Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you teaching your children, and at what ages/levels, about the history of race and racism in the United States?

A lot. For one, I am not white. I am native. They know A LOT about native history in this country, particularly (of course) about the experiences of our tribe.

Then, my husband is an immigrant who grew up in desolate poverty (outhouse, no shoes, one shirt, eating rotting meat, the whole 9 yards), so they no what it means to struggle.

They also have friends from all backgrounds and races, as do my husband and me.

We also read a variety of books about characters of all races and understand on an elementary school level slavery and the racism that that resulted. We have also discussed how things have gotten better and how they have stayed the same.

They also learn a truly global history. In other words, we discuss the advancements and civilization of the Aksum Empire at the same time as the Roman/Byzantine Empire at the same time as the Mayans. Mali is then discussed alongside feudalism, the samurai, and Aztecs. Europe is not viewed through an isolated lens. In a classical curriculum, you study history in four year cycles of Ancients, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern and you look at what happens around the world during those time periods.

Anonymous wrote:1. What's your plan when they finish high school? If college is in the cards, how do you thikn they will adjust?

2. What's the nuttiest family you've run in to at one of the co-op events? Or just tell us some interesting stories about the other homeschoolers you meet at co-op.

Anonymous wrote:Is religion a large part of your teachings?
You say you teach evolution....
What about equality among homosexuals?

Also, I would likely give my child straight A+ grades if I homeschooled.

Is there any oversight into parents who do this?

Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: Do you read the Reddit homeschool survivor subreddit? If so, what do you think?

r/homeschoolsurvivor has a grand total of 24 members and zero posts. Are you trolling here for new members?

Anonymous wrote:Is religion a large part of your teachings?
You say you teach evolution....
What about equality among homosexuals?

Also, I would likely give my child straight A+ grades if I homeschooled.

Is there any oversight into parents who do this?

Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:OP: Do you read the Reddit homeschool survivor subreddit? If so, what do you think?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone I know was homeschooled. Looking back she says she misses out on having a greater variety of subjects to choose from and the missed opportunities
Her parents just laughed at her when she said that. She is doing ok now, but she grew up very religious, parents provided her with a super religious peer group, some of them are almost like cult followers

The problem with anecdotes like this is that they can happen in a variety of educational environments. A student in a small rural public school will not have the same opportunities as one in a DC or NYC public school. Small private schools have limitations and advantages that public schools do not.

I do not doubt that she missed out on a few things, but she probably also had some opportunities that she would not have had in a traditional school setting as well. Parents have to carefully weigh their options and make the choice with the best interest of their child in mind, which is something that parents have to do regardless of the educational options before them (public/private/charter/immersion/homeschool/etc)

It makes me feel sad that her parents would have laughed at her, though, because I think the biggest advantage of homeschooling is being able to tailor the education to the child. Being able to progress in subjects when they master something and just keep moving, plan lessons around their learning styles, and having time to incorporate interests. Even at the elementary school level, my children let me know about additional things they would like to learn-- the equivalent of 'electives' I suppose-- and we find ways to work them into their curriculum. We regularly have open discussions about the curriculum they work with and their lessons. We talk about material and lesson styles. As children, they know that they are not going to enjoy every subject and that they have to read books they might find boring or complete lessons they don't love, but I also feel confident that they know they are listened to and their opinions are respected.

As they get older, they will have increasing amounts of control over the electives they choose outside of the core subjects.

I went to a blue ribbon high school with over 2000 students and we had a set math, science, and history sequence (IE math was Algebra, Geometry/Trig, PreCalc, Calc) with some electives offered in each area (ie statistics and probability) and the courses were tracked based on ability, but there wasn't a ton of options there. My children will probably actually have more choices than I did in that regard thanks to all the online classes available.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think you are better than other parents who send their kids to public school? I ask because whenever I am around homeschooling parents the conversation inevitably turns into how bad regular schooling is and they don’t seem to find this offensive.

You are very insecure. If you made a choice to send your child to public school, then it is a best choice for your child. I personally would never send my kids to public school even though we live in the best ranked schools in Fairfax County. But I admire people like OP, I wish I have enough guts to do it with my kids. Meanwhile, I am slaving at corporate world and paying for private school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think you are better than other parents who send their kids to public school? I ask because whenever I am around homeschooling parents the conversation inevitably turns into how bad regular schooling is and they don’t seem to find this offensive.

You are very insecure. If you made a choice to send your child to public school, then it is a best choice for your child. I personally would never send my kids to public school even though we live in the best ranked schools in Fairfax County. But I admire people like OP, I wish I have enough guts to do it with my kids. Meanwhile, I am slaving at corporate world and paying for private school.

Anonymous wrote:Do you think you are better than other parents who send their kids to public school? I ask because whenever I am around homeschooling parents the conversation inevitably turns into how bad regular schooling is and they don’t seem to find this offensive.

Anonymous wrote:

I also am a bit of an outlier in some homeschooling circles because i dont think that any one parent can provide an adequate high school education (if your qualified to teach chemistry, you're probably not qualified to teach literature at that level). That's where the beauty of a strong community comes in to call upon the skills of other parents along with online classes etc.

It's funny you say this. I've considered home schooling for part of high school. I have a JD and a PhD in Chemistry, with a double major in Biology and a minor in political science as an undergrad. I could easily handle teaching advanced science classes as I've taught these subjects at a top tier university. I also am very comfortable teaching writing, as I've taught legal writing at a law school. I suspect that I could manage to teach high school history and literature without too much trouble, as it's not that removed from some of my favorite law school and undergrad classes. My husband is an engineer and could easily handle all advanced math and Physics through university levels, as he's taught university classes on these topics. He also got a perfect verbal score on the SAT and is very well read. He'd help with literature and history.

We'd want to outsource a foreign language, but this is best taught by a native speaker anyways. I was a good musician in school, getting top scores at the All State competition every year in high school, but am rusty enough that I'd hire that out as well.

Anyways, I have no idea if we'll ever try to homeschool, but there are people with broad educational backgrounds who likely could manage high school topics. Those are far easier for us than early elementary stuff.