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HOMESCHOOLING
is not for the feint of heart!*
*pun intended
"The learning of Washington was of a particular kind. He overstepped the tedious forms of the schools, and by the force of a correct taste and sound judgment, seized on the great ends of learning, without the assistance of those means which have been contrived to prepare less active minds for public business. By a careful study of the English language; by reading good models of fine writing, and above all, by the aid of a vigorous mind; he made himself master of a pure, elegant, and classical style. His composition was all nerve; full of correct and manly ideas, which were expressed in precise and forcible language."
- From the Life of George Washington, by David Ramsay. Published in 1807, only 8 years after Washington’s death.
Back in 1981, I was working in a sporting goods store as a T-shirt artist when a woman came into the shop with her twin 5 year old boys in tow, asked for a tour, and thereby introduced me to homeschooling. It was clear at once that the boys were bright, inquisitive, and enjoying themselves immensely. Mom was too!
I had yet to even meet Mr 'Right', let alone get over my "I'll never have children" prejudice, but the seed was planted. Years later, when my husband and I decided to have children, the sprout of that seed popped right up. It made sense to both of us - parents taking total responsibility for rearing their children - (such a novel idea!).
We knew it was what we wanted.
We have chosen to teach our own kids at home for a wide variety of reasons:If you would like to know more, please visit our "How We Homeschool" page, where you can learn more about what we do and find many links to help.1. We want to take full responsibility for the raising our children.
2. The removal of a child from the family environment for most of the day is not what we consider good for the family or the child.
3. The public school system is underfunded, understaffed and overburdened:
A. Teachers are up to their eyebrows trying to control kids when they should be free to teach.Many people homeschool on the basis of preserving their religious beliefs, and, like them, we do like having more control over the influences that will affect our children's spiritual developement. Although some prefer to limit the ideas available to their youngsters, others choose to provide a broad base of knowledge for their children to make their own decisions from. We have found that homeschoolers run the full gamut - from fundamentalist Christian all the way to athiests, and many flavors in between. It seems that we have much more in common than many would think.
B. Placing youngsters into an overburdened and virtually unmonitored crowd of same aged peers frequently leads to the child taking one of three positions: bully, victim, bystander...not what we want for our kids.
C. Large classes tend to limit the amount of time students can spend actually studying the subjects that are required, leading to much too much homework after a long day at school.
D. People learn at different speeds and by different methods, teachers rarely have time to identify these, let alone fit their teaching technique to such a wide variety of individuals.
FREE CHILDREN
A Fable? or too close to reality?
The Black Balloon
Memories of school and "cheating"
Decompression FAQs
How do you prepare to homeschool?
Some of the "Why"s of Homeschooling
NOTE:currently not working - will check it again
Home Taught
looks at several aspects of home education and offers definitions of Homeschooling, Unschooling, and other approaches
Search BarnesandNoble.com for homeschooling
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