Unschoolers

[Beekissed]

Lori, I think you would find homeschooling one of the most rewarding things you would ever do! When you teach your own child to read....for the first time~to see that dawn of comprehension come over his face when he finally puts the letters together to form a word that he can read....well...its like giving birth! So joyful and enriching!

When I homeschooled my oldest we used a Christian curriculum that was phonics based and it was pretty fun to teach. He was reading fluently from the Bible at age 4, could say the Pledge of Allegiance, the Pledge to the Christian Flag, recite all the books of the Bible, and could do simple math like addition, subtraction and some multiplication.

My second boy was dyslexic, but I didn't know it at first. He had real trouble with the phonics program, so we kind of floundered a little. He was still reading by age 4 but not so fluently as my oldest. It was so challenging to find a way to help him. When I had to change jobs and put them in public school I felt awful! I missed the closeness and the personal feeling of helping my children learn. As it turned out, I had to continue to help them, as the public schools in our area left much to be desired.

Oh, my dyslexic, slow reader graduated last year with a 3.3 average and will be going into veterinary science. He still reads slowly but he has managed to take college prep classes without his teachers even knowing he is dyslexic!

With your background in education, Lori, you would have a ball teaching your own children!

 

[Homesteadmom]

Check out online too, there are multiple websites that offer free printouts & info on homeschooling as well as forums & support. A great site that you can get all the requirements for your state laws is www.abouthomeschooling.com you can get tons of info from them.

 

[Beekissed]

I had the same concerns about standardized testing because here in PA they require it as well in 3rd, 5th and 8th grade. Then I joined the PA homeschooler's Yahoo group and asked a bunch of questions and they all assured me that even unschooled kids generally far surpass the standardized tests. Not only that but you can get stuff from your local school district that will help you prepare for the tests if you feel that you need some help getting your little ones ready. I am also on the forum at mothering.com which has an area for homeschooling and unschooling and the women there are awesome and very helpful. I think there's also a sticky on there that gives links to websites that cite each state's legal requirements for homeschooling.

Our local homeschoolers always got mad because I let my kids take the standardized testing at the local schools. They claimed that my boy's scores would just make the school's overall scores look good and they would get credit for our scores.

I looked at it a different way.....the local schools were very anti-homeschooling and made no bones about telling us that a "real" teacher was needed to teach these kids properly. I let my boys test at the school to show them just what a "REAL" mom could do... have her kids score in the 98th percentile a consistent basis!!

........and never have to coach them and prepare them for the tests for weeks beforehand, either! :/

 

[PappyW]

Homeschooling is fine if you are qualified to do it. My wife ran a daycare and schooled other peoples kids and did a fine job. When the kids did go to public school she got compliments from their teachers for a fine job. I have also seen people homeschool their kids who were not qualified. These were people who never realised they were not competent. They were book smart but had those off kilter social skills.

 

[PotterWatch]

Homeschooling is fine if you are qualified to do it. My wife ran a daycare and schooled other peoples kids and did a fine job. When the kids did go to public school she got compliments from their teachers for a fine job. I have also seen people homeschool their kids who were not qualified. These were people who never realised they were not competent. They were book smart but had those off kilter social skills.

What is considered "qualified" though?

 

[solarkate]

I HATE public school. I am IN public school. I teach MYSELF more than public school does. I'm not very old, either.

 

[Farmfresh]

We talked about homeschooling when the kids were young but ended up putting them in Christian school. It was a real blessing for them for their elementary school days. They really thrived in the small class rooms and ABECA curriculum. I feel it got them off to a solid start and I think that since two of the three are dyslexic or dysgraphic they really benefited from the structure and phonics program.

We did not however let school be their only learning venue.

My husband and I also taught them life lessons. Cooking, cleaning, science projects, math problems, history and problem solving were part of everyday life. Reading was encouraged strongly and not just comic books ... they read the masters. Our family loves history and we were constantly visiting historical sites and museums when they were kids. Our family loves science. Biology, animal husbandry, botany and astronomy were core subjects with a little chemistry (soap making and bread making) thrown in. While the kids were little my husband rebuilt a couple of cars. Right in front of their eyes they saw what makes a machine work. I plumbed the house and ran new wiring - they had front row seats. They understand what it takes to build a house, because they helped me re-build one! They were involved in 4-H as well and required to do public speaking and work on many difficult projects.

When they went to public school they were required to be tested. All of the three scored far above average on IQ and two of them were immediately placed in the "gifted" classes. I am not telling you their scores to brag, because I believe the reason they scored as they did has more to do with their whole life education than it does natural ability. They score well on those tests because of exposure to so many learning experiences. They were taught to think, not to just learn.

The biggest opposition we had to not public schooling my kids was my aunt. She was a public school teacher and VERY vocal about the subject. She firmly believed the only way a child "could ever get a proper education" was to go to public school. Interestingly she now home schools her grand children.

 

[eggs4sale]

I won't admit it to many people, but I'm probably unschooling my kids. I have a 2, 5, and 11 year old. The 11 year old was homeschooled from the beginning, except a 4th grade stint in a parochial school that was the worst time of our life. He's happy to be back home.
I'd like to say something to the people who are uncertain and think this may be too lax and produce a bunch of lazy, dumb kids. I worried about that, too. But after putting my son in that 4th grade class, I discovered he was way ahead of everyone on everything except CURSIVE. He could read aloud extremely fluently, he has a HUGE vocabulary, he knows all kins of weird things that always make me say "How do you know that?" He was on the honor roll every semester he was in school. The school was not happy when I pulled him out.

We belong to a weekly homeschool group, mostly field trips and PE, and a lot of very nice and supportive people, and many opportunities for other activities like Debate, Science Club, Art, etc. My son is in the Science Club because he likes science. We have bookshelves all over the house filled to the ceiling with books. I read a lot, so they see that and follow suit. We try things and if I see they are not ready, I wait till later. Why push it?? The kids help around the house with cleaning, feeding and caring for our menagerie of animals, and cooking.

I don't do much curriculum. I have my son do math worksheets to keep him at the right level. It seems they excel at what they are interested in because they have the time to spend on those things. When my son was in school, we had very little family time, everything revolved around the school. He was too tired to read for fun. He had hours of homework each day that bored him stiff.

We 'make' him play the violin, and this has made him a very confident kid. We have him in Boy Scouts and we say "Which merit badge are you going to work on now? Choose one and we'll get the book." I say "Pick a book and read. If you don't like it, pick another one." He reads way more than most schoolers. He's much 'nicer' than most schoolers, too.

The 5-year-old is in ballet and will be in Girl Scouts this year. Next year, violin. The 2-year-old can count to 10 and I don't push anything on him at all.

Why do some kids learn so much when their mom or dad or teacher isn't nagging them to crank out the workbooks and do yet another test? I don't know. I never learned a thing that way, though. I hated school. My kids are so much happier and smarter than I ever was.

Call it unschooling, call it laziness, call it chaos, it's working for us!

 

[eggs4sale]

The biggest opposition we had to not public schooling my kids was my aunt. She was a public school teacher and VERY vocal about the subject. She firmly believed the only way a child "could ever get a proper education" was to go to public school. Interestingly she now home schools her grand children.

That's what I've seen in the homeschool group, too! At least 5 of the homeschooling moms used to be teachers, then they decided to stay home and homeschool their kids. Amazing.

 

[eggs4sale]

Homeschooling is fine if you are qualified to do it. My wife ran a daycare and schooled other peoples kids and did a fine job. When the kids did go to public school she got compliments from their teachers for a fine job. I have also seen people homeschool their kids who were not qualified. These were people who never realised they were not competent. They were book smart but had those off kilter social skills.

What is considered "qualified" though?

I've seen (and had) many teachers who were not "qualified".