Dreaming [BIG] dreams asked, so I thought I’d turn the question over to my audience, who predominantly homeschools.
I would like to hear from any home schooling parents. What are your thoughts on my thoughts. Dumb? Normal? Anyone ever home schooled for a few years through elementary and then put your kids in school when they are older and have more of a foundation from you?
Is there curriculum for preschool kids? Four year olds? Of course I think my kid is super smart and could learn lots now, what could I do to “try” this out before he is actually ready for school???
Some time ago, Stan of Winging it asked me a question about the way I approach the socialization issue on this blog. My answer is probably the best summary I have for why we homeschool. The decision to start is frightening, or at least can be. I do not think I am alone in saying it was the biggest hurdle for us. In fact, I only consented to do it for a year to prove what a ridiculous idea it was…and I was never all that sold on sending my children off to kindergarten anyway.
None of her questions are “dumb” and there are certainly materials for teaching pre-K, although I personally am more in the “let them play” category. Good parenting is the best curriculum at that age, but I understand the desire for a book to follow! They are out there, and there is a blog linked in the list below she might find helpful, as well.
Anyway, feel free to share your reasons here, at dreaming [BIG] dream’s site or on your own blog. You may of course leave links to your thoughts, past or present in my comment box. Unfortunately, any comment containing links will be held for moderation, but they will get approved as soon as I notice them.
Update: A link to a similar discussion at The Heart of the Matter.
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In other news:
One reason I love blogging. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether he is who he says he is based on a comment and his email address, but I can marvel in the possibility. If you do not know who Stuart McArthur is, just scroll up from the comment to the entry. And if the subject fascinates you as much as it does me, there was even a follow-up post.
This blog was awarded the Excellent Blogger Award, thrice over. A special thanks to Spunky Homeschool, Consent of the Governed and Home Spun Juggling. Now I’m supposed to nominate ten more people. Hmm…normally I think about this too much, so I’m going to select ten random blogs from my Google Reader.
- Joanne Jacobs, one of my favorite “edubloggers.”
Preschoolers and Peace, a good site for dreaming [BIG] dreams to take a look at since she asked about preschool!
Why Homeschool?, exploring the answers to the question their blog is named for.
Let a Woman Learn, now I see why she hasn’t updated in my feed reader. I never changed the address after she moved!
Classical School Blog, on a break due to an upcoming surgery for their daughter. She was diagnosed with an Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma, and is undergoing treatment.
Amy’s Humble Musings, always a good way to start off your morning.
Homeschool Comments on the Fly, for a bit of here and there on homeschooling.
MInTheGap, some interesting discussion on being Christian in today’s culture.
Freedom Thirst, another of the many blogs I read and rarely comment on. So here’s a little “link love.”
Mom is Teaching, also a bit of here and there. News, links to good posts, teaching strategies…all sorts of good stuff.
That was the fastest I have every composed one of these things. I think I like random! And now I have a deadline to meet today so that you can enjoy the second edition of The Heart of the Matter when it publishes this Friday.
…and the Carnival of Family Life is posted. Today is your lucky day, if you are looking for lots of links!
[tags]homeschooling, homeschool[/tags]
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
well, I’m going to sound like one of those fundie, Christian homeschoolers that everyone is so worried about.
When my oldest was 3, I heard about hsing on the today show, I researched it (because I research everything to death) and began to feel like God was calling us to a lifestyle. The two biggest things were character development and discipleship.
I held off starting until he was 6, that was the influence of Raymond Moore, “better late than early.”
While there are pre-school curricula available, I wouldn’t recommend buying anything structured for pre-school. Have fun, take fun field trips and read, read, read.
As our kids get older and we add academic goals, the basic vision to raise men of godly character hasn’t changed.
I think if a person wanted to “try out” homeschooling, they could pick up some used curriculum and try it out over the summer. That might put a bad taste in the student’s mouth for homeschooling though, taking away their summer. That’s just my opinion. A person could take the plunge and withdraw their child the last three months of school and try it out.
Again, going to sound like one of “those” homeschoolers. It is a big choice, one that I personally could not do without trusting in the Lord, everyday. I could not do it without Him.
~C
Hey, we “fundie” Christians gotta hang together somewhere!
And I agree…I wouldn’t take a child’s summer away, either. Especially since we are talking about pre-K, however, it probably wouldn’t be noticed. Playing, singing and learning some letters isn’t like taking summer away! But then, I’m not the one for a great deal of structured learning in the early years. We start when they show signs of being ready to start.
Having an older child helps…the younger ones imitate her and really do learn a lot!
Thanks for asking your readers to help me out! I appreciate it so much!
Not a problem, Jamie! I hope you are able to find the information you are looking for! We really aren’t any nuttier than your average nut. : )
Seriously, though, I do think the first step…deciding to go through with it…is the scariest, so none of your questions are dumb!
Well, my reasons were as much selfish for my own sake as they were what was best for my child.”I” wanted to try homeschooling, for all its romanticism, challenge, discovery, and personal development.
My child was falling through the cracks and I had already let that happen to my oldest son out of naivety and simply being a young parent who knew something was wrong but had been raised, socialized, conditioned to trust our schools. I wasn’t going to let it happen again, especially now that I had maturity, been in the system from the inside out, and been introduced to an option called home educating.
Other thinks that pushed me to finally take the plunge: the nasty foods served at school and lack of oversight during lunch; the lack of recess and unstructured play; the confinement in rooms with little sunlight and even windows that were covered with poster boards; a child who came home hungry and grouchy; a child who began reading at 4 in a private part-time preschool and per his own request and interest yet was not actively reading in public school; a child who was doing simple addition and subtraction at 4 and 5 in the private school and then doing none of it in public kindergarten and verbally patronized when his teacher (and our neighbor) recognized he was advanced, yet did nothing; kids at the local bus stop that bully him; and riding a bus home that had my kindergartener sitting with highschoolers and their foul language, sexual overtones, etc (and yes, I had 4 teens at home so I was not picking on teenagers, just observing what my child was hearing, saying and trying to replicate.)
It was as much for conscientious living reasons, educational reasons, character concerns and wanting more… not to mention my own want of the experience and challenge of educating my child at home.
I came across this article yesterday that just really warmed me as I read it… as I question if I am doing the right thing DAILY.
http://www.tnhomeed.com/LRSocial.html
And I agree about preschool: forget the curriculum and just be with your child, do with your child, explore with your child, discover with your child. Structured learning can come later.
I miss that darn EDIT button LOL Ignore all those type-O’s. In a hurry to pick up a car, but felt compelled to throw that comment out there
I began home schooling because I was unhappy with the public schools. Marissa is developmentally behind her same age peers and the school constantly pressed to keep or move her to the “least restrictive environment.” This meant that despite her learning difficulties, my daughter was expected to function in a classroom with 30 other students, eat lunch with 150 of her closest friends, change environments every 45 minutes, transition from the chaos of the hallway to a silent sit-and-learn mode in seconds and be under the authority of over 9 adults throughout the day. Each authority figure had different rules and expectations for her. She was required to take state mandated tests without the accommodations that were written into her IEP. The school sent home hours of work every night. This work included not only her homework, but also the class work that she didn’t finish during the day.
I did not feel that the school honored me in my role as parent. I was seen as a necessary signature at IEP meetings, but I was not treated as if I were an expert in how to manage and care for my child or even as a member of the team of people planning her education. The Vice Principal called me one day and told me that they were at a loss as to what else they could do with my child. Funny. I had paid $1600 to have Marissa evaluated by a specialist in neuropsychology. In his conclusion, he made 7 specific interventions that the school could use to accommodate my daughter. They had not implement even one.
Instead, the school used a myriad of positive and negative incentives to encourage my daughter to “make better choices.” The school’s environment was overwhelming for my child in a social and sensory way. She made “poor choices” and “would not” filter out the noise of the environment. She was unfocused, irritated and sometimes behaved poorly. She “sabotaged” her friendships by “choosing” to act immaturely. She “chose” not organize her locker, her assignments, etc. and always had missed assignments. She simply “would not” function independently at the level of her same aged peers. I thought the school should change her environment and, in fact, I saw their failure to provide access to an appropriate educational environment negligent in a way similar to an environment that fails to provide ramps for a person confined to a wheelchair.
When I agree to allow someone else educate my child and shape who she will become, I have to trust that person represents my husband and I well. I no longer felt the public school did this. Instead of teaching my child, they were warehousing her. Instead of preparing her for life as an adult, they were filling her life with materials designed to fulfill the state mandated scope and sequence. There was no attempt at individualizing her education to meet her needs or develop her strengths and interests. Her IEP was completely focused on her weaknesses.
The straw that “broke the camels back” though was that I no longer felt that the school could keep Marissa safe. She disappeared from school one day and went missing for several hours. This despite the fact that she was to have a full-time paraprofessional whose sole responsibility was to monitor my daughter and help her navigate her day. I was not told. I found out when my daughter didn’t come home one day. I called the school and learned she had been kept at school to serve a detention for truancy.
Our worst day at home is better than the best day in Public School.
Here’s the link to Why I Homeschool”
My best advice: BUY CLAY AND SALLY CLARKSON’S “EDUCATING THE WHOLEHEARTED CHILD” and read it from cover to cover if you are interested in homeschooling. Go see her speak. Go to a homeschool book fair and listen to the speakers!!! You will be so inspired that you’ll be gung-ho in no time!
God bless.
If there was only one reason, I don’t know that we would have homeschooled. However, when everything was pretty much screaming that we needed to do it, we did it.
Jamie, if you need the gory details of our homeschool life, look under the “Homeschooling” category on my blog. Sorry I couldn’t think of a more exciting category title. It was the best I could come up with at the time.
I knew my panel of experts would have lots of great things to contribute! Thank you, everyone.
Jamie, I hope it is of some use to you!
We started homeschooling when our oldest son (then age 4) came down with encephalitis which resulted in a seizure disorder. He was on so much medication he could hardly sit down without falling asleep. I had visions of him sleeping throughout the school day and knew that wasn’t what we wanted.
My older two boys (including the one with the seizure disorder) were homeschooled all the way through graduation. The oldest works full time and the second one is a Jr. working on a double major in Computer and Electrical Engineering.
We did put our third son in Government school in the middle of his ninth grade year. It was a gut-wrenching decision. His great love for baseball was our reason. We live in the boondocks and that was his only opportunity to play. However, we have continued to school part time at home and only enrolled him in the minimum hours he needed in order to be legal to play ball. He graduates this year.
Our youngest, a girl (finally!) is in fifth grade and we have no plans to send her to any other school but ours. (No baseball for her besides city ball.)
We have loved homeschooling. Have we pulled our hair out? Yes! Have we fretted that we weren’t doing the best job possible? Double Yes! Have we regretted our decision? Never!
I’ve written so much I’ve forgotten the other questions you asked. I’ll catch you next time on those.
Since I didn’t begin homeschooling until later, I’ll leave the curriculum/approaches to other posters. I didn’t start HSing until my eldest reached 6th grade in the public school were DH was employed as a teacher. I heard about homeschooling for the first time and was astounded that such a thing existed. I was often jealous towards those “starting from go” while doing research. I would have loved to begin when the kids were very young and would have a very difficult time placing them into PS now that they are in their teens. It’s lost on me as to why families opt to place their children back into the system.
We started homeschooling when we moved (courtesy of the Navy) and the private schools we could afford were already full. I visited our neighborhood public school which everyone said was one of the good ones, but I went home sick to my stomach knowing I couldn’t do that to my children. Up until that point I’d been one of those folks who always said of homeschooling, “I could never do that!”
We continue to homeschool for different reasons, though. Primarily, it’s a good fit for our family. It allows us to spend more time together, and my children are getting an education (classical & Christian) that is not available elsewhere on the island.
Right now I’ve got an 8th grader and a 10th grader, and Lord willing, we’ll homeschool all the way through high school.
It is surprising to me just how many people homeschooling initially thought, “No way!” But then were confronted either by homeschoolers who didn’t fit their stereotype, or a problem in the school district.
I never thought I’d be homeschooling, but I guess I learned y’all weren’t as nutty as I first thought. : )
I’ve been thinking about it all today. I missed your November post about “home schooling for more than just religious reasons” so I’m glad it came up again.
Before the birth of my first daughter, I didn’t think much about education. My own education had been only what I had experienced and from that, I knew generally something was amiss but I wasn’t really clear as to what all “being educated” or what “having a good academic education” meant. At the same time in my life, I was going through a struggle in my spiritual life and faith, and I also didn’t fully understand what it meant to have a true, Christian education, or what exactly it meant to bring up children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Once my first daughter was born, all of this became a real interest and concern and God used it to make changes in my mind-heart. At that time, my husband was not opposed to government schools. He did well academically so he had very few issues with them. I didn’t want the government schools but couldn’t explain why. So we reached an agreement and decided on a small, private, church school for kindergarten. At the end of end of the school year, the administration announced that the school was closing. After thinking we had figured out what we were doing for her education, my husband and I found ourselves back at square one, needing to re-think and make another decision. We did agree to homeschooling for a year to see how it would go and thus began my “re-education” and the “official” home education of our two daughters.
Looking back, I have to admit now, it was more of an emotional, gut reaction for me rather than a well thought out, specifically defined decision. From a mother’s perspective, I just simply loved my girls and enjoyed being with them so much that I hated the idea of being apart so much. Through 14 years of home schooling and conversations with my husband, we’ve understood more of what I was reacting to and have found more specific reasons for our decision to home educate.
The reasons all inter-related and of equal importance so it’s hard to separate them or value one over the other. The ones at the top of the list tend to be fundamental or foundational to the rest. They come down to the basic parenting responsibility, family relationships, individuality, academic, and religious reasons:
1. More time together - to talk to one another, share interests, share thoughts and feelings, imperfections and struggles, activities and just being together and with extended family of grandmothers.
2. Closer relationships - they’re my constant companions other than my husband, mother and sister, and friends at church, the socialization I prefer.
3. Character & spiritual growth and maturity.
4. Their friends are at our house a lot and we get to know their friends well.
5. Freedom to educate my daughter the way I (we) think best, freedom in curriculum.
6. Curriculum content - by law in our state we are to use a curriculum comparable to the government school but we want a Biblical content, so I follow it to a point then teach it the way I want, expand/add to it or delete, go ahead on concepts or slow down, we don’t really go by grade level only for certain situations.
7. High academic standards, they can learn and grasp concepts yet balanced with their own time and speed.
8. Curriculum methods, philosophies - how and for what purpose is important.
8. Being able to know how to learn, find answers, study.
9. Not knowing the teacher personally — giving my child to an individual I did not know was one of my biggest fears!
10. Physical safety.
11. Teacher and school accountability or lack of it.
12. Parental involvement or lack of it, being prevented from being involved.
13. Not wanting my daughters to disappear into the mass, one size fits all, not wanting wrong labeling, being able to develop individual gifts, strengths, interests — to become the unique person they are.
14. Peer pressure, learning to be able to think for themselves.
Educating my daughters is my maternal (parental) desire, pleasure, responsibility and right — it’s parenting — in the way I think best for them as individuals and for our family, free from the government funding and regulations/restrictions. Academic and religious education is one for me, I can’t separate them — two distinct parts of the whole. Similar to a coin — two distinct sides, yet the one coin. I call myself a home educator of the eclectic, unstructured sort, using a combination of Charlotte Mason, classical, and Principle Approach. I’ve never been one to think that everyone should home school because I do or that they home school in the same way I do. It will be different for everyone and I tend to stay away from the individuals/groups that want everyone and everything to be identical. Homeschooling hasn’t been without struggles. There are better days than others. Days where we don’t accomplish as much and days where we do accomplish a lot. Right now we’re behind due to a lot of sickness but we work at it on the weekend and year around. Even with this it has been well worth it and I’m glad to be a home educator. If some one has an interest I would certainly encourage them to try.
Thanks Dana!
ThirstyJon