If you wish you had been homeschooled . . .

[jld]

how would you have done/had your parents do it?

 

I would have just read, read, read, and done Saxon math. I would have had to do it all myself, because I know my mom wouldn't have wanted to be involved at all. That would have been okay, though.

 

(You know, the best thing that ever happened to me was meeting dh, and that probably wouldn't have happened if my life had been any different, so maybe I shouldn't engage in wistful thinking about the past, lol!)

 

How about you? How would you have wanted to be homeschooled?

[swellmomma]

I would have preferred to be left alone to read and investigate things on my own. I also would have liked to go on field trips like to museums, plays, ballet etc. My family hated that stuff so I only ever got to go to stuff like that with school or guiding. I on the otherhand love all that stuff.

 

Even though I went to ps by high school I seldom went to class. One class in particular, grade 12 chemistry I hated the teacher I was assigned and the principal refused to let me switch to the other teacher, so I simply didn't go to class. I never did a single assignment or exam, I taught myself the material that semester and wrote the diploma exam. The exam was worth 50% of my grade. I passed the course with a 51% which means I aced the test without any help from anyone else.

 

I know that if I had been homeschooled I would have liked to have been an unschooler or at the very least used sonlight. I was and still am an avid reader. In grade 8 the teacher thought he was being tough when he created his reading assignment for the year. We had to read 30 books and keep a list of titles and authors. We had the full year to do this. I finished it in 2 months. I kept track of my books read that year over and above the 30. By the end of the school year I had read close to 200 titles, and these were not all pop fiction type books, many were classics.

 

I was also self motivated to learn, and eager to do so. (my own kids love the field trips and love to read but do not have the desire to learn the same way I did/do, so I do not homeschool them the same way I wish I was)

[jld]

That's very cool about the chemistry exam, Brandy!

[Luanne]

I would have just requested math books to work through and unlimited access to the public library (we have a pretty good library here). I know I would have learned more and enjoyed myself more if I had been allowed to do this.

[jld]

I'm sure that's true, Luanne!

[RoughCollie]

I disliked school from 7th grade on. A lot of it was a waste of time.

 

I would have enjoyed being homeschooled with some direction because, left to my own devices, I would have spent all my school time reading what I wanted to read. I'm not sure I would have prepared myself well for college if I had been unschooled.

 

It would have been much harder without the internet as a resource. If the internet had been available back then, I would have likely looked up what I needed to learn for college, and then learned it.

 

I would not have liked being homeschooled by my mother. She doesn't have the personality to do it well.

[Closeacademy]

Since it was the Oak Meadow ads that I was looking at in the back of the magazines at the doctor's offices that got me wanting to be homeschooled then I probably would have wanted to have that as our framework and just read good books the rest of the time.

 

:001_smile:

[IsabelC]

I would have preferred any type of homeschooling to school, as the majority of school seemed to be a big waste of time for me. I actually feel slightly grieved over the years of childhood and teenagerdom that I squandered doing school. If I had had a choice of home education styles, I would probably have chosen something similar to what we're doing with our kids, although I would have ended up doing more reading and less practical work than ds does, because I was (and am) a big bookworm, and to this day I still find it almost impossible to comprehend how anyone could possibly not love reading.

[NanceXToo]

I'd have wanted to read tons of books, and written tons of short stories, gone out on my bike and explored the neighborhood and nature at my leisure, engaging in imaginative play (I used to have such a good imagination lol), and gone on interesting field trips in between. My attention probably could have been caught with educational games and shows and perhaps some interesting experiments and projects.

 

I'd have happily done without math but if I had to have math, I'd have wanted it to be as hands on as possible. Life math, the kind you do with your allowance, at the store, while you're cooking or building something etc- not dry, technical math.

[Peela]

I would have made a good unschooler, I think. I would have been self motivated to read and study. I read and study now- I might not have been balanced, but I would have been motivated to learn.

I wonder how many of us feel we would have been self motivated....and yet our kids are not, particularly- or at least, we never gave them the chance because we were so inspired by classical homeschooling ouselves...we kind of took over.

Its something I have often wondered about- if I have undermined my own kids' instincts to learn...by forcing them to learn. Or if they would never have been self motivated to the extent I was.

[jelbe5]

I would have loved to do something such as Ambleside Online . . . lots of great books to slowly read, nature study, music and art appreciation. I disliked my elementary school years. The happiest times where when I was ill with asthma and would be home from school for a week at a time. My mom would go to the school to retrieve my books/assignments and I would happily work by myself.

 

I have finally decided to begin AO for my own self education.

 

Adrianne in IL

[myfatherslily]

I would have had a Saxon math book burning.

 

Oh, wait, I was homeschooled...:D

[meet me in paris]

I would have been a terrible unschooler, I think, because I would have wanted to just watch The Brady Bunch and game shows all day - and my mom would have let me. :001_huh:

 

However, I would have loved to do something like CLE or LifePacs. I was always the first one done with everything in my class, and I would have liked to just MOVE ON without waiting for the group. It would have been so freeing for me to just do my work, and go play when I was done.

[PiCO]

I think my mom would have been a great homeschooler. She had a degree in Biology and she loved to garden, and she went on to get a Master's degree in Computer Science. I think our school would have been heavy on the sciences and math. We were already avid readers.

 

If I had known about homeschooling, I would have insisted on it.

[Jean in Newcastle]

When I was in 5th and 6th grade, my older brother (5 years older) was schooled at home via correspondence school. He was miserable and my mom was miserable. But he was taking drugs the whole time and I think that was really the cause. I benefited greatly from it, though. On weekends and vacations we would play Risk and 4 board monopoly (it took us a week to finish a game looping through all 4 game boards). We would take National Geographic maps and divvy up the world. We set up a company to sell chipmunks (it was legal to have chipmunks as pets in the country we lived in) and sold stocks. Later we had to return the money when all our chipmunks escaped. . . But the point is, we had lots of hands-on fun learning.

 

A year later (my 7th grade) my brother (his 12th) and I were shipped off to boarding school. I begged my mom to homeschool me. I think she would have good at it even though she wouldn't have done all the games that my brother did. She wouldn't even consider it because of what she had gone through with my brother. (I was mad at him for a while because of that!) I would have loved to read and read and read but I did that anyway.

[mommylawyer]

I think my ps school experience was great. Although I didn't always fit in, my teachers loved me and I loved learning all I could from them.

 

As for being homeschooled, my mom didn't have much involvement with me - she didn't play games or otherwise instruct me. And I'm an only child! No, my education definitely would have suffered at the hands of my mother.

[lisamarie]

I would have had a Saxon math book burning.

 

Oh, wait, I was homeschooled...:D

 

Ditto on this one and I went to private school. I HATED saxon math in high school--but I think it was mostly the math teacher who didn't teach. He spent most of class in the bathroom and made us figure it out on our own. I am trying to get over my saxon hating because I can see that it would work really well for my DS.

 

However, I would have loved to do something like CLE or LifePacs. I was always the first one done with everything in my class, and I would have liked to just MOVE ON without waiting for the group. It would have been so freeing for me to just do my work, and go play when I was done.

 

I would have liked this as well. I wouldn't have done well at unschooling, but I would have thrived at something where I could work at my own pace. I think SOS computer based would probably be the winner hands down for me. Along with tons of reading. I grew up across the street from the library and read, read, read all the time. I still read at least 5 books a week and make weekly library trips.