Homeschooling

[jblack]

What are your thoughts of home schooling? It seems more and more people are doing it. Is it better? Do the kids get socialized while home schooling? How much time do you have to devote to it?

 

[Victor]

We seriously considered it but ultimately decided in favor of public school. If our kids don't do well there, we will re-evaluate and perhaps bring them home. Homeschooling can be wonderful (we're just a bit lazy). As for socialization, there are homeschool co-ops, league sports, and dance and music classes where kids can make friends.

 

[JRDeep]

I'm for it, as long as I'm not the one teaching my kids. I'm not good with teaching anyone. I'm patient enough, but don't feel articulate enough to do it well.

 

[Victor Leigh]

Too late to think about it now. All the kids have already flown the nest, so to speak.

However if ever I were to start up a new batch of kids, home schooling will be at the top of the list of things to do. Worse come to the worst, might as well teach my kids the wrong things myself rather than have the schools do it. At least I would know what I am teaching my kids.

 

[Lorenzo]

I think homeschooling is a better alternative if you or your spouse is a full-time parent and you only have a couple of kids to teach. Based on a friend's experience (who homeschooled her kids at some point), homeschooling takes much more time and effort on your part because you need to be tackling different subjects, including sports or music lessons. Like a "regular" school, you have to follow a schedule for a specific subject or activity. Add to that the daily household chores like cooking, cleaning, washing, among others. I guess homeschooling might be applicable to some but not to everyone.

 

[Timothy]

I think homeschooling is right for some families, but not for all. In order to home school your child, you have to be extremely organized and focused. It's not easy being a teacher on top of being a parent, a cook and a maid, and for some parents I think it would be too overwhelming. However, some parents have what it takes and for those, I would definitely recommend it, because I really think your child can learn SO much more through homeschooling than public school.

 

[Bear]

I am nearly certain that we will end up homeschooling our two kids. The schools here are just too crowded and the kids don't learn what they should. If you can I think it is best for the kids, but I know many families have two parents that work and I am sure that it would be difficult for them to pull off.

 

[Jonathan]

Well, homeschooling can be a good alternative to sending your kids to regular school, I wouldn't deny that. The problems are that it usually costs more, and you have to think of special programs for building their social and emotional aspects.

 

[Don]

I'm sure it is a good plan for some children. Most of the children I have met who were home schooled, however, seem to have trouble interacting with others when they do get out in the real world.

 

[Babar]

I think home schooling would only be necessary if it's been proven that the nearby schools weren't doing a very good job of educating the children. Kids need the socialization and real-world experience that public school provides.

 

[Bear]

You can provide all of the socialization a child needs without them ever having set foot in a public school. Right now our public schools are in the state news for changing grades, cheating on standardized tests, and sexual harrassment of school teachers by the Superintendent of the schools. Pretty sure that sealed the deal on homeschooling for us.

 

[Timothy]

I agree with Bear; I don't think it's necessary for a child to be enrolled in school to receive the socialization he/she needs. They can socialize in church, in organized play groups, with other family members their age, etc., etc. In fact, there are actually homeschool play groups out there, to address this very issue.

Homeschooling might not be necessary everywhere, but here in the state we live in, our standardized test scores are almost the lowest in the United States. (In fact, they might be the lowest.) So for us, I don't think it's in our children's best interests to send them to public school anymore. The bottom line for us is, our public schools can no longer prepare our children for college.

 

[Victor]

I think home schooling would only be necessary if it's been proven that the nearby schools weren't doing a very good job of educating the children. Kids need the socialization and real-world experience that public school provides.

I disagree. Plenty of homeschoolers choose to homeschool even in excellent districts because they still feel that they can provide a superior education for their children, and the children can socialize elsewhere as previously noted. As for real-world experience, school is actually a rather artificial construct and the kids will get plenty of real-world experience in the real world as they won't be in a school all day long.

 

[Geonarlie]

As many said before I think home schooling is only necessary if the kids aren't doing good in a public school. I was never home schooled but I had some friends who were home schooled and they were very anti social. Home schooling can be a very good thing though.