Home Schooling - What are the pros & cons? Your experience please.
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Anonymous
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Things I like about it:
we can go at the kid's pace. Hate long division? Let's crank it out, and if you can test out of it, we can be finished in three hours, total. Enjoying Greek mythology? Sure, we can spend two months reading all the stories. I never have to say "We have to move on now." we can be flexible. Want to go away for a week? Sure, the kid can crank out a week's worth of school in two days. Couldn't sleep last night and now want to sleep from 7am to noon? No problem. |
Anonymous
How can most children be good at long division in 3 hours? Learn the concept sure. Remember it in a year, I doubt it. |
Anonymous
You can find hybrid program like http://www.capitolhilllearninggroup.com/ Or a cooperative homeschool with school hours http://www.riverfarmcooperative.com/ |
Anonymous
| Pros for me: lower amount of anxiety from everyone in the house. Less schoolwork frustration. Ability for DC to read books all of the way through during school time rather than 15 minutes of free time, now put it away. Slower mornings, no need to rush out the door at 7:20 am. More time for activities. DC also requires some SN services, but it was going to be a long drawn out battle getting them from the school system. Very little recognition of 2E needs where we live (PGCPS). More exercise, art, history, science, and music time. More relaxed and humane lunches. |
Anonymous
+1 to all of this, and more outdoor time, too. I think school has many things going for it, but one seemingly necessary component that bothered me was the interruption of flow-- because the day's schedule couldn't be in the hands of students, when I was volunteering in a classroom I'd often see a student who was REALLY deeply interested in whatever she was doing at that moment be forced to stop and move onto something new. I like being able to see that one of my kids is getting REALLY into drawing her map of ancient Greece, and putting in a lot more detail and taking more care than I'd expected, and being able to decide on the fly that I am just going to put on some music and let her spend the morning doing that. It's a lot easier to budget time for everything when you only have a few students to teach. |
Anonymous
Good story. Many kids like yours just need a different environment. |
Anonymous
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The pro for me when I consider the idea: so much to share! I'm an educator (with experience from ECD to uni level) and love building knowledge with others. The immediate con for me: *I* lack the discipline of routine and consistency in a home setting. Ugh. Still, this is my back up plan for the middle school years. I'm so inspired by the stories here. Thanks for sharing your insights. |
Anonymous
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There is also the Baltimore Washington Home Educators Yahoo Group:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BWHE/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJkbGg5b3J1BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzE5MjY3NwRncnBzcElkAzE3MDc1MDUxNzQEc2VjA3Z0bARzbGsDdmdocARzdGltZQMxNDY3OTY0MjE2 You may not be religious, but will find more info about groups on HSLDA.org. Another unexpected source for me was http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c21941.htm Scroll down for links. |
Anonymous
| Has anyone had their children in school and then pulled them out and homeschooled? I tried two weeks of homeschool this summer to see how it would be and found that each task was taking longer than during school. Granted my kids did their work better than what they produce at school, but they were still the same tasks. At home there are a lot more distractions I think which make it harder. We don't always start right on time. I'm not sure I could do it for the year. What helps keep everyone on schedule? |
Anonymous
Out of curiosity, which tasks are you talking about? I find math takes far less time with better understanding. Reading takes longer, but we complete more books and the books are completed and not excerpts, writing takes much, much longer, but I've found my DC tends to write better sentences. |
Anonymous
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We have one child who entered K this year. It's been a rough start and we are considering home schooling. She went to daycare/preschool at a great place, did incredibly well there, but I don't know if it's just the teacher isn't a good fit or that it's a new place/environment. I did teach years ago, so I don't think that would be an issue. We considered having her go back to the private school where she was in daycare/preschool, but it would be better for us financially if we homeschooled (I can work part-time in the evening after DH gets home).
But, a friend from college was home schooled in rural PA and it was blatantly obvious she had issues being and interacting with people in general. Now being the in DC area as long as you take part in groups and get your child around other children, you'll be fine. If we were going to homeschool we have an extra room in the basement - that would be turned into the classroom. When we're in that room I'm the teacher. Outside the room back to mom (even if we're taking a trip relating to school). You also need to have some $$ to invest in supplies/books/etc. Pinterest is also great for activities. |
Anonymous
In the suburbs most families seem to meet up in groups one day a week and do activities (of which there are MANY options) with other kids on the other days, with different sets of friends signing up for different activities. There are co-ops in DC that meet more days per week, with the same group of kids. Not sure if there is a list anywhere, but the two I know about (City Kids and D.C. Village) are for kids up to age 10 or 12. The Half_Caf Yahoo group is a good resource for people to find homeschool groups. Or people can start their own. |
Anonymous
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I'm so happy to read this thread. My son hated K. Now in 1st grade it is starting all over. Tears in the morning. "I hate school." Etc. I would never imagine I would consider homeschooling--am worried that my DS already sees me as a disciplinarian--but I am very distressed how things are going at APS.
One question is that I have an only. Is it weird to work on projects with just me? Do any other parents homeschool who have an only? |
Anonymous
| Homeschooling: I would never make my kid that much of an outliner |
Anonymous
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Outliners?! My kids are good are writing outlines, but they can fill in the details quite well, too. ? Apologies, but these posts tend to make me snarky.
I assume you meant outliers. I'm happy that my kids might turn out to be a bit different. It's not as though the mainstream is that appealing. |