Evidence suggests that home-schooling in America is a growing trend. In a weeklong web-only series, TODAYshow.com reports on the challenges and creative opportunities presented by this approach to education.
By Simcha Fisher
What does it take to be a great home-schooler? Passion, energy, creativity, high ideals and whole-hearted devotion to your kids.
What does it take to spoil home-schooling? Passion, energy, creativity, high ideals and whole-hearted devotion to your kids.
OK, not always. But many home-schooling moms find themselves burned out after a few years, exhausted by the very things that made the whole enterprise possible.
Some parents home-school for negative reasons like fear or mistrust. But others, like us, do it because it just feels natural to stay together as a family — and because we’re dying to pass down to our children the delightful world of knowledge and culture that makes our own lives rich. We started home-schooling when our oldest child was 6 years old. We now have eight children, and have home-schooled for six years. Now, we are ready to let someone else do all that wonderful sharing!
Why? Because passing down a whole world of knowledge and culture is a pretty tall order for one set of parents. It’s a huge undertaking with even one child, never mind six or eight.
And then there's curriculum envy. Someone's always blogging about the interactive origami diorama her second-grader made with homemade rag paper and saffron dye. (And all we did today was reading, writing and arithmetic!)
We want to prove that home-schoolers aren't the backward, tongue-tied ninnies they're rumored to be. Striving against stereotype, our kids can't simply be as good as public-schoolers -- they have to be better — smarter, happier, more sociable, more ambitious — more everything.
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7 comments:
There are thousands of us who homeschool, and really enjoy it.
It is especially good if your child has special needs that aren't being met in the public schools.
Is it hard? Not too much, if you do it right.
If you cut down on some of the extra activities, it works great.
Your kids don't have to bowl AND play soccer AND take music lessons AND be in the church youth group, AND take riding lessons, etc, etc.
Set your goals, and adjust your priorities so you don't have to live at a frantic pace, and all will be well.
Sorry but homeschool is for weenie kids. Send them out into the real world where they can interact with their peers and learn to deal with the good and the bad.
Let me just add Anonymous 10:22AM....My daughter was homeschooled from 1st through 6th Grade. She was having major issues adapting to Public School. When she went from Kindergarten with 10 students to a 1st Grade of 28. She just couldn't function and got anxious. WE as her parents pulled her out, repeated the 1st and moved on. When she was entering the 7th Grade, it was on her own admission to go back to Public at which we agreed. To add, when she entered 7th Grade Public school she was already reading two grades above her level, and had already knew four different Foreign Languages of Dutch, French, German and Spanish. She is currently in the 11th Grade, is maintaining a High "B" average, well rounded, loves the Theatre/Drama and isn't a problem within the classroom setting when it comes to teaching. (Like the majority of students who distract the teacher or classmates by acting like a idiot!)
Now please tell my WHY you think that home school kids are, um "Weenies"? I bet my kid can run circles around your kid academically.
10:22 This is still America right?
Yes, 10:22. Homeschooling is for weenie kids. That is why when I went to college after never setting foot in a public or private school my entire life, I failed miserable and was only on the Executive Board of my student government, President of two other organizations, and one of the student leaders that the President of the college called upon to represent the school at various functions. Then I failed even worse to interact with people when I entered into the real world, where I went from being the lowest on the totem pole to running my department in two years. Yep, I'm a weenie who hasn't figure out how to interact with people. Too bad homeschooling ruined me so much! Maybe if I had been exposed to mediocre or worse teachers, threats of violence, students who didn't care to graduate, and peer pressure to fit into one mold or another, my life would be better!
My kid was home schooled until this year. Now in public school. I am entertained every day with the stories of children being placed in the hall for disrespectful behavior towards teachers and administrators, children hitting other children, and general unruliness. All of them products of public school. I'd rather have a weenie kid than one of them.
3:27- Please study up on your tenses and proper grammatical structure of sentences. You may also want to review proper use of apostrophes and for possession within sentences as well as proper punctuation use. When describing the accolades of your homeschooling education, any evidence of the failure of that system (i.e. your horrible grammar) only furthers the argument that homeschooling is lacking in substance.
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