For those who don't know - we are homeschoolers - have been since the beginning of this school year - I thought just about everyone knew this- but apparently not because the other day one of my far away friends said "You WHAT?" I have been really pleased with the progress the boys are making - they work hard every (almost every) day and they seem to enjoy their work, instead of complain about it. Some family members have expressed concern over our choice to home school, I think these are common concerns so I am going to try my best to address them here. For any of my homeschooling friends out there - feel free to comment and add your two cents to my answers - I'm a newbie remember.
First off I would like to say this is a choice - a legal choice - and I really don't have to justify it - but will explain it because I care about my family so their concerns are still important to me.
"How can you know that your kids are learning what they need to be learning?"
Basically the same way the public school does - we have a curriculum and we follow it.
The curriculum -required by the school district - includes 900 hours per year of education and topics including :
(a) language, reading, spelling, and writing;
(b) geography, history of the United States and Ohio; and national, state, and local government;
(c) mathematics;
(d) science;
(e) health;
(f) physical education;
(g) fine arts, including music; and
(h) first aid, safety, and fire prevention.
(b) geography, history of the United States and Ohio; and national, state, and local government;
(c) mathematics;
(d) science;
(e) health;
(f) physical education;
(g) fine arts, including music; and
(h) first aid, safety, and fire prevention.
This is what the school districts require for every student - their lesson plans are based on the very same principal.
I can just hear your next question - how do you do all that? Simply, you buy a curriculum that will address every one of these academic areas. Our curriculum is the same one that the local Christian school uses, we had considered private school and I was able to tour the schools and review their curriculum. We also enroll the boys in extra activities, this year includes - football, basketball, baseball, soccer, art co-ops, children's choir, Awana, boy scouts and a field trip to the fire station. ( needless to say fire prevention has been a hot topic this year :o)
"What about socialization, how do you make sure your kids are normal?"
I guess first off I would like to address normal- Macguines is on a football team with 3rd and 4th graders who attend public school - Normal for them means - yelling at your mom, throwing a fit if you don't get your way, getting angry and yelling at other kids, and generally being disrespectful to adults. I don't want my boys to act like this - so if this is normal I think abnormal is better.
As far as socialization is concerned - our goal is to have children who are in the world and not of the world. Many of the groups they are involved in are not linked to our church - in fact they are with public school kids - football, baseball, soccer, boy scouts - and they do learn to interact with those kids in a normal and healthy way - they also learn to interact with other kids from christian families. We are going every day of the week to some activity where our kids interact with other kids their ages in a positive - no mom - environment.
"Your kids need room to be themselves"
Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Yes - they do need room to learn and grow - but they also need instruction. How is a child supposed to learn who they want to be without guidance?
Every institution on earth tries to offer this guidance - (schools, churches, work place, social clubs,TV, Oprah, even the gym) Many adults have difficulty determining who they want to be, what they stand for, and how they fit into the world, because of the vastly divergent opinions on who they should be. Typically public school teachings ( kindergarten through college) win out not because they are right, but because they get the most face time, and conformity is rewarded with good grades. What do public schools teach as values?
Money - the cool kids wear Nike tennis shoes and Ambercrombie fashion
Education - value of knowledge over all else
Argumentative culture - whoever chants the loudest and the longest wins
Bullying - survival of the fittest
Athletic ability - your achievements define you
Tolerance of popular beliefs (often confused with just plain tolerance) - if you want to start a gay and lesbian club - go right ahead - it's popular, want to start a Christian bible reading club - too bad, it's not popular. ROTC club - popular in the 90's because it got kids involved in positive activities - now? considered to be a tool of the government to get military recruits in an unpopular war - ROTC is being kicked out of schools all over the country.
Conformity - if you don't conform to the beliefs of your teacher, be ready to get an F on that term paper
Homeschooling ensures that they are given guidance by someone who loves them enough to tell them that there is a right and wrong, and that tolerance of every popular thing is not a virtue, but rather an apathetic way of living. We are not blown to an fro by the whims of a hyper media society that changes and redefines right and wrong everyday. Our home school exposes our children to a wide variety of people with differing beliefs - and teaches tolerance in the form of love thy neighbor - rather than tolerance only for the neighbors you like.
I think that is enough for one blog and if you have questions, even anonymous ones, I will try to answer them the best I can .
Right now we are working on government and all things concerning the election, here are a couple of the books we are using - they are fantastic for teaching elementary kids about government
Enough for now,
Home school is great:)
Amanda
