Anonymous wrote:To be fair, home schooling was for a long time close to 100% freaks. I understand it’s gotten much better and is now more like 70%. And yes with mass migration to HS driven by COVID that number may go down to like 40% or 50% because of the influx of rich families that otherwise participate in society.

But let’s not pretend that in “normal” times HS doesn’t attract a wildly disproportionate share of extremists and oddballs of all stripes. Not all malicious or “bad”, though a good chunk of that as well.

This has been my experience as well. Although, I fully recognize that my sampling size is not huge.

The homeschoolers I have meet fall into 3 categories:

1. religious zealots.
2. crazy conspiracy kooks
3. people with a bunch of (like 5,6,7,8) kids. From what I have observed, there is NO way all those kids are getting their academic needs met in any kind of a rigorous way; but, it IS a great childcare setup.

I readily admit I do not have a high opinion of homeschoolers in general based on my experiences with these kinds of people. Im sure there are good ones out there, and some situations like special needs kids where it makes sense. I can honestly say I am not a fan or supporter and unlikely to become one, but it effects me not at all so carry on.....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ummm ... it’s the exact opposite.

+1 Most parents are realizing that it's very, very difficult if not impossible to teach your kids everything they would learn in a school environment from real teachers at your house. I used to think that with enough effort (lucky) homeschooled kids could get all of the academics done, but would still miss out on socialization. Now I realize the academics are probably not getting done either.

I say lucky because I personally know several homeschool moms who brag every month or so about how all 4-5 of their kids got "All As Again!!" in grammatically nonsensical FB posts, so I don't trust that those kids have a shot in hell in the first place. But with an educated, dedicated parent, and fewer kids to teach, it seemed possible.

I am new to homeschooling and feel pretty much the opposite. My kids were getting good grades in a school that I liked a lot (well, not exactly grades because APS has nonsensical categories that tell you nothing) but really good indicators that things were going great. They weren’t - my kids lack skills in key areas. We started homeschooling this summer And they are picking things up and retaining it. I am NOT saying my kids are getting all As, and they would likely get a better education from 100% dedicated teachers, but I’m not sure when we’re going to get that. I believe they are going to get a better education this year from me and my DH (with some family support) than they have gotten in school, even in person. It’s frustrating to me because I work and this was not part of our plan. So we have some soul searching to do.

It isn't important what the general public thinks about homeschoolers. Their opinions have absolutely no impact or influence on how homeschoolers educate their children. A few of the negative comments on this thread betray the ignorance of the general public. They have no clue what it is homeschoolers do nor how we do it. One poster, in particular, would benefit from a course on critical thinking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ummm ... it’s the exact opposite.

+1 Most parents are realizing that it's very, very difficult if not impossible to teach your kids everything they would learn in a school environment from real teachers at your house. I used to think that with enough effort (lucky) homeschooled kids could get all of the academics done, but would still miss out on socialization. Now I realize the academics are probably not getting done either.

I say lucky because I personally know several homeschool moms who brag every month or so about how all 4-5 of their kids got "All As Again!!" in grammatically nonsensical FB posts, so I don't trust that those kids have a shot in hell in the first place. But with an educated, dedicated parent, and fewer kids to teach, it seemed possible.

Yer dumb

Anonymous wrote:ummm ... it’s the exact opposite.

+1 Most parents are realizing that it's very, very difficult if not impossible to teach your kids everything they would learn in a school environment from real teachers at your house. I used to think that with enough effort (lucky) homeschooled kids could get all of the academics done, but would still miss out on socialization. Now I realize the academics are probably not getting done either.

I say lucky because I personally know several homeschool moms who brag every month or so about how all 4-5 of their kids got "All As Again!!" in grammatically nonsensical FB posts, so I don't trust that those kids have a shot in hell in the first place. But with an educated, dedicated parent, and fewer kids to teach, it seemed possible.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand— all I hear is about how kids are missing out by not being with their peers. That doesn’t want to make me homeschool more.

And I already thought doing a good job at homeschooling would be very difficult, which is why I don’t HS

This year will be challenging, but many homeschoolers get a ton of socialization thru co-op, playgroup, activities like sports, etc.

Yes, it certainly will.

I don’t understand— all I hear is about how kids are missing out by not being with their peers. That doesn’t want to make me homeschool more.

And I already thought doing a good job at homeschooling would be very difficult, which is why I don’t HS

My half-brother’s cousin who is barely literate herself decided to homeschool her 5 kids because she thinks Zoom is an invasion of their privacy.

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, home schooling was for a long time close to 100% freaks. I understand it’s gotten much better and is now more like 70%. And yes with mass migration to HS driven by COVID that number may go down to like 40% or 50% because of the influx of rich families that otherwise participate in society.

But let’s not pretend that in “normal” times HS doesn’t attract a wildly disproportionate share of extremists and oddballs of all stripes. Not all malicious or “bad”, though a good chunk of that as well.

Homeschooling is already full of “rich” parents.
In my experience as a secular homeschool parent in a US territory and the PNW, I would say about 10% of families could be labeled as “oddball.”

To be fair, home schooling was for a long time close to 100% freaks. I understand it’s gotten much better and is now more like 70%. And yes with mass migration to HS driven by COVID that number may go down to like 40% or 50% because of the influx of rich families that otherwise participate in society.

But let’s not pretend that in “normal” times HS doesn’t attract a wildly disproportionate share of extremists and oddballs of all stripes. Not all malicious or “bad”, though a good chunk of that as well.

ummm ... it’s the exact opposite.

As someone who will be homeschooling this year, I never really knew anyone who did or how many people did. It’s been eye opening for me in terms of flexibility as well as the educational benefits. I am excited instead of being annoyed with the ridiculous DL being offered. And I agree that the veteran homeschoolers have been nothing but helpful and encouraging!

The question used to be, why do you homeschool? Now I’m being asked, how do I homeschool and can you help me?

I don’t have any bad feelings towards parents making a difficult decision for this school year. I also hope they abandon their bias to homeschooling.

There are now a lot of parents who are exploring homeschooling as an option. It seems like many are opting to homeschool rather than deal with Distance Learning or partial in-person schedules. I'm hoping that they will help make it clear to non-homeschoolers that people who homeschool are not kooks, that there are legitimate reasons for homeschooling, that there are plenty of nice and normal people homeschooling their kids, that there are a ton of interesting resources and approaches to make homeschooling a good experience, and that doing it well takes a significant amount of work. I've been impressed on various forums by how kind, encouraging and helpful many homeschooling parents have been toward others in the past few months.