Homeschooling

The question often arises around here about homeschooling and whether or not it harms the kids or helps them. I think much of it depends on why people are doing. I know one family that does it simply because they do not want their kids influenced by other kids. They are very religious and they feel the unsaved will taint their kids. To me, that is not a good reason for homeschooling kids and her kids have suffered for it.
People made fun of them because they really did not know how to act around kids while they were out. It was sad because I knew them as great kids who just did not know how to act. Their eldest would come to my home and I would talk to her about. She was beautiful but was 24 before she dated a man because she was so afraid of disappointing her parents.
The eldest son could not wait to get out so he could date a girl. He was 18 before he could date and he got the first girl he dated pregnant and I thought the mom was going to have a stroke.

We have another family where there are 12 children in that family. Their mother is concerned about their education. She home schools them but they are involved in various organizations where they can mingle with kids that are not home schooled and they often send one of their kids to high school if they express the desire to do so. Her oldest son went and came home one day and told his mom she could teach the school about time management cause he thought they wasted too much time. *s*

I often thought I would do it while they were young but not during the high school years I would probably no do it beyond fourth grade. I think kids need the experience of going to high school and making some decision on their own while seeing what the outside world is like.

I do see why some home school though. They, like I was, are concerned about the education their children are getting. I can tell you that my daughter was the only one in her class that was accepted at the university she attended without having to take a special class in English.

When she was in school she would bring home papers where words were misspelled and the way the sentences were structured were totally wrong. I would correct them and show her how it should be. (I may not show it in my blogs but I am a stickler for proper English being written.)I went to the school and did battle with the English teacher. She informed me that sentence structure was no longer taught there. They would rather spend their time making a collage' then teaching them English.
I got quite rough with her and told her I did not like the way she taught.

When my daughter went to enter the university, one of the professors wanted to know how she got by without having to take that course in English that so many kids from some of the schools have to take. She just smiled and said, "My mom taught me."

Yes there were some battles over it and she once told me that she thought home schooling was a could cause for matricide but she was proud of me and glad I did teach her what the schools failed to teach.

I am not dissing public schools but I think parents and teachers have to work side by side to educate children and if you feel your teachers are not doing a good job, get involved in your child's education. Take the time to teach them yourselves if you must. It may seem like a hard thing to do but it is worth it in the end.