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What is your homeschool philosophy?


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"We'll do it my way!"

 

(Unless the kids can put together a reasonable argument against.)

((For the moment, a reasonable argument against is "No thankyou, Tigger."))

(((I shall expect more eloquence when she can speak English properly.)))

 

 

Not what you meant?

 

:lol:

Rosie

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Hmmmm .... mine is "My kids are so much more capable, friendly, thoughtful, aware, and interested in real-life things than I was at their ages -- despite my high-level academics, almost straight A's and extra curricular involvement -- that I'm thrilled with the results of natural learning at home and we'll keep doing it."

 

Is that too long? Was there a character or word limit? :001_smile:

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To try and guide them to be what God intended them to be. To allow them the freedom to discover what that is (through different activities and free time to explore) while making sure they have the tools needed to complete their purpose (ie--knowledge, skills and educational training).

 

SO --sometimes I am strict (grammar, math--do it now!)

sometimes I am not--sure spend the day writing a short story about your made up "new" animal species.

 

My mother asked me the other day if I was going to make DD11 write a science report on her spider (we have a burrowing wolf spider that just had a zillion babies hatch). I said no--she likes to learn. I want to encourage this independent study (she researched what it ate, when the babies would be born, how long they stay with the mom etc...) But on the other hand, this year we are doing bug science and she has to do experiments following the scientific method and write a report at the end.

 

Lara

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Do the best you can with what you've got.

Success or failure isn't based on a single day's events.

 

I like this.

 

I began homeschooling for academic reasons. Some days, I have days where I feel like I've messed up my whole academic life and future. Then I remember all the times I ended up sitting in class for 20 minutes reading because the teacher was taking attendance, checking homework, and dealing with disruptions. My time is a lot better used, even if I only spend 40 minutes completely focused because it's a lot more time than was spend in public school completely focused.

 

That seems like an awkward paragraph but my brain is fried :tongue_smilie:

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I'm in it mainly for the tailored education and rigor (as compared to the public schools around here, anyway). By that I would mean, for example, I expect all of my children to learn grammar (beyond the three or so parts of speech taught in the public schools here), but I will teach it to each in whatever way works best for him. Sub in any subject we do for grammar and any amount of that the schools here teach in the parentheses. If that means a CM education, so be it. If that means a waldorfy education, so be it, etc.

 

In short - children are individuals; you can't treat them like a herd of cattle and expect them to reach their potential.

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Imagine being a teacher (by nature, profession, both, whatever) and finding out after 9 weeks, the week before grades are due...that your ps 4th grader had failed e.v.e.r.y. math test so far that year. (with no note home, phone call, anything after the 1st or even 2nd test and that they had around 6 or 7) Imagine having to explain to the teacher that you are there to help your child, you want your child to succeed, and to please let you know what you are working on, what she needs help with, etc...and still after hearing nothing, finding out at the 2nd 9 weeks that she had failed every math test again...and no I didn't just wait 9 weeks before each time I asked how she was doing, I kept asking and no she couldn't bring home a math book and no the teacher didn't input data to the ps grade website thing to keep us informed week to week, everything was entered in the 8th week or the 15th week. I'd say it was the teacher, the same grading program showed the class average on each test, my daughter failed each test, while the class average was a D. (But I heard the same frustration from another parent whose child was in a different class...after we withdrew.) While that wasn't upsetting enough, even tho she failed every single test, she was still passing. So sad that that early on you can see your child pegged to pass even tho she didn't, we started home schooling because I flashed forward and saw her graduating & not knowing what she needs. We added our 2nd in the middle of 1st grade after being bullied to tears....All since then we've all healed and moved on :)

 

And so from then on our philosophy has been mastery, enjoyment, & curiosity, and I love having more time to just "be" with & love my kids...

Edited by rocketgirl
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Hmmmm, I started because I wasn't happy with what was available for our elementary options here. I thought I was going to use hsing as just a stop gap until I could get my son into a Montessori program here that we liked. But by the time we could get him in, he wanted to continue hsing.

 

As I've gone along, I've come to feel that many schools indoctrinate kids into beliefs that I do not agree with and I've come to appreciate the ability to provide more options, rather than just one particular point of view, when we study various topics.

 

I've come to really detest textbooks, in general. I've found that I much prefer real books written by one or a few authors; reading from a variety of viewpoints, again, rather than just one world view.

 

I really value the fact that having spent so much time in discussion with my boys they really come to me and tell me everything (sooner or later - even things I'd rather not know, sigh....). I've especially loved that we have been able to incorporate a sort of learning lifestyle into our days and that they take it so much for granted that they are sometimes shocked to learn that other people do things like just go on vacation and stay in a hotel, going nowhere and doing nothing, LOL....

 

I've appreciated not having last minute projects or homework sprung on us by teachers. Such things often interrupt family life and I found myself rebelling even when my oldest was in first grade. I love that we don't have to fight school traffic in the mornings or that I don't have to see my kids stand out in the rain or snow, etc. waiting for a bus before daylight in winter.... I love that we don't in general, have to deal with things like bullying (a regular part of my son's days when he was in pre-K through first)....

 

I've loved having the freedom to modify, switch, change schedules to fit in last minute things that are important (our upcoming school year beginning is getting a makeover, for instance, due to a last minute visit by my sister's family who we seldom get to see and a surprise neurology appointment I have to make).... And I love that we can work on life skills and make plenty of time for physical activity (so important for most boys).

 

So what has developed over the years from all this? I guess that I now think of homeschooling as a lifestyle, rather than merely a learning choice. While I started out wanting to challenge my children educationally, I now want to provide a solid mix of sound education, meaningful life skills, solid physical activity (life long sports), cohesive family life, and grounding in a religious life. What that looks like for each child is slightly different according to their wants and needs, personality, temperment, any LD's, etc.

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I'm making this up on the fly...as I sit at the school desk with two stuffed dragons sitting nearby, note that, it might be important later.

 

 

My philosophy:

 

My favorite history teacher in school was great because he taught us about history and made it relevant. His desk was torn up from the battle ax he kept in the classroom. He had movie posters all over his walls. I wrote a killer report on knights that earned me a 100 plus 50 extra bonus points. I've been out of school a long time and I don't remember a lot of other specific things we did in that class, but I walked out of that class with a love of history. Still have the report, still love history.

 

I want to be like that teacher.

 

We're starting our 8th year of homeschooling in a few weeks. In our 4th year I realized that ds isn't going to remember everything I spent months planning for that year. He will remember us snuggling in the hammock in the back yard as we read books. He will hopefully remember my enthusiastic impromptu speech about my love of real books, especially antique ones, after reading Fahrenheit 451.

 

In our first year of homeschooling I realized when I looked in the mirror that this would be remembered forever as the face of his first grade teacher. I then decided to get dressed everyday, try to do something with my hair, or at least put on a bra.

 

I had this picture on my computer for a long time.

 

the-education-of-alexander-the-great-by-aristotle-from-a-book-by-l-figuier.jpg

 

The education of Alexander. It's to remind me that I'm opening up the world of possibilities for my son. It's that powerful to me. But I can't do that alone.

 

I have to connect with him, to see him smile when he gets a new idea, to blow off steam by tossing stuffed dragons around the classroom when we need a break, to explore rabbit holes when he asks "Why?" one more time.

 

Maybe hard work with humor would be our motto. Our maybe I'm like the mama bird who at one point will push her babe out of the nest. I watched a baby robin sit on our porch during a tornado warning, huge rains, heavy wind. I'd never seen him out of the nest before, but he sat and faced the rain and held onto the chair he was perched upon. Afterwards mama came and got him. I hope I prepare my son to weather the storms of life with a brave face, and to conquer a few things along the way.

 

Wow, that got long, sorry, long day. :lol:

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No one cares about their heads and their hearts more than I do! *note to self, don't screw up

 

That's the shorthand way of saying the school only saw ds's " shortcomings" and thought dd didn't need instruction so put her in the corner with a coloring page. Wouldn't want her to get too far ahead.

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I love all these!

 

My philosophy has definitely evolved over the years. Initially I just wanted to give them the challenge I never got in school. I took a very "school at home" approach because that was all I knew.

 

I have learned that kids who love to learn will have lots of ideas on what they want to learn and learn so much more that way. So now I guess my philosophy iis to stretch their brains while keeping the love of learning alive. My job is to keep them fed with resources and suggestions and to help guide them.

 

Elegantlion, I love the photo of Alexander's vacation...that is similar to what I want my homeschool to look like.

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I love all these!

 

My philosophy has definitely evolved over the years. Initially I just wanted to give them the challenge I never got in school. I took a very "school at home" approach because that was all I knew.

 

I have learned that kids who love to learn will have lots of ideas on what they want to learn and learn so much more that way. So now I guess my philosophy iis to stretch their brains while keeping the love of learning alive. My job is to keep them fed with resources and suggestions and to help guide them.

 

Elegantlion, I love the photo of Alexander's vacation...that is similar to what I want my homeschool to look like.

 

 

Any advice how to break the "school at home" habit? I'm finding myself pretty much wearing my hair in a bun writing on a blackboard. I need to :chillpill:

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I don't have any profound or deep philosophy - my general homeschool philosophy is just to show the kids that learning and education aren't exclusive of living life.

 

School is a place we go, or work that we do, but it's not the only time/place/environment in which one can/should/will learn or be educated. We do academics, but we place equal -if not more- emphasis and value on learning the many lessons life has to offer us.

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Any advice how to break the "school at home" habit? I'm finding myself pretty much wearing my hair in a bun writing on a blackboard. I need to :chillpill:

 

Oh, it's so much easier when they are little like yours are. When my youngest was that age, I kept all the school material within her reach on shelves...books, craft supplies, manipulatives, etc... and we did whatever interested her. I might bring out something now and then to see if she had any interest or suggest a game with something we had. I limited TV and computer severely (don't think she even went on computer at that age) and involved her in everything I was doing or learning. We did lots and lots of hands on learning and occasionally a workbook when she wanted to "do school" like her older brothers.

 

Try reading some of John Holt's writings or "Nurtured By Love" by Shinichi Suzuki for inspiration. I would not call myself an unschooler, per se, but definitely take what I like from those writings...the child as apprentice theories really appeal to me.

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Because at home, there are no round holes.

 

 

 

I don't want my little square peg rounded out. ;)

 

Love it! :iagree:

 

I would say that homeschooling is very good option for students who face difficulties in public or private schools.

 

:001_huh:

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Milovany: I checked everyone else's response before posting mine, saw you thought yours was too long, & gulped. But then I remembered: people probably skip what I write because I'm so long-winded anyway, so it probably doesn't matter. :001_huh:

 

So, uh, here's something of mine. One word summary: imagination + curiosity. (Shoot, that was a couple of words!0 Well...I'll put it in a quote block to make it, uh, more digestible. If you all put me on ignore after this, I'll understand.

 

My ten-year-old, upon hearing “problem-based learning,†groaned and asked, “Does that mean I have to do more problems?†I think his question articulates a critical issue in education: curricula often deviates so starkly from real life that we are able to understand “problems†as finite mathematical operations that we “do.†It is no wonder, then, that our children come to us asking, “When will I need to know this?â€

 

Imagine a learner so curious, so utterly enthusiastic about acquiring knowledge and processing that knowledge into practical applications and innovative solutions, that he never asks the question, “When will I need to know this?†Problem-based learning creates these learners by rousing their innate curiosity, a natural, renewable energy source that will propel individual engines of scholarship, so that the solitary diesel engine of the teacher no longer has to drag the mammoth busload of students at a single crawling pace—so slow it sends the curiosity of some into dormancy, while its speed gives others whiplash. PBL turns traditional education on its end, moving both responsibility and motivation for learning from being the primary function of the teacher to being the natural outcome of the student, connecting concepts to applications, and creating new generations of expert problem-solvers who know that “problems†are much more than mathematical operations.

 

PBL achieves this miracle like spark plugs working upon fuel: it provides a story or “scenario†to ignite a person’s curiosity, causing mental gears to push and pull and spin. Comparable to a hands-on version of a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, PBL gives students the opportunity to work through the stories they are given, acting in the role of an expert or eyewitness who might encounter the situation described. The student could be a soldier in Napoleon’s army or a biologist examining the role of mosquitoes in an ecosystem. He is guided through the scenario by the questions he himself raises in response to the sketch the teacher presents, and in this process, the teacher steps back to let the student explore his own ideas, prior knowledge, and resources, but throughout the process, the quiet presence of the teacher nearby is meant to support the student’s budding confidence and redirect steps taken too far off course. Problem-based learning is a strategy toward education that utilizes the benefits of experiential and explorative learning, such as that obtained in an internship, within the safety and support of teacher-guided “scenarios.â€

 

First, PBL is a strategy, a way of teaching a concept rather than a specific curriculum or tool. PBL seeks to offer students authentic experiences in which a real-life problem moves them toward their own exploration, questions, and discovery. Students who are asked to research the conflict in the Middle East and write a report will be generally less enthusiastic than students who are asked to act as a reporter for those problems or an ambassador from Iraq, Afghanistan, or the United States.

 

Whether writing a paper or working through a PBL scenario, students will need to gather information. In the PBL scenario, however, the information-gathering has an authentic purpose, so it does not feel like research in the traditional sense. Working to influence his audience to watch his news station rather than a competing network or making a passionate plea for humanitarian aid or a peace treaty, students presenting the results of their research within the context of a PBL scenario will have more options for delivering their results and more at stake than a test grade when they do so. The point is not a five-paragraph essay with topic sentences and three supporting points but a real encounter with a complex problem.

 

PBL is comparable to an internship, minus the liability. Only fully trained medical students can begin to work with patients, and while college interns might work on Wall Street or in a political office, middle school and high school students will rarely have such an opportunity. It is these encounters with life and people and opposing points of view that motivate and inspire us to reach for our potential. An interior design student may have learned color theory and sketching, but working with clients, with space requirements, and with budgetary constraints are other, distinct lessons. Internships are a key aspect of career training and character development, and PBL brings them to the classroom and students into the world.

 

The role of an internship is to move a student from textbook answers to recognizing exceptions and comorbidity, from defining nouns to identifying them in sentences, from reciting protocol to following and breaking it. PBL seeks to do the same by raising bridges between prior knowledge, new concepts, and the application of both. Pattern recognition in mathematical sequencing at one time had not been applied to science or weather, but when a mathematician took his prior knowledge and applied it to concepts that were new to him, he discovered a repeating pattern that existed throughout nature, from weather to plants and land formations. This discovery is known as Chaos Theory.

 

Likewise, PBL relies upon students’ prior knowledge as a catalyst for generating questions regarding new concepts. A steam engine forces pistons to move as a result of steam pressure, but this idea suggested the later combustion engine to someone. Prior knowledge is used to process new information in a similar way, but when the engine is converted and a PBL scenario is provided, the potential of the engine-model is exponentially increased. The scenario provides the tiny explosions that spark the curiosity, but like spark plugs come in differing qualities, so too do the scenarios differ: it is the student’s imagination that gives them their volatility. Imagination and curiosity work together to invent solutions to the scenarios presented to students, and this challenging process aids a metamorphosis in learners. When explosive pressure triggers the thrust of a piston, the student is not only moved; he is changed. A revolution occurs within him, and the cocoon of his curiosity bursts open to reveal the vibrant creature he was intended to be.

 

She begins to see herself as a person with solutions. He begins to approach impossible problems with insightful questions. They become creators of new technologies, new international relations, new procedures, cures, and treatments. They generate the questions with which the next generation will find its wings as well.

 

It is in this final statement that one finds the hopeful end of PBL: thinkers and innovators proliferating themselves and thereby the ability to solve the unknown problems held by the future and not limited to “doing†mathematical operations. Problem-based learning is to traditional curricula as living books are to textbooks, as breathing is to a ventilator: one is real, the other is an artificial replacement for life. These temporary, artificial solutions may fill a present need, but if we hope to triumph over the crises of the future, we must wean ourselves from the artificial so that we can face the real.

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In short - children are individuals; you can't treat them like a herd of cattle and expect them to reach their potential.

 

That is it in a nutshell!!!!! I might put that on my fb wall. Lets see what kinda comments I get from THAT :lol:

 

Imagine being a teacher (by nature, profession, both, whatever) and finding out after 9 weeks, the week before grades are due...that your ps 4th grader had failed e.v.e.r.y. math test so far that year. (with no note home, phone call, anything after the 1st or even 2nd test and that they had around 6 or 7) Imagine having to explain to the teacher that you are there to help your child, you want your child to succeed, and to please let you know what you are working on, what she needs help with, etc...and still after hearing nothing, finding out at the 2nd 9 weeks that she had failed every math test again...and no I didn't just wait 9 weeks before each time I asked how she was doing, I kept asking and no she couldn't bring home a math book and no the teacher didn't input data to the ps grade website thing to keep us informed week to week, everything was entered in the 8th week or the 15th week. I'd say it was the teacher, the same grading program showed the class average on each test, my daughter failed each test, while the class average was a D. (But I heard the same frustration from another parent whose child was in a different class...after we withdrew.) While that wasn't upsetting enough, even tho she failed every single test, she was still passing. So sad that that early on you can see your child pegged to pass even tho she didn't, we started home schooling because I flashed forward and saw her graduating & not knowing what she needs. We added our 2nd in the middle of 1st grade after being bullied to tears....All since then we've all healed and moved on :)

 

And so from then on our philosophy has been mastery, enjoyment, & curiosity, and I love having more time to just "be" with & love my kids...

 

My oldest went to PS through 4th grade. She was always on the "A" honor roll. All 4 marking periods. I pull the kiddos out for our first year homeschooling (1st and 5th graders) and my 5th grader opens up her 5th grade BJU math book (NOT at ALL advanced-) and she looks at me like :001_huh:. Ok, I get BJU 4th grade math. Again, I get :001_huh: I had to back my public school HONOR ROLL student up to BJU 3rd grade math. It took us 13 months, of doing math 7 days a week to get her caught up. And she was on the honor roll. What does that say for the kids that were struggling in math? Our PS system here is so pathetic its sad. Truly sad.

:grouphug:

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