Homeschool parents, do you want to ask me any questions? (I was 100% homeschooled, now a regular married lady with kid)

[TheFatBlueCat]

Hi lovely people, just a random thought.
The homeschoolers thread in random rambling thread made me think about this. It seems like there are quite a few homeschoolers here, if you're homeschooling your kids, maybe you want to ask someone who was homeschooled questions?

I was homeschooled. I didn't go to school at all age 5 to graduation, my first public education was when I went to university at age 18. I'm now in my 30s, married, employed, pre-teen daughter. And no, I don't and never did homeschool her (covid doesn't count haha).

 

[hysop]

Why didn’t you homeschool her if you were homeschooled?

Did you choose to be homeschooled or did your parents want to? (My kids have been telling me that they want school at home since they were old enough to understand the concept, probably late 3 or 4--thankfully I did want to homeschool since they were itty babies so it worked out).

Did you like being homeschooled? Do you think you learned something better by being homeschooled whether it be values, morals, or school subjects?

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Why didn’t you homeschool her if you were homeschooled?

Did you choose to be homeschooled or did your parents want to? (My kids have been telling me that they want school at home since they were old enough to understand the concept, probably late 3 or 4--thankfully I did want to homeschool since they were itty babies so it worked out).

Did you like being homeschooled? Do you think you learned something better by being homeschooled whether it be values, morals, or school subjects?

I have only one child by choice (I'm from a family of 6 kids, my twin best friends from a family of 10). I didn't homeschool for several reasons, one of which being the fact she is an only child, and being at home with just your mum seems very unnatural to me. Other reasons are I have a full time job (and for most of her life I HAD to have a job), there is a very good small local school, and our personalities are often in conflict.

Did I choose to be homeschooled? No it was a choice my parents made for me and all my siblings. I'm the only one who never went to school, the others all went when my parents got divorced but I was already at university when that happened (I'm the oldest). I don't remember ever wanting to go to school. I recognized I had a lot more free time than my friends who went to school.

I think I got a good education. My math is poor but I don't blame that on my parents, plenty of my same age schooled friends left school with bad math skills. I have a brain that struggles with math, and back then the way it was taught didn't help me. However I have fully functional basic math and mathematical understanding (I understand how and why something is, I just don't know how to calculate it), and calculators are great things. All other subjects (except science) were taught to me well.
My mother was a very good teacher, she actually became a registered teacher after my parents' seperated. I followed a curriculum for my base subjects, and she made elaborate project-based learning modules. I enjoyed it. I was enrolled into a correspondence school for some high-school subjects when I was 15 and beginning our school certificate process. I had no problem at all settling into university, I already knew how to self-teach and manage my time.

For me, I think I got a better education. My siblings say they are glad they went to school. I had several friends who were also homeschooled and I can't say that they got a better education. It was quite poor actually. So many of these outcomes all fall on the shoulders of parents and that is a lot of responsibility.

I don't think the homeschooling made me a more moral person. I was raised extremely religious. My daughter attends a very small (60 students) catholic school and I am extremely impressed with her moral education. It's better than mine being raised the way I was, and I would say I have had morals drummed (and beaten) into me and am a moral person.

 

[hysop]

I have only one child by choice (I'm from a family of 6 kids, my twin best friends from a family of 10). I didn't homeschool for several reasons, one of which being the fact she is an only child, and being at home with just your mum seems very unnatural to me. Other reasons are I have a full time job (and for most of her life I HAD to have a job), there is a very good small local school, and our personalities are often in conflict.

Did I choose to be homeschooled? No it was a choice my parents made for me and all my siblings. I'm the only one who never went to school, the others all went when my parents got divorced but I was already at university when that happened (I'm the oldest). I don't remember ever wanting to go to school. I recognized I had a lot more free time than my friends who went to school.

I think I got a good education. My math is poor but I don't blame that on my parents, plenty of my same age schooled friends left school with bad math skills. I have a brain that struggles with math, and back then the way it was taught didn't help me. However I have fully functional basic math and mathematical understanding (I understand how and why something is, I just don't know how to calculate it), and calculators are great things. All other subjects (except science) were taught to me well.
My mother was a very good teacher, she actually became a registered teacher after my parents' seperated. I followed a curriculum for my base subjects, and she made elaborate project-based learning modules. I enjoyed it. I was enrolled into a correspondence school for some high-school subjects when I was 15 and beginning our school certificate process. I had no problem at all settling into university, I already knew how to self-teach and manage my time.

For me, I think I got a better education. My siblings say they are glad they went to school. I had several friends who were also homeschooled and I can't say that they got a better education. It was quite poor actually. So many of these outcomes all fall on the shoulders of parents and that is a lot of responsibility.

I don't think the homeschooling made me a more moral person. I was raised extremely religious. My daughter attends a very small (60 students) catholic school and I am extremely impressed with her moral education. It's better than mine being raised the way I was, and I would say I have had morals drummed (and beaten) into me and am a moral person.

That makes sense. I do wonder how homeschooling would work with an only child. I’m sure it would depend on the individual child. My kids aren’t only children and right now they don’t seem interested in making friends despite having plenty of interactions with other kids. Instead they prefer each other's company (they’re twins).

Did your parents choose homeschooling for religious reasons? The reason I chose it was for the level of education. They are advanced for the level taught at public schools, but I don’t believe they are anymore capable than any other kid, the difference would be that I can work with them to move faster through subjects while other kids may not get that attention from parents or guardians but I do believe all children have great potential. They’re still 5 and love learning multiplication and actually understand it. Same with reading, they are reading short chapter books and enjoy them. They would be bored in a kindergarten class in my area.

How was getting into a university like if you were fully homeschooled? Did you have to jump through hoops? Or did your area accept homeschooling transcripts?

While you were homeschooled, were you part of any groups? Like co-ops and stuff? I wonder if they’re even necessary. My kids don't really seem to care to be around other kids. At least not at this age. They prefer to just play than talk to anyone. Unfortunately many think they are older than they are because they’re taller than the average 5 year old, and the poor kids get so confused when mine don’t respond and stay quiet to their questions

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

That makes sense. I do wonder how homeschooling would work with an only child. I’m sure it would depend on the individual child. My kids aren’t only children and right now they don’t seem interested in making friends despite having plenty of interactions with other kids. Instead they prefer each other's company (they’re twins).

Did your parents choose homeschooling for religious reasons? The reason I chose it was for the level of education. They are advanced for the level taught at public schools, but I don’t believe they are anymore capable than any other kid, the difference would be that I can work with them to move faster through subjects while other kids may not get that attention from parents or guardians but I do believe all children have great potential. They’re still 5 and love learning multiplication and actually understand it. Same with reading, they are reading short chapter books and enjoy them. They would be bored in a kindergarten class in my area.

How was getting into a university like if you were fully homeschooled? Did you have to jump through hoops? Or did your area accept homeschooling transcripts?

While you were homeschooled, were you part of any groups? Like co-ops and stuff? I wonder if they’re even necessary. My kids don't really seem to care to be around other kids. At least not at this age. They prefer to just play than talk to anyone. Unfortunately many think they are older than they are because they’re taller than the average 5 year old, and the poor kids get so confused when mine don’t respond and stay quiet to their questions

I think originally my parents were under the influence of their religious friends who homeschooled, but I think the main reason in the end was for a better education. Which I did get, I believe. I certainly spent a lot less time getting it and had much more time to pursue hobbies (horses, art, craft modelling).

I realized that I did forget to say I had to teach my daughter to read. After her first 6 months at school she still couldn't read to my expectations, so I spent the summer teaching her. It wasn't a problem and she learned quickly, she could just get away with a good memory and a poor work ethic at school! There's no way a teacher can manage so many little kids individually.

I had a lot of homeschooled friends I spent lots of time with. We occasionally went to homeschool groups, but my mum had so many little kids it got to be a bit much. We did do some special classes and things together, like technology and cooking, sewing classes. I had my horse responsibilities so I spent time with a lot of people pursuing that. We also had church.

University wasn't a problem because I had enrolled into puclic school distance education for my final 2 years so I got the transcripts required. I enjoyed this too as I had a teacher for each subject that would send me back my marked work with comments etc.

I do think that done well homeschooling gives better education outcomes, and can give better social outcomes if your children get to spend time with a wide range of people of all ages. I spent time with lots of different adults (once I was about 9 or 10) who taught me a range of things, including how to be in the world. It's just that it's easy to do it wrong. And I've seen it done very badly. I was one of the lucky ones.

 

[Quacking ducks]

I was homeschooled, and I loved it. We worked hard during the day and got out sometimes a few hours before the neighbor kids