What does "school at home" mean to you?

[IsabelC]

I've always understood that phrase to mean, more or less, as school-like as possible while not actually going to school. So a very structured schedule, lots of subjects, textbooks and/or workbooks, and trying to stay 'on grade' according to the student's age, and maybe even looking like a school (eg kids sit at desks in a row). When talking about an imaginary spectrum of home education approaches, I would see school-at-home on one end, and radical unschooling on the other end, with most families positioned somewhere between those. Obviously that interpretation is somewhat simplistic, and doesn't adequately capture the huge variety of styles that work for different people, but it's useful as a shorthand. I know that some unschoolers use school-at-home in a derogatory sense, but for me it's pretty neutral, as I'm super not into judging what other people could or should do with their children.

 

[Roadrunner]

I haven't read all the responses, but I always roll my eyes when I hear that. In my experience homeschoolers all feel superior in their approaches to public schoolers and other homeschoolers. It makes sense, because they wouldn't be doing what they are doing if they didn't think it was a better choice. I don't mind the enthusiasm, but what really bugs me is often they try to show their superiority by putting down other homeschoolers. I have often heard "school at home" used as a negative and almost always in my community it meant "oh, we run around in nature and collect rocks and learn about flowers, while this and this person makes her kids study all day," in short around here it is always a jab against academically oriented homeschoolers.

[egao_gakari]

53 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

I haven't read all the responses, but I always roll my eyes when I hear that. In my experience homeschoolers all feel superior in their approaches to public schoolers and other homeschoolers. It makes sense, because they wouldn't be doing what they are doing if they didn't think it was a better choice. I don't mind the enthusiasm, but what really bugs me is often they try to show their superiority by putting down other homeschoolers. I have often heard "school at home" used as a negative and almost always in my community it meant "oh, we run around in nature and collect rocks and learn about flowers, while this and this person makes her kids study all day," in short around here it is always a jab against academically oriented homeschoolers.

 

Do we live in the same town? ?  From all the other responses, it sounds like most people don't usually hear or understand it as a jab, though, so maybe we're just thin-skinned, or outsiders in our particular environment ? 

[8filltheheart]

1 hour ago, egao_gakari said:

 

Do we live in the same town? ?  From all the other responses, it sounds like most people don't usually hear or understand it as a jab, though, so maybe we're just thin-skinned, or outsiders in our particular environment ? 

People can take offense at anything if they think of your opposite POV as somehow a judgment on their choices.  I have benn completely surrounded by the opposite POV.....not sending you kids to (Catholic) high school, not using a provider like Seton or Kolbe, not outsourcing high school courses to "experts", not taking APs, not DEing, not joining a co-op (so basically homeschooling high school at home ?) are all the equivalent of destroying your children's futures.....how could any college possibly accept a "mommy transcript" (said in a derogatory tone.) 

Most of the time I avoid all conversations about any actual details about homeschooling with other homeschoolers IRL. I find conversations about homeschooling with other homeschoolers more stressful than the general public has or even oppositional family members. It is probably bc so much of your family life is tied up in homeschooling that the discussion is taken personally even if your just sharing your approach.

[happybeachbum]

On 5/11/2018 at 12:28 AM, Targhee said:

Very true. That's why I said "often" not "always." And I know state oversight does not always mean virtual charters. We used state oversight that was nothing like that (or like school at home unless you wanted it to be) for several years.  It is true you can do school at home with 100% non-secular materials and completely off the radar of the state. I think that currently there is a large group who do use these virtual charters to do school at home, though.

Yeah Texas is really lax 

[Roadrunner]

I find conversations about homeschooling impossible with everybody as well, homeschoolers included. 

We had a funny moment this summer. We had some family in town who didn’t know we were homeschooling. This particular family is a high achieving one so the look at their faces was something else when they found out we homeschool. They started asking one of my kid questions (trying to make sure they actually study) and my child just completely downplayed everything. When they left, I asked him why he wouldn’t tell the entire truth about our school. He was puzzled. He said I always tell him not to brag, which I do because usually the questions come from homeschoolers and they are horrified at what I am “making” my kids do. He couldn’t understand that in this instance the opposite response was needed. 

Oh well ?

Edited July 30, 2018 by Roadrunner

[sweet2ndchance]

On 5/9/2018 at 2:35 PM, dmmetler said:

We did ser up a classroom each year for years. DD really wanted the trappings of “school”. We often ended up actually doing schoolwork everywhere but the school room, but darn it, she had a desk with her name on it (and some years, so did a bunch of stuffed animals and dolls), a backpack, a lunch box, and a cute classroom theme. ?

 

Lol I think that's just plain cute. You weren't doing it to replicate a classroom to validate that you were homeschooling, you were doing it for dd's request to be like her friends or cousins or other people she saw. My older dd, when she was about 5 or 6, loved to play school with her then two year old sister and stuffed animals and dolls. What was funny is that she was very 'school at home' about it all, even though that was not how we did things in our homeschool lessons.

I agree with the others, I've never had the inclination to ask other IRL homeschoolers about curriculum and I'm usually pretty hesitant to make any suggestions to others unless they straight up ask me, "What would you use in my situation?" The truth is, I really don't care what other's opinion of a curriculum is. That's their opinion and it has nothing to do with me or my situation. Just because a curriculum did or didn't work for them has no bearing on whether or not it will work for me and my kids. I'm more interested in the nuts and bolts of a curriculum, what does "a day in the life" of this curriclum look like? Is it straight forward or will I need to wade through 3 or 4 pages of fluff every day to highlight the actual directions? (I'm looking at you BFSU, love the concept, but man, is the author long winded!) These kinds of things I can find for myself online so I've never really thought to ask anyone IRL.

[daijobu]

I use "school at home" in a mildly self-critical appraisal of my own home schooling approach.  I'm using it to ask myself to what extent am I taking advantage of the opportunities and flexibility that homeschooling affords me, that isn't available to students in regular school?  "School at home" means I'm not thinking creatively enough about homeschooling.  Of course, I would never criticize anyone else's homeschooling style, just my own self-assessment.   

Also, when I counsel other parents who are considering pulling their kids out, I encourage them to do the same thing:  don't merely try to replicate the school situation at home, but think hard about other ways you can take advantage, again, of the flexibility and just plain extra time you get by homeschooling.   I will advise them to not only think about the academics, but also think about any special projects your children might want to pursue, projects they might not have time for in regular school.  But frankly, those "special projects" often come up organically anyway.  And again, not in a judgy way at all.