Is there anyone out there homeschooling who was a not a very good student in school?

[helena]

:blushing:

 

I know there are a lot of well educated people on this forum who thrived in high school and college. I was not one of those people. I was a C student with a lot of problems at home. My mind was everywhere but on my studies. I was in survival mode, had almost no accountability, and I cared way too much about my social life... sigh. A lot of what ifs, if you know what I mean.

 

Well, here I am coming up on my 6th year homeschooling. Suddenly I'm feeling a bit unsure, nervous, and embarrassed I guess. I feel like we can make it through high school, if the girls continue to want this. I know I do. I feel in my gut we can do it and do it well.

 

We home school because we're a funky family and it fits our free lifestyle. Also, my kids both have tourettes, and enjoy the low stress environment homeschooling allows us. I have Lupus and it's an amazing we to spend my limited energy with the girls. Homeschooling really works for us.

 

 

I want the girls to homeschool in a rich, engaging, and thoughtful environment. I have high hopes and higher expectations. The girls are clearly experiencing school on a different level than I did. I've had good luck finding curriculum that works for us (thank goodness for WTM as a resource). Also, in my defense, I'm not a total ding-dong. :001_smile: I'm well traveled, I have diverse and meaningful friendships and experiences... I have valuable things to pass on to them.

 

I was a blech student though. There doesn't seem to be any ignoring that lately.

 

 

SOOO... anyone else dealing with the same kind of doubts and regrets?

How do you make peace with your own shoddy education and giving your kids a great experience despite it? Does your confidence waver as you approach middle and high school?

Are you working over time to stay a step ahead of the kids academically, do you not and just go with the flow? Do you feel like you can educate your kids just as well as the folks who did well in school? Any tips or words of wisdom to help me along? :bigear:

 

Will you stop at some point because you don't feel like your qualified?

 

*Sorry about any poor writing here.. I'm a bit embarrassed to post this knowing that it's probably chock full of mistakes. I really am trying. I never want to stop trying to improve myself. I know I have a long way to go. I also know that some people think I have no business homeschooling.

Edited August 22, 2011 by helena

[Lily_Grace]

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain

 

;)

 

 

 

I was a crap student. I skipped school too much, turned in half done work and still graduated near the top of my class thanks to low standards. But I don't believe high school was my education and it's certainly not what I want to give my kids. I didn't stop my education when I walked that line and you didn't either.

 

I figure when we get to the high school years I'll be learning more along with my kid - heck, even in junior high I'm learning along with him.

[swellmomma]

I was a smart student when I went to class and did the work :) Grade 12 chemistry I never went to class, never wrote a unit exam etc yet when I wrote the provincial final exam I managed to get a mark high enough to pass the course (Just! the test was worth 50% of my grade, I passed the course with a 51%).

 

Grade 12 math I took TWICE and my second time through it I only got a 67%. I blame that on the teacher though. She was the type that refused to answer questions in class (she would lecture from the time class started, until it ended, no questions allowed), she also refused to meet with students to get help. I could not understand several concepts and was lost the whole year. Thankfully when my kids get to that stage, I will have been redoing all that work to learn it, I will have access to teachers with our school board AND my sister teaches high school math at the college for adults that need it. She has already said she will tutor the kids if/when it is needed.

 

My marks in high school were decent other than those 2 classes. (70s-80s despite skipping most classes most days). I am just bright enough to get by but in no way as smart as so many on this board. I have gone off to college a couple times despite how I did in school but usually it is for diploma/certificate type programs not degrees (though I did start a degree before having my 1st).

[Rosie_0801]

I was a C student with a lot of problems at home.

 

:cheers2:

 

I was mostly a C student and had enough problems at home to make things a bit more difficult than they needed to be. I went to uni as a mature age student and got the equivalent of a C on the entrance test, which turned out to be the 96th percentile or something. So perhaps a C isn't so bad in the scheme of things, or at least the scheme of people trying to get into uni as mature age students that year. :p Thanks to a lecturer in my second year at uni who told me there was no reason I should be a C student considering my interest and dedication, who then actually taught me to write (they glossed over that a bit too briefly in high school,) I managed to boost my marks from C's to B's and A's. I got accepted into honours but decided to have babies instead, still it goes to show that a person can get a long way by showing up and being interested!

 

How do you make peace with your own shoddy education and giving your kids a great experience despite it?

 

I do what I can to improve my education and accept that perfection isn't an option. I remember perfection wouldn't be possible no matter how great a student I might have been because life isn't perfect. I'm quite sure if I stick at this, we'll do well because I'm capable of trying and have a thousand people here to help me work out where we are going wrong. Hey, my kid is only 4 and I've already had one book recommended to me that should help explain my little oddity, since there are others here (but not in my real life) with similar kinds of kids. I've learned enough about speech delays that going for an evaluation at our local clinic was a waste of time. (I'm quite sure there are speech therapists who make my measly amount of knowledge look like the little golden book version of speech therapy, but they don't work at our local clinic.) I've had my imagination expanded to include all sorts of things, which has allowed me to aim higher, because you can only aim as high as you can imagine. It's also shown me quite how many ways there are to skin a cat. Some of the ladies on the high school boards do stuff I would never have thought of in a million years, because I am not that imaginative. So if it turns out we can't climb as high as I dream, I know there's support in climbing even further sideways and that is just as valuable.

 

Does your confidence waver as you approach middle and high school?

 

I wouldn't know yet! But unless we move to a higher socio-economic area, I doubt it. I imagine what my kids will miss are things they would miss even if they were in school because we are not wealthy. A school trip to New Caledonia is great if you can afford it, but if you can't, what good is the offer doing you?

 

Are you working over time to stay a step ahead of the kids academically, do you not and just go with the flow?

 

I expect I'll do a bit of both. There are some subjects where I'm trying to get a head start. When it comes to history and science, though, there's so much of it and I'm not sure how I could decide what constitutes "enough."

 

Will you stop at some point because you don't feel like your qualified?

 

Probably, but I doubt public school will be the answer. There are other places to learn. But heavy academic loads aren't my highest priority in high school (different places have different rules) and I can worry about that later.

 

I also know that some people think I have no business homeschooling.

 

Some people should do their research before mouthing off. I'll bet none of those people know what you read or what you think about when they're not looking. Has anyone ever said "How do you learn how to do this? I want to read what you read."

 

Rosie

[Tam101]

:blushing:

I was a C student with a lot of problems at home. My mind was everywhere but on my studies. I was in survival mode, had almost no accountability, and I cared way too much about my social life... sigh. A lot of what ifs, if you know what I mean.

 

:iagree: except for having problems at home. Life at home was easy, maybe to easy. As long as I got my chores done, was home by midnight and didn't fail a class no one questioned me. Since those were the goals set for me those were the goals I met. D's were frowned upon, but it was a pass, so I just got glare with a do better next time. Mostly made C's, with A's in electives, B's in math because I liked math, you did the work and you were either right or wrong, I liked that structure. Writing, history, science, social studies....:tongue_smilie:

[Joyofsixreboot]

Well, I was a " bad" kid. I'm still surprised they let me keep my kids:tongue_smilie: I'm not sure doing well or poorly in school reflects your intelligence. I think the desire to learn is more important. The knowledge you've gained from life experience is something they couldn't learn about in a book either.

[....]

:blushing:

 

I know there are a lot of well educated people on this forum who thrived in high school and college. I was not one of those people. I was a C student with a lot of problems at home. My mind was everywhere but on my studies. I was in survival mode, had almost no accountability, and I cared way too much about my social life... sigh. A lot of what ifs, if you know what I mean.

 

I actually left high school during my junior year. I never finished. I don't think we missed anything. :D

 

 

Several years later, I did go to college and I ended up with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. Honestly, no one at the university cared about my cr*ppy high school career. ;) High school was just so silly and pointless. :tongue_smilie:

[KristenR]

I did very poorly in high school. I had no motivation and no desire. I think one of the main things I learned in high school was how to skate with the minimal amount of effort and just get by.

 

When I was 25 I had an awesome boss who convinced me to try a local liberal arts college. I was terrified because I thought I was a less than average student but my boss was adamant that I would do well.

 

And in that environment, I did. I was a 4.0 student and got accepted for the honors program. I was amazed at how education could be fun and meaningful and not "school". I loved learning.

 

After I had children of my own and contemplated public school I knew I didn't want my kids waiting until their 20s to have learning and education play a meaningful role in their life. I figured I would take matters into my own hands.

 

Take heart! You are not alone!

[Mommee & Baba]

I was a C student with a lot of problems at home. My mind was everywhere but on my studies. I was in survival mode, had almost no accountability, and I cared way too much about my social life... sigh. A lot of what ifs, if you know what I mean.

 

Sadly, :iagree: for my sake too.

 

However most subjects I didn't even get a C! I was more of a D student.

 

What I've found for me as a homeschooling mom going into my 5th year of homeschooling is THIS is education. I am LOVING it! And even more so that I get to really LEARN all this stuff the WAY I can retain it with my precious children! I wouldn't have it any other way. There is nothing like really figuring out the work together as a team because mom wants to know it too!

 

I couldn't stand most school-work or the way it was being taught when I was in school...again because really my mind was elsewhere...but now that I'm teaching these subjects I'm finding the hands on way of teaching and it's fun for us all! I am now finding myself flipping through a history book an hour or more AFTER the lesson has ended with the kids and they are off playing...because I crave the education.

 

So although I graduated I really am learning NOW what I should've learned years ago.

[laundrycrisis]

I was not a very good student in K-12. I was good at LA but nothing else. I was in the gifted program but underachieved in all subjects except LA. I was passed several years in math. In middle and high school I did not get good grades. I had to repeat a couple of classes. I had to do catch-up homework over breaks to rescue my grades and not be held back. Graduating on schedule was a concern. I got into college on the basis of my ACT score alone, not my GPA. I was almost rejected but then the counselor said that perhaps college could be a second chance for me.

 

I struggled in college. I was on academic probation pretty much every other semester. It was very stressful. I also had to drop my enrolled hours down to part time (below 12 credit hours per semester) a couple of times to keep from being in over my head and damaging my GPA too much. I was allowed some consideration from the admissions office for this because I was working part time, otherwise I would not have been allowed to switch between part time and full time enrollment over and over again. It took me a full five years including some summer, intercession and correspondence classes to graduate.

 

I earned an engineering degree literally by the skin of my teeth. Up to truly the last day of the last grade reporting period for which I was enrolled, my graduation was in question waiting on my final grade for one class. This was very stressful because I already had a job lined up to go to and an apartment rented. I found out a few years later that one of my department profs was drinking buddies with the prof of the class in question and had called to inquire about my final grade. I was not going to pass because the prof was grading a small summer class on a curve system and I was the bottom performer in the class, so even though I had met the minimum % of points to pass per the university scale, I was the bottom student so it would be an automatic F. My dept prof convinced this guy that I had done my time for five full years, worked hard, while working part time, had a job to go to, would be a good engineer, would never need this subject (dynamics), and had after all cleared the 60% scale, and so I was given a C in the class and graduated on schedule.

 

So yes, both K-12 and college were mighty struggles for me. I still have nightmares. :( I know that I am smart, but learning from books on a rigid schedule and taking tests while filled with anxiety is not the way my mind works.

 

I went on to do just fine. I was a good engineer and I earned my PE license, passing that test on the first try. IMO this is proof that the way the school system is set up is not a way of learning or demonstrating learning that suits everyone. This is a huge part of why I want to home school our kids all the way through. I want them to have the freedom to arrange a different experience of academics than I had. It does not need to be so painful. It does not need to be a setup for failure for a person whose mind works a bit differently. I want to find what works for each of them and do that.

 

By the time I was several years out of college, I took the PE exam, and then I started taking undergrad classes in computer science. I nailed every class with near 100% grades. My experience going back to college was completely different because by then, I had gone off into my life and figured out my own approach to how to learn and I was able to apply that to the classes. My K-12 and first college experience would have been so different if I had had the opportunity to find my own way of learning at some point. K-12 followed immediately by full time university enrollment was such a crush for me, I never had that chance. I want homeschooling to give our boys that chance, so that by the time they go to college or whatever, they have found their own way of learning.

 

Sorry this is such a long answer. But I believe my experiences of being a poor student will help me be a very good home educating parent. I hope our kids will benefit from my experiences.

Edited August 22, 2011 by laundrycrisis

[sewgirlie]

:grouphug:

 

One of the main reasons we homeschool is the fact that my dh and I were poor students. I was bored to death, so I didn't do the work. He couldn't keep up and didn't get the help he needed.

[helena]

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories and for the much needed encouragement.

 

If there was a degree from the school of hard knocks... well I'd have it! :001_huh:

My 2 years of CC unfortunately were also a joke. I'm kicking myself now, that I wasted a second opportunity to master the basics. WHY??!! Why didn't I take the time to learn the basics of writing (among other things)??

I was busy doing bronze metal casting and other art classes, then when it was time to finish up and think about transferring I bailed. On school, my family, the country... you name it, I didn't want to do the hard parts. :glare:

 

I don't just have hard knock smarts, I've read my fair share of good books, I've always enjoyed staying on top of current events and all the jazz.

It's just that the kids are getting older and smarter, and I'm starting to feel my limits in some subjects in a way that bothers me. Also, looking back, last year was not one of our better years. Not bad by any means, but I'm doing a lot of reflecting and adjusting. I really see our weaknesses right now.

 

Lots to think about.

Oh boy... I can do this, right?

 

PS: Thanks Rosie, for reminding me I don't have to be perfect. :001_smile:

[laundrycrisis]

Oh boy... I can do this, right?

 

:grouphug: I believe you can.

[Mommy22alyns]

:blushing:

 

I know there are a lot of well educated people on this forum who thrived in high school and college. I was not one of those people. I was a C student with a lot of problems at home. My mind was everywhere but on my studies. I was in survival mode, had almost no accountability, and I cared way too much about my social life... sigh. A lot of what ifs, if you know what I mean.

 

Well, here I am coming up on my 6th year homeschooling. Suddenly I'm feeling a bit unsure, nervous, and embarrassed I guess. I feel like we can make it through high school, if the girls continue to want this. I know I do. I feel in my gut we can do it and do it well.

 

We home school because we're a funky family and it fits our free lifestyle. Also, my kids both have tourettes, and enjoy the low stress environment homeschooling allows us. I have Lupus and it's an amazing we to spend my limited energy with the girls. Homeschooling really works for us.

 

 

I want the girls to homeschool in a rich, engaging, and thoughtful environment. I have high hopes and higher expectations. The girls are clearly experiencing school on a different level than I did. I've had good luck finding curriculum that works for us (thank goodness for WTM as a resource). Also, in my defense, I'm not a total ding-dong. :001_smile: I'm well traveled, I have diverse and meaningful friendships and experiences... I have valuable things to pass on to them.

 

I was a blech student though. There doesn't seem to be any ignoring that lately.

 

 

SOOO... anyone else dealing with the same kind of doubts and regrets?

How do you make peace with your own shoddy education and giving your kids a great experience despite it? Does your confidence waver as you approach middle and high school?

Are you working over time to stay a step ahead of the kids academically, do you not and just go with the flow? Do you feel like you can educate your kids just as well as the folks who did well in school? Any tips or words of wisdom to help me along? :bigear:

 

Will you stop at some point because you don't feel like your qualified?

 

*Sorry about any poor writing here.. I'm a bit embarrassed to post this knowing that it's probably chock full of mistakes. I really am trying. I never want to stop trying to improve myself. I know I have a long way to go. I also know that some people think I have no business homeschooling.

 

 

:grouphug: I was a good student in high school, but I don't have a college degree. I don't even have enough credits to be a sophomore. So I relate to a lot of your fears! Now I'm going back to read the good advice. :lurk5:

[meggie]

I think I was pretty smart, at least in elementary school. I found my old ITBS scores and I had 95 and 93 and 91 percentiles. That's not too bad, I don't think, probably normal for our school. But I never did well in school because I never did my homework. I would always procrastinate projects and have to stay after school to complete them. When working with other kids, I did a good job of making sure the work got done. I don't think I was unwilling, it's just my parents weren't the type to check up on me and make sure I was doing it.

 

By the time I got to high school I felt really dumb, but that was ok, since the main point was to have fun. Anyways, part of the reason we're homeschooling is to make sure our kids get a really good education.

 

I would highly recommend listening to SWB's lecture on educating yourself. I was listening to it yesterday and it gave me hope. I don't know how far this homeschooling journey will go, I'm hoping all the way through. But if I need to, I will spend a lot of money on Teaching Textbooks and other curricula that explains it all to the student. I plan on learning with them, but I need something that guides the way.

[zenjenn]

Well, I was an honor student, but not a good student. That is, I took AP and honors courses, but I scraped by with "ok" grades and I avoided taking anything challenging that I didn't have to (such as Calculus or advanced science.)

 

I remember being actively recruited for Academic Decathlon because the team desperately needed reasonably bright participants for the "C" and "B" average slots. My response was "no thanks!"

 

I enjoyed college a lot more, but I also didn't particularly apply myself.

 

For me it came down to a lack of ambition. I'm still not terribly ambitious, but I am bright, passionate, and curious by nature. I love homeschooling and I am a truly willing spirit when it comes to something I choose to do - and right now, that is homeschooling. I am not too proud to sit there and learn from a book for 2nd graders if it is something new to me.

 

 

I don't think you need to have a past as an ambitious student to be a great homeschooling parent. I do think a true teacher's role is in any case that of a facilitator rather than a bestower of knowledge. As long as you are dedicated to educating your child and willing to come down to their level and admit what you don't know (and learn along with your kids), you can achieve success.

 

Assuming, of course, you are reasonably competent/literate at a basic level.