Homeschool fun!

[Ratty]

I was reading up on how to make lard here:

http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1141.html

because I simply do not have room for a 250 lb hog in my studio apartment anymore! But that's the beside the point. So anyway I was seeing what other fun resources they had for homeschoolers and especially liked the unit on American Presidents:

http://www.easyfunschool.com/IndexPresidentUnits.html

Just for fun I thought I'd compare Bill Clinton (Clinton ended his second term as President under a cloud of scandal.) with, oh, just about any of the others (Richard Nixon: Despite his errors in judgement in regard to Watergate, Nixon can still be considered a good president in many ways)

But what I liked especially were the links at the bottom for more resources on American Presidents:

President Bill Clinton - The Dark Side
The "Unofficial" Bill Clinton

That's right, start 'em off young, make them into unbiased critical thinkers.

[Shoeempress]

1. You know if someone is homeschooling their kids, it's because

they don't want their children exposed to any thought which is not the parent's.

[Maddy McCall]

3. Bullshit.

I am homeschooling my son because public school failed him in oh so many ways.

There are numerous homeschoolers here at DU. As a matter of fact, I am in the process of putting together a liberal homeschool collective here in Mississippi. Yes. Mississippi. Why? Because there are many people who homeschool in Mississippi for educational reasons, because schools are failing their kids.

[progmom]

4. totally off-base

ugly stereotypes abound.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[youspeakmylanguage]

11. Against the rules, dude...

You can't tell someone to STFU at DU.

[LeftyMom]

14. Well, they can't insult my family either

and I really have no desire to read yet another uninformed attack on homeschoolers.

Also, I am not a dude.

[youspeakmylanguage]

16. Right, just trying to help you avoid banishment...

Because people helped me when I made that mistake...


...dude.

[Dora]

6. That's not necessarily true.

My mother is a career educator - she taught in the elementary schools for years, and she now teaches in a college of ed at a large university. She says that if she had children of school-age now she would seriously consider home-schooling. This is not because she wants to control children's thinking, but because she believes that our public school classrooms have been sabotaged by testing requirements and that teachers are no longer allowed to do true teaching.

My husband and I are considering home-schooling our son when he's old enough. I like to believe that we would expose him to a variety of opinions, and that we would encourage him to ask questions and learn to think critically.

[Greyhound]

19. I'm with you on this

I have friends that teach elementary JHS age children in SoCal, and the things they tell me make me certain if I ever had kids (0 chance, but if) I wouldn't let them anywhere near a public school in CA, nor any of the other states I've been in and been the unfortunate witness to the results of their systems. (GA, FL, NY, AZ)

[bertha katzenengel]

9. No, I don't know that. It's certainly not why my sister homeschools

my nephew.

Where do you get your ideas?

[xmas74]

10. Not necessarily.

I live in MO and am becoming more disappointed w/ the schools every year. My best friend is a teacher and she has made the same comment.s
We are working on lesson plans together to teach our children what we feel that they need to learn to prepare them for the future. Neither of us have the time to homeschool and we both believe in social interaction (which has been a problem in the past in my area for homeschooled youth). We still send our children to public school but we use the education materials from homeschooling sites and publications to enhance their learning experience.
We've got to do something. After all, look what my neighbors are doing to education (KS).

[Not_Giving_Up]

17. People homeschool for different reasons

As the parent of a child who qualifies for both gifted and Special Ed, I can understand why. A message board for parents of kids with Autism that I once frequented had tons of homeschoolers. The schools spent more time punishing the children for not using the proper thought process, regardless of whether or not the answer was right. My son can do complex math in his head, but refuses to show his work. Teachers would count off. He can tell them how he got to the answer, but he has difficulty writing it down. I would homeschool if I could.

[youspeakmylanguage]

2. I doubt any parent that homeschools their kids with this crap...

...has offspring who stand much of a chance in a real school anyway.

[LeftyMom]

7. It cam be safely assumed that most sites about "Christian Homeschooling"

are for right wingnuts. The sites oriented toward moderate to liberal christians and everybody else just refer to homeschooling or the specific method used. If you want homeschooling sites from a liberal perspective, most sites relating to unschooling, waldorf-inspired homeschooling and attatchment parenting sites with a homeschooling section tend to be liberal. Also most states have two homeschooling orgs, a specificly christian one (which tends to be heavy on the wingnuts) and a inclusive one, which is usually politically diverse.

[stanwyck]

8. My co-workers have regrets

about home-schooling their kids, two different families. The problem is, the kids are now college age. And woefully unprepared. They don't meet the requirements for the state schools, which is a shame since we have the HOPE scholarship here in Georgia. The parents didn't prepare them adequately. In one family, no foreign language. In another, the math and science aren't adequate for either the academic requirements or to achieve decent SAT/ACT scores.
So. Their options are limited to the private colleges which cater to homeschoolers. More expensive. And not offering the curriculum the kids are seeking.
I know there are conscientious parents who have made the decision to homeschool their kids. But this is a very critical decision. It's your child's future. It requires much homework on the parent's part. And it just seems a little selfish of the parents to limit their child's future because of the parent's own ideology.
If your child hopes to become a doctor, will he/she have the background and test scores to get into a college which will allow him/her to eventually attend medical school? Or did the parent's decision close that path for the child?
It seems to be too much like "ownership" on the parent's part and putting the parent's beliefs ahead of the child's hopes and goals. I believe more in parents as guardians who will help the child on their path. Not micro-managers who decide, in advance, what those decisions should be.

[Dora]

12. That's too bad.

Home schooling does not necessarily mean the death of a child's intellectual development.

Many children homeschool and get accepted by colleges and universities with rigorous curricula. As well, many homeschoolers are getting great SAT scores, and are also scoring in the top 20% in other standardized tests. (I just read an article on homeschooling in Mothering Magazine).

It is too bad that your coworkers weren't able to give their children the kind of foundation necessary for college entry. I hope they consider trying a community college, and then trying for university admission later.

One of the students in my graduate program had been homeschooled. From home school to undergraduate to graduate school, and on a full tuition plus stipend fellowship, to boot.

[LeftyMom]

13. It's certainly possible to prepare HS'd kids for a university education

That these parents did not do so suggests that they probably woudn't have advocated for thier kids to the degree needed to get a decent public school education, either. And the kids should still be abe to do two years of general ed and transfer to the school of thier choice, which many public schooled kids do anyhow.

It's not difficult at all to meet math and science requirements when the kid has the aptitude to do so, one of the easiest ways is to put the kid in community college courses. They get a taste of college, a few credits and thier higher math and lab science needs are taken care of. It looks pretty good on a college app too, provided they get decent grades. (The only potential downside is that too many credits can effect scholarship eligiblity, so it's wise to keep an eye on the scholarships one wants and thier requirements.) Around here it's a popular option for those who aren't comfortable teaching upper level math and science to thier kids.

[stanwyck]

18. good advice

and I'm sure there are plenty of homeschooling parents who do the groundwork to ensure their child doesn't experience too many roadblocks, since our society is not presently setup well for home-schooled children. One of the parents I work with who has remorse now over his decision admits it was a kneejerk decision he and his wife had to his child being extemely unhappy due to personal problems. And you can understand a parent's anguish over having a child who is suffering. They thought that homeschooling would help. But they both work full-time and didn't have the time or inclination to prepare adequately.

[LeftyMom]

21. It's really difficult to HS with both parents working

We manage, but LeftyKid is young, and I work from home. At some point I'll probably need to stop working, or get a less time consuming job. Certainly if we have another kid it will come to that point.

State homeschooling organizations can be invuluble in helping parents to understand college enterance requirements, obtaining work permits, and repllicating many other non-academic functions schools serve.

[roguevalley]

23. As a teacher, I've seen this a lot. There are good kids who do

get a good education but in my experience, they are few and far between. I am sooooooOOOOooooOOOooooOOooooOOOoo tired of people thinking teaching is no big deal, even they can do it. It IS a big deal and NO, NOT EVERYONE can just do it. Who pays? The kids and society. There are two families that hae screwed themselves to death over their 'principles' and I am SURE had little good to say about the public school system. I probably will have sympathy for them eventually but not today.

[stanwyck]

27. You bring up a point I often ask

when people start musing about "maybe I should homeschool...." Would you do your own electrical work? Plumbing? General contracting? Surgery? Maybe they would. And maybe the results will be professional. Or...they'll burn the house down or die from infection. Teachers are professionals. Sure, we've all had a few who weren't the best. But the truly excellent ones more than make up for the duds. They can change a child's life. And children need adults outside of their parents. Really.
I've seen this with my own two...and my husband and I are dedicated parents.
Really, I just don't understand the egos of people who think they know better than anyone else. And are willing to sacrifice their kids for their own gratification.
(and often these parents barely have a minimum education themselves.)
I feel for these kids. Their options are limited before they even had a chance.

[Ratty]

24. On the bright side

I bet they can make a killer batch of lard!

[stanwyck]

28. LOL! n/t

[WCGreen]

15. I would Home School My kids today

if I had any just to keep them out of the way of the testing crap....

What ever happened to the liberal education model......

Why does everything have to be quantifiable in this damn society of ours....

It's proven that people learn in different ways. So if you are gifted at making leaps of faith while searching for an answer, you probably couldn't pass the fucking tests.....

[roguevalley]

25. the liberal model got killed by No child. Its killing the schools. Its

why so many of us with decades in are out today.

[WCGreen]

26. It's one of the things that drove

Mrs. WCGreen out the door.....

[Greyhound]

20. Could we be confusing education with indoctrination? n/t

[roguevalley]

22. here is a major catalog for supplying home schoolers with

textbooks. read the thing here and there. It will scare you: (I got this when I homeschooled my niece in eigth grade as a favor for my sister-in-law. Every kid our school district pays for homeschooled uses this piece of shit)

http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1119089...

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