To school or not to school...?

[primsong]

Well, it looks like I might be homeschooling this next year, at least for one of my kids. It looks intriguing and refreshing and challenging and scary at the moment...

My son has never fit well in the academic mold, and is struggling along through his second try at 5th grade, not from lack of intelligence but lack of organization and maturity moreso - we were going to give the 6th grade a try within the comforting "womb" of our private school but now we've found our school won't *have* a middle-school next year and instead is entering into what will hopefully be a good partnership with another school in our area that is also "classical education" based to take on the 6-12th graders. They send us their young ones, we send them our older ones and they plan the curriculum together.

This sounds dandy (they're even busing the kids from school to school), *except* in the past we had crossed this school off our mental list of options for the upper grades because they were so very bent on high test scores, etc that they heaped the homework on the kids until they had no life. And while I am all for a school teaching Christian values and worldview, they had the Bible classes so frequently and for so long that the kids felt like it was being rammed down their throat and ended up being embittered against it - it stopped being " letter from your best friend who cares about you and has good advice" and their love for the scriptures was flattened by the intensity of it. Unless these two things have changed or are changing very soon we don't plan on going there - we have a little time until we have to decide whether to send our daughters. They have new leadership there, and a new principal who seems much more level-headed and relaxed so I am hopeful, but careful.


Either way, it looks like I've got an upcoming 6th grade education coming to me and my son - and a couple folks have offered us pointers to a local suppport group, though we haven't checked it out yet. Any thoughts from you homeschoolers out there?

Comments

[estellye.livejournal.com]

I think home schooling is a very positive option. Although I have no personal experience with it, (I was not home schooled and I have no children) whenever I have met a child who has been homeschooled they tend to be more willing to be who they really are and follow their interests, they tend to do well at academics, and they seem to have a more mature and considerate outlook in their dealings with others than their public school contemporaries. Adults I know who were homeschooled as children have excellent follow-through and have carried a strong sense of self and confidence into their lives.

I believe it's because they were given individual attention and allowed to pace themselves according to their abilities and learning styles. Nothing stamps on a self-esteem more than being forced to conform to a mold you can't fit no matter what you do.

The Raleigh area has the most wonderful and active group of homeschoolers I have ever seen! They even have team sports and music groups and everything. Had I been blessed with children I would choose to homeschool up until High School unless there was a drop-dead awesome private school that suited my child's needs. but then I thought I would send my children to a public or private high school so they could take advantage of extra curricular activities. There would be no need for that here with the level of organization between homeschoolers to provide those opportunities. They could stay in homeschooling until college unless we determined together that another option was better.

Sorry to ramble, but I feel strongly about this topic. I think your son will thrive in that situation. If anyone can create the proper homeschool environment it's you!