S/O --- Are you a rebel in your thinking re: homeschooling?

[llifeon18wheels]

I wrote this earlier and I think it bears more discussion:

 

I want to say that this topic, Teaching Textbooks being a little behind, was a teaching point with me. It helped me to finally grasp the greatness of homeschooling and letting go of life-long ideas of what we do without thinking. Let me explain.

 

I am 46 years old but I'm sure that moms of all ages have come to this realization too. I had some pre-conceived notions about school when I started. I actually took me about 4 months to figure out that these notions were put there by my previous life (public school) and that I was one that knew nothing about bucking the system. Some of those notions were:

 

1. School is from August to May

2. Tests are the only way to know what a child knows

3. Textbooks are filled with ALL the information there is on a subject

4. A child progresses from grade to grade over the summer and at no other time

5. A child is in grade 5 (for example) in each subject - Math, English, Science, History

6. Summer school is for the dumb kids

 

Now, I have totally bucked the system and I don't follow those notions at all because they're all antiquated and false. Thank God for enlightenment and encouragement from others that have been there done that.

 

I feel so free and love it that I'm a rebel.

[Rosie_0801]

Get yourself one of these:

 

http://www.cafepress.com/mf/28239786/cafepress8_tshirt?shop=vtfamily&productId=271800833

[llifeon18wheels]

Get yourself one of these:

 

http://www.cafepress.com/mf/28239786/cafepress8_tshirt?shop=vtfamily&productId=271800833

Fabulous :D

[Mommyfaithe]

 

it only took you 4 months to figure that out?? Either you are a genius or I am a dumb@ss. I am hoping the former. :-)

 

 

I wrote this earlier and I think it bears more discussion:

 

I want to say that this topic, Teaching Textbooks being a little behind, was a teaching point with me. It helped me to finally grasp the greatness of homeschooling and letting go of life-long ideas of what we do without thinking. Let me explain.

 

I am 46 years old but I'm sure that moms of all ages have come to this realization too. I had some pre-conceived notions about school when I started. I actually took me about 4 months to figure out that these notions were put there by my previous life (public school) and that I was one that knew nothing about bucking the system. Some of those notions were:

 

1. School is from August to May

2. Tests are the only way to know what a child knows

3. Textbooks are filled with ALL the information there is on a subject

4. A child progresses from grade to grade over the summer and at no other time

5. A child is in grade 5 (for example) in each subject - Math, English, Science, History

6. Summer school is for the dumb kids

 

Now, I have totally bucked the system and I don't follow those notions at all because they're all antiquated and false. Thank God for enlightenment and encouragement from others that have been there done that.

 

I feel so free and love it that I'm a rebel.

Yeah, I am quite the rebel!

[My3girls]

I figured out number 6 in high school when I bucked the system and took Chemistry in summer school to fit another science onto my transcript. It was quite the bureaucratic event back then. As for the rest, I'm still struggling to let go. Lol. Good for you and I love that t-shirt!

[Ellie]

My first homeschool mentor was an unschooler. She gave me all of John Holt's newsletters, and sent me to the library to read his books. So I did...all of them...within about a two-week time period. So I jumped into homeschooling (two weeks from the day my dd came home from school crying over her first-grade ABeka arithmetic homework) with all my preconceived ideas about children and learning all blowing about  like dust in the wind. :D

 

I have always been the odd man out.

[dbmamaz]

This was something that forms the basis of my homeschool, actually, that none of that is true.  Maybe because I read some Holt books more than a decade before I started homeschooling?  Or because I did math with high-schoolers when I was in middle school?  Idk.  

[texasmama]

1. School is from August to May

2. Tests are the only way to know what a child knows

3. Textbooks are filled with ALL the information there is on a subject

4. A child progresses from grade to grade over the summer and at no other time

5. A child is in grade 5 (for example) in each subject - Math, English, Science, History

6. Summer school is for the dumb kids

 

Now, I have totally bucked the system and I don't follow those notions at all because they're all antiquated and false. Thank God for enlightenment and encouragement from others that have been there done that.

 

I feel so free and love it that I'm a rebel.

I never thought of myself as a rebel, but maybe I am just comparing myself to the wrong "crowd".  ;)

 

Pretty much I have ditched your 1-6, but at my kids' request, we do the bulk of our yearly school August - May.  We do summer school, though.

[Dolphin]

I have another couple to add.

 

7. The school day is from 8:10-3:10

8. School must happen at a desk or table

9. lunch comes before recess

 

 

[helent97]

Get yourself one of these:

 

http://www.cafepress.com/mf/28239786/cafepress8_tshirt?shop=vtfamily&productId=271800833

 

Ha! Great shirt.

[My3girls]

I have another couple to add.

 

7. The school day is from 8:10-3:10

8. School must happen at a desk or table

9. lunch comes before recess

Oh, no! That was an easy one to ditch. Ours is 10-2:30 most days, but it's always subject to change.

[OneStepAtATime]

DD and I had a good laugh at the thread and the t-shirt.  Yes!  Although we look pretty darn conservative on the outside we are REBELS!

 

It just took us a bit to realize it.  

 

DD starts school by 645am because she wants to.

DS starts school at 9ish because he functions better later in the morning than DD.

And they are all over the place on what "grade level" material they are working on.  And that is a GOOD thing.  They are working where they need to be, not where someone who has never met them thinks they should be at using preconceived notions of education that have little to do with reality.  The kids are finally thriving!  And happy (well, most of the time :) )

 

Be a rebel!!!  We love it!

[Indian summer]

10. The school day must include a fifteen minute recess.

[Indian summer]

Oh yeah, and the whole "early to bed, early to rise..." . We've certainly rebelled against that.

[dbmamaz]

Recently i've been noticing so many people talking about how hard and even traumatic school was for them, and while part of me worries, still, because I'm not forcing my kids in to that public school mold, more often I'm really grateful that my kids get to have so many years of HAPPY childhood, free from the various traumas they were suffering at school.  Its sometimes hard to really remember that, yes, kids can grow to be successful adults without being churned through the factory-model education

[Ellie]

Furthermore, I am the mother, not the teacher**; I have children, not students; my children are ages, not grade levels. Learning happens 365 days a year, which begins January 1 and ends December 31, not September through May (although our learning might look different in the summer than it does in the winter. Or spring, or fall.).

 

**Unless someone outside the family asks if I'm a teacher; I always say "yes."

[Walking-Iris]

I've always been a bit of the rebel. I knew we were going to homeschool while pregnant with my oldest. I was surrounded by hippie unschooling Moms who now send their kids to The Farm for school or live in Portland. ;)

 

I knew I was going to breastfeed, cosleep, babywear, and raise my kids as vegetarians. It took two kids having vaccine injuries, one reported, to push me to the unvaccinating side. 

 

I'm also not against using whatever seems to fit the need---free online resources, curriculum, "living books", workbooks, textbooks, unit studies, unschooling, mommy made lesson plans, bought lesson plans and schedules etc. I've dabbled in most of them. I'm not too proud to use anything. I can't really label myself Classical, unschooling, or anything else. 

 

Anything and everything, any and every method, is game if it fits the moment!

 

Although I am settling into my happy place with what I use, and I find I research less and less. 

 

And "school" is definitely not something "other than" our regular home life. I want my children to approach learning as a way of life. Something that they are never finished doing. It's not about tests, grades, STEM tracks, competitive education or any other nonsense. For me homeschooling is an education for life. It's learning something interesting for the sake of it, learning to be able to survive (because frankly that is more important than grades or what college you get into---just being able to function in a daily capacity--and have the skills and knowledge to do the next thing, explore the next corner, go on to the next thing you want to pursue). And learning is for self actualization. To just simply BE a happy, well rounded, and curious human being. 

 

I imagine I'll be that mother sending my children interesting books and things to learn all their lives. Homeschooling definitely will not stop at high school graduation.

[Ellie]

 

I imagine I'll be that mother sending my children interesting books and things to learn all their lives. Homeschooling definitely will not stop at high school graduation.

 

Oh, and I don't believe that 12 years are required to bring up a well-educated adult person, who is ready to go on to the next phase of her life. When I owned/administered a PSP (private school satellite program) in California, my policy for "graduation" was when the parents, the children, and I thought that the children had learned as much at home as they were gonna. :-)

[OneStepAtATime]

And I will add that when a child is struggling with an area of learning, I love being able to take as long as we need to help them over that hump.  It doesn't matter how old they are or what grade they are "supposed" to be in.  Give them that time, do whatever is necessary to help them learn and hopefully thrive in that area and stop worrying about the "grade level".

 

And learning with others who are different ages from you can be an awesome experience.  I love being "rebellious" and saying, "Hey, your 7 year old seems really interested in ____________.  My 10 year old is learning that too.  Would they like to come over and explore this with us today?"  DS LOVES to work with younger kids...and learns so much more by helping youngers.  He wishes we had had more kids.  So many of my ps neighbors don't understand that at all.

[La Texican]

Yup, it shows in the unofficial name of our homeschool (which my husband came up with). Mayhem University Prep. We're just winging it. We're all committed to doing a good job, but we're totally making it up as we go along. 😊

[KrissiK]

Good for you! Although the one overarching concept is..... You do what works for you! For us, we do school when everyone else does school because we have a neighborhood full of kids, and it just doesn't work to have a schedule too much different than they have. My kids don't want to do math when everyone else is out riding bike.

[llifeon18wheels]

FABULOUS response everyone. I so enjoyed reading this thread when I woke up.

 

Thank you than you :D

[Wheres Toto]

I wrote this earlier and I think it bears more discussion:

 

I want to say that this topic, Teaching Textbooks being a little behind, was a teaching point with me. It helped me to finally grasp the greatness of homeschooling and letting go of life-long ideas of what we do without thinking. Let me explain.

 

I am 46 years old but I'm sure that moms of all ages have come to this realization too. I had some pre-conceived notions about school when I started. I actually took me about 4 months to figure out that these notions were put there by my previous life (public school) and that I was one that knew nothing about bucking the system. Some of those notions were:

 

1. School is from August to May

2. Tests are the only way to know what a child knows

3. Textbooks are filled with ALL the information there is on a subject

4. A child progresses from grade to grade over the summer and at no other time

5. A child is in grade 5 (for example) in each subject - Math, English, Science, History

6. Summer school is for the dumb kids

 

Now, I have totally bucked the system and I don't follow those notions at all because they're all antiquated and false. Thank God for enlightenment and encouragement from others that have been there done that.

 

I feel so free and love it that I'm a rebel.

[Wheres Toto]

This is my first time here on a tablet so im going to just apologize first since

 

im not sue what im doing.

 

We gave up on 1,4,5, and 6 right from the start. In fact,4 and 5 are part of the reason we homeschool. And i like year round with breaks as needed/wanted.

 

And maybe because we started young, 2 and 3 never were a concern either.

[mamaraby]

How about school days are not just M-F and a weekend isn't just two days long. We follow dh's rotating work schedule for Tues & Wed was our weekend and Sat/Sun were school days. Every other weekend is three days long.

 

I figure it's prep for possible shift work in the future. Not everyone in the world works M-F, is home for dinner, and has Sat-Sun off.

[LibraryLover]

In 8th grade, I wrote a report on AS Neill's Summerhill.  That was a long time ago.   (I got an A, but my teacher wrote, "I don't think you give enough time to educators who see serious flaws in Neill's philosopy."  lol I can still see his red ink on the onion skin paper. ;))

[Walking-Iris]

Good for you! Although the one overarching concept is..... You do what works for you! For us, we do school when everyone else does school because we have a neighborhood full of kids, and it just doesn't work to have a schedule too much different than they have. My kids don't want to do math when everyone else is out riding bike.

 

But I would never make my kids do math if everyone was out riding bikes anyway.

 

In 8th grade, I wrote a report on AS Neill's Summerhill.  That was a long time ago.   (I got an A, but my teacher wrote, "I don't think you give enough time to educators who see serious flaws in Neill's philosopy."  lol I can still see his red ink on the onion skin paper. ;))

 

Love Summerhill. His books were big in my thinking about a load of things. Don't worry about those "serious flaws", that school is alive and thriving still, and his daughter Zoe has grown up to be a wonderful and well rounded, educated (and definitely feisty) woman. (I'm email pen pals with her...she's open to answer any question from anyone about education.)

 

if i could pack up and move to the UK and my kids could go to Summerhill, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

[happypamama]

I love Mayhem University Prep! I think we're running a satellite campus here.

 

Maybe I'm a bit of a rebel. For the mainstream, yep. For my local homeschooling group, not really. For what I knew growing up, not significantly. My parents were homeschoolers back in the nineties; their original motivation was different from mine, but as time went on, they came to see homeschooling more as I do (learning is 24/7 and may or may not look like textbooks, no need to push academics on littles, etc.), so that's really how I formed my thoughts about homeschooling.

 

I do find it hard sometimes to separate mom from teacher with my older kids (like, how much to insist upon them doing, even when it is hard work -- the balance between "this will help them grow" and "this is too much" can be hard to find), and as they get older, and I have more small children, there is less learning together than I would ideally have and more independent work that is meeting each child at his or her level.

[Hunter]

What are you called when rebels, think you are crazy, and say you are the type of homeschooler that gives homeschooling a bad reputation? :lol: I actually had another homeschooler report me! The schoolboard didn't want to hear about it, because the last thing they wanted was my kid back in their school.

 

Domestic abuse turned me into a much more submissive person than I was born to be. But I was also raised in more than one country, and in more than one family. And my mom was born into hereditary witchcraft with a veneer of Catholic and Episcopal, but then raised us in ultraconservative Christianity and cults. I understood there was more than one way to do things. So even though I submitted, and was sometimes temporarily brainwashed into thinking something was THE way, deep down I knew that there were others equally convinced their ways were THE way.

 

And my youngest kid was a brilliant aspie, and the older one–I don't know what to call him other than socially precocious artist. But even if I had been normal, they would have taken the family for a ride. And then their dad was his own kind of brilliant bullying funny crazy.

 

Now my life is way out there in different ways from the way out there of before the divorce. I don't even have a name for what I am now. People laugh a lot when I talk, though. That is if they are not freaking out.

[Tress]

Good for you! Although the one overarching concept is..... You do what works for you! For us, we do school when everyone else does school because we have a neighborhood full of kids, and it just doesn't work to have a schedule too much different than they have. My kids don't want to do math when everyone else is out riding bike.

That's what I was thinking too! I have no trouble working at different grade levels, not doing tests, using all kinds of materials instead of textbooks, but I can't get the hang of schooling year round or at other times during the day. At 15:00 all the neighbourhood kids arrive at our door and I can forget everything I would like to do with my kids.

[freeindeed]

Get yourself one of these:

 

http://www.cafepress.com/mf/28239786/cafepress8_tshirt?shop=vtfamily&productId=271800833

 

I want one!!! I taught public school for seven years prior to homeschooling, so it took me a little while to ditch the whole "by the book" and "in the box" way of thinking. But when I let it go, I really let it go. We are a unit study, interest-led, Charlotte Mason, and Waldorfy mix all in one. We are truly learning all the time. :)

[La Texican]

Lol, Hunter, you sound like you're the headmistress of Our Lady of Divergance Academy of Philosophy.

[ThisIsTheDay]

We pulled my kid out half way through first grade.  She was the one who insisted, for the rest of the school year, on saying the pledge daily, on sitting at a school desk, on eating lunch at "lunch" time.  For the first couple of weeks, she also insisted we do each subject at the exact same time--and for the same length of time--as her old class.

 

Although I am quite rigid and structured in my regular life, I've always been much more relaxed as a homeschooler. I was good with read alouds, games, math workbooks, fun music appreciation, hands on science and art. We never did any of 1-6 listed above. 

 

My biggest faux pas was when we moved to a new area where most followed ABeka.,  One new homeschool mom was going on and on, so enthusiastic about her program, telling me how the kids would watch videos, how they turned in their work to her, and she sent it in to the parent company for accountability, how they were so happy they could pack a five day schedule into four days so they could do co-op.  I stood there with my mouth hanging open and responded, "That sounds absolutely dreadful."  But she gave me a lot of grace and was always very kind when she saw me. 

 

I don't think of it as a rebel at all. It's just the way homeschooling fits into real life.  :)

 

[HS Mom in NC]

Now, for today's lesson in homeschooling subcultures and educational philosophy,

When you hear people call themselves "Philosophical Homeschoolers" what some of them mean is they homeschooled from the beginning and never sent their kids to an institutional setting because they already believed all those things  before their kids were school aged and it was their primary motivation for homeschooling. In certain homeschooling circles they're called "Pioneers" as opposed to "Settlers" or "Refugees." Depending on your particular homeschooling community, you may or may not have been exposed to those types very much. The current homeschooling community is flooding with refugees who started their kids out in institutional settings and then brought them home because they were dissatisfied with their institutional setting for various reasons, so a lot of refugees assume most other homeschoolers are refugees too.  You can see why, since there are so many around.

 

Those that mimic school using various combinations of the things you listed are also sometimes "school at homers" as opposed to homeschoolers.  There was a long discussion about that recently and whether it's an offensive term or not. I use the term and at different stages of my homeschooling I am one to some degree for a while, so it doesn't bother me at all.

 

There are roughly, depending on how you count them, about 8 different homeschooling approaches and some intentionally avoid many of the things you listed because of their educational philosophies.  Some can be done either way.

[8filltheheart]

As part of the college application process, I had to write a school profile.   What I wrote emphasized that our educational approach does not resemble traditional schools and that our children's education did not embrace textbooks, worksheets, or tests but instead focused on developing strong independent interests and running with those passions and designing courses around those well-researched interests.

 

He received some great college offers.  :)  So it obviously wasn't a problem.  

[OneStepAtATime]

As others have said, the best thing about homeschooling (or one of the best things) is that we can tailor the education to what works best for our kids and our families.  I have one child that really enjoys and asks for tests.  He even wants me to create quizzes for any documentary or slightly educational movie we watch.  I try to provide these when I can since he really wants them.  

 

However, I have another child that really does not want testing.  She took plenty of tests when she was still in school and there are times when she still takes tests at home, but it is so nice that I don't have to bombard her with 3 or 4 tests every week like when she was in school.   I work with her so closely I know where she is at on her subjects.  Testing really isn't necessary from that standpoint in most things.  Will she take standardized tests in high school?  Yes, because she and I have talked and we both feel that that is the best path for her.  And she does do some spelling tests because she really enjoys those (she used to be unable to spell so it really helps her to prove that she CAN now).  But it is so nice not to have to give her an overload of tests.  Huge relief for both of us.

 

Yet I can still give DS tons and tons of tests because he really enjoys them and asks for them all the time (yeah, his sister feels he is a bit odd :) ).

[linders]

And yet....

 

First, OP, I agree with virtually all your original points and have acted on them variously over time. Homeschool does not need to be B&M school.

 

Yet recently, I have found that with DS13, the flexibility embraced by these points is coming back to bite me, and would bite him in the future if I don't correct a few things.

 

- Written tests may not be the best way to demonstrate your knowledge, but many times they will be the key to the future, whether it is a driving test or a workplace qualification test. And they may have time limits.

- School may not need to run on a specific schedule (time of day, days of the year), but your place of employment most likely will.

- You might prefer to do your work while lounging upside down on the couch, but your employer might give you an industrial desk/chair and still expect you to perform.

- Your employer absolutely won't care Monday morning that you are "kind of tired" from the swim meet or sleepover.

- You might think the report format specified by your employer sucks, but until you are in a position to effect a change, you better follow it.

- You and the co-op teacher might not see eye-to-eye, but I guarantee that you will have at least one boss in the future who is the same - and quitting on the spot because of it will not be wise.

- If you want to take vacation at a certain time (e.g., Boy Scout camp and swim camp in the summer), you better plan to be caught up on your work beforehand.

 

7th grade has been a very, very rough year.

[8filltheheart]

And yet....

 

First, OP, I agree with virtually all your original points and have acted on them variously over time. Homeschool does not need to be B&M school.

 

Yet recently, I have found that with DS13, the flexibility embraced by these points is coming back to bite me, and would bite him in the future if I don't correct a few things.

 

- Written tests may not be the best way to demonstrate your knowledge, but many times they will be the key to the future, whether it is a driving test or a workplace qualification test. And they may have time limits.

- School may not need to run on a specific schedule (time of day, days of the year), but your place of employment most likely will.

- You might prefer to do your work while lounging upside down on the couch, but your employer might give you an industrial desk/chair and still expect you to perform.

- Your employer absolutely won't care Monday morning that you are "kind of tired" from the swim meet or sleepover.

- You might think the report format specified by your employer sucks, but until you are in a position to effect a change, you better follow it.

- You and the co-op teacher might not see eye-to-eye, but I guarantee that you will have at least one boss in the future who is the same - and quitting on the spot because of it will not be wise.

- If you want to take vacation at a certain time (e.g., Boy Scout camp and swim camp in the summer), you better plan to be caught up on your work beforehand.

 

7th grade has been a very, very rough year.

 

I think it may be a matter of how things are interpreted and play out as well.   None of the things you have listed would be an issue for my kids (except for my ds who has Aspergers and many of those are daily struggles in general.)     Our homeschool does not resemble a ps in anyway, but my kids have clearly laid out daily expectations, workloads, etc that must be met every single day.   Their academic work is non-negotiable (unless I am the one that decides that some major life event has altered what is expected from the day.)   They do not get to do anything until it is finished.

 

I guess I am one who does not equate non-traditional with lack of structure, deadlines, expectations.   And.....kids that do their schoolwork in pajamas or lying on the floor does not mean that they won't know how to get dressed to go to work.  ;)   

 

Sorry it has been a rough yr.  

 

[mom31257]

I actually feel like a true rebel among homeschoolers because I LOVED school...every part of it. I had a great public school experience growing up with excellent teachers who taught me to love life and think.

 

I like doing school August to May. I like not doing school on the weekends. I like a lot of traditional school methods and doing "school at home". I feel so many homeschoolers act as if you aren't doing things differently than they do at school, then you aren't truly homeschooling. 

 

I've used mostly traditional school textbooks for many subjects, but my kids are doing just fine. They read well, can do math well (especially mentally), can discuss a book, are good writers, test well, and are good critical thinkers. 

[leeannpal]

How about school days are not just M-F and a weekend isn't just two days long. We follow dh's rotating work schedule for Tues & Wed was our weekend and Sat/Sun were school days. Every other weekend is three days long.

 

I figure it's prep for possible shift work in the future. Not everyone in the world works M-F, is home for dinner, and has Sat-Sun off.

 

How about both parents doing the homeschooling? I work full-time until 3:00 and my husband works evenings until 1:00 am. He and my daughter get up around 10:00 am and do math and bible together. Then she does one subject of her choosing on her own that I check in the afternoon. She also does some chores. When I get home, we work on the other subjects for usually about 2-3 hours. It's not an ideal situation, but it works for us. Occasionally, we end up doing a subject or two on Saturday when the week has been really hectic.

[shawthorne44]

I would think that Rebel would be the norm in homeschooling.  After all, the normal, default thing is to send your kids off to the institution that your government says you should.  If something bothers you about the school, you send your kids to the best private school you can afford.  Those are the normal, non-rebellious things to do. 

[mom31257]

I would think that Rebel would be the norm in homeschooling.  After all, the normal, default thing is to send your kids off to the institution that your government says you should.  If something bothers you about the school, you send your kids to the best private school you can afford.  Those are the normal, non-rebellious things to do. 

 

I agree and thus why I think I am more of a rebel in the homeschool community. 

[HS Mom in NC]

And yet....

 

First, OP, I agree with virtually all your original points and have acted on them variously over time. Homeschool does not need to be B&M school.

 

Yet recently, I have found that with DS13, the flexibility embraced by these points is coming back to bite me, and would bite him in the future if I don't correct a few things.

 

- Written tests may not be the best way to demonstrate your knowledge, but many times they will be the key to the future, whether it is a driving test or a workplace qualification test. And they may have time limits.

 

Yes, we live in a world where kids need to take tests in higher education and other adult level training opportunities.  When mine were 15 and 17 they took their first ever test at the community college for placement.  The 15 year old tested out of all the math up to Calculus and into 101 classes and the 17 year old tested into all the college level 101 classes.  I go either way on test prep.  If a kid truly knows the material being covered, (s)he probably doesn't need any test prep.  If a child might be prone to testing anxiety, then they probably do need some test prep.  I know other homeschoolers who never took any tests until they took their SATs, ACTs, and such and they all did just fine.  I know other parents whose kids took standardized tests at various times throughout their homeschooling years who did just fine on the college level tests.  It's the doomsdayers that assume everyone has to do what they did in order to get the same result they did that annoy me.

 

- School may not need to run on a specific schedule (time of day, days of the year), but your place of employment most likely will.

 

Yes, this is true.  Just like church, co-ops, the doctor's office, movies showtimes, plane flights, etc.  While I agree that it is important to teach children to be on time when it's necessary, doing school on a schedule is one of a very very long list of ways to do that.

 

- You might prefer to do your work while lounging upside down on the couch, but your employer might give you an industrial desk/chair and still expect you to perform.

 

Are you assuming not sitting in a chair equals not performing?  Talk to people who do a lot of read alouds to their kids for longer periods of time and ask them about those retention levels compared to retention levels when they're allowed to be quietly active and move around a little.  There's a reason people like us use the phrase "Little boys listen better with Legos in their hands." It's because we've learned from experience that it's true.  Don't get me started on kinethstetic learners. We read aloud at least 2 hours a day to our kids and the only way to get them more tuned in for longer periods of time to allow them to do everything from tumbling to construction play when they're little.

 

Not everyone one's job includes a desk.  My 18 year old is a doula and is studying to be a midwife.  My brother is a machinist.  Another brother is an electrician.  My husband, a software engineer, sits at a desk almost 16 hours a day, but since he's an adult and it's necessary to get the job done, if he'd been homeschooled and allowed to lounge on the couch, it wouldn't have done him any damage. He would've figured it out in about 5 seconds.  People aren't Pavlov's dogs after all. 

 

- Your employer absolutely won't care Monday morning that you are "kind of tired" from the swim meet or sleepover.

 

Of course not.  People with jobs on a schedule typically figure out, even if they were homeschooled on a relaxed schedule, that they are no longer being homeschooled so they typically don't do those things the night before.   Really, people are pretty smart.  My 18 year old is now on call 24/7 for doula work and she made the transition with no trouble at all-even when she took college classes on a schedule.

 

- You might think the report format specified by your employer sucks, but until you are in a position to effect a change, you better follow it.

 

Yes, and your point is? Relaxed homeschooling creates people incapable of this?

 

- You and the co-op teacher might not see eye-to-eye, but I guarantee that you will have at least one boss in the future who is the same - and quitting on the spot because of it will not be wise.

 

Are you assuming people trying to support themselves can't think far enough ahead to avoid quitting for a stupid reason because their mothers got fed up with a co-op for some good or stupid reason back when they were homeschooled?

 

- If you want to take vacation at a certain time (e.g., Boy Scout camp and swim camp in the summer), you better plan to be caught up on your work beforehand.

 

This is not always the case.  My husband, as a contractor, often has to wait as people from the company he contracts with take vacation time in the middle of projects and leave him hanging.  That's one of the reasons why contractors take multiple jobs at the same time.  Doulas and midwives have back up arrangements with colleagues for such situations. 

 

Yes, when my kids were high school level they had a week's worth of assignments and a Friday at 3:00 deadline. Midnight movie openings meant it had to be done on Thursday.  However, in college my daughter was allowed an extension because she had an international archery competition that required her to miss a day.  Again, it's not all or nothing and the doomsdayers need to tone it down a bit because they're not giving a truly accurate portrayal of real life.

 

I have also seen a couple of homeschooling families out of the hundreds I've met that were raising kids who I think will probably struggle with some of these issues because mom and dad weren't teaching these things at all in any way.  Everyone else is managing to get the job done and transitioning their kids into successful adulthood in spite of not having a rigid homeschooling schedule that mimics institutional settings in the way you mentioned.  There are also homeschooling families doing it more like an institutional setting who have kids who love to learn and are thriving.  Imagine.  Different ways to reach the same goals.

 

I understand that ome kids need more structure and accountability than others. OK. Keep calm and adapt as needed.

 

7th grade has been a very, very rough year.

 

 

 

[HS Mom in NC]

How about both parents doing the homeschooling? I work full-time until 3:00 and my husband works evenings until 1:00 am. He and my daughter get up around 10:00 am and do math and bible together. Then she does one subject of her choosing on her own that I check in the afternoon. She also does some chores. When I get home, we work on the other subjects for usually about 2-3 hours. It's not an ideal situation, but it works for us. Occasionally, we end up doing a subject or two on Saturday when the week has been really hectic.

 

My husband does all the teaching for Math and Science when the kids hit Jr. High age.  He did it a few evenings a week and sometimes on a Saturday morning or afternoon.  They were very well prepared and he loved it.  It does make for odd scheduling, but it can teach kids to think more outside the box and have less rigid views of when and how things need to get done.  Adaptability is a very important mental/emotional skill.  This is one way, among many others, to teach that. 

[8filltheheart]

I agree and thus why I think I am more of a rebel in the homeschool community. 

 

I think it depends on the community.   Within Catholic homeschooling communities, what you describe would be considered pretty standard.   While that is obviously a generalization, most Catholics I have known over the past 2 decades of homeschooling have tended to go with specific providers like Seton that are more traditional.

[North Coast School]

Hmmm...one of the most rebellious things I do is that I refrain from judging other parents...homeschool, unschool, Public school, private school, jungle school, upside down school, it's not my business.  Unless you are neglecting and/or abusing your kids or letting someone else abuse them, I'm not judging.

 

No one has figured out the "right way" to parent and/or educate all children, no matter what they try to tell you.  Your kid isn't in a curriculum, or a book, or a philosophy.  We all do our best given our circumstances.

[Maela]

Love this!

Hmmm...one of the most rebellious things I do is that I refrain from judging other parents...homeschool, unschool, Public school, private school, jungle school, upside down school, it's not my business. Unless you are neglecting and/or abusing your kids or letting someone else abuse them, I'm not judging.

 

No one has figured out the "right way" to parent and/or educate all children, no matter what they try to tell you. Your kid isn't in a curriculum, or a book, or a philosophy. We all do our best given our circumstances.