Homeschooling our children

[LazyLion]

The ones who could read, that is...

As opposed to the one who can read today?

 

[Nicodeamus]

I disagree, there are some EXCELLENT curriculums out there... both religious and secular.

Check this out.... This is the Classical Curriculum Guide for High School Students... This is what my 13 year old son has just started.
This is just the core of the curriculum, there are lots of other things added by each different group.
http://www.gbt.org/guide.html

I don't really understand the hierarchy of the site to be honest. I'm guessing that he has to do Chemistry in 1 year then biology in the other and then eventually physics while at the same time phasing in maths?

As I said earlier, I never saw that my friends, who did home schooling, had any advantage over me and I didn't have any advantage over them when we started University together. I can say the exact same about the IEB students who came from private schools. Here and there they did something that we didn't and we might have did something that they didn't.

 

[HavocXphere]

I disagree, there are some EXCELLENT curriculums out there... both religious and secular.

Check this out.... This is the Classical Curriculum Guide for High School Students... This is what my 13 year old son has just started.
This is just the core of the curriculum, there are lots of other things added by each different group.
http://www.gbt.org/guide.html

13 y.o. reading Iliad. Pretty intense. If you (more accurately your kid) can pull that list off then respect.

I'd suggest reshuffling the list though. It appears to be vaguely in chronological order instead of by degree of difficulty. Also, the stoic philosophers appear to be missing. I'd give Freud a miss for an 18 y.o. , but that more of an opinion than anything else.

Similar list over here: (not set out as a curriculum though)
http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/greatideas/index_1.html#displayall

But the craziest thing is.... two thousand years ago, that was what the teenagers were reading! :erm:

Why? Planning on raising a military ruler per chance?

 

[zippy]

when you homeschool children you deprive them of the most important part of their education: Learning to deal with other people. You place your kids at a massive disadvantage for the rest of their lives. Parents are so afraid their children will learn the "bad things" from other people. Well, they need to. And the parents need to ensure that understand what is right and wrong. Hiding your kids from the world sets them up for disaster later in life. There are 2 extremes. Over protective parents and parents who dont care. Neither is good.

 

[LazyLion]

when you homeschool children you deprive them of the most important part of their education: Learning to deal with other people. You place your kids at a massive disadvantage for the rest of their lives. Parents are so afraid their children will learn the "bad things" from other people. Well, they need to. And the parents need to ensure that understand what is right and wrong. Hiding your kids from the world sets them up for disaster later in life. There are 2 extremes. Over protective parents and parents who dont care. Neither is good.

This has already been refuted. It's an urban legend.
Read the thread.

 

[BobsLawnService]

This has already been refuted. It's an urban legend.
Read the thread.

There is anecdotal evidence to support both claims.

 

[cerebus]

@Zippy, to a certain extent I agree with you. BUT, and a big BUT, it totally depends on the mother/father how they going to lead the child socially! If the mother is not social it might not be so good, but for instance me, I crave to be with other people, and I find them, I find people, and I get together with them. So my kids really has no problem. They are with their peers daily! Be it in the playgroup, at Clamber Club, or visiting friends in their homes...and as they get older the opportunities will even be there, to be with there peers without me their, like going to Scouts, or sport events, camping etc. Now I have to go with them as they are still very small, and most playgroups etc want the mother there. Also going for playdates, the mother still tags along. Read the rest of the thread Zippy....I have explained it at length!

 

[Claymore]

As opposed to the one who can read today?

I'm guessing the literacy rate back then was under 1%. Mind you, I look at British web forums, and it's not much better than the random scratchings of drunken monkeys.

 

[cerebus]

Man this thread has gone on way more than I expected. I guess people have strong feelings about the subject.

 

[Arthur]

Cerebus, go for it! I have researched this in depth, and (as you already know), by almost any measure, homeschooled kids do better all round than kids brought up in the parentless toxic daycare system that today passes for "education". I haven't read through the whole thread, but I assume you're drawing on decent homeschooling resources, which are plentiful.

There are many sound ideological and pedagogical reasons to avoid 'reg'lar' schools today. The one indispensable is of course a deep and self-sacrificing love for your children.

I know a good number of homeschooling families, and without exception they are exceptional in all the good senses. The one concern most often expressed is 'socialisation', but this is easily addressed by parents who love their kids aright, as you clearly do, and who thus ensure healthy contact with peers and other healthy families. Also, remember that hormone-addled teen brains quickly get sorted out by the mid-20s, and homeschooled kids seem to have better-developed tools for dealing with the real world without collapsing into existential crisis or hedonism.

For the last six months of 2011 my wife tutored a relative's Grade 6 girl to bridge her from homeschooling to regular school. This year she slotted in to Grade 7 without a hitch, and in many respects is way ahead of her peers, and that includes healthy socialisation, as her teachers cannot stop remarking.

To get an idea of how far our state-inspired schooling has collapsed in only the academic realm, try this test for 11-year-olds in England in 1898.

The clincher for homseschooling rightly done is the almost total institutional collapse of sound cultural and academic formation in the virtues that make human life meaningful and worthwhile - our society (and this forum) is littered with with angry, alienated, depressed and aimless people who don't know where or how to begin to find meaning, purpose and direction. This is tragic. It is the consequence of a Culture War, and in any war, the first rule is "get your kids out of the line of fire". If you guys can do it, please do! Not only will you do your kids an immense favour, you will also help to make the world a better place.

 

[Re83L]

the reason it takes so long is that you go at the pace of the average/slowest student, so if you're above average, you get frustrated.

I get what you're saying, but one also need to learn patience.
Public school is the great normalizer, every kid needs it. I had the privilege of studying a very tough course. We had an initial class of 60 students, with three home-schooled bright stars among us.. The home-schooled students did not one make first year.
I think you should look beyond matric results to compare the two, I've never met a successful home-schooled professional in my life.

 

[BeVonk!]

Not only will you do your kids an immense favour, you will also help to make the world a better place.

I disagree with this statement.

Good kids from good homes taken out of public schools are making things worse, not better. Light and salt. My kids may be the only ones making a difference in the lives of kids living through the hell of a dysfunctional home, etc. They keep the boat from tipping over. What will happen if we all take our kids out of public schools? The good kids are the ones helping teachers cope with the stress/pressure. Should we all abandon them so that they leave the profession?

Sorry, I have a serious problem with this mentality (especially from a Christian perspective).

Talking to Christians here: Are we to run away, or are we to engage and love those around us? How do we show love every day in every way if we only stick to those like us and hide our kids away to protect them? This selfishness is not how we were commanded to live. While the world go through hell my fellow Believers are trying to create heaven for themselves on earth. Heaven comes later. For now we have a hellish commission to fulfil until we get there.

 

[Arthur]

Yes, good point, Re83L. Patience is a virtue, and it is important to get along with others and work at a group pace, etc, and this can be learned at school -- but not only at school. You also make a valid point about school being a normaliser ... at least it used to be so in my day many years ago. And there was a time when the homeschooled kids were more often than not those of weird religious sects, and so were in any case a misfit in the broader society.

But that's no longer true today. Schools have changed dramatically. The culture has changed even more ... some would say 'collapsed'. There is a widespread cultural ennui that everyone detects, even in conventional schools.

And in the meantime, the internet has sprung up as a marvellous networking resource for homseschooling parents.

As to the post-matric success, the experience of my kids at top-notch private universities in America is that the homeschooled kids are every bit as up-to-speed as those who went to conventional schools, and generally more advanced in cultural, literary, and linguisitic subjects (Humantities). My daughter is this semester finishing a four-year degree in Education at a private (ie non-state) university in America. She was not homseschooled, but has several peers who were. Her college has the largest Business School in the USA, and she knows several homeschooled in the Sciences and also MBA's who do/did exceptionally well at tertiary level.

 

[Arthur]

I disagree with this statement.

Good kids from good homes taken out of public schools are making things worse, not better. Light and salt. My kids may be the only ones making a difference in the lives of kids living through the hell of a dysfunctional home, etc. They keep the boat from tipping over. What will happen if we all take our kids out of public schools? The good kids are the ones helping teachers cope with the stress/pressure. Should we all abandon them so that they leave the profession?

Sorry, I have a serious problem with this mentality (especially from a Christian perspective).

Talking to Christians here: Are we to run away, or are we to engage and love those around us? How do we show love every day in every way if we only stick to those like us and hide our kids away to protect them? This selfishness is not how we were commanded to live. While the world go through hell my fellow Believers are trying to create heaven for themselves on earth. Heaven comes later. For now we have a hellish commission to fulfil until we get there.

If these people left the world/society never to come back, you might have a point. But the whole purpose is to engage the world directly, to be involved, to change the world. This doesn't happen at school (where you are still being formed) so much as after it.

The only way to get a better world is make better people. Better parents make better kids, which make for a better world. Most homeschooling parents today recognise that a conventional school-based education is inadequate and short-changes their kids. It is their desire to do the best possible for their kids - to form them into better people - that drives the whole movement. Better kids in turn make better parents, better families, which makes a better world ... a virtuous circle.

 

[BeVonk!]

This doesn't happen at school (where you are still being formed) so much as after it.

Again I disagree, sorry

The world is shaped as the kids are shaped. The kids of today are the parents/workers/rulers/etc of tomorrow. Bend the tree while it is young, not so? Who will show the "bad" public school kids a better way? Who should be their age group examples? No use cultivating good adults in home laboratories and then letting these nice adults loose amongst their peers with the hope of changing them as adults.

Kids learn more from their peers than from their teachers.

 

[Claymore]

To get an idea of how far our state-inspired schooling has collapsed in only the academic realm, try this test for 11-year-olds in England in 1898.

LOL. How well do you think those students in 1898 would do on current tests? Computer Science, Technology, etc.

 

[Arthur]

LOL. How well do you think those students in 1898 would do on current tests? Computer Science, Technology, etc.

Given an hour to study entirely new subjects, I think they'd fare quite well, to be honest. People aren't stupider today. Just our education is dumber, on the whole - we expect less of our kids, and demand less. They suffer for it, I think.

 

[Lupus]

Sorry Arthur your comic example is moronic, the difference between the two isn't the child, it's the parents. How would it be different if the child was home schooled with those parents? This debate will go around and around those for it and those against it, personally I've met a few home schooled kids, they don't do well outside of the bubble.

 

[cerebus]

The point of the comic is that parents today blame the educational system for the failure of their children, when the actual responsibility is on them to be strict with the child's learning. I don't think it's placing the blame on the children.

Just on another subject isn't anyone else getting sick of anecdotal stories about homeschooling children they met who were superhuman/borderline autistic as a result of homeschooling?

 

[Lupus]

The point of the comic is that parents today blame the educational system for the failure of their children, when the actual responsibility is on them to be strict with the child's learning. I don't think it's placing the blame on the children.

Just on another subject isn't anyone else getting sick of anecdotal stories about homeschooling children they met who were superhuman/borderline autistic as a result of homeschooling?

Exactly and homeschooling isn't going to change that.

Perhaps there is a reason there are more stories of that then there are of ones that actually succeeded? They are your kids, you've done your research do what you've already decided to do, don't know why you posed the question on a forum in the first place, unless you knew it was going to spark a debate like this.