Question for all the Teenagers/Kiddos on here

[TheOLDNewChick]

Hi there. I'm a homeschooler since third grade. Pre-K - 3rd grade I went to a private school...it was okay, but for the most part, I hated it. I was (not bragging) too advanced, doing work three and four grades ahead of me. I was bored. I'd even finish that work with no problem and have nothing to do the rest of the day but help the teacher grade papers. I love homeschooling. I can go as fast as I want, finish it, do even the next days lessons...finish....all in my "jammies", too!

 

[ChicknThief]

Quote:
I have to agree with this. Socialization is very important if you want a child that is well balanced and can hold down healthy friendships. So many children wind up sequestering themselves, and as a result never develop healthy relationships. In short you are left with a very intelligent, but socially inept child. Not good.

 

[grace6691]

I'm a senior at a public school and I love it. I've moved around schools my whole life - half of kindergarten was private, half was public, then first and second were private then until 9th I went to public school then private for 9th grade. Then I moved and now I'm at public. I really prefer public school - its a more diverse group of kids and I think its more fun, and we have alot of school spirit. However, private was nice because of the uniforms (no stress of picking out outfits) and the teachers seemed more dedicated to making sure that we were learning the material instead of just preparing us for standardized tests. I prefer public though. And I would NEVER want to be homeschooled - I would be so lonely and it would have been alot harder to make friends. Also, I think that sometimes homeschooled kids have weird relationships with their parents, and they don't really know how to interact with big groups of people like at jobs and stuff.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I'm not a teen but I have to just say that I agree with one of the kids here who say some parents lack the intelligence to teach. That is very true and sometimes parents use it as a way out for their child like my sister did. She took her daughter out of school (she was missing A LOT of school) and to save herself a lot of greif and fines she just "homeschooled" her. Well her way of home schooling is letting her daughter do whatever she wants and now she has no education past the 6th grade. I did what I could, called social services etc but NO ONE would do anything to help her get the schooling she needed. Now she is coming up on 17 yrs old and all she does is sit in her dark bedroom and play video games! I think the system needs to be a little more strict at HOW children are home schooled. They need to be aware of what goes on and how these kids are doing. I just was amazed that there was NOTHING that could be done. Her older child who is now 20 was the same way...quit when she was in 6th grade to be homeschooled and now she has a baby and living on welfare.

 

[asher]

Some states are very strict on home schooling laws.

I'm sorry your sister failed her kids on that aspect. :-(

 

[BantyHugger]

THIS IS JUST MY OPINION, PLEASE DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY!

I've been public schooled my whole life. I've liked it because it helps develop people skills and you get to see ALOT of different perspectives on things. Your daughter probably doesn't like home school because there are alot of fun group activities only in Public school.

My friend Abby does public school every other year. She likes home better because she gets to move at her own pace. Abby is very smart and is in the top of our class when she does do public schooling. However she doesn't fit in as well because her family is extremely Christian and never cusses. When she goes in to school and heres people cuss or meets non-Christians she is appalled. Basically she never really learned tolerence of different people.

Home schooling is ok so long as you are prepared to teach a variety of subjects really well. Remember though to get DD involved in extracurriculars like sports, music,art, ect. That way she won't miss out on group activities.

Finally i would like to point out the opportunities that can be found at public schools. If your kid is EXTREMELY intelligent I'd stay in public schools. College scouts will notice them soaring above the others. Also, in grade school, I personally was sought out by the Texas think tank. They would have put me in higher level courses and pressured me to solve complex problems. We however didn't have the money and i stayed in basic public schools. Now my education has developed at a steady rate and i will actually finish my lasy 2 yrs of high school earning FULL college credits at the University of North Texas' program TAMS. School counselors and some teachers can help show you these programs. The work may not go at your child's pace, but all the opportunities and personalities she meets will be worth it.

 

[asher]

Quote:
Was your argument for or against home schooling again? hehe

Good for her sticking to her morals even though she is not fitting in because of it!

 

[Chirpy]

Ahh! I wasn't going to get into this thread but just can't let it go by.

I'm a Home Schooling mom. Our oldest went to a Private School for Kindergarten and then started first grade there but we pulled him out to Home School two months into the year. He just graduated this spring. He has been accepted into one of the top Universities in the Country for Aerospace Engineering. That school had about 25,000 students apply to be freshmen this coming fall. Of those, they accepted 5600! Of those they only accepted 120 into the Aerospace Engineering Department. Our son is one of those 120!!

I totally agree that what makes or breaks a child's Home School experience is the parent that teaches them. I believe that having a Home School support group is a huge factor in being successful. We had 200 families in our local support group but had to cut it down in size as it was too large to be as "helpful" as was needed. Now, we have about 130 families. Any parent can teach at home... there are tons of curriculum for any type of learner (visual, auditory, hands-on, etc.) but if a parent gets stuck (like I did with Calculus and Physics) the parent needs to find someone who can tutor their child in that area. In Public and Private school if your child is an auditory learner but the teacher uses a visual style .. your child loses unless you spend lots of time after school helping them. With Home Schooling you know your child best... you know how they learn best. You can hand pick the curriculum that will help them succeed and surpass where they would have been in other school settings.

As far as socialization goes ... it absolutely cracks me up that people think this is a problem with Home School students. Sure it can be... but public school kids can have issues in socialization also. Knowing how to act with 25 other kids the same age is fine (or is it?) but... our children know how to interact with people of all ages. They love to play with babies and toddlers and can carry on an excellent conversation with any adult. But, we, as parents, had to make sure they had the interaction to learn those skills. We have to make it a priority to get our kids together with their friends ... it just takes more effort on our part (also because we live a long way from town) to make sure it happens. Our children have wonderful friends (Home Schooled and Public schooled) that we have here all the time or they go there to spend time. It's our responsibility to make sure they have friends and know how to behave in society.

I love that we get to help "pick" our children's friends. I always know who they are with (unlike public school when the parent has little idea who their children are spending their school days interacting with) and what the family of that child is like because we always get to know the parents also since we are dropping off or picking up kids to play with each other.

Our family is very close knit; our children (eight of them) get along wonderfully with very little bickering and issues.

Our oldest son started working for a very large corporation last summer. Within two months they asked him to move into a manager position! They were thrilled and surprised at how much higher of a work ethic he had, he was honorable and trustworthy. Unfortunately, they can't say the same for almost any of their other High School employees.

Our three oldest teenage boys have worked (volunteered) many times over the last few years with several different companies and organizations. Every single time, the higher ups have told them that they have jobs waiting for them in their company if they ever want it. People are always impressed with the work ethic and quality of our boys.

Pretty much everything I've bragged about above is true of all the Home Schooling families I know that have the parents totally involved in the education. I also know some Home Schooling families that are failing miserably... I also know private education and public education families that are failing miserably. It really comes down to how much time and effort the parents take to become involved in their children's lives ... whatever school they attend.

People never have a clue that our children are Home Educated until they ask where they attend school. They are always impressed with them.

Finally, in our case, our boys play football through the local public school. Our boys love football and are integral parts of the team BUT they all have said they don't want to attend public school because of all the "junk" that goes on there.

Ok - I'm done with my 85 cents worth.

 

[asher]

 

[BantyHugger]

My vote was for public schools if your kid is working well in them. IF he/she is not learning well home schooling is good. And if your kid is ahead of the curve i'd stay in them so that scouts will notice.