Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why shouldn't your DH homeschool and quit his job?

For some reason, men never seem to have the aptitude for homeschooling, though plenty of men are teachers, professors, trainers, etc. It is curious...

You are clueless about homeschooling. Homeschooling in this area is not typically for religious reasons and is really about providing a quality education. The homeschooling families I know approach it as a lifestyle and the fathers do participate.

the fathers may "participate," but I bet there are VERY few (or none) who quit their lucrative jobs to homeschool.

There are homeschooling families where both parents work and both participate in their children's education.

Even if you were the most qualified teacher in the world, there is a lot that kids learn socially from school and interacting with other kids. It would also be a very rough transition back to middle school / high school from being home schooled and those kids are always sort of considered weird. Don’t do this to your kids.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're not thinking clearly. The incremental value of you homeschooling your kids does NOT equal the loss of your job. At all. You don't work because it's a "passion," you work because you're part of the economy and need to support yourself and your children. I would feel differently if you said your kids had some kind of serious problems in school (e.g. bullying due to special needs that you just can't get the school to address) or if you had an actual religious belief leading you to the choice. And if it was just that you wanted to opt out for a few years while your kids were babies and preschoolers, totally understandable too.

But to give up your productiveness in the economy just because you vaguely think "public schools are not good enough for my kids" is really irrational.

+1

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a great idea. Nobody cares about your kids like you do. Don't let DCUM tell you otherwise.

Trust me when I say that kids benefit more from devoted parents than the frills money can buy.

How right you are. Parents who work are not devoted parents at all. Gmafb (and I say this as one who isnt working!!)

OP, you're not thinking clearly. The incremental value of you homeschooling your kids does NOT equal the loss of your job. At all. You don't work because it's a "passion," you work because you're part of the economy and need to support yourself and your children. I would feel differently if you said your kids had some kind of serious problems in school (e.g. bullying due to special needs that you just can't get the school to address) or if you had an actual religious belief leading you to the choice. And if it was just that you wanted to opt out for a few years while your kids were babies and preschoolers, totally understandable too.

But to give up your productiveness in the economy just because you vaguely think "public schools are not good enough for my kids" is really irrational.

Anonymous wrote:I want to know where your money is going that you cannot afford a good Montessori or another private placement on 240k a year. There are bigger problems here.

privates in this area are northward of 35k/year .... 240k HHI does not support that for 2 kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why shouldn't your DH homeschool and quit his job?

For some reason, men never seem to have the aptitude for homeschooling, though plenty of men are teachers, professors, trainers, etc. It is curious...

You are clueless about homeschooling. Homeschooling in this area is not typically for religious reasons and is really about providing a quality education. The homeschooling families I know approach it as a lifestyle and the fathers do participate.

the fathers may "participate," but I bet there are VERY few (or none) who quit their lucrative jobs to homeschool.

Anonymous wrote:Could you set a home daycare business to bring in some income while being home with your children?

She has no certification or the proper background. No one who is educated is going to send their kids to a neighbor with an econ degree.

I want to know where your money is going that you cannot afford a good Montessori or another private placement on 240k a year. There are bigger problems here.

At 240K you can afford two in private.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s a great idea, OP. I am frustrated with public school. My kids spend so much time there, and so much of it seems wasted.
If by fifth grade you can teach your kids to read non-fiction, fiction, and poetry with good comprehension, write legibly with excellent grammar and clear ideas, have a good understanding of the underlying concepts of math, taught memorization of math facts and short passages from books, and gone over some history and geography, then your kids will be miles ahead of my kids in an “excellent” public school.

Interesting, my DS had a "research project" in kindergarten. With the help of his teacher, he research the okapi (his favorite animal from a visit to the San Diego Zoo), and wrote three facts about the okapi. He still discusses those facts, and others he didn't write down, today. His first grade class is working in writing a non-fiction book using what they are learning in their science lessons. His hand writing is improving, the teachers are very focused on sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation in all of his writing. His current homework assignment is to read a book and write a letter to his teacher telling her about the book. It has to be 3 sentences long, include the book title and something that he likes about the book.

So, yeah, I am not getting all the school bashing. I understand that not all schools are equal but I would say that my DS is being exposed to a good amount of interesting work in first grade. We supplement at home, he has completed the Virginia Reads program with his school, we read to him every night, he has a work book he uses during the summer and over breaks at home, we encourage drawing and arts and crafts at home, we go to museums.

Could he move more quickly? Probably. Is it necessary? No. Would I leave my job and pull him out of school with his friends? No.

And my kid is pretty much at your bench mark in first grade.

I think it’s a great idea, OP. I am frustrated with public school. My kids spend so much time there, and so much of it seems wasted.
If by fifth grade you can teach your kids to read non-fiction, fiction, and poetry with good comprehension, write legibly with excellent grammar and clear ideas, have a good understanding of the underlying concepts of math, taught memorization of math facts and short passages from books, and gone over some history and geography, then your kids will be miles ahead of my kids in an “excellent” public school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why shouldn't your DH homeschool and quit his job?

For some reason, men never seem to have the aptitude for homeschooling, though plenty of men are teachers, professors, trainers, etc. It is curious...

You are clueless about homeschooling. Homeschooling in this area is not typically for religious reasons and is really about providing a quality education. The homeschooling families I know approach it as a lifestyle and the fathers do participate.

Could you set a home daycare business to bring in some income while being home with your children?

Being educated and being able to educate young kids are very very different things. You may not realize this because your kids are not in school yet.