[Why would a parent tell their child that college doesn't matter?]

thanks for the welcome back guys :001_smile:

[Why would a parent tell their child that college doesn't matter?]

The thing is, you CAN go to college- or university as it is called here in Australia- at any time. I won't be encouraging my kids to go to college just for the sake of it. I would rather they work and travel and experience the world and if they then decide they want to go to uni, with a clear idea of what they want to do- why, they only have to be 20 and they can go as a mature age student with no previous qualifications like a high school diploma. And mature age students have a far lower drop out rate.

Maybe it would be more practical to have them go straight to higher educaiton while they are living at home. I like to try and keep my mind open, and theirs, to all sorts of possibilities.

And for me, I would prefer my kids realise they don't have to join the Rat Race, where everybody thinks they are going somewhere important while they just spin their wheels while getting older.:auto: There are other possibilities in life to getting a degree/job, marrying, having children, retiring, dying etc.

(I am reading Walden at the moment and am most inspired!)

[What's Your Biggest Homeschooling Challenge?]

I am fine with time manageament and homeschooling routines, I dont mind mind changing curriculum when needed, I don't have little kids any more, but....

 

my biggest challenge woudl have to be homeschooling my 2nd child, my son, who the more I homeschool, the more I realise has learning difficulties and is what would be called a slow learner. He was recently diagnosed dyslexic, even though he can read just fine now, and he has a very obsessive compulsive personality. I find it a challenge to know when I really am pushing too hard, and when he is pulling my strings, and I get sucked into negotiating with him far too often. It is the one factor in our days that can wear me down and fray my temper.

The other things are I don't like marking work much, and I am not really enthusiastic about cooking meals for 3 people who all have very different tastes. Lucky they are old enough to fix themselves something when I give up trying.

[What ages is Literary Lessons from LOTR geared towards?]

I used it last year (2007) with my then 11 and 12yos, and we got a lot out of it. Probably we would have got even more out of it if they were older, but I was very happy with our year with the program. I picked and chose what we did from the program...all the worksheets and tests were too much, but we are not very good at worksheets and tests around here. I kept it fun, by reading aloud, and after the first couple of months of trying it all, we just did the "core" of the program, and some vocabulary, and I made up some writing assignments, art assignments etc . It was very doable and we learned a lot of literary analysis quite painlessly.