Who Homeschools?

[Ladan Lashkari]

[webturtle]

I don't have kids and I simply can't imagine trying to run this enterprise AND schooling children (never mind remembering to feed them! LOL). My dear sister though, homeschools two boys, with toddler girl who will probably also be homeschooled.

They live in a small city, and knew they weren't putting the kids in the public school. The oldest boy is some kind of genius - he's got his own 'issues' around the fact that he's SO far advanced and the way his brain works. His little brother is a healthy, normal little boy. So she sent the oldest to the Christian school in town. And almost immediately, he started unravelling. It seemed that a lot of the kids who were in this class were really badly disciplined and misbehaving and the parents sent them there hoping that christian school would straighten them out. My nephew was like "oh, COOL! I want to be like them." So everything my sister taught him in the first 5 years of life was coming undone. And he wasn't learning, he was unhappy, begging not to go each day.

She is a licensed teacher, with a special education degree. She figured if she could have worked with severely handicapped kids, she could handle homeschooling. When the second boy was ready, he started lessons at home too. There is such an enormous community of homeschoolers in her area that those are probaby the best socialized kids in the world - they're in all kinds of activities, sports, theater, field trips with other kids, etc. And best of all, they're blossoming in absolutely amazing ways.

Case in point: Last year, at the age of 7, her oldest went into a whirl of activity one day and told her he'd let them in on it when he was done. At the end of the day, he hung signs around the house that said "Wires four sale" with arrows pointing to his bed. At the foot of the bed, he'd created a store. Basically, he'd gotten his hands on an old computer. Stripped all the wires and straightened them, cut into equal lengths and sorted by color. Then he packaged reds, blues and blacks together in plastic wrap and put them in jars. He took empty boxes and labeled one "Returns" (he was very proud that this stayed empty) and the other Cash "Register." His coins were neatly stacked in the box. Then, to their total disbelief, he handed them a piece of paper folded in half that said "Wire cadlog" - inside, he drew pictures of his 3 products and their prices.

But it gets better. He also had a small device there with a switch and a tiny fan, and a battery so he could demonstrate to people how the wires could potentially be used.

My sister and her husband (educators and scientists, not entrepreneurs) were FLOORED. He was very serious about his business too - and neither of them could figure out how he came up with this at 7! I mean, they didn't teach him about business or commerce or anything - he had apparently absorbed all this info his self. But, they called me and told me about it. I drove down there to see his shop for myself (I told him I needed to buy some wire) and the little bugger sold me MORE than I had meant to buy by convincing me that I could them in crafts too.

My sister kept saying "are you sure you didn't talk to him about having a store???" and I said "Nope - but just let me get my hands on him!"

Good grief! I don't think she intends to ever put them back in school, the way they are thriving. And I can't wait to see what he is cooking up by 10!

[Ladan Lashkari]

Wow! What a 7-year-old kid! He sure is very talented and intelligent. Maybe he's going to be the next Thomas Edison some day soon!

From reading people's posts in this thread, I'm getting very interested in homeschooling. When I used to go to school, I always wished I could study my lessons at home. We don't have homeschooling in Iran yet but I really hope to have it soon!

[webturtle]

It's very interesting, home schooling - and certainly a challenge. My sister started out with the kids at the dining room table, then moved school into a small spare bedroom. This year, they've renovated the whole second living room upstairs in thier 2 family house (turning it into a one family now) into an amazing classroom. My sister is really quite something in intelligence and talent, and her education background helps, as does the FULL support of her husband and both sides of the family. The kids other grandfather is a public school superintendant and even he is all for it. My mother is a music teacher (retired) and goes down to give piano lessons. My brother appears with insane electronics kits and science projects. I go down there periodically to do stuff with the kids in regards to art and computers since neither are her forte and since I love to teach, that is a blast!

So, having support, time and an eclectic family of teachers that all wants to chip in, along with a community of homeschoolers seems to be a key to her success. I would have to say that I would have probably done bodily harm to myself if my own mother ever tried to school me We just didn't have that kind of relationship. And yet, I would have thrived in the home school environment, in theory and with a relationship like my nephews have with their teacher. So, its NOT for every child or every parent ...and there is a lot to consider. And here I am blabbing about it as a third party. LOL

[terri seymour]

Hello Karen,

We are in our second year of homeschooling and I just love it! We have classes in the morning and my son does his homework in the afternoon. However, due to time constraints we will be enrolling him in a virtual school for next year!

It is getting harder and harder to juggle business and school! And, I definitely do not want his education to be hurried.

[carrie]

I'm just starting to home school my preschoolers this year. I started working online when my daughter was a few months old and now she's almost FIVE!

The reason I started my first website was so that I could stay home with my daughter and now I'm planning to home school her this fall! I'm very excited.

I'm not sure how well I'll do juggling work, home and school this fall, but I'm going to make the best of it...learning a lot of the tips I've learned from Lynn and other WAHM's. Oh, and FlyLady.net offers a bunch of tips, too.

I started a to help record my journey...hopefully I'll have time to keep it updated throughout the year.

Thankfully, I have a great homeschooler support group at my church...lots of homeschooling families to "network" with. I encourage everyone who homeschools to get hooked up with some sort of local support group if possible...the interaction is amazing compared to just reading informative stuff online.

[alexc]

This may be my older sons last year in public school unless we see marked changes in his education. Last year, in third grade, he was unchallenged by the curriculum, and his teacher didn't seem interested in trying to push him harder, because quite frankly, she didn't have the time to guide one student in her class of 25.

Our neighbors son was in the same class, and informed us that this wasn't normal for the school and that they had always been responsive to the individual childs needs.

We are going to see how everything goes for the 4th grade, and if the same situations arise, then I think we'll start home schooling. Since my wife is a stay at home mom, this shouldn't be too difficult to integrate into our schedule, but we'll see.

This topic is full of good info.

[auntiej]

Just wanted to say homeschooloing can be rewarding but very difficult. I home schooled my oldest son but my 5 year old is doing the public school thing. I thought I would give the public school a shot. Hope it is not a mistake.

[SeiWhange]

Nice post.I've been wanting to homeschool really badly. (oohh, that was bad grammar - ignore me, I'm living off of Nyquil right now) I asked one of my son's the other day if he thought he'd like to be homeschooled.

[valg]

I'm not currently homeschooling because my son has graduated, but I homeschooled him from 8th grade through graduation. I also worked a full time job at the time. Not an ideal situation, but it actually worked out very well, even tho it was difficult for me.

[eskimo13]

We are homeschoolers too. We have two boys ages 6 and 9 and they have been homeschooled from the start.

We recently moved to a home in the country and have converted what would have normally been a dining room into the school/computer room. My wife is a dog groomer by trade and works out of the house where we've installed the necessary equipment, and I work at home also.

We have had some of the same trepidations and concerns about the public school system as have been mentioned here earlier. We take our parental rights and duties very seriously and feel it's in our children's best interest to guide their education according to their individual strengths and weaknesses and personalities.

As was also mentioned here earlier there are many ways to structure a homeschooling situation, regarding everything from curriculum to socialization to scheduling. We've chosen to participate in a 'satellite school' structure where a state-accredited satellite school keeps records of attendance and testing etc. as an intermediary between the parents and the state. This 'school' also coordinates sports activities, teams, tournaments etc. and also schedules social functions and field trips.

We love being able to dictate what's appropriate for our children to learn, based on their individual readiness and ages. What we see in much of the public school system puts the parents out of the picture when a school system decides that the politically correct thing to do is to force ALL the children in a class, or school, or district to be taught material which some discriminating parents may find objectionable and not appropriate for their child. Many times in the news we see examples where the parents' rights are what's called into question. No thanks.

My nine year old is reading two years ahead of his grade, is fascinated by science and loves to learn. My six year old is a year and a half ahead of his grade in math, loves to know how things work, and wants to be a Superhero (I have to constantly remind myself that he is only six, after all!)

My boys will grow up to be thoughtful, caring, respectful capitalists, if they don't kill each other first. lol. On the other hand, either one of their last words on this earth might be "Hey y'all, watch this!".

Quinn

[drmommy]

We are home schoolers too!!

We've been homeschooling for over 10 years

I have 5 children and only one has attended school, she attended K-5 and 1st grade before I made the decision to school them at home.

It was not an easy decision, since I had to put my career on hold, but it was definitely the best decision we ever made.

I now have one that is a senior and graduating in May '09, my son who is 14 and a Junior, dd in 7th, dd in 4th and one in k-5.

It always amazes me the projects that they come up with all on their own. My 12yo dd is actually my new Media Girl. She has taught herself how to edit videos, add music, add text and more. That amazes me because I'm not that techy...

I will be homeschooling for quite some time considering my youngest is 5, but wouldn't change it for anything in the world

[dagmar]

Hi guys,

I homeschooled my son in middle school. We both enjoyed it the first year but the last two he started to feel lonely. At the same time the public school he was supposed to attend wasn't the best one around, so we continued on.

After the 3 years at home, he was ready to go back to a public school and now he enjoys high school. He knows a lot of people and is doing well.

Dagmar