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well, honestly, I didn't choose to homeschool. it was homeschool that chose us. been just watching homeschool evolve and unfold around here, which makes the kid and I BOTH students. can be tough if I over think it, or slip into compairing others homeschooling methods to our own. if I just "go with it" {smiling} it's not so bad.
homeschooling is like walking on water. you can do it IF you don't look down. LOL
When we homeschooled, we spent about 1 1/2 to 2 hours per day on "sit down work." Granted, the kids then pursued their own activities for an hour or two or six... anything from drawing to dancing to looking up definitions to foreign words to reading to working on 4-H projects... and on and on. And of course we sometimes did science experiments or read historical fiction and did other things that did not fall under "sitting down and doing your work."
This is our first year not homeschooling (the kids are in a tiny charter school), and they're in the 5th and 3rd grades, so those estimates applied to elementary-aged children.
Same here--about 1-1/2-2 hours per day and the sitdown work was usually math, spelling, and grammar. The rest of the time we lived what I called a "learning lifestyle"--we had a lot of books on hand and we went to the library a lot. We were always doing some kind of experiments in the kitchen or garden and had a big woods to play in. The girls both had penpals and we traveled a lot.
We have been tutoring our son since a year ago. He's 5 years old now and reading at quite an advanced level. It's not rocket science though as many of you might be aware of. It's all about getting a good system that is flexible with your homeschool schedule (or lack thereof =))
Last edited by toobusytoday; 08-20-2012 at 04:02 PM..
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Actually besides being a teacher I am published researcher (invasive species are my specialty) and I am very good at understanding statistics and experimental design.
It is a flawed study because it is comparing HSers to a non-comparable population (all other students). The difference between subpopulations of the larger group are going to be larger than those between the HSers and the larger group. What that means is there is another variable at play that is having a larger effect on the outcome (achievement) than the variable you are looking at (ie HS bs traditional school).
I don't agree that peers are a "non-comparable population". Are you assuming that home schooled students are homogeneous?
See, now you are fitting the homeschool stereotype to a T. That they don't believe in science or in anything having to do with logic, and are narrow minded bigoted bible thumpers. I know not all homeschoolers are like that, but this is the image many people think of when they think homeschooler.
That's a shame that many people view homeschoolers that way. I certainly don't hold that opinion. In fact, over the past few years, I have become friends with parents in a number of states (MD, ID, OH, AR, TX, NH) who have pulled their elementary age children from public schools in order to avoid the IB PYP and make sure their children received the academics not being delivered in those schools.
It is a financial hardship for many families to sacrifice a second income in order to homeschool their children. I don't think it is a decision that should ever be made lightly. I had looked into homeschooling my kids when they were little, but NY's requirements were extremely rigid and didn't allow for participation in band or sports with the public school kids, so I endured the public system.
I began homeschooling my youngest in 8th grade. We moved to a new state at the end of 7th grade and discovered the schools here were horrible. The students were out of control, the teachers were telling the kids to "shut up and go away" when they asked a question and they were watching irrelevent movies several times a week (transformers, day after tomorrow etc.). I decided I could do a better job.
The school system we came from started checking all the kid's BMI and sending letters home to let parents know what their child's BMI was. I never signed any kind of permission for that. I think schools are starting to overstep their boundaries. Also, when he was in 5th grade he started reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He was told by his teacher that he was not allowed to read that because it was too advanced. However, he had been evaluated by a psychologist in 3rd grade and scored in an 8th grade reading level (in 3rd grade). Regardless, his teacher wouldn't allow him to read it for school purposes. He did read it at home for fun.
Now that my son homeschools I know he is getting a healthy lunch every day, plenty of exercise and developmentally appropriate curriculum and materials. He took the IOWA test in the spring and scored in the 13+ grade equivelent in all but two areas. In two years he will begin dual enrollment at the local community college.
Homeschooling is not for everyone, but I dont' think homeschooling families should be stereotyped as religious freaks. FWIW, I am an athiest so we don't do any kind of bible classes.
If I could afford to which maybe in the next year - The PYP program would be my sole reason- This program is dumbing down teachers and students at its' finest- Thank God I live in TX where you have freedom to do that- at least for now- I pity my kids going to school day after day - overcrowded classrooms with little control on occasion-
If I could afford to which maybe in the next year - The PYP program would be my sole reason- This program is dumbing down teachers and students at its' finest- Thank God I live in TX where you have freedom to do that- at least for now- I pity my kids going to school day after day - overcrowded classrooms with little control on occasion-
I live in Texas, the PYP program actually improves teaching because the subjects have to be integrated which means reading, writing and math are taught across the curriculum. Also my kids have never had an overcrowded classroom so far although with the cuts, I can't tell what will happen in the future. Our teachers mostly had very good control of the classrooms at my granddaughter's PYP school.
Unfortunately, it is the Texas State School Board that is trying to dumb down our children. Somehow removing Thomas Jefferson from the curriculum in favor of Joseph McCarthy and deleting hispanic and black historic figures does not seem to me to be helpful. We did win the battle to keep Creationism out of the science classroom, but who knows if that will last. Creationism belongs in the religion classroom or at home, not in our science classes.
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