Thanks Hvy! God Bless you and your family as well.

 

Just wanted to wade in to say we home school our 3 children and wouldn't have it any other way.

Don't let the uninformed scare you with the "socialization" card for Home schooling. Unless you live on an island or the cold north, socialization would be a problem. How many people do you work with that are exactly your age and ability? For us, the kids have their sports programs and other group activities to "socialize" with others. We can finish our core subjects in 3 hours and have the rest of the day to do other things. Oh and NO HOMEWORK! either as we actually get stuff done to their ability and not waste the day with time consuming 9-3 activities.

Good luck. There are many resources out there for you and you won't regret a minute of it when it comes time for post secondary education. Most institutions now are rolling out the red carpet for home schoolers are they are taught to learn, not regurgitate.

 

cbrahs good luck with home schooling , i was home schooled all 10 years yes only 10 i think im doing all right i got go help my grandpa work the farm collect ,run and restore tractors ,scap runs with my dad ,construction with my uncle at 14 he schooled me on how to properly run a transit , service his back hoe and also how deal with the public ,my great gramma : cooking , my mom besides teaching me and my sister how to read ,write and finish our own math , plus how to cook ,clean and also to TAKE RESPONSABILTY FOR OUR ACTIONS my granma took me to my banjo class , mygreat granpa showed me the ways of politics and if i had a choice between that and public school id take being home schooled any day ,cbrahs hats off to you an your ex wife ,happy learning to ya

 

Thank you Dennis, You too lil Dog!

 

We homeschooled our kids at various times due to the public schools not measuring up to our expectations. The older kids grew up fine and both hold productive jobs and lives ...

The younger kids are trying the public school thing again until the point when it doesn't cut the mustard for them any more.

Don't sweat the socializing issue ... there are LOTS of activities for kids to do to meet friends and do things. Cool thing is ... you can control the exposure to the bad stuff. My kids may be somewhat sheltered ... but I think that is WAY better than the alternative. At least they weren't getting beat in the bathroom when they were homeschooled !! That's just crazy ...

Cheers,
PISTOL

 

We have made our decision to homeschool our children. The public school classroom learns at the pace of the slowest students. This is unacceptable to me. You are doing your son a huge service by doing this. Keep him involved in sports/music/theatre/anything extracurricular to keep his social skills sharp and you'll all do great!

Kurt

 

Homeschooling allows you to teach the children at their own pace instead of the pace of the school curriculum. My first boy could read early and very well so, that was something that was easy to work with. The next boy is not as keen to read, but is influenced by his older brother. They are learning together at bed time by reading stories and not even knowing its "schooling". The math programs out there are way better too, MathUsee is one we use and the kids love.

I remember reading a statement here somewhere about being "qualified to teach your children".. Thats absurd. How qualified do you have to be to teach grade 1 math? I know, I've done it. And we are not spending 2/3 of our day trying to "evaluate" how the child fits the school. When really it should be how the school fits the child. I told my wife...When the principals of the schools stop needing MBA's to run the school as a business and focus back on the educating the children, only then will I consider the school system again. My sister-in-law is a principal at a Catholic school and by that, I don't see our kids ever going back..

 

What's really sad and angering, is that while home schooling is a better alternative to public education, (in my opinion at least), if you home school your children you still have to pay for the public school system in the form of taxes. So here YOU are, doing the job that someone else already gets paid to do, and you STILL have to pay their salary even tho you're not using their services.

chaikwa.

 

It sort of averages out. There are plenty of people with lots of kids, that pay little to the system, due to the value of the property that they live on, that do not pay more just because they have more kids. Also you should feel good that all the gays out there that can not actually have kids have to pay into the system also.

The public school system is not evil and not all teachers are left wing liberals.

Lets think about the alternative to public schools.

Get rid of them all at every level. From that starting point everyone is responsible for instruction their own kids and you get to keep your property taxes that went to pay for the schools. This money that you now have will not cover the cost to teach your kids, so you will spend more, no big deal and not really a reason to avoid home schooling but it can and will impact some. What will happen is many will immediately realize they can not earn a living and teach their kids. So they pool with their neighbors or friends and have someone else teach them. This cost plus the cost of the learning material begins to separate those that can afford a good instructor and those that can't and after a few generations of this you will end up with a very large gap in the basic knowledge level of the population. This then will result in locking out the really intelligent kids from lower economic segments from getting exposure to an education and exposure to those that would see how smart he/she is and open opportunities to to them.

I dislike taxes but of all the taxes we pay, the taxes paid to support the schools is not one that upsets me too much.

 

We have that now. I know there are really intelligent kids that come from really low income families, but how often do we see it? Not often.

I've always been a believer in the theory that people should take responsibility for their own actions, and in this case home schooling your own kids as opposed to making everyone else pay for your kids' education is the responsibility. "But there will always be kids who don't get an education because their families couldn't afford it", you may say. Well then, I would propose that people in that situation not have kids in the first place, or at least not until they could properly afford them. Heck, we don't have a 'public college' school system and I don't see a lot of people trying to create one. Why not? You can't go far in today's world without at least an BS, and there might be that brilliant kid out there that isn't quite smart enough for a scholarship, doesn't have enough money for college, but will go no where in life if he doesn't acquire a secondary education because he's not the 'tradesman' type of person. So now what? We make him work harder by having a job or two to put himself thru college. Personal responsibility.

The Amish make the whole 'home-schooling/private schooling' system work just fine BTW.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I think that home schooled kids DO get a better education than those that participate in a public system, and end up with a better understanding of values and responsibility.

chaikwa.

 

If I did not know you, then I would be offended by your post.

I can understand your position but mostly disagree.

The Amish make it work because they have a network of parents that teach at their local "school" which is isolated to their own kind, following their own rules without outside influence.

Most parents need to work full time to support the needs of the family, thus conflicting with a proper home schooling environment and schedule. So with that being said should my wife and I not had children? What I did to combat placing my kids in a poor school system was to move to a different community with an excellent school system. I know this is not always an option, however it was the best one for us. As far as tax are concerned, well lets just say that it does not matter. We have to pay them regardless.

 

I'm sorry. It was not my intention to offend anyone.

And that's different from any other 'private' school... how? If parents were able to volunteer to teach or do other school related activities for an agreed upon amount of time per week, wouldn't this work out for all involved?

But if there were drastically reduced taxes, wouldn't this off-set the need for both parents to work full time? In most communities, 80% of the tax dollar, (or somewhere there-abouts), goes to the school system.

I don't know. If you couldn't have afforded to support them, then no, you shouldn't have. Obviously you DID have the means to properly support them and found a suitable solution to their proper education and one you were happy with. Again, that's the 'personal responsibility' thing. I'd say you had/have it!

And that's fine. Again, you had the proper means to do so, but a lot of people are apparently unable to think ahead BEFORE they have kids and are 'forced' to place their kids in a rotten school system. What's so unfair or bad about saying, "Gee, we'd love to have kids, but we're just going to have to wait until we can afford to move to a town or city with a school system that will best prepare our children for a productive life." In my OPINION, that would be the responsible thing to do instead of just going ahead and producing a family with no aforethought as to how the children might best be educated. Or by who.

Well, I think you're right to a point. We pay taxes because 'we've always done it that way'. If enough people got fed up with the whole system and demanded change by not paying their taxes, or a portion there-of, someone would HAVE to stand up and take notice. I'm not talking a handful of people, but large groups, whole towns perhaps. I know it would work because an attorney back in my home town did this when the town refused to make the town road he lived on, passable. He figured out what portion of his tax bill went for road maintenance, what the portion of tax HIS road was worth, then got all the people on the street to with-hold that amount. The town took notice real quick and the road got fixed. The same principle could be applied to almost any situation, schools included.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to start an argument, but I'm a firm believer in paying for what you use and NOT paying for what you don't use.

chaikwa.

 

Chris! I invite you to check out Christian Liberty Academy. We have used this off and on for out three kids for years.

Andy, I know where you're coming from, but like you don't like absolutes, public school is not for everyone and on a percentage of pupils basis I would suggest that public schools fail far more often than homeschooling.

I think I have a pretty good background and understanding of the whole thing. My wife and I both went to a mix of public and private schools around Sacramento. We both finished in public school so we could screw off and have fun and still graduate.

Our three kids have had a mix of homeschool, charter school and public school. All three would fail in public school. They have all had different opportunities to experience the differences. With each one (and understand that our two oldest at 23 and 22 have a much different exposure than the youngest at 14) they were exposed to indoctrination (really stupid things like you cannot even say Christmas in class but we are going to teach you all about kwanzaa and hanukkah-- forbidden to say "God"-- but "Chairman Mao was a really forward thinker"-- no I am not kidding) all kinds of reprehensible behavior (our youngest was being pressured, at age 11!, to "make out" with boys and let them "feel her" by other girls; when brought to the attention of the principal and teacher, their best answer is "what is wrong with that" and "boys will be boys" and "they are just exploring their own sexuality"... this from women no less!) So that whole "socialization" angle is not only just a common cop out from those against homeschooling... it's garbage. My son is the most social kid out there. What I will say is if we left them in public school to "learn how to deal" with "situations" then my son would be in jail and a junkie and who knows about the girls. Peer pressure is too great for many to handle the right way and it is our job as parents to raise our kids in a safe environment. Sheltered? No, but we don't drop the kids off in skid row so they can "learn how to handle it" either. No Andy, not all public schools are evil and not all teachers are left wing... but having a few public school teachers as friends and having them tell me that most are, I believe them.

Chris, I think that you will find that homeschooling your kids is a difficult thing to keep up with. I also think you will find that it will maybe be the most rewarding thing you do as well. You will form a closer bond; you will be able to give a much better education. Time will be spent on EDUCATION and not learning the latest Obama song, the video about "stuff" or how to do the latest fundraiser. My wife and I found that the money spent on materials from Christian Liberty for books and what not was almost evenly set off by the amount of money the public schools were always asking for, for different "this' and that's". We even had to pay $200 a year for the bus!

I wish you the very best in this endeavor and honestly think you can look back objectively over time and say it was the best thing you did for your kids. I know it was for us and our older two admit to this day that homeschooling was the best thing we ever did for them and they are grateful.

 

Thank you Soul! I appreciate the advice and will look into the site.


Andy- Does anything that comes out of your mouth at all positive? You must be a grumpy EDIT

 

I know I am taking this a little out of context from your original meaning, however, I find myself offended by the very notion.

I was raised in the worst part of town, by a poor single mom, and by virtue was a "latch-key" kid. The school I went to was bad to say the least. The savior for me was a mother who made me read, sat with me when she could and when she couldn't gave me every book she could, or at least the library card. Now I am an exception, yes, but most of my education through grade school was from what I read... on my own. That is not to say I learned nothing in school, of course I did, or to put down the teachers. It was what it was. Intelligent people will make their way and create their own opportunities regardless of the circumstance. I feel by and large that public school, as it exists today, HINDERS educational growth in certainty every bit as much as it promotes it.

I also have to disagree on your premise of cost. It costs us about $400 a year in materials, books and etc. How much do you suppose my property taxes are that go to support public schools?