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sunnyhoney 
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 Topic: Home School Mummies
Posted: 06 October 2008 at 9:55pm |
What's it really like? Do you find it hard to teach?
We are considering home schooling (got a while to go yet) but I wonder sometime if I will be up to it. I was never very good academically at school 
Is it possible that this could be a sticky topic? Mums can share ideas and stuff.
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tamiem
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Location: Te Whaiti, Rotorua
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 12:34pm |
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As a primary school teacher I think that it's really important socially for kids to attend school. We have some children in our area (of various ages) who were at school and are now home schooled and they seem to find it a bit difficult to interact with other children.
Not only do they learn how to be friends with others, they learn a whole lots of other small and large group social skills (ie turn taking, sharing, acknowledging others point of view...).
We will have to drive our daughter 30 mins one way to school (so 2 hrs driving each day, by the time we count drop off in the morning & pick up in the afternoons) as we have no bus - but she's still definitely going to school!
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sunnyhoney
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 12:41pm |
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Interesting point of view. I was worried about that too until I heard that the Home School Assn runs clubs for the kids to get together and socialise while learning ie science club.
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Mum to:
Joy Emily 1.05am 27/09/07 7lb 3oz
Austin Paul 12.47pm 18/04/10 10lb 8oz
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Jay_R
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 12:50pm |
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Can I ask what your reasons are for home schooling your child?
Personally I would never even consider home schooling. My school days were some of the happiest of my life, and I can't imagine what it would be like not to have the different experiences you gain from being with other children in an educational environment. A science group here and there or whatever could never provide the interaction and stimulation I would want my children to experience.
I'm sure you would be able to get training to help you with your curriculum for Joy, so if you are not academically inclined yourself you'd definitely be able to get guidance on what you need to be teaching her at every stage. But I'd imagine once she got to college age it would be imperative she attended a school in order to give her the best opportunities for her adult life.
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lizzle
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 12:57pm |
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we have a LOT of homeschooled kids at my school. And we have a lot of different kids from it.
Kid S came from a very sheltered homeschooled background where she was suddenly sent off to our (boarding) school at year 12....did not cope well and left in term 2. Really struggled to relate to other kids and kept hanging around me. annoying.
Kids F and K are lovely. were homeschooled and then mum died, they were shipped off again and are doing relatively well. K is struggling to fit in as he is....unusual. F is a great kid with lots of friends
Kids L, H and M were homeschooled and are neat. they have strong opinions but are able to argue them maturely. Great family and I love teaching them.
Like anything to do with kids, HUGE range of results
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mummy_becks
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 1:01pm |
Teresa (busymum) was a homeschooled mum and I think there is a topic about this from over a year ago. I will see if I can bump it for you.
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I was a puree feeder, forward facing, cot sleeping, pram pushing kind of Mum... and my kids survived!
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MrsMojo
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 1:20pm |
1 of my nieces and 2 of my nephews are homeschooled. The schools weren't catering to their needs (all three of them are extremely bright plus one of my nephews has a hearing disability which can be improved but the school wasn't willing to follow any of the specialists recommendations ).
I don't have anything to do with their day to day schooling (I'll ask my sisters to log in and respond) but from what I understand the kids are now working at a level far beyond their classmates.
I'm not sure about J1's out of schooltime activities but he's such a social fellow I doubt he'll have any trouble with social interaction. E and J2 do extra curricular activities (like ballet and soccer) and have their old school friends over to play often. E is a social butterfly too and J2 has always been a popular kid.
We will be sending Michaela to school (rather than homeschooling) but I'm very much an advocate of parents as the first teachers and think that parents must take an active role in their childrens education whether the main part is done by a school or not. Also if we find that Michaela doesn't thrive at school as she should we will consider our options.
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MrsMojo
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 1:27pm |
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BTW. HSing doesn't just need to be done by the stay at home parent. My younger sis's kids have the majority of their lessons with their grandad who retired to homeschool J2, E is taught japanese by a friend of my sisters and my mum (who works full time) teaches the kids english (her specialty subject) on a Saturday and then writes the lesson plan for dad to follow for their other english lessons thoughout the week. I know of other families where the dad (who works fulltime) teaches maths and science as that's his specialty.
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nikkitheknitter
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:15pm |
I'm all for home schooling... if I had a tad more patience, a partner who could earn, more kiddos, and wasn't so easily sucked into the void that is the internet then I'd totally do it!
I don't buy the socialisation argument for a second... well not in the sense that it is insurmountable ya know? Many home school families gather in groups and their kids learn to share, play together, interact, form friendships etc without all the negative things that come with being in a classroom of 30+ with an overworked and underpaid teacher (like fighting, bullying, learning foul language, lying, obsessions with material stuff... all things that Hannah has experienced just in creche! Mind you... she was probably the one with the foul language.  )
I'm quite a fan of the 'unschooling' stream which follows the idea that kids learn by living. So if you encourage them out into the world, learning will follow. There are several cool blogs which show their everyday lives and learning as far as unschooling goes.
Wikipedia - Unschooling
Sharonnz - Sharon is fab and cool and fun and her kids are awesome. They home educate but are regularly involved in activities like French lessons and currently one of the kiddo's is off at a school hol programme run by the embroiderer's guild.
Katekiwi and her clan learn by going to the beach and stuff. Kate is a trained teacher but I think she just rolls with it. Her kiddos tend to head off to school once they get to high school age... and seem to adjust really well to it. Her eldest son left for uni this year.
Karen "lives and learns" with her kids. I don't read her much because I have blogs coming out my ears but she seems to follow the same philosophy as many of the others I've mentioned.
Then if you get into the big American unschoolers... Soulemama is an unschooler. Her blog is absolutely gorgeous and worth looking at if nothing else!
Anyway... I'm not an authority on it by any stretch of the imagination but am a huge fan and am most impressed with people who can do it.
ETA: You say that you have a while to start yet... but I believe that you are home educating now! And that's what the whole unschooling thing is based on. So 
Edited by nicelis
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emz
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:34pm |
Hi
I think if you make a real go of it and enrol in groups etc its OK. The thing is, just with every other part of life, kids have to learn how to be around other kids so school always gives them that. Homeschooling can often be seen as escapism but it doesn't have to be.
A lot of the 'problems' with schools as mentioned above will happen to a homeschooled child too, a qualifed teacher can sometimes struggle to recognise and gifted child as the queues are very hard to interpret, so I don't see why a parent who is uneducated on formal schooling can do much better. (ie. naughty kids can often be gifted but it goes unnoticed and a lot of parents are often amazed that their kids are quite able).
I think you have to be highly dedicated and live a very structured life as a homeschooler to meet the achievement objectives as set out by the MOE.
It depends what you want to achieve though as there are pros and cons to every scenario, like would you homeschool right through school (till 18 years of age)? How easily would your child integrate into school if you needed them to do it? How will you keep up with professional development etc (knowing what to teach (as given by the correspondence school) is only a fraction of the battle, most is knowing HOW to teach well and how to assess for further learning)? What do you want your child to get out of it? How easily are resources found in your area?
From a teacher's perspective - there's a reason why we train for min. 3 years and have ongoing professional development but obviously just my opinion.
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arohanui
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:36pm |
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I have a few friends who have been home-schooled and they are so well-balanced, friendly, social, and intelligent! They've all been involved in youth groups, church etc so have loads of friends, and go on lots of camps etc.
I've also met some people who were homeschooled and are really.. different. Kinda weird socially. Just like how in schools you have some kids who are different and kinda weird socially. You're gonna have kids like that anywhere, it's not necessarily a result of homeschooling.
I think homeschooling really works for some kids and families, and for others it doesn't. My mum said she could never have done it herself cos we all needed a break from eachother (true).
I don't think I would do it myself, not cos I'm against it but just cos it's not something I really feel is right for our family IYKWIM. But big ups to you sunnyhoney!
Oh and Nikki that whole unschooling thing sounds great... will have to check out some of those blogs when I have a bit more time. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could do more of that sorta thing in schools! Very hard to implement though. Hmmmm *ponders some way to integrate something small into the class this term*
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nikkitheknitter
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:42pm |
 emz wrote:
A lot of the 'problems' with schools as mentioned above will happen to a homeschooled child too, a qualifed teacher can sometimes struggle to recognise and gifted child as the queues are very hard to interpret, so I don't see why a parent who is uneducated on formal schooling can do much better. (ie. naughty kids can often be gifted but it goes unnoticed and a lot of parents are often amazed that their kids are quite able). |
I don't see that schools fail to recognise gifted children... they seem to be really good at that... but what they don't often have are the resources and time to dedicate to that child. This is where I see home schooling having an advantage.
And I don't think you need a 'curriculum' as such. Each child learns differently so why not cater to their individual needs rather than adopting the curriculum that is developed with the whole nation in mind?
I've just been involved in some stuff for our ECE centre regarding the curriculum they use... very glad to see that some of the same principles are starting to be applied to primary level now.
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nikkitheknitter
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:45pm |
arohanui wrote:
Oh and Nikki that whole unschooling thing sounds great... will have to check out some of those blogs when I have a bit more time. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could do more of that sorta thing in schools! Very hard to implement though. Hmmmm *ponders some way to integrate something small into the class this term* |
I think as far as how the approach would be implemented in schools then taking a look at Waldorf/Steiner schools would be the closest you'd get.
Or as I mentioned above, looking at current ECE philosophy - it's got a similar 'child led' approach to it that unschooling also does.
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Jay_R
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:45pm |
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Nice argument Nikki!
Certainly gives me something to think about!
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nikkitheknitter
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:47pm |
Anything to challenge the mind!
Honestly... I would have been horrified by mention of home schooling about a year ago. It's since meeting these fab home schoolers (well.. "meeting" online) that it's changed my view.
We had the weird homeschooling kids in our area too... mind you, their parents were slightly strange. Interestingly enough, I'll bet they did a heap of stuff I wish I could do now! hehe.
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sunnyhoney
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 4:31pm |
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Hmm, the reasons why I want to home school? Well, I think maybe if I give them they may not seem that strong but it is something we have thought about since becoming pregnant. DH trained to be a teacher a long time ago and he was given info during that time to support that it was a good way to school.
Some of the reasons are: that I feel education is best directed at the individual, schooling can be done in minimal time and spare time can be devoted to extra activities, I feel attention given to each child in the classroom (school) can be very limited ie stressed teacher with too many students etc, there's the bullying etc that someone else mentioned. I had a rough time at school because of these things and while it might be seen has over protecting I don't want my children to go through that. I'd rather they had a more positive education experience and if I can give them that then I will.
I believe that if at any time their education is suffering because of my lack of knowledge or patience or whatever then school is there as backup and they can be integrated just as if they were starting (ie at 5 years iykwim). I thought I could try to at least home school until either intermediate or high school age.
As for how each child turns out socially, all the home school kids I ever met are very social, lovely to be with and very very intelligent (advanced for their age).
Our children will (hopefully) be heavily involved in church activities too providing them with heaps of interaction with most age groups including their own.
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Mum to:
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Jay_R
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 4:53pm |
Well sunnyhoney, I cannot argue with that! Very well thought out reasoning and your points about attention and bullying are very valid.
Good on you
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emz
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 6:44pm |
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Sounds good to me! I think as long as you know WHY and HOW you are going to do it, then you just need to work hard at it.
I will say though that unfortunately bullying is part of life and at some point your child will have to learn coping mechanisms. I like the idea of heaps of time for other activities though (how many of us wish we could have ditched school to go play in the park or something).
As far as I'm aware its a requirement to follow the curriculum though, but the correspondence school are really helpful with that and will have all the planning done (if only it worked for teachers like that lol)
Hehe anyone reading this thread would think that home schooled children are all advanced though - I think there are definitely pros and cons (just like school) and, for example if you had academics without social skills it would be a disastrous mix (we all know 'those' people).
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MissCandice
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 6:48pm |
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Can someone tell me the difference between normal school and Steiner schools?
Sorry to threadjack.
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~ Mummy to a beautiful girl ~
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EnJsmum
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Posted: 07 October 2008 at 10:15pm |
Hi I'm MrsMojo's little sister
In order to HS you have to demonstrate to MoE that you will school as well and as regularly as at school. You can choose any curriculum you like (overwhelming I know, but perfect for pitching to their interests), as long as you can do that you are fine.
I must admit I'm not a typical HS must, I decided to HS J very reluctantly but it was the only way we could meet his needs. We pulled E out soon after, it just made sense, she was badly bullied and was at a school that seems to believe that bullying is just something that happens and kids should learn "conflict management skills" (I believe teacher should step in before E comes home bleeding!) This is not the kind of socialisation I want for my daughter.
As far as socialization is concerned I agree that it is a real problem, I have had to restrict the number of activities they do each week, they were too busy to study! Seriously though I think HS kids get more realistic socialisation, think about the way we interact in the real world... with people of all backgrounds and ages, this is what my children get from HS. Yes they spend a lot of time with other kids their age, both in structured activities and in "free play" situations both HS and regular schooled, but they also spend time talking to adults and younger children. They can carry an interesting conversation pitched to the correct level, from toy story to bio diversity depending on who they are talking to.
Regarding the difficulty diagnosing giftedness, because of J's difficulty speaking I had him professionally tested when he was 4, I just wanted to establish that he was at least average so he wasn't boxed in by his speech problem, he came out in the top 2% (the clinical psychologist said he would have been in the top 1% but score 0 on the audiological test). Even with this diagnosis he wasn't pushed to achieve, what could they do with 28 other kids in the class?
I do think if you have a child with a special interest or talent you need to be very careful when choosing the school and most importantly the teacher. I remember his first goal setting meeting, when he said he wanted to learn multiplication and division because "adding is easy and boring" he was told that child don't learn that until year 3-4 (apparently is "best practice").
I think if I had children that fitted the "best practice" model we would still be at school, but my kids are not average (E struggles with maths but is 5 years ahead at reading, J is the opposite) and the system struggled to meet their needs.
I'm not criticizing the teachers, I have friends who are teachers, but the system they work in is grossly under-funded and, as a consequence, cannot encourage individual learning styles and interests.
That’s my opinion based on my kids and their needs, every child has different needs and experiences this is just what worked for my family. As Mojo said this was basically essential for my son, the school couldn't/wouldn't meet his special needs.
PS although my dad is very clever he left school after fifth form, we makes sure he understands the lessons before he teaches them, he just has to stay one step ahead
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Home School Mummies
