Jusentantaka, on 04 February 2010 - 06:26 PM, said:
H-cake and I went to far different public schools than are around us. For starters the local elementary schools are somehow below the state average, which is pretty damned astounding considering maryland has BALTIMORE in it to weigh down that average. Some states/schools/cities are good, some are wartorn hellholes, and others are just bad for whatever normal reason, mismanagement, less money, more daycare than school, and more. the three local ones I could conceivably chose from have the first three down pretty well. Local High school is pretty good though, so if we're still here in ten years its likely we'll do as D' mentioned.
While expressing the necessity of bringing home terrific grades, my parents always prioritized actual learning over going through the motions as a kid. After we got the "teach Amph how to talk/handle being deaf" stage out of the way, I was doing algebra in third and fourth grade, expected to deliver a five minute speech on a topic of my own choosing twice a week after dinner, kick a soccer ball 20 yards with fairly good accuracy (2 foot square box), do handywork around the house and help out with hosting guests and parties. I'd say my parents erred a little on the side of keeping me home and sheltered a bit too much, but all in all, it was their work at home that mattered more to my education than what went on in class at school.
School was actually where my personal development occurred. It was where I began to establish an identity separate from my parents. I learned what I liked/what I didn't like, got in fights, encountered perspectives wildly different from my own, made tons of friends and generally figured out how to develop my abilities to observe, understand and act.
Travel did a lot for me too, but it was primarily international travel done alone as a teenager that changed me. For little kids, I think most public schools are fine. Most of the real educational stuff should be coming from the home as well. Plus the money you can go out and earn while the kids are in school helps a lot.
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98% of the homeschooled kids were WEIRD - like near socially unfunctioning creatures. Maybe they developed a little more over the years, but jeez.
You wouldn't happen to know how the last 2% managed to be normal, would you?
I'd say the vast majority of those kids were smart enough to maintain their confidence and sociability in spite of their parents. A few had great parents and a great situation though.
alt146, on 04 February 2010 - 06:58 PM, said:
If socializing is the main problem then make sure your kids join tons of after-school stuff like little-league or whatever. They'll miss out on the day-to-day drama of who called who a fartface, but they'll still get to hang around with kids their own age. And if the schools in your area are as terrible as you say, a bunch of other people in your area will probably also be considering homeschooling and have the same concerns. Maybe you can try find some to set up some sort of social stuff for your kids to do.
Learning to deal with that day-to-day drama is actually a great skill to have. Think about how often it pops up again in later life. Some kids get sucked into it, but most of us learn how to ignore all but the important bits.
Little League baseball is often two or three times a week - if that. I know I had a bit of a strange time playing club soccer with 95% of the team not being from my school. They were all up to speed on their own stuff, while I was a bit of an outsider for a long time with the couple of other kids from my immediate are.
In my experience, little kids like social contact a bit more than that and perhaps not structured in the manner baseball is (think of the 5 year old center fielder getting bored about 20 minutes in). I'd suggest gymnastics, jiu-jitsu, handball or something funky like that for little ones. Never karate though. That "martial art" is retarded.
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Haha you are so funny. There are definitely a group of the "freaky" home schoolers, they even scare me. But they are the small majority.
Home school = fail.
I survived the Permian and all I got was this t-shirt.