Why don't more parents homeschool their children?
Economics.Home-schooling requires someone who has the available time to teach the children. This could either be a stay-at-home parent or a private tutor. Tutors are highly expensive. A stay-at-home parent reduces family income, as she does not earn money. It can also put an end to her career, as even six years - not to mention twelve - of staying out of a job greatly reduce the chances of being re-hired. Many - probably most -families simply can not afford this.Government-run schools, despite its many, many flaws, are a better economic option for most families. It allows both parents to work and develop a career - and is far cheaper than hiring a tutor.Things are easier, of course, for high-school age kids. I couldn’t stand bullying at 10th Grade so I left school. For the authorities, I was a school dropout in an age which (back in the 1990’s) had no mandatory schooling. So I “home-schooled” myself, with a little help from my mother, and taking a tutor only in math (and sometimes in English as well). Unfortunately, you can’t do such things with young kids who need to be supervised and taught for many hours a day and - in most cases - can not teach themselves very well.
How can I homeschool my preschooler?
School is a poor version of a rich home life. Don’t try to make home a poor version of a poor version of home. ;-)Children learn best through free play. She’ll learn the most by doing things she enjoys. Give her lots of opportunities to explore new things and things she already enjoys. Get to know who she is through what she chooses and what she avoids.Read to her. Read things she loves and things you believe she might love.Go for walks in the woods. Catch frogs. Throw rocks. Pause and smell the flowers. Let her show you what’s important to her.Dance and sing. Listen to different types of music.Listen to audio books in the car.Go to the playground. Go to new playgrounds. Have toys that exercise big muscles like Big Wheels, a mini-trampoline, things to climb on.Get an iPad and find games she enjoys.Have things to build with. Cardboard boxes. Blocks.Watch TV with her. Show her your favorite shows from when you were a kid.Visit new grocery stores. Try new foods. Visit ethnic restaurants for lunch.Make cookies together.Find homeschooling play groups so she has other kids to play with on a schedule that fits her social needs. Be nearby as she plays so you can help her when she can’t figure out how to handle a situation.
I want to be home schooled but my parents wont let me?
Okay girls... I am a parent of an 8th grader. My daughter too made straight A's all up until middle school (6th) and now, well, I've shed many tears realizing she was not going to pass the 8th grade. She is still so smart but just can't focus from the drama and social scene. Then it turned into violence. So... for safety AND education - I mean education - not sliding by in school, but actually learning - I have withdrawn her from school and we've just begun homeschooling. (She too wanted this but not until this year...?) So maybe you could explain this to your mother: My daughter is now working harder than ever before and she is at home away from all the drama; now she can concentrate. Because realistically, us parents are suppose to be sending our kids to school for education, not social interaction. If you're not passing your classes, then you really aren't getting an education are you? Glad you have a great social life. Unfortunately, that social life will not build a future for you of any kind whatsoever. And for your mom: of course I'm scared out of my mind that I will screw this up; but then again, I also realize that if I never let go of my idea of how important education is, then I will not let up any either on her education. After all, let's be real; it is our responsibility to teach our children what they need to know to succeed in life.
Homeschooled, friendless, and always at home?
It really pisses me off when I see homeschool parents or kids on Y!A say stuff like "homeschool kids socialize 3 times as much as public school kids." If this is true, then why is it that at age 18, I only have 1 friend, who I see once every 2 months? Why is it that the only time I ever leave the house is when I go to a once a week homeschool co-op where it is impossible to make friends with anyone? I'm not shy and I'm not an outcast. I've tried talking to at least 30 other homeschool teens here and none of them show any interest back. I tried dating a girl at this co-op who, first lead me on, then when everything blew up, she acted like I was a weirdo for having interest in girls. I've sat at a lunch table at this co-op for 2 years and ever since the beginning, they've excluded me without giving me any sort of hint that they don't like me. The only reason I stay at this table is because everyone else in the school, despite being teenagers, won't tolerate "inappropriate" conversation so it's like ******* Disney channel anywhere else. Not that these other people are any friendlier. I've tried talking to them but they have no interest in getting to know me either. Since I'm 18, I would just leave the house and try to make friends or find girls elsewhere, but for some reason, it seems that in my suburb of 200,000 people, I'm the only person between the ages of 17 - 23. I don't know if other people stay insides their homes or if there's some secret place that I'm unaware of. So all you homeschool supporters who would say that my life is just a "homeschool stereotype", how should I make my situation better?
What's your view of homeschooling for the gifted?
I'm the eldest of four children that, as of May, have all graduated from my parents' home school. Three girls and a boy, we all have different interests, different strengths, different weaknesses, and our parents were better at catering us to do well because they chose to home school.Is it rude to say I was the gifted one of the bunch? Maybe, but until my siblings join Quora, I feel confident in saying that I am. Which means that when I was in middle school/high school, I excelled in a lot of my classes and was able to specialize in Theater and Business Development. Flying colors on the SAT and the GRE, I was quickly and effortlessly accepted into undergrad and graduate school, and started my own non-profit at the age of 16.Home schooling gave me the opportunity as a student to stretch beyond the achievements set in the classroom and allowed me to chart my own course. I had great accomplishments in acting and traveling and was already establishing myself professionally, while my friends were sweating over the AP tests through most of their high school years.The greatest gift that home schooling offers a gifted child is that they are able to push themselves outside of the "gifted" definition of the classroom. Potential is tested and pursued, and frankly I think I would have been bored if I had been forced to stay in a classroom -- in fact, the two times I was enrolled in an institutional "school" I was miserable out of my mind.Back to my siblings, because they know how to google and might eventually find this post: my brother has been interning at an engineering firm since his junior year of high school, both of my sisters have blooming acting careers, one is about to launch into teaching the arts, and the other has a reel of clips after being taught under former prime time TV directors. Being home schooled allowed them to excel in their career paths, and two of them aren't even legal to drink yet. But even age restrictions don't prevent my parents from breaking out the celebratory champagne every once and awhile because they've done a hell of a job raising four fabulously gifted children.