What stops you from homeschooling?

[breakingcontact]

What stops you from homeschooling?

I see a lot of "oh my, can you believe how the government is indoctrinating our kids?" but I don't see an equal amount of "I'm out, we are now homeschooling" threads.

Thanks!

 

[Cameramonkey]

sticking my nose in the thread as a resource. (homeschooling 2)

 

[04FXSTS]

I don't have any kids. Jim.

 

[femurphy77]

I don't have any kids. Jim.

Ditto


My labs are smarter than most kids I see running around with their asses exposed and the bass thumpin'.

 

[Ngdonut]

What stops you from homeschooling?

I see a lot of "oh my, can you believe how the government is indoctrinating our kids?" but I don't see an equal amount of "I'm out, we are now homeschooling" threads.

Thanks!

I’m liking your threads lately. We have started homeschooling our preschool aged kid and plan to continue homeschooling, for both practical and spiritual reasons.

 

[1nderbeard]

Here are both sides of it for us:

Pros:
My Sister in law is a teacher (as is my mother in law), and is homeschooling her kids. We've discussed doing some sort of family academy.

Right now our first grader is bored. At the start of the year he was reading at the end of 2nd grade. He reads multiple chapter books a week. When he does have an at home learning day, he's done with all the assigned work in about 2 hours, which means the remaining 5-6 hours he's just hanging out at school. I would really like to see him challenged.


Cons:
Our first grader is very social. He finds friends everywhere - every time we go to the park he organizes a game of tag or something with people. He would really miss out interacting with people not his family.

My wife and I are both educated (both CPA's), but we're not really equipped to teach advanced science, math or english. We would likely need to get some kind of supplementary group education after elementary school anyway.

We have decent schools in Hendricks. Granted our only school aged child is a first grader, but we haven't seen any of the crazy gender stuff come up in conversation.

 

[Titanium_Frost]

We've homeschooled our kids from the beginning. It's a lot of effort and expense but so is government indoctrination. I don't quite understand the parents that send their kids to school then complain about it at the same time either.

 

[jake blue]

Another "I've no kids" here.

I was homeschooled though and advocate for it if circumstances allow. We were kind of the pioneers of homeschooling when I was growing up and an educator in my church started a Christian school. It was doing well but after it outgrew being co-housed in the church facilities and bought it's own property, tuition rates quickly climbed beyond many families' ability to afford. At a school parents meeting, it was asked if the school would ever consider partnership arrangements for homeschoolers to pay a lesser than full tuition and in exchange offer certain subjects the homeschooling parent isn't capable along with extracurriculars like sports and music. The founder/administrator stood and announced that homeschooling is a subpar education and only parents who don't care about their children's education won't cough up whatever tuition rates he decides are appropriate. The next year, half the families withdrew their children from his school, formed their own homeschooling group, and drawing on their individual strengths were able to offer the tutoring, socialization, and so forth that they had been willing to subsidize through his school but he flatly rejected. To my knowledge, only one parent ended up sending her son back to the school because she found out she and her son had a serious personality conflict!

I don't like that finances end up being the deciding factor but it is a reality in this day and age. Nevertheless, if you join a quality homeschooling support group I think you can certainly enjoy the quality of individualized education without the liberal indoctrination and without denying children social skills and extracurriculars.

And for what it's worth, 50 years later my mother is STILL homeschooling... Now her own grandchildren! That's dedication! She also loves her homeschooling group and their curriculum called Classical Conversations. They have weekly meetings for socializing the children and tutoring on difficult subjects, monthly field trips, and so forth. The boys are also in Boy Scouts and other community extracurriculars so they're not lacking in socialization or getting 'screwed up' by isolation like I feel I was.

 

[Pepi]

I'm 68 and I know everything

 

[Jaybird1980]

We homeschool and it is harder and more work than sending them to school. I imagine that's what stops a lot of people from doing it.

 

[Lpherr]

Having a job consumes most of the day.

The intelligence on any subject, needs to be greater than what's being taught.

The cost can be prohibitive.

Oh... and I don't have any kids in school.

 

[Ark]

You guys have seen my guns. You think I have kids?

My observation of the people for whom homeschooling works is as follows:

-The family is supported by the father's income, via either extremely high income or tight budgeting.

-Wife stays at home because her earning potential is less than the cost of daycare, and she is personally inclined toward being a present parent and experiencing those irreplaceable years with her children.

-Homeschooling becomes a daily task for the wife as an outgrowth of early child care, motivated by any number of factors including geographic isolation, distrust of the school system, labor requirements on the farm or homestead, religious reasons, etc.

The resources nowadays are a lot better than they used to be, but survival on a single income has correspondingly gotten less realistic for most families.

 

[breakingcontact]

Here are both sides of it for us:

Pros:
My Sister in law is a teacher (as is my mother in law), and is homeschooling her kids. We've discussed doing some sort of family academy.

Right now our first grader is bored. At the start of the year he was reading at the end of 2nd grade. He reads multiple chapter books a week. When he does have an at home learning day, he's done with all the assigned work in about 2 hours, which means the remaining 5-6 hours he's just hanging out at school. I would really like to see him challenged.


Cons:
Our first grader is very social. He finds friends everywhere - every time we go to the park he organizes a game of tag or something with people. He would really miss out interacting with people not his family.

My wife and I are both educated (both CPA's), but we're not really equipped to teach advanced science, math or english. We would likely need to get some kind of supplementary group education after elementary school anyway.

We have decent schools in Hendricks. Granted our only school aged child is a first grader, but we haven't seen any of the crazy gender stuff come up in conversation.

Good stuff.

Be encouraged. There are different versions of homeschooling. Increasingly folks are doing a mix of online classes and mom or dad led instruction.

As far as socializing goes...lots of opportunities for that in the community and the church. I really don't want the government in charge of socializing kids anymore than educating them.

 

[breakingcontact]

We've homeschooled our kids from the beginning. It's a lot of effort and expense but so is government indoctrination. I don't quite understand the parents that send their kids to school then complain about it at the same time either.

If you send your kids to Ceasar don't be surprised when they come home Romans.

 

[J Galt]

I have friends that home schooled 20 years ago. At the time it was unconventional but I trusted they had reasons. I contacted them a few months ago and confessed that at the time I didn't quite get it, but they were smarter than the vast majority of people. They took steps to make sure the kids had extracurricular events to get them socialized.

I've discussed getting a few other parents together and hiring a recently retired teacher that loved teaching (not indoctrinating) and pay her for teaching some, or all, days of the week. They would be able to supplement their retirement income and do the job they love on their terms (negotiated with the parents of course). Kids would get educated and socialized.


Side note: Hopefully more schools like this will start to form all over the country - https://apogeecedarpark.org/

[Sorry, I did not give any answer the OP question. Hopefully my idea of hiring a retired teacher is something someone else will be able to put into action. Wanted to get the idea out there.]

 

[Titanium_Frost]

You guys have seen my guns. You think I have kids?

My observation of the people for whom homeschooling works is as follows:

-The family is supported by the father's income, via either extremely high income or tight budgeting.

-Wife stays at home because her earning potential is less than the cost of daycare, and she is personally inclined toward being a present parent and experiencing those irreplaceable years with her children.

-Homeschooling becomes a daily task for the wife as an outgrowth of early child care, motivated by any number of factors including geographic isolation, distrust of the school system, labor requirements on the farm or homestead, religious reasons, etc.

The resources nowadays are a lot better than they used to be, but survival on a single income has correspondingly gotten less realistic for most families.

I feel that one. We've been single income for 11 years this Wednesday. But it's totally worth it.

 

[qwerty]

Homeschool is tough for a few reasons. Most families have both Dad and Mom working outside the home, a fairly new phenomenon over the past 50-60 years. As a result, homeschooling is not even considered. I am grateful for my wife, who homeschools our children. They use a mix of video learning which we pay for, and additional materials, which we either buy or use free resources.
There is a lack of social interaction when homeschooling, so using a local homeschooling co-op is a great help but may be difficult in rural areas.

On a side note, Indiana does have reimbursement deduction for private or homeschooling ($1,000 per child). That pays for all of our videos, books, and more.

 

[Firehawk]

Home schooling is appealing to us. Our kids are grades 4th, 3rd and pre K right now in the public system. To answer your question as to what stops us from doing it.

1. The cost
2. So far our kids have thrived under the structure provided by LCSC. One of our kids in particular needs that structure and providing that kind of structure at home (with a pre k in the mix) seems impossible.
3. The indoctrination is real and we frequently (usually daily) have conversations with our kids about what ideologies are being taught from gender, eminent climate crisis, politics and on and on. Our 4th grader has an openly trans kid in his class. The school openly celebrates this kid. As much as we’d like to say “that’s it, we’re out!”, there is a part of us that feels that’s just running away and we should focus more on preparing them for the world they will and are encountering. It’s a big decision either way. On one hand we want to protect our kids, on the other hand our kids need to see the world for what it is and learn how to think critically against the deceptive ideologies. I think both can be done both settings, home schooling and sending to public school. Every family and child will have different needs and variables.

 

[1nderbeard]

Good stuff.

Be encouraged. There are different versions of homeschooling. Increasingly folks are doing a mix of online classes and mom or dad led instruction.

As far as socializing goes...lots of opportunities for that in the community and the church. I really don't want the government in charge of socializing kids anymore than educating them.

Thanks.
You're right about the social thing. We're very thankful for our church families with small kids, some of which are my cousins and their kids.
We aren't very far from taking the plunge. The whole masking thing was just totally ridiculous here, as everywhere.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Home schooling is appealing to us. Our kids are grades 4th, 3rd and pre K right now in the public system. To answer your question as to what stops us from doing it.

1. The cost
2. So far our kids have thrived under the structure provided by LCSC. One of our kids in particular needs that structure and providing that kind of structure at home (with a pre k in the mix) seems impossible.
3. The indoctrination is real and we frequently (usually daily) have conversations with our kids about what ideologies are being taught from gender, eminent climate crisis, politics and on and on. Our 4th grader has an openly trans kid in his class. The school openly celebrates this kid. As much as we’d like to say “that’s it, we’re out!”, there is a part of us that feels that’s just running away and we should focus more on preparing them for the world they will and are encountering. It’s a big decision either way. On one hand we want to protect our kids, on the other hand our kids need to see the world for what it is and learn how to think critically against the deceptive ideologies. I think both can be done both settings, home schooling and sending to public school. Every family and child will have different needs and variables.

We use INDLS through the K12 system, because we didn't have a clue when we started. We still use it as it gives some structure, but we now supplement with our own stuff as well.

They really do a good job of making it easy on you, they literally send you everything you need to get started.