Anyone home school or know of someone who home schools? (Year 1 update)

[Kaladin]

This thread makes me want to cut myself

Or stab myself

Or go post at tater island

 

[jaihawk]

Whats that? They want my little jimmy to call a classmate something jimmy and I don’t understand?? Better homeschool him. It’s for his protection.

 

[nscottie]

At the end of the day, it’s up to the parents. But you also cannot shelter your kids forever.

 

[betsch]

I think this is perfect.

Would just add that the benefit of the public schools is that you're exposing your kids to different ways of learning and experiences.

If you want something in between do private.

I'm on the schoolboard where I live. We have a few families right now that are going to every meeting talking about how they don't want trans stuff being taught (ok I get that), but also things like evolution and science and this and that. At some point you need to realize that these are public schools to teach EVERYONE and not just follow your particular interests. If you are THAT concerned about it you should either home school or go to a private school.

 

[iruletheskool]

At the end of the day, it’s up to the parents. But you also cannot shelter your kids forever.

I think there's a lot of wisdom in sheltering a 5 year old, but the schedule is also more beneficial, especially for the early ages.

 

[slattimer]

The school we are enrolled at has 28 other kids in his class for one teacher. Limited recess or outside time, 15 minute period to eat (30 minutes from out classroom door to out of lunch room),

Legitimate concerns. Having young kids cooped up with limited free play drives me bonkers. Plus those bigger classes like that can be a real nightmare management wise. If you’ve got a good experienced teacher. Than not as big of a deal.

One of my daughters had a first year teacher two years ago. (2nd grade) and she constantly took away the whole classes recesses because of a few kids being turds….pissed me off. The next year she figured out how stupid of an idea that was.

My biggest issue with the primary grades is the big push with reading and math. Like yeah, it’s important, but they’re doing 2 hour blocks with very little breaks, limited free play time, and too much freaking tablet time.

 

[slattimer]

Or go post at tater island

Go troll Dean and return with the results….

 

[alt f4]

Year 1 update.
We, by we, I mean maily my wife decided to and I followed along with homeschool our 6-year old. At first, I was extremely relunctant thinking it would be a massive headache and failure. In the end, it was a great decision for our family. We did the Classical Conversations co-op.

Positives.
- Learn at his own pace. In the intitial months this was a little bit of a struggle because of distractions around the house. Now he's built into his daily routine and has blown through the Kindergarten reading and math, and nearly 2 months into 1st grade level reading.
- Allowed him explore his interest more and do more hands on everyday life learning. With the weather least week, he's really into learning about how thunderstorms develop and about hail, wind, and tornados associated with them. He's wanted to learn about WWII, Civil War, and various other history subjects. That really helped with engagement.
- Homeschool isn't just about the student, it's about family. All holiday events, birthdays, gatherings, play dates are geared to the whole family not just just one member.
- This is probably my most favorite part - I get a lot of time with him in the afternoon. Pretty much everyday for the last 2 weeks we've played catch with football or baseball for about 10-15 minutes. Doesn't have to be much, but we get to something several times per week that couldn't do if he was in school.
- I thought it would impact him socially, but we're finding out the opposite. Anytime we're out of the house he's organically trying to socialize and play with other kids. Through sports we're still able to build relationships with kids his age and public school he'd be at.
- No learned negative behaviors. My nephew and one of my good friend's son go to the same elementary school. We're not around either at the same time, but both boys behave the same, talk back the same, same bad behaviors, same name-calling. My sister in law mentioned this to us as well that she noticed his behaviors changing to match his classmates.
- Our 4-year learns along. He might not get it all down, but he's picking up math and history extremely well. He can tell you how to calculate the area of a square, triange, circle, and a few other shapes. He knows the basic major event of history starting BC. Count by 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s.

Negatives.
- We don't plan on homeschooling him forever, but we don't know how to assimilate him into school. With the learn at his own pace and freedom to learn things that interest him, lots of outside play time and discovery, it's going to be hard.
- It can be pretty stressful. I don't do much for school work, wife does that all, but it can be stressful on the bad days.
- No set routine for the day.
- Lots of dishes for me. Since they eat breakfast and lunch at home and my portion is the dishes, I have a shit-ton of dished each day to do.

 

[SlumpBuster]

Year 1 update.
We, by we, I mean maily my wife decided to and I followed along with homeschool our 6-year old. At first, I was extremely relunctant thinking it would be a massive headache and failure. In the end, it was a great decision for our family. We did the Classical Conversations co-op.

Positives.
- Learn at his own pace. In the intitial months this was a little bit of a struggle because of distractions around the house. Now he's built into his daily routine and has blown through the Kindergarten reading and math, and nearly 2 months into 1st grade level reading.
- Allowed him explore his interest more and do more hands on everyday life learning. With the weather least week, he's really into learning about how thunderstorms develop and about hail, wind, and tornados associated with them. He's wanted to learn about WWII, Civil War, and various other history subjects. That really helped with engagement.
- Homeschool isn't just about the student, it's about family. All holiday events, birthdays, gatherings, play dates are geared to the whole family not just just one member.
- This is probably my most favorite part - I get a lot of time with him in the afternoon. Pretty much everyday for the last 2 weeks we've played catch with football or baseball for about 10-15 minutes. Doesn't have to be much, but we get to something several times per week that couldn't do if he was in school.
- I thought it would impact him socially, but we're finding out the opposite. Anytime we're out of the house he's organically trying to socialize and play with other kids. Through sports we're still able to build relationships with kids his age and public school he'd be at.
- No learned negative behaviors. My nephew and one of my good friend's son go to the same elementary school. We're not around either at the same time, but both boys behave the same, talk back the same, same bad behaviors, same name-calling. My sister in law mentioned this to us as well that she noticed his behaviors changing to match his classmates.
- Our 4-year learns along. He might not get it all down, but he's picking up math and history extremely well. He can tell you how to calculate the area of a square, triange, circle, and a few other shapes. He knows the basic major event of history starting BC. Count by 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s.

Negatives.
- We don't plan on homeschooling him forever, but we don't know how to assimilate him into school. With the learn at his own pace and freedom to learn things that interest him, lots of outside play time and discovery, it's going to be hard.
- It can be pretty stressful. I don't do much for school work, wife does that all, but it can be stressful on the bad days.
- No set routine for the day.
- Lots of dishes for me. Since they eat breakfast and lunch at home and my portion is the dishes, I have a shit-ton of dished each day to do.

That's awesome. Glad it's working for you guys.

I do think homeschool CAN be really really really good, but the family has to be invested and a lot of parents don't want to put in the effort.

I don't have any great advice for re-assimilation, that would be a challenge. But if you raise him to be social and seek out friends, I think it would be fine at some point. Just make sure he's aware of the bad habits he MIGHT pick up from other kids (so he can watch out for them).

 

[Jim14510]

Year 1 update.
We, by we, I mean maily my wife decided to and I followed along with homeschool our 6-year old. At first, I was extremely relunctant thinking it would be a massive headache and failure. In the end, it was a great decision for our family. We did the Classical Conversations co-op.

Positives.
- Learn at his own pace. In the intitial months this was a little bit of a struggle because of distractions around the house. Now he's built into his daily routine and has blown through the Kindergarten reading and math, and nearly 2 months into 1st grade level reading.
- Allowed him explore his interest more and do more hands on everyday life learning. With the weather least week, he's really into learning about how thunderstorms develop and about hail, wind, and tornados associated with them. He's wanted to learn about WWII, Civil War, and various other history subjects. That really helped with engagement.
- Homeschool isn't just about the student, it's about family. All holiday events, birthdays, gatherings, play dates are geared to the whole family not just just one member.
- This is probably my most favorite part - I get a lot of time with him in the afternoon. Pretty much everyday for the last 2 weeks we've played catch with football or baseball for about 10-15 minutes. Doesn't have to be much, but we get to something several times per week that couldn't do if he was in school.
- I thought it would impact him socially, but we're finding out the opposite. Anytime we're out of the house he's organically trying to socialize and play with other kids. Through sports we're still able to build relationships with kids his age and public school he'd be at.
- No learned negative behaviors. My nephew and one of my good friend's son go to the same elementary school. We're not around either at the same time, but both boys behave the same, talk back the same, same bad behaviors, same name-calling. My sister in law mentioned this to us as well that she noticed his behaviors changing to match his classmates.
- Our 4-year learns along. He might not get it all down, but he's picking up math and history extremely well. He can tell you how to calculate the area of a square, triange, circle, and a few other shapes. He knows the basic major event of history starting BC. Count by 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s.

Negatives.
- We don't plan on homeschooling him forever, but we don't know how to assimilate him into school. With the learn at his own pace and freedom to learn things that interest him, lots of outside play time and discovery, it's going to be hard.
- It can be pretty stressful. I don't do much for school work, wife does that all, but it can be stressful on the bad days.
- No set routine for the day.
- Lots of dishes for me. Since they eat breakfast and lunch at home and my portion is the dishes, I have a shit-ton of dished each day to do.

Only home schoolers I know went through 8th grade and then they went to HS. Worked well for them but I get the impression you're not planning on doing this long term?

I would think the schedule would be difficult to get used to at first but kids adapt pretty quick. The first couple of weeks in the fall coming out of summer break were always rough in the younger years but it didn't take long.

 

[djw004]

Looking at positives and negative vs public school. We're having major second thoughts on sending our soon to be kindergartener to LPS. Have a soon entering 8th grade in LPS. Wife has researched the hell out of it and prepared herself.

Thoughts?

Year 1 update.
We, by we, I mean maily my wife decided to and I followed along with homeschool our 6-year old. At first, I was extremely relunctant thinking it would be a massive headache and failure. In the end, it was a great decision for our family. We did the Classical Conversations co-op.

Positives.
- Learn at his own pace. In the intitial months this was a little bit of a struggle because of distractions around the house. Now he's built into his daily routine and has blown through the Kindergarten reading and math, and nearly 2 months into 1st grade level reading.
- Allowed him explore his interest more and do more hands on everyday life learning. With the weather least week, he's really into learning about how thunderstorms develop and about hail, wind, and tornados associated with them. He's wanted to learn about WWII, Civil War, and various other history subjects. That really helped with engagement.
- Homeschool isn't just about the student, it's about family. All holiday events, birthdays, gatherings, play dates are geared to the whole family not just just one member.
- This is probably my most favorite part - I get a lot of time with him in the afternoon. Pretty much everyday for the last 2 weeks we've played catch with football or baseball for about 10-15 minutes. Doesn't have to be much, but we get to something several times per week that couldn't do if he was in school.
- I thought it would impact him socially, but we're finding out the opposite. Anytime we're out of the house he's organically trying to socialize and play with other kids. Through sports we're still able to build relationships with kids his age and public school he'd be at.
- No learned negative behaviors. My nephew and one of my good friend's son go to the same elementary school. We're not around either at the same time, but both boys behave the same, talk back the same, same bad behaviors, same name-calling. My sister in law mentioned this to us as well that she noticed his behaviors changing to match his classmates.
- Our 4-year learns along. He might not get it all down, but he's picking up math and history extremely well. He can tell you how to calculate the area of a square, triange, circle, and a few other shapes. He knows the basic major event of history starting BC. Count by 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s.

Negatives.
- We don't plan on homeschooling him forever, but we don't know how to assimilate him into school. With the learn at his own pace and freedom to learn things that interest him, lots of outside play time and discovery, it's going to be hard.
- It can be pretty stressful. I don't do much for school work, wife does that all, but it can be stressful on the bad days.
- No set routine for the day.
- Lots of dishes for me. Since they eat breakfast and lunch at home and my portion is the dishes, I have a shit-ton of dished each day to do.

We are figuring out where to send our 5 year old daughter next year. Private or Public - we live in South Dakota...I don't get as worried here about the public school horror stories you hear about. But some of the things you bring up - especially around holidays and having better breaks that allow your family to actually do family things around holidays is a big draw to us.

My wife has gone on a kick of following these One Room Schoolhouse setups where families homeschool together, and really pushes being outside, not cooped up in a classroom for 8 hours a day. Never in a million years thought I'd be caring about education enough to be weighing options like this haha.

We are thinking of doing the private school (Christian based education) for elementary and then assimilating to our local public after that. But who knows haha...

 

[alt f4]

I don't have any great advice for re-assimilation, that would be a challenge. But if you raise him to be social and seek out friends, I think it would be fine at some point. Just make sure he's aware of the bad habits he MIGHT pick up from other kids (so he can watch out for them).

We're not too worried about the social side and bad habits, but more on the pace of education and having learned things above his grade level. The boys on his football, soccer, baseball teams are the same boys he'd be going to K-12 with anyways. But being able to complete a portion and move on or take some more time to fully learn it. His education is all how fast he picks it up and not on the pace of others.

 

[alt f4]

Only home schoolers I know went through 8th grade and then they went to HS. Worked well for them but I get the impression you're not planning on doing this long term?

I would think the schedule would be difficult to get used to at first but kids adapt pretty quick. The first couple of weeks in the fall coming out of summer break were always rough in the younger years but it didn't take long.

According to my wife "we're taking it year by year", but I think it's more of 5 year plan and reassess around middle school. More than likely it's looking like a hybrid half day homeschool, half day in middle school, then ful time in high school.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

We are figuring out where to send our 5 year old daughter next year. Private or Public - we live in South Dakota...I don't get as worried here about the public school horror stories you hear about. But some of the things you bring up - especially around holidays and having better breaks that allow your family to actually do family things around holidays is a big draw to us.

My wife has gone on a kick of following these One Room Schoolhouse setups where families homeschool together, and really pushes being outside, not cooped up in a classroom for 8 hours a day. Never in a million years thought I'd be caring about education enough to be weighing options like this haha.

We are thinking of doing the private school (Christian based education) for elementary and then assimilating to our local public after that. But who knows haha...

The dirty secret about education is that parents who give a shit matter way more than whatever schooling style you choose

 

[Jim14510]

According to my wife "we're taking it year by year", but I think it's more of 5 year plan and reassess around middle school. More than likely it's looking like a hybrid half day homeschool, half day in middle school, then ful time in high school.

You'll have them involved in sports and other extra curricular stuff. That's no longer school specific anymore anyway. I'm sure it will be fine.

 

[SlumpBuster]

The dirty secret about education is that parents who give a shit matter way more than whatever schooling style you choose

I agree to a decent extent. Usually parental involvement is the biggest marker towards a kid's grades...

However, what I find interesting is that your success in life (financially at least) has been statistically proven to be largely based on your zip code and where you go to school. There's some seriously weird data (like in Chicago for instance) where schools a few blocks away from each other but totally different economic status produce totally different outcomes. Mostly because one school gets a crap ton in taxes and the other doesn't.

Check this out starting at 10:08...

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

We are figuring out where to send our 5 year old daughter next year. Private or Public - we live in South Dakota...I don't get as worried here about the public school horror stories you hear about. But some of the things you bring up - especially around holidays and having better breaks that allow your family to actually do family things around holidays is a big draw to us.

My wife has gone on a kick of following these One Room Schoolhouse setups where families homeschool together, and really pushes being outside, not cooped up in a classroom for 8 hours a day. Never in a million years thought I'd be caring about education enough to be weighing options like this haha.

We are thinking of doing the private school (Christian based education) for elementary and then assimilating to our local public after that. But who knows haha...

You have some insulation from the public school garbage horror stories in a place like SD, but a lot of the freak show stuff will still be in your kids' textbooks because those are written by the people at ground zero for the nonsense. Just something to be aware of/prepare for if you go that route, even if the teachers are pretty solid.

FWIW, there's basically 0 correlation between doing rigorous academic stuff in the early school years (up to age 7-8 or so) & long-term results, so I'm a big proponent of doing a lot more play & reading to them while focusing on chores, character, respect, etc.

We do very minimal structured school (a Classical Conversations coop group which is a half day a week, then a couple simple lesson plans around the 3 R stuff that collectively take maybe an hour or 2 a week), and all our kids are voracious readers & eager learners who easily surpass their grade level on things shortly after taking them up, even if introduced to a subject later.

My wife loved the book "The Unhurried Homeschooler" which is a quick & easy read that walks through this philosophy:

https://tinyurl.com/5jzyr2xb

 

[Baron Winnebago]

I agree to a decent extent. Usually parental involvement is the biggest marker towards a kid's grades...

However, what I find interesting is that your success in life (financially at least) has been statistically proven to be largely based on your zip code and where you go to school. There's some seriously weird data (like in Chicago for instance) where schools a few blocks away from each other but totally different economic status produce totally different outcomes. Mostly because one school gets a crap ton in taxes and the other doesn't.

Check this out starting at 10:08...

Zip is also highly correlated with income which is correlated with giving a shit-ness, but I take the point.

To be more precise, the effect of education, as defined by something like school quality , is likely realized for some small fraction of students who can be affected by school quality. But of course the question is also about alternatives, if the choice is a good public school or a good private school it doesn't really matter. If its between a rural public school and home school, it probably doesn't. If it's a shitty public school vs a good private school, it probably does

The point made in a much more rigorous way here: https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/30208853

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

The dirty secret about education is that parents who give a shit matter way more than whatever schooling style you choose

Wow, what a way to throw @Jim14510 's parents under the bus!

 

[Baron Winnebago]

Wow, what a way to throw @Jim14510 's parents under the bus!

He apparently couldn't even get into Nebraska. Lol out loud