shielding kids from the real world does them no good in the long run. The world is all about interacting with people, and homeschool takes that important experience away from kids.

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Let's see…
public school kids interacting mostly woth their own age and a teacher or coach at times
Or
homeschool kids interacting with anyone who happens to be out in the world at any point of the day

Why is it that people think homeschool kids are essentially imprisoned in their homes 24/7?

Way too many people still have the mindset of homeschool kids from the 80s and 90s that were very socially awkward and had zero extra-curricular opportunities. They have failed to move on from that outdated stereotype.

The fact is, homeschool groups are now quite sophisticated and function almost like a university model school, except the buildings are various homes rather than a school.

Opportunities for FFA, band, sports, and other things are now available due to hard work of parents to change the status quo of homeschool.

I say and defend all this as a family who would not homeschool as it does not fit our lives.

A Net Full of Jello said:

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agAngeldad said:

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It's interesting how no one says their kids are behind in homeschool; none have issues, and all are excelling.

Don't mean to be a downer on homeschools. I have several grandkids that are doing homeschool, and of course my daughter did "all the research," and those kids are the "best." However, my other grandkids are in public schools, and all are excelling as well. I hope the homeschool systems find a way to provide extracurricular programs that develop our young kids.

Time will tell how homeschooling works out, but not all public schools are a problem. I encourage my adult kids to buy homes in areas with top public schools where parents are involved.

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Again, my daughter is a freshman in high school and able to take college courses through dual enrollment with her co-op and currently had a 4.0 in those college courses. I don't think she is a prodigy, either. I think homeschooling allowed her to learn at her specific level at her natural pace. That's a luxury public and even private school kids don't get because the teacher has to teach to the group. This often means there will be kids left behind and other kids who could be moving ahead more rapidly.

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This is not true. All my kids are public school. My oldest just graduated with a ton of college credits, 4.0, he's in Mechancial Eng. at A&M and doing great. Public school allows for dual credit, AP, IB. If you want to get ahead and do more than the avg student there's plenty of opportunity.

CDUB98 said:

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Way too many people still have the mindset of homeschool kids from the 80s and 90s that were very socially awkward and had zero extra-curricular opportunities. They have failed to move on from that outdated stereotype.

The fact is, homeschool groups are now quite sophisticated and function almost like a university model school, except the buildings are various homes rather than a school.

Opportunities for FFA, band, sports, and other things are now available due to hard work of parents to change the status quo of homeschool.

I say and defend all this as a family who would not homeschool as it does not fit our lives.

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There's a reason why kids who are homeschooled have a culture shock when they go to college. Kids having to interact with people their age that they may or may not like and learning how to follow a set of instructions from someone other than their parents are very valuable life experiences for them. The parents that I know who homeschooled their kids were trying to control the narrative that they were exposed to, but it didn't change the fact that they were eventually exposed to the world's narrative when they became adults. At the end of the day, parents won't get to pick who their kid's professors are when they go to college or who their boss is when they get a job.

Yes, public school has dual enrollment and those opportunities. The post I was responding to was commenting on how people say all of their homeschool kids are all excelling and my argument is because all homeschool kids have the opportunity to work on all subjects on their level and at their pace which helps set them up for success. That is not always the case in a traditional school setting.

zb008 said:

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CDUB98 said:

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Way too many people still have the mindset of homeschool kids from the 80s and 90s that were very socially awkward and had zero extra-curricular opportunities. They have failed to move on from that outdated stereotype.

The fact is, homeschool groups are now quite sophisticated and function almost like a university model school, except the buildings are various homes rather than a school.

Opportunities for FFA, band, sports, and other things are now available due to hard work of parents to change the status quo of homeschool.

I say and defend all this as a family who would not homeschool as it does not fit our lives.

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There's a reason why kids who are homeschooled have a culture shock when they go to college. Kids having to interact with people their age that they may or may not like and learning how to follow a set of instructions from someone other than their parents are very valuable life experiences for them. The parents that I know who homeschooled their kids were trying to control the narrative that they were exposed to, but it didn't change the fact that they were eventually exposed to the world's narrative when they became adults. At the end of the day, parents won't get to pick who their kid's professors are when they go to college or who their boss is when they get a job.

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I think, as was posted, you are stuck in a mindset of homeschool from the 80s and 90s. I know a number of homeschool kids and none of them got culture shock when they went to college.

You literally didn't pay attention to a word I wrote.

You should probably leave and let the adults talk.

A Net Full of Jello said:

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Yes, public school has dual enrollment and those opportunities. The post I was responding to was commenting on how people say all of their homeschool kids are all excelling and my argument is because all homeschool kids have the opportunity to work on all subjects on their level and at their pace which helps set them up for success. That is not always the case in a traditional school setting.

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Yeah. I get that. The point I was making was public schools are not one size fits all. For a given class there's at least two different options regular and advanced in HS. In some cases there's up to 4 different class option with dual credit, ap, and IB. Different class sizes and different levels of difficulty. There's plenty of opportunities in public schools for kids to excel beyond the normal work classes if you pursue it.

We have homeschooled our kids since we pulled them out of private school. When I was laid off and we made some drastic life changes 10 years ago, it resulted in us being completely self employed and homeschooling our kids. It wasn't easy at first but it's been a blessing. The kids are involved in 4H, community outreach programs (we are animal lovers) and they compete in rodeo and equestrian events. Currently my daughter is looking at colleges and NCEA programs. Most of this happens during the working week but since my wife handles their schooling, they can be doing competitions and training all day several days a week, and they do exactly that. Their lives are much like mine, I work when I need to work, weekends included. We do what it takes to get the job done. As such they spend more time working with adults than kids. With all of that, they also work with me. They talk to customers. They generate business. They sell. Even at 15 and 16, they have large groups and contacts they leverage to generate their own income. I help them and teach them as they run into snags. They manage their own cattle herds and are involved with those sales as well.

Homeschooling, when done properly, has no downside. This is true for your kids that are above or below average. And the bad news is that everyone's kid is below or above average in something. With homeschooling, you can custom fit your curriculum. That said, not everyone has the ability to homeschool so you have to do what works with your life.

For us the best part about how we do things is that the kids get to see how the real world works and they get to say "no, I'm not doing it that way." I'll control my income. I'll control my education. I'll control how I operate. The ability to operate in a world in the way you want to manage it is pretty big to us. Before ten years ago our whole life was "you have to work 40 hours a week to barely make enough to do what you want and you need to dump your kids in school so they aren't dumb". That's all wrong. That's average. That's the status quo.

As noted in other posts, I don't see the culture shock being a thing outside the fact that many homeschoolers may have more real world experience than their college peers but they are adaptable so no big deal. Homeschoolers will be forced back into a mold to some degree but again, shouldn't be a problem.

Success in school has much more to do with who your parents are than what mode of education public, private, homeschool. Good parents that are actively involved with their kids education will produce high achieving kids a vast majority of the time. The opposite is true as well.

agAngeldad said:

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It's interesting how no one says their kids are behind in homeschool; none have issues, and all are excelling.

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Forget it, Jake ... it's TexAgs.

rgag12 said:

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agAngeldad said:

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It's interesting how no one says their kids are behind in homeschool; none have issues, and all are excelling.

Don't mean to be a downer on homeschools. I have several grandkids that are doing homeschool, and of course my daughter did "all the research," and those kids are the "best." However, my other grandkids are in public schools, and all are excelling as well. I hope the homeschool systems find a way to provide extracurricular programs that develop our young kids.

Time will tell how homeschooling works out, but not all public schools are a problem. I encourage my adult kids to buy homes in areas with top public schools where parents are involved.

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If you live anywhere but the inner city, public schools aren't a problem.

If you as a parent want your kid to succeed, and actively mold your child into wanting to achieve said success, they will thrive no matter where they go to school.

It's not the school that determines the kid's future success it is YOU, the parent.

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That use to be the case but no longer. Even in "good" districts like Plano, it is hit or miss depending on whether kids are bussed into the school you're zoned for.

And no, it's not just you as the parent but it is all the parents in the class. That's the benefit of private schools where parents share similar belief/value of education where as you don't necessarily always have that in public schools.

BenFiasco14 said:

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Or, alternatively, send them to private school?

Basically, I'm looking for peoples first hand experiences with home schooling primarily but am interested to hear private school perspectives as well.

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We did a classical model of schooling for several years with a hybrid school/home schedule). Daughter went to a classical school for 2 and then 3 days a week and then did her (quite significant) home work on the off (or home) days. Very rigorous academics. Parents are usually serious about getting their children a high quality education focused on the basics (language like latin, math, english and classical history).

I went to Beaumont Kelly from 10th - 12th. It changed my life for the better. It had high academics and lower teacher/student ratio.

3 kids- one to public his whole life. 1 public and private for last 2 years here in Austin. 1 in classical hybrid or private her career to date.

My overall point is that each child has had different needs for their schooling...and for each child they have had their own specific needs change over time. Dont be afraid to make changes as needed.

JB99 said:

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Success in school has much more to do with who your parents are than what mode of education public, private, homeschool. Good parents that are actively involved with their kids education will produce high achieving kids a vast majority of the time. The opposite is true as well.

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To an extent...but if the overwhelming majority of parents are blue collar and dont have the time (or desire) or the means to focus on their kids education then even your best efforts as a parent will be highly constrained.

When the curriculum, in general, is based on all the Marxist underpinnings in public school, no school is "good."

Good stuff!

home schooling is weird, leave it to a trained professional (assuming you live in a normal state)

There are pro's and cons to homeschool, private, or government schools.

The key is be honest about the cons. There is not a correct answer only trade offs.

CDUB98 said:

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Way too many people still have the mindset of homeschool kids from the 80s and 90s that were very socially awkward and had zero extra-curricular opportunities. They have failed to move on from that outdated stereotype.

The fact is, homeschool groups are now quite sophisticated and function almost like a university model school, except the buildings are various homes rather than a school.

Opportunities for FFA, band, sports, and other things are now available due to hard work of parents to change the status quo of homeschool.

I say and defend all this as a family who would not homeschool as it does not fit our lives.

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(CDUB98 just using your post as a jumping off point; not directing this to you)

I would just like to defend those homeschool parents (in Texas anyway) a little bit and say that homeschooling back then was a different world than we live in now. They had to hide. They were fighting a hard battle to win us the freedoms we have now. (Which is now slowly being taken away by bills such as the Tebow bill and the recent SB2…but that's for another thread).

OP: I could go on and on about the benefits of homeschooling but others have already done that work. I just want to say: don't take the SB2 ESA money.

WestAustinAg said:

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JB99 said:

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Success in school has much more to do with who your parents are than what mode of education public, private, homeschool. Good parents that are actively involved with their kids education will produce high achieving kids a vast majority of the time. The opposite is true as well.

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To an extent...but if the overwhelming majority of parents are blue collar and dont have the time (or desire) or the means to focus on their kids education then even your best efforts as a parent will be highly constrained.

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That's not been my experience. We live in a very blue collar very ethnic school district. Whites are the minority. Mostly Hispanic and AA, mostly blue collar. My kids are not constrained at all. It's a larger public school, 6a. I think of it as having schools within the broader school. My kid is in all advanced classes. He's around kids that prioritize education who have parents that prioritize it. This is probably the minority of kids and parents in the district, but because the school allows kids to pursue those more advanced classes, you effectively have different schools within the broader bigger school. Smaller groups of community with like minded people.

zb008 said:

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CDUB98 said:

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Way too many people still have the mindset of homeschool kids from the 80s and 90s that were very socially awkward and had zero extra-curricular opportunities. They have failed to move on from that outdated stereotype.

The fact is, homeschool groups are now quite sophisticated and function almost like a university model school, except the buildings are various homes rather than a school.

Opportunities for FFA, band, sports, and other things are now available due to hard work of parents to change the status quo of homeschool.

I say and defend all this as a family who would not homeschool as it does not fit our lives.

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There's a reason why kids who are homeschooled have a culture shock when they go to college. Kids having to interact with people their age that they may or may not like and learning how to follow a set of instructions from someone other than their parents are very valuable life experiences for them. The parents that I know who homeschooled their kids were trying to control the narrative that they were exposed to, but it didn't change the fact that they were eventually exposed to the world's narrative when they became adults. At the end of the day, parents won't get to pick who their kid's professors are when they go to college or who their boss is when they get a job.

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I completely reject this premise. You don't need to experience public school to encounter the challenges of life. Homeschoolers still have friends. They still get in arguments. They play sports. They read the news.

Homeschooling isn't for everyone and that's ok, but this notion that homeschooling kids are somehow missing out on valuable life experiences is patently false and incredibly ignorant.

JDUB08AG said:

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zb008 said:

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CDUB98 said:

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Way too many people still have the mindset of homeschool kids from the 80s and 90s that were very socially awkward and had zero extra-curricular opportunities. They have failed to move on from that outdated stereotype.

The fact is, homeschool groups are now quite sophisticated and function almost like a university model school, except the buildings are various homes rather than a school.

Opportunities for FFA, band, sports, and other things are now available due to hard work of parents to change the status quo of homeschool.

I say and defend all this as a family who would not homeschool as it does not fit our lives.

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There's a reason why kids who are homeschooled have a culture shock when they go to college. Kids having to interact with people their age that they may or may not like and learning how to follow a set of instructions from someone other than their parents are very valuable life experiences for them. The parents that I know who homeschooled their kids were trying to control the narrative that they were exposed to, but it didn't change the fact that they were eventually exposed to the world's narrative when they became adults. At the end of the day, parents won't get to pick who their kid's professors are when they go to college or who their boss is when they get a job.

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I completely reject this premise. You don't need to experience public school to encounter the challenges of life. Homeschoolers still have friends. They still get in arguments. They play sports. They read the news.

Homeschooling isn't for everyone and that's ok, but this notion that homeschooling kids are somehow missing out on valuable life experiences is patently false and incredibly ignorant.

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This. I find it so weird that so many people seem to have this notion that school for kids is the only pool for kids to have friends through or be exposed to authority figures. When people paint school as the end all be all place to learn social skills, I start wondering about how sheltered they actually are to the real world. Sure… school is a big exposure to the external world but far from the only one.

My child in school is probably has as many friends and authority figures external to her school as she does at her school.

Considering many if not most agree that the reason parents chose a different school or home schooling is to avoid kids of bad parents one way or another.....



Why can't kids of bad parents be held to some degree of responsibility? Make them take classes when their kid fails or gets bad behavior grades. Or fine them, or bring back corporal punishment for bad kids, or have them do bear crawls till they puke like coaches would make kids in athletics do



Point being, there's a whole lot of money and time being spent due to other kids parents.

Go back in time and public schools had more control of the kids. And here we are, collectively spending billions to offset that loss of control as a result

zb008 said:

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CDUB98 said:

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Way too many people still have the mindset of homeschool kids from the 80s and 90s that were very socially awkward and had zero extra-curricular opportunities. They have failed to move on from that outdated stereotype.

The fact is, homeschool groups are now quite sophisticated and function almost like a university model school, except the buildings are various homes rather than a school.

Opportunities for FFA, band, sports, and other things are now available due to hard work of parents to change the status quo of homeschool.

I say and defend all this as a family who would not homeschool as it does not fit our lives.

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There's a reason why kids who are homeschooled have a culture shock when they go to college. Kids having to interact with people their age that they may or may not like and learning how to follow a set of instructions from someone other than their parents are very valuable life experiences for them. The parents that I know who homeschooled their kids were trying to control the narrative that they were exposed to, but it didn't change the fact that they were eventually exposed to the world's narrative when they became adults. At the end of the day, parents won't get to pick who their kid's professors are when they go to college or who their boss is when they get a job.

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This is a huge load of b.s. Homeschool kids do statistically better at college...and do better in post college life.