Are there any moms out there who...

My kids have been out for years. But there was a time in my sons highschool years where I homeschooled him through the school itself. He would work so hard and spend hours doing homework and I'd help him and just so much effort, and he only got C's. It got to the point that he was so discourage and depressed about it, the grade started to fall more. He was sure he was just stupid. My brother just happened to mention something about homeschool and if it'd been around back when he was in school he'd sure have done it that way. My brother is an engineer with the government designing things like bombes and computer programs to make them work. I'll take his word for most everything! So I looked into home schooling and started with the school - this was about 10 years ago and I didn't have computer at the time so hearing about it so much - I didn't. So I started asking at the high schooo. They had their own home school program. I take him to the conselor once a month and he'd get home work for the month, bring in once a week and test once a month. He did one subject per month. And he had about 3 times the homework he did in the home school than he did at regular school! I thought, yeah, they'll do it htis way so the kids will go back to school. Well, my son, picked up on the work, scheduled himself and and he completed all that work so well, did everything so well, he brought his grades up to A's and B's. HE did this for 2 years and kept the grades up. And in noticed they taught him things in the homeschool that they didn't teach in regular school like how to balance a check book, how math works in the real world and how to use it and things like that. He wanted to go back to school his senior year to be part of all the senior year activities. He could have done all those while homeschooled but he wanted to be "with the kids". I let him and he kept the grades up. His problem wasn't him, it wasn't that he was stupid, it was obvious that he just wasn't being taught well in regular school. He went through the homework so fast and kept the grades up and graduated wtih B+ average. Granted just my experience, but it worked for him.

Just a little background on me so you know where i am coming from...I work in the public school system at the PreK, middle and high school level as a speech language therapist. I also am a mother of a 15 yr old boy. I do believe that there are good and bad points to homeschooling. The good points are that you are able to spend as little or as much time on a topic or section that your child needs. Your child will get the one on one that is very beneficial to them academically. As long as you follow the guidelines that are provided your child should be very successful academically. My son has a friend who is 14 and she has been homeschooled her entire school career. She is very smart and is actually further along than my son in what she knows and has done in school. However, she has limited interaction with other children. She is involved in a small church and there is a few kids in her neighborhood that she has a chance to play with. This is my only objection to homeschooling. Homeschooling has every opportunity to limit a child's social interactions with not only children but other adult authority figures such as teachers, administrators, lunchroom people, etc. If you do choose to homeschool, find every opportunity to have your child in children's groups and make sure that it follows through their teenage years as well. I have noticed that children that do not attend a public school have a harder time understanding the ins and outs of being a kid and following others directions and so on. But if done correctly academically and socially, I think that homeschooling can be a huge benefit.

I am also a huge fan of homeschooling and actually did homeschool (UNschooled to be more precise) both my kids for two yrs...I'd actually consider doing it again if they wanted if it wasnt for the ridiculous laws and regulations here in NY...(when I homeschooled we were still living in Ontario).... I think if the parent/caregiver keeps the kids home for schooling for the RIGHT reasons and are consistent then its a great method...My kids moved from Canada and homeschooling to the U.S and public school and their first yr in the system were Honour Roll students...Three yrs later my daughter is still honour roll and my son is merit roll.. and for the record, the crap you hear of about how homeschooled children miss out on socialization is just that...CRAP! The ONLY way a child would miss out on socializing is if the parent/caregiver keeps them in the house...If you think about it the majority of a childs social interaction IS NOT in school..its after school, on weekends, family functions, birthday parties, after school activities (like 4H, karate class, book clubs, etc etc)... If you are goin to do it, my suggestion is that you first off find out the legal rights you have in your state and what the regulations are AND I would also consider looking into the Home School Legal Defence Association (I was a member of the Canadian version)..Here's the link for you http://www.hslda.org/Default.asp?bhcp=1

I believe that it is easy for a parent to be afraid of the public school system. I feel, however, worried that parents who home school might be 'overprotecting' their kids. Still, some people swear by it. A school teacher has to divide their attention among many children. I guess it is easy for the squeaky wheel to get the oil, there. Perhaps a child can do better with more one to one attention. I do notice, however, one detraction. If a person is non-scientific or non-rational in how they accumulate their world beliefs, home schooling might result in a very unbalanced education. For example, I know of a woman who's religious zeal held her grandchild out of public education and taught him religious nonsense about "demons" being out there to get him. Certain people (of whom she disapproved) had "demons" in them. The child was since taken out of the grandmother's care and is in the public school system, but he's a bit behind the others of his age.

Homeschooling can work as long as proper socialization skills are used. My step sister homeschools, sometimes, and her kids are the most ill behaved and socially retarted kids I know. They don't know manners, they freak if they have to meet someone new and they are just bad little kids. A lot of it also has to do with how you homeschool. My SS doesn't provide structure or discipline. She just lets the kids do whatever and that plays a big problem as to why her kids are just inept idiots. Do some research on homeschooling and maybe talk to some women or men who do homeschooling. Have you looked into private schools? They are safer plus it still gives your kid a chance to interact with other kids his or her own gage. A lot of people cite reports of violence in public schools as a reason to keep kids at home and homeschool. Those reports mentioned are the minority. Rarely do you hear that little Johnny graduated with a 4.0 average and nothing bad ever happened to him during his school years. All you hear about are the bad things. Yeah Columbine and Jonesboro shootings happen, but how often do they happen? Kind of like saying you don't want to fly b/c the plane might crash.

I have been homeschooling my daughter for 5 months and it has been so rewarding. It's been difficult and a struggle at times, but in all I feel so relieved to be the one to decide who and what are speaking into her life. I recommend it to anyone who is uneasy sending their child to public school.

I haven't read the other responses so excuse me if I repeat :) I'm a HUGE fan of homeschooling even though my children are in public school. That's where they want to be so I'm supporting their decision however I don't trust the school system to do it all so I supplement at home. I have a discussion on that alone! But I support anyone who wants to homeschool! It's benefits outways the negative by a long shot! If you have the means to HS I say go for it. I have a large collection of links at www.homeschoolblogger.com/goldensun These are all ways to HS for free! I would also recommend signing up for newsletters from History.com & Biography.com and there's animal planet and so on... Get your hands on all that free stuff! Use the library as much as you can! Most of all, teach your children to LOVE TO LEARN! Once they have that, they have it all! Good luck!