Home Schooling

[Hellefire]

I have this cute little 14-1/2 month old daughter (named Sunshine incidentally). And I have been working on little things, playing with her, teaching her to read, to speak, use the potty chair, etc. Eventually we will be moving onto deeper topics. Through much deliberation I have decided there is no way in helle I am sending her to public school. So I will be home schooling her. Besides knowing some of the basic ideas, there is more I don't know about home schooling than I do know. Some of the things I have come up with are:
In most subjects I can re-educate myself enough to teach her through high school.
In the subjects I cannot teach her for whatever reason I need to find people I trust to teach her.
I am going to continue living life the way I always have, which is on the road. The good part of this, educationally speaking, is I can expose her to a lot more to learn then generic western civilization courses. The bad part is, educationally speaking, I have to find what there is for her to learn and a teacher in a short period of time, and in most cases it will be time-limited training.

Anyway, could anyone who has or is home-schooling their kids, or anyone who was home-schooled, please post here or email me at aaronblairak@yahoo.co.uk.

Thanks!
Aaron Blair
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[EricNoah]

Between "Alaska, in Poland" in your profile and ".uk" in your e-mail address, I'm not sure where you are geographically. In the US there are homeschooling organizations you can contact to get curriculum materials, find other homeschoolers in your area, etc. Also, school districts may be willing or able to offer some services that you might not be able to offer -- check with them to see if there's a way you can have access to just the services you might need.

 

[Angcuru]

Homeschooling is fine and dandy if you do it right, but be careful about making sure she develops her social skills. I've met a whole lot of people at college who were homeschooled and didn't know the first thing about social interaction. You could spot them a mile away, insecure as they are around their 'peers'.

Of course, I'm sure she won't have to worry about this, since her daddy's an ENWorlder, and we bees good folks.

 

[Jdvn1]

Get in touch with local schools and other homeschools. Since a lack of social interaction with peers is a huge drawback of homeschooling, public schools often allow other children to join in ther clubs/teams/programs/etc. Other homeschools might also have more information for local resources.

 

[Hellefire]

Thanks for the replies.

I am in Poland currently. Will be in Kansas march-august, then back to Poland for gf to finish her masters, then Australia, se asia or south america, we're still deciding, for 3-12 months.

Forgot to talk about socialization. That is one of our big concerns actually, well something we are trying to plan for anyway. Between the home schooling and constant moving. We are planning to handle that as best we can through child activity centers, playgrounds, arcades, etc. And friends with kids. Of course, she will probably always be something of an outsider, from her background and lifestyle. But I hope to turn that to an advantage as much as a handicap.

Aaron Blair
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[Jdvn1]

Remember: if you're not familiar enough with the subject to answer a question, don't be afraid to defer to someone else's knowledge. Alternately, projects come in handy. "That's a good question, Sunshine. Why don't you do some research and make a little presentation?"

 

[Umbran]

Through much deliberation I have decided there is no way in helle I am sending her to public school. So I will be home schooling her. Besides knowing some of the basic ideas, there is more I don't know about home schooling than I do know.

Well, as an educator myself, I have to point out a basic flaw here - if you don't know much about home schooling, then you don't yet have the basis for making the final decision to prefer it over the public schools. Do your full research on home schooling first, then make up your mind.

Angcuru has mentioned one of the major problems with home schooling - lack of socialization. Young folks need a lot of time with their peers in order to learn the social skills necessary to get by in the modern world. In public or private schools, they spend something like half their day in close contact with people who are not their mother or father, and it can take a lot of work for home-schoolers to give them that kind of exposure.

Some of the things I have come up with are:
In most subjects I can re-educate myself enough to teach her through high school.

Are you sure of that? Think hard on it, because it is no small order. It seems reasonable to think you can re-educate yourself in any one subject. But all of them? That's years of basic arithmetic, and then aalgebra and geometry and pre-calc and possibly calculus. The sciences in high school alone cover chemistry and biology and physics and earth science. How many books in language arts, and the history of how many cultures?

Simply put - home schooling isn't something you can do properly in your spare time these days. The amount of data involved in a modern education is vast. I have seen home-schooling work, and work well, but it was basically a full-time job for one of the parents. If you only have a limited time to do it, it's probably not the best for your child's education.

 

[Hellefire]

Well stated. When I said there was more I don't know about home-schooling than I do know, I was refering to specific systems and regulations. As far as home education I have more experience, as I learned 90% of what I know at home and most of the other 10% at school.

Yes I am sure that I can re-educate myself in the standard western subjects. Math (certainly at least through calculus) and sciences, and of course computer science are my strong points, I have been teaching English for the last couple of years which has greatly enhanced my general language skills, though she will be bilingual to start (English and Polish) and I hope that will help her with language studies in general later. History has always been my poor subject, that will simply take more reading and experience. I have learned a hundred-fold as much history from visiting other countries and just talking to people as I did in school. But it's an area to pay special attention to. Arts...well, besides acting, poetry and a little singing I am not much of an artist, that will definitely be for outside teachers to help with. It helps that 2 of her grandparents are very into the idea, one (my father) is a chemist and philosopher, the other (my 'mother-in-law') continues using a level of scholastic knowledge equal to about 2 years of college in the U.S. Then there are the other subjects, not the traditional western ones. I will know more about those as I find them. Some of them I hope to learn side-by-side with her. We shall see.

And yes, it's a full-time job for 1 parent and a part-time job for the other, though it will alternate at times which is full-time and which is part-time. My child is the only person besides myself I am responsible for, and I owe her everything I can give her.

Aaron Blair
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[Jdvn1]

Angcuru has mentioned one of the major problems with home schooling - lack of socialization. Young folks need a lot of time with their peers in order to learn the social skills necessary to get by in the modern world. In public or private schools, they spend something like half their day in close contact with people who are not their mother or father, and it can take a lot of work for home-schoolers to give them that kind of exposure.

Actually, studies show that home-schoolers tend to have better socialization skills than public schoolers. Communicating at an adult level is important too, not just with peers. They're not hindered in the 'modern world'. It's a common belief that they're more sheltered, but the facts don't support that.

That's based on studies in the US, though. I don't know if the same information holds true with the many places Hellefire will be in due to his travels.

Are you sure of that? Think hard on it, because it is no small order. It seems reasonable to think you can re-educate yourself in any one subject. But all of them? That's years of basic arithmetic, and then aalgebra and geometry and pre-calc and possibly calculus. The sciences in high school alone cover chemistry and biology and physics and earth science. How many books in language arts, and the history of how many cultures?

No, it's not easy by any stretch of the imagination. He doesn't have to re-educate himself on all of that, though, in order for the child to learn.

In Montessori schools, students learn at their own pace, often doing their own research. The teachers are more of guides than teachers of curriculum. As long as the child learns, it doesn't matter how much the teacher knows. This can put the child at an advantage, actually, having to do so much research.

Simply put - home schooling isn't something you can do properly in your spare time these days. The amount of data involved in a modern education is vast. I have seen home-schooling work, and work well, but it was basically a full-time job for one of the parents. If you only have a limited time to do it, it's probably not the best for your child's education.

Very true.

Do your full research on home schooling first, then make up your mind.

Agreed.

 

[Hellefire]

I like Montessori schools a lot. My brothers 5 year-old has been attending one in Connecticut for a couple years and adores it. I like that outlook to teaching, and if I was going to farm out my child's education, I would certainly look into it. As it is, I will use some of the method.

As for the other places I will be, from the research I have done to-date, there will be a lot of community interaction education, which definitely helps with socialization. To be honest, my main worry is that my daughter will not enjoy constantly moving. Whereas I understand that most people have a bit of the grass-is-greener outlook, I don't know that I would, could or should deny my daughter most of the experiences she might want. So if she decides she wants to settle down, I may do that for an indeterminate amount of time. When we can have a decent discussion on the matter of course. And I don't want to force my daughter to live a lifestyle she decides she doesn't like. I hope she decides she likes it, but she is her own person, so if she decides otherwise, we will see what we can figure out then. Regarding the lifestyle that is. I don't know that I would be so ready to bend on her education. For education, I am just working on play/teaching her at the moment and hoping she grows as fond of learning and researching as I am of teaching her and playing with her.

Aaron Blair
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