New Trend? Homeschooling? (Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne, Milford: real estate, luxury, new construction) - Northeastern Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania (PA) -Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pocono area - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

KarenRice · 02-10-2010, 04:55 PM

Yes, you will find that homeschooled curriculum can be much more intense and advanced than the public school stuff for the same age.

Another thing I liked about homeschooling is the ability to let your child's aptitude set the pace. If your child was advanced, you just did the assessments and continued on till you found the more challenging work. Conversely if you needed to spend 3 or 4 days on a single lesson, that was OK too.

Magritte25 · 02-10-2010, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarenRice

I will say that I'm not all that impressed w/ the school now because everything seems to be focused on getting good PSSA scores, and not enough "real world" stuff...but that's my personal opinion...and I'm spoiled by what I know they could be getting from K12. I am not ruling out bringing them all home again for the upper grades...but only if they can be more self directed and don't need me to continually nag them to get it done (and I admit, that's a failure on my part as a parent...lol)

Again, I agree.

They are taught "to the test". Memorization and rote recall. That isn't learning. That's training.

Magritte25 · 02-10-2010, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLUEDIAMOND64

I think this is wonderful and it is great to see a hands on Mom.

Not to hijack my own thread, but just for a small example, my daughter attends a Montessorri pre-school, and she is doing addition, reading new books every week............when I looked at the Kindergarten public school I see they will be learning shapes and colors............something she learned when she was much younger.

My son was really bored the first half of the year because of this. He has known his colors, shapes, numbers, letters and how to spell a few words since he was three.

He was really disappointed when he learned that his "math" would be simple shape recognition.

okaydorothy · 02-10-2010, 05:00 PM

I think if you have the patience to homeschool, its a great idea. I am really against the public schools here on the island so my kids go to parochial school ; not at all for the religion, but for the education.
I think homeschool really concentrates on education and the programs that are available now are wonderful.

I wouldnt have the patience or the knowledge to homeschool.

d

KarenRice · 02-10-2010, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magritte25

I agree with this. My son actually peed his pants in a class (an extra - not his normal room) because the teacher would not allow him to go. He was FIVE.

I was really angry about this.

I remember my 6th grade teacher - she grew annoyed with us asking to get a drink or go to the bathroom, so she put out a Boys Pass and a Girls Pass on the desk. Anyone who needed to use the bathroom took the pass, went, and came back. If the pass was gone you had to wait. And there was a drinking fountain right in the room, so she said to not bug her with questions of getting a drink, just get up and get one.

Then she left on a sabbatical leave the 2nd half of the year. The new teacher did not tell us that she was going to change the rules, and I found out the hard way one day when I got up to get a drink - she ripped me up one side and down the other, how dare I get out of my seat without permission and NO I could not have a drink and then she punished me with extra homework!

Looking back, I wonder why she didn't just say "Karen, what are you doing?" and let me explain myself, and then she could have said "Well, we're not doing it that way anymore, from now on please ask permission before leaving your seat." As a teacher who just took over someone else's classroom you'd think it would have occurred to her that we'd be used to the way the previous teacher ran the class....

Funny thing is this...the previous teacher was not well liked, everyone said she was mean, but I got along good with HER - the new teacher become pretty popular with everyone...but ME. LOL

KarenRice · 02-10-2010, 05:06 PM

Dorothy, the patience is the biggest thing. Knowledge, well, you CAN learn that right along with the kids...patience is something you MUST have. Which is why I could not overcome the math difficulties. This was 3rd grade math for Pete's sake....I didn't have the PATIENCE to teach it to my gal....the knowledge...well, it's right there in the curriculum...but the curriculum doesn't tell you how to deal with a gal who just wants to go outside and hunt salamanders. ha ha

BLUEDIAMOND64 · 02-10-2010, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarenRice

Dorothy, the patience is the biggest thing. Knowledge, well, you CAN learn that right along with the kids...patience is something you MUST have. Which is why I could not overcome the math difficulties. This was 3rd grade math for Pete's sake....I didn't have the PATIENCE to teach it to my gal....the knowledge...well, it's right there in the curriculum...but the curriculum doesn't tell you how to deal with a gal who just wants to go outside and hunt salamanders. ha ha

Are you allowed to have teachers come to the house for math subjects? They have teachers going to the houses for the kids that are not well behaved.......just curious.

KarenRice · 02-10-2010, 05:36 PM

Not with PAVCS - the "teacher" assigned to us was in Allentown..lol. We did talk with the teacher every week (or every other week) on the phone or through the computer; she would ask the kids questions about stuff they had learned. We had to send in samples once a month from each week.

I did try to coordinate with another mom - she was really good with music and I did better w/ basic art than she did, so we teamed up once a week to do the music and art lessons, but it ended up being an all day project and we lived too far apart from each other for it to be really practical (she was 45 mins away). I *could* have asked another mom who lived closer to help me but I felt like I was imposing , as she had 3 of her own kids to school and all of them were at very different levels than mine.

I don't like to ask others for help if I think I am imposing or if I can't return the favor somehow.

You COULD have someone else teach the lessons - absolutely - but it just wasn't practical for us.

BLUEDIAMOND64 · 02-10-2010, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magritte25

Again, I agree.

They are taught "to the test". Memorization and rote recall. That isn't learning. That's training.

I agree, that memorization stuff and rote recall is not learning. Learning is a life long journey, so memorizing something for a test is not really a good concrete example of learning.

BLUEDIAMOND64 · 02-10-2010, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarenRice

Not with PAVCS - the "teacher" assigned to us was in Allentown..lol. We did talk with the teacher every week (or every other week) on the phone or through the computer; she would ask the kids questions about stuff they had learned. We had to send in samples once a month from each week.

I did try to coordinate with another mom - she was really good with music and I did better w/ basic art than she did, so we teamed up once a week to do the music and art lessons, but it ended up being an all day project and we lived too far apart from each other for it to be really practical (she was 45 mins away). I *could* have asked another mom who lived closer to help me but I felt like I was imposing , as she had 3 of her own kids to school and all of them were at very different levels than mine.

I don't like to ask others for help if I think I am imposing or if I can't return the favor somehow.

You COULD have someone else teach the lessons - absolutely - but it just wasn't practical for us.

I might have missed it in one of your previous posts, but how long did you homeschool. I know they have a pretty good homebase in Milford and they actually get together, kids, parents etc and really do collaborative activities. OMG, I would certainly need the help with the math part, oh my