homeschooling?

[cardiacpaul]

I have no idea how this is all going to shake out, but we're investigating homeschooling for thecubans daughter ( she's my stepdaughter, not legally, but I just love the kid, ok?)

anyway, I've rec'd a pm from a fella on here (thanks) concerning one option and we like what we've seen, but we're looking for opinions from people that are or have been doing it with their kids.
What works and what doesn't?
What are the most rewarding part for the child and the parents?
What are the pitfalls, trials and tribulations?
any help you can give us would be a Godsend
thanks

[Valiente]

As we plan on taking our kid out of school for five or six years, we've had to explore this. There seem to be many pitfalls, but also many opportunities. Homeschooling a single child might be a little more problematic, just because the focus is always on the one kid. On the other hand, if the child is mature and self-motivated, independent study can be the royal road to understanding.

But it's the ability of the parents, acting in the unaccustomed and frequently untrained role of teachers, that likely decides the issue, because you have to switch caps from teacher to parent and back again, and I think it would be a little unfair in this day and age to pull a "learn this or you're grounded" tactic.

Having said that, you could do a lot worse than to consult active cruising families. I get the impression that even though direct instruction can be as little as two hours a day (reflecting the efficiency of one-on-one instruction), it's got to be rigorously consistent. I also understand that various cruisers in anchorages for a few weeks will decide on a "school boat" and have mixed classes of three to eight kids doing a "group project" (like reef species or island economy?) in order to bring a social aspect into the schooling.

[sailaway21]

CP,
I have not home-schooled but I've seen the results and have a couple of thoughts that may be encouraging. I'm in and out of more than a few stranger's homes during my work day and without exception the most impressive kids encountered are home schooled. they appear more responsible and certainly are more polite and cooperative than their peers.

Most of them started home schooling from the git-go so I'd imagine you may have more child resistence mistaking the home schooling for punishment perhaps. I think though that it offers a great potential though even for an older child. Much is made of the idea of quality time. The problem is though that quality time is often determined by either the parent's mood or the child's. For most, that receptiveness may occur when parent and child are not even together. Similar to a couple where one person is a night-owl and the other a morning person. Home schooling offers the chance to declare recess when the kid obviously has some extra energy to burn off and studying and instruction can be tailored towards those times during the day when the kid is most receptive. You cannot be assured of getting quality time without quantity of time. I think the maturity home schooled kids seem to exhibit comes from being around mature adults. And you learn maturity just like you learn everything else; from people who already have it. Plus having a kid around has a natural effect of taking a few years off us as well. I'd expect a bit of a rough transition period, along the lines of I'm missing all the fun, but then smoother sailing as time goes on. Kids really do want to learn, they just hate the learning part of it. You and Rosa have such a wide range of experiences that I cannot imagine the young lady not benefitting enormously in ways not even directly academic. So many things with kids are easier if you're not under an enforced budgeting of time with them. I offer, if little else, all the encouragement in the world.

[Stillraining]

When our kids were young, we use to get grilled by well meaning friends or sorted jestures of concern from people that they would end up being socially retarded due to the lack of social interaction if we home schooled..
Today we get coments like how well behaved, self confidant, positive and hard working and ingaging and outgoing our girls are...

I Guess we must have screwed up somewhere..

[US27inKS]

I know a few families that homeschool. The only downside that I've seen is that it's tough to be on the high school sports team, football baseball basketball wrestling etc, if your school consists of your brother and sister. I know there are ways to get your kids involved in sports outside of school, but most of those programs (in this area anyway) seem to be geared toward younger kids. By high school age, there's not much out there.

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by US27inKS

I know a few families that homeschool. The only downside that I've seen is that it's tough to be on the high school sports team, football baseball basketball wrestling etc, if your school consists of your brother and sister. I know there are ways to get your kids involved in sports outside of school, but most of those programs (in this area anyway) seem to be geared toward younger kids. By high school age, there's not much out there.

John...
Maybe its different in your state but all my girls have competed in regular school sports starting at Junior High level...Playing on both JV an Varsity teams..in Soccer , Track , Volley Ball and Tennis...My middle daughter competed at a starting position at State level in soccer this year with the local High School. We still have to pay property taxes, which 80% is for local schools so we can utilize any school activity if desired...Music, Sports, etc.. We dont get any of that tax money back to help for home schooling but thats our choice so I sort of understand. I would be surprised if this was not a nation wide policy..I could be wrong of course.

PS: That picture above She just finished playing a game on Safeco Field..

[US27inKS]

I'll bet you're right about being able to join the H.S. sports team, I just haven't met anyone who did it.

BTW, you couldn't ask for a better looking group of girls. You may need a DNA test, as they are all no doubt much better looking than you.

[sailingdog]

Still-

That's a very good point, regarding the taxes and team sports. I'd second US27's comment about the girls... they obviously take after their mother.

CP-

Nice new avatar. Good luck with the homeschooling. I'm certain, you'll do a wonderful job of it... If you can deal with the Cubana, you can homeschool her kid.

[cardiacpaul]

well, dealing with the Cubana is a lot easier if I don't trip over my own butt.
(and it'll be us both, rosa is very strong in spanish go figure and much better at english too)

[cardiacpaul]

see what I mean?