My son Aaron is a pretty remarkable kid.
Senior Photo 2011 (haha): He turned 4 in February of this year. Because he's taller than many of the kids his age, at first glance most people think he's older... like say, 5 or 6. When we tell people how old he is they look at us with disbelief.
How old are you... 21???But no, he's only 4. But he's a super smart 4 year old. I think he's always been considerably ahead of his peers when it came to learning. He was counting to 15 and knew all of his colors before the age of 2.
While some kids are still learning shapes, colors and the alphabet, Aaron is reading at a 2nd or 3rd grade level. When he's not pretending to be either Iron Man or Buzz Lightyear, you can find him reading entire Berenstein books to his younger sister.
It still amazes me when he picks up a random book and can read it to you, complete with vocal inflections, like he's conducting storytime at the library. What's great is that his interest in learning has influenced his little sister (whom he absolutely adores). She already knows all of her colors and can confidently count to 50. She's only 2 1/2.
He's a very helpful kid.It makes me wonder how having older siblings who are advanced in learning will rub off on Avery. Whatever happens, we have decided to homeschool all three of them. Putting Aaron in Preschool right now would be several steps backward. And we want to give him and the other children every opportunity to excel.
What's your opinion of homeschooling?
MyxlDove@xanga
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Comments (32)
I want my children either home schooled or educated abroad. American schools do not educate children, they babysit and indoctrinate them.
I think entering a 'regular' school is a step back for a lot of children who have very involved parents that constantly encourage learning, but I also believe there is a lot more to school than a formal education.
My parents solution to that was to start us out in a private Montessori school where it was a bit easier to start at a different grade level than our age dictated, then move us over into public schools. Some of us went to a magnet school for sciences and maths, my older brother and I went to a magnet school for fine arts. I'm pretty sure my two oldest brothers skipped a grade in the elementary range, somewhere between 3rd to 5th. Not sure which, honestly.
But if you think it's a good idea, have the time and resources to home school, I say go for it.
I was homeschooled K-12 and I have always been grateful to my parents for choosing to do so. Like one poster above, I believe that there is a lot more to school than formal education. Recalling from my own experience, this is definitely true.
My view on homeschooling in general is that it is usually the best option if parents are capable of doing so, and are dedicated to it. I've met many families who homeschooled. Some parents simply did not have the education or knowledge, themselves, that is necessary to teach a child (at least beyond the primary years). Other parents had the knowledge but were not dedicated to it, resulting in children who were behind grade level, not dedicated to their studies, and uninterested in learning.
Homeschooling can either give very positive results or very negative.
I think it depends on if you want your son to go to school, or to get an education. Because there is a difference. if you want to send your kids to school, then any school will do. If you want them to get an education, then any school will do, but you will have to add to it. Schooling may give them a textbook knowledge, with some hands on experience. But if you are hands on, and create chances for them to have learning experiences, then they will be educated. There are so many things out there, from scouts, to 4-H and FFA. When I was a kid, we took a tour of a nut factory, and watched them package and can them. The local grocery store let us take tours of the meat department and go into the walk in freezer and look at the meat hanging, we got to watch the butcher slice meat and it was fun... if you are 8 years old. We moved up north, and the local newspaper where I worked as a temp, lets kids take tours of the printing press.
So, any school will work, but I think a real education, requires hands on parents, who will take an active step in giving th kids more and more chances to learn about a variety of things.
Homeschooling can be a really great option...but only if you, as their parent, are focused, patient, organized and realize the need for plenty of outside social interaction. I know a couple moms who homeschool their children and the results are not so great.
One mother keeps changing curriculums and doesn't understand the idea of setting goals for her children or how to teach them. They somehow "miraculously" went through all their paces in a month...Her kids seem very behind both academically and socially. She does not do the approved testing that is necessary for them to later attend college.
Another mom I know homeschools her child all year long. Her seven year old is doing the 4th grade curriculum and although the child is smart, she never gets a break. It doesn't seem healthy to have a child stay inside all day doing work. I don't allow my kids to hang around her because she has worse social skills than my own kids, who are 2 and 3. She screams "mine", tries to hit them and doesn't know how to deal with other kids in general. It is not her fault or only because she is homeschooled. I completely think that a parent who doesn't pay enough attention to other things besides the schooling part of homeschool is letting their kid down.
I hear, especially here on Xanga, a lot of US families homeschool there children because the public education system is so poor, which is arguably true if we compare it with other developed countries where of late the US is at the very least mediocre in rankings of various independent indexes. The quality of the US education system has not improved since something like the 1960s.
Having said that, a lot of these same people who makes these comments homeschool their children using a religious curriculum, teaching that the Earth is only several thousand years old, that we lived with dinosaurs, that we didn't come from a common ancestor to apes etc. I'd be all for homeschooling if it weren't for that. Teach the kids real science. Teach them stuff that is based on emperical evidence and can be tested via the scientific method. Creationism certainly can not be. God for one is not falsifiable, and there is no evidence for design (arguments from ignorance is not evidence, rather a fallacy). The countries with world-leading education system lead because they inform their children, and don't keep them ignorant with scientific censorship.
@Spectrophile@xanga - My only issue is this: creationism should be taught alongside evolution since they are both theories. Unproveable, unreproduceable, and did you realize Darwin later recanted his theory? Just asking. I don't think you should shelter education. I think you believe the same. Both should be taught as both are only theories.
@Spectrophile@xanga - By the way, I keep trying to get a better look at your icon thing. Is that penumbra/umbra/whatever of the moon, or is it a brain scan? LOL! I wish I could see it better.
We are homeschooling, or if for some reason we determine our son would do better in a traditional classroom setting, we'll do private school. Or a mix of both. We will not do public school. For many reasons, but living in Georgia, which has the worst public schools in the country, is one of the bigger ones.
I'm not going to lie...this seems more like an attempt to brag about your children than actually discuss homeschooling.
Homeschooling is just another educational system for me. Whether one should choose it largely depends on the school district, the child's and parent's temperament, the particular learning style of the child which can change as time goes on, and any special education needs.
For example, my first school was of horrifying quality and homeschooling was perfect to challenge me. When we moved though, my mother put me back in public school because the particular district had challenging academic programs and gave me the opportunity to connect with well-educated adults. I went back to homeschooling because I was lazy and my mother never demanded anything but bookwork which I got done in less than four hours per day on average.
@Spectrophile@xanga - My school books did teach evolution by explaining the theory and everything wrong with it. Unfortunately, in their attempt to prove Creationism and a young earth, they used science from the '50s that has since been debunked. I am actually glad for their bumbling attempts because that's what convinced my adolescent self to apply the scientific method they were teaching me to research and then dismiss everything they said.
Here's to ACE's School of Tomorrow curriculum. I am terrified at thinking how long that process would have taken if their idiocy had not rushed me along that path.
Schools do not hinder academically advanced children. Being "bored" in class is a myth. If students want advanced academic work they will find it somehow: it all depends on the student's work ethic and desire to achieve. I think homeschooling is the worst thing someone can do for an excelling student.
@DirtyAndShaken@xanga - Texas is actually worse than Georgia. Georgia's schools have improved lately. I recently read an article. I can't find the link at the moment, but I will send it to you when I can.
@sarahsmurfette@xanga - My icon is of the planetary nebula Abell 39. I picked it at random.
I apologise in advance for the long reply, but a short one will not suffice. The theory of evolution is a scientific theory, which has a totally different meaning to what is insinuated by the comment "Its just a theory". We also have the theory of gravity, germ theory, etc. The network of evidence for these theories is so great they may as well be facts, but yes, like all science, they are not proveable.
Be aware that this is the same as the fact I can not actually prove for certain you exist either, even if I meet you, and can sense you with all my senses. The probability you exist is extremely high of course, based on the scientific evidence that one could gather. The only thing that is actually proveable is mathematics, and arguably the concept that I exist (cogito ergo sum). Just so there is no confusion, creationism is not a scientific theory. For one, it is not even science. Feel free to teach it in a religious studies or some other form of cultural class. I have absolutely no issue with that. I was taught numerous creation stories as a child besides the abrahamic one, from ancient myths and mainstream religions alike.
Evolution is not reproduceable? There are numerous examples of what Creationists called micro-evolution. Dogs (and other domesticated animals), cabbages, etc. I think the main argument though is that macro-evolution has not been observed, but this is simply not true. Speciation has actually been observed. Cats can't change into dogs (this is not what evolution argues anyway), but a divided group from a select species can become so genetically different through their isolation they can no longer produce fertile offspring if they meet up again. A google search will provide you with various examples. I suggest you read the Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins as well where you will find more observations of evolution explained in it (if you can handle Richard's abrasiveness). Evolution even has applications in numerous fields of science besides modern biology (which evolution is the foundation of), like engineering and medicine.
The rumour spread by Elizabeth Hope that Darwin recanted on his deathbed was a lie (as his children, who were actually there, attested to), but it actually doesn't even matter if Darwin did recant. The evidence is that evolution is real. If I was the one who discovered radiation, and suddenly said, "Nope, it don't exist, little blue faeries are responsible instead", does that mean faeries cause radiation? No, of course it doesn't. The evidence shows otherwise.
Even if evolution were not reproduceable (which it is). Even if speciation has not been observed (which it has). We can still know it happened. Are you saying that we shouldn't convict murderers because no one witnessed their crime? I hope not. We can know with high accuracy, based on scientific evidence, they committed the crime. True, some innocent people are convicted as well, but you'll find the amount of evidence for evolution utterly dwarfs that of evidence generally used in a murder trial. I'm talking millions upon millions of pages of research. All this evidence paints a picture which heavily suggests what is defined as evolution took place. Critics of evolution try and nitpick at the gaps in explanation, but as argued already, arguments from ignorance do not prove design.
I'm well aware Creationists have lots of other arguments that I have not addressed here, but I assure you (whatever my assurance may be worth!), they have all been debunked. Evolution existing shouldn't shake your belief in god. You'll be pleased to know the basic idea of god can not be disproven. Nothing can be disproven.
You have made absolutely the right decision. When God hands you such a treasure you must not waste His gift at public school. I know and have known many homeschooled children. Even the less intelligent ones do better and are certainly better adjusted than their public school "peers." My wife is a public school teacher and like many of her colleagues, we homeschooled our kids. In public schơl kids have other children for role models and strive to grow up to be older children. Homeschooled kids have adults for models and strive to be adults. We have an epidemic of grown children in this country, adults who never learned to be adults. I am sure you know some.
@DirtyAndShaken@xanga - Hey, I'm from Georgia! There are some crap schools in GA, no doubt, but the ranking that gives it its horrible name is really skewed. If you take a look at who, in each state, is getting tested, you can see how some states would easily come out on top and others, like GA, easily come out on the bottom.
That said, the school I went to (in GA) is nationally recognised as one of the best schools in the country. Linky dink. Yes, magnet schools are public. (Not trying to insult your intelligence, but some people don't seem to know that, lol.)
So yes, GA does not have the best reputation in the country, but don't let that deter you from looking at schools individually either, because there are some really good ones in the state.
@CottonParchment@xanga - Texas is where I am, and part of why I will homeschool (unless something changes my mind in the next few months). And being bored in school is absolutely not a myth. I was not academically challenged at all. When I was in 2nd grade, I was testing at college levels in mathematical and scientific concepts. I was testing at my age in other areas like listening skills. I remember being 7 years old, listening to the administrator read me a story at the end of which she asked "what color were the little girl's shoes?" My answer? "That's wasn't the point of the story. I don't know what color her shoes were." So I failed at "listening." All that being said, what do you do with a child who is advanced and interested in one subject but average in another? You can't skip a grade (which I don't believe in anyways because of the eventuality of college - which I think you can be scholastically prepared for and not emotionally/physically prepared for). Are you supposing that I could have skipped around schools and take math here, science there, language arts at another location etc?
Homeschooling was the perfect answer. It is an individualized approach at learning and that is what I like about it. My daughter (who just turned 5 in May) is doing 2nd-3rd grade math already because she loves it and asks me "can we do school now?" Yet, she hasn't mastered reading simple words yet. To put her in a place that by definition is required to teach en masse would be a disservice to her. She wouldn't be allowed to advance her math skills and would feel left behind in her reading skills. Everyone does not learn at the same pace at the exact same age. And learning should be fun - not competitive in particular at the grade school level.
It was the best thing to have done with me, an advanced learner. Homeschooling is in no way only for the academically challenged.
@Spectrophile@xanga - Micro-evolution as you describe it is simply adapting to your environment. Who could argue against that? No one.
I'm not here to debate evolution. It doesn't matter to me what you believe, or what my husband believes, or even what my children will eventually believe. There are bigger concepts in this world to worry about. I'm just saying that to be fair and balanced, I do believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution. That is all. And as a homeschooler, yeah, I was educated in evolution as well. Homeschooling shouldn't be about selective learning. No education should be. Please don't mistake homeschooling as a way to control the whole world for a child. That may be the intent of some, but don't block all of us together when we aren't anything at all alike.
@Grtt@xanga - I agree with you, and apparently I got sidetracked before I finished my thought, which was that of course there are several exceptions to every rule, but I don't feel the need to take a risk that we might get lucky that the schools in our area or one we could move to could will have good teachers who care, a good curriculum, etc. Honestly, the majority of our decision to homeschool goes well beyond public schools. I'll link or copy and paste the response I gave to someone the other day on a different blog about homeschooling. I sincerely hope I didn't offend you. I didn't mean to : ) P.S. I'm really sad about what's going on with Charter schools.
@Lost_Muse@xanga - Most definitely. One in a million reasons why we choose to homeschool!
@DirtyAndShaken@xanga - Oh, no, I wasn't offended at all. I was just saying some of the ranking systems used are pretty misleading, like those based on standarised test scores and such, and that are some very good schools, schools that have already proven to be very good, in parts on GA that are worth at least checking out if you live in those areas.
But I don't know what part of GA you're in. Unfortunately, I haven't heard much good news in the way of education in most of south GA. There are some great school systems and private schools in the Savannah and Atlanta (especially north ATL/Gwinnett) areas. The neighbouring county to where I grew up (Columbia) also has a great school system. The two magnet schools in Richmond Co. are great -- Davidson (fine arts) and A. R. Johnson (science). Just saying they do actually exist!
@sarahsmurfette@xanga - If you want your child to learn about creationism, take them to Sunday school. As a religious concept, that's where the teaching belongs. I'm sure you don't ask your preacher/pastor/whatever you call him to teach the Big Bang as an alternative to Genesis.
@Grtt@xanga - Just so you know, I had a pastor once who fully believed in evolution and in God. He believed the concept of time then and now were not equal and that the two beliefs were not mutually exclusive. You are incorrect in your surmise that creationism is Christianity and evolution is science. But that is my opinion. Side note? I don't know many scientific sorts who actually believe the big bang theory. That isn't the same as evolution either.
But this article is not about evolution or Christianity. So we all digress.
@sarahsmurfette@xanga - Since creationism -- as you brought up, not me -- is a religious belief that the universe is a creation of a supernatural being, I was simply comparing two ideals that are equally on the same plane. Two theories on the beginning of the universe. I know many people who believe in evolution and God, which is odd considering I'm not Christian and try to avoid contact with them as much as possible (mostly because of conversations like these), that is not all that shocking or rare; I'm not sure why you told me that your pastor did. But, again, creationism deals with the fact that God said 'let there be' and we were, i.e. the beginning of all things.
Creationism involves the beginning of the universe, as does the big bang theory. I'm not sure why the idea that these two theories are comparable is so hard to comprehend to someone as academically advanced as yourself.
When is the last time you asked your pastor to preach the possibility for an alternative to the beginning of the world not laid in Genesis? You seemed to ignore that part of my comment. And how in the world is creationism not a religious idea?
Merriam-Webster definition of creationism? 'a doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing and usually in the way described in Genesis'
Umm. Guess you disagree with ol' Webster too.
I will never, EVER homeschool my children. I was homeschooled from 5th-12th grade and I HATED every single minute of it. It was terrible. 4 out of 5 of the kids in my family were homeschooled. My youngest brother never went to school until he got to college. My older brother, when he hit 9th grade, my parents gave him the option of going back into the public school system. he said no. I was so excited to hit 9th grade because I knew I would get to choose homeschooling or public school. I wanted to go back into public school so badly. I was miserable. My parents never even gave me the option. I begged, I cried, I pleaded... they said no. I hated it so very much. By the time I got to college I probably should have only been going into 10th grade. I didn't learn anything. Plus the whole lack of social skills and the fact that I never really had any friends until college. Homeschooling = BAD in my book.
However, all this is not to say that I think homeschooling is a bad idea. If the parents have discipline and the ability to admit they can't teach their children everything and are willing to enlist help, then great! Go for it! Also, as long as the children get to socialize and they aren't hindered in that aspect of their lives, then good! Homeschooling can be done well. My experience was crap. I know I would never be able to teach my children. I know I wouldn't have the discipline to do so. And because of my own experience I would NEVER homeschool my future kids.
@Lost_Muse@xanga - Well I dont think you should say American schools do not educate people... Although, American schools are pretty low in the learning system, Some schools in Texas were pretty tough.. I went to the majority of school in Canada though
I have seen nothing to sway my opinion. Every homeschooler I have come in contact with is awkward, slow, thinks they're "above grade-level" (but what people don't realize is that most public schools do not even teach on grade level so that their students can pass standardize grad level tests with ease). Ultimately homeschoolers are robbed of childhood. School should be a part of every child's childhood. Just a public educator (and taxpayer)'s opinion
Yes, I'm a high school teacher and I LOVE it. 
@cafengocmy@xanga - I'm a public school teacher. I assure you, God's gift is not wasted at my school. I'll not begin a long ride on a soapbox, but I shall say that I witnessed one of my students grow from a shy young boy (just coming out of homeschool) into the successful young man he is now. His grades were above average in math and science, but is writing was atrocious and he could barely read a full paragraph out loud without running out the class time block. After three years in an Exemplary High School I watched this little boy grow into a fine young man: reading and writing with ease, keeping many friends. I applaud his parents and wish him nothing but the best of luck at Texas A&M. He is the first student I cried over losing. Hopefully more tears will come on the heels of successful students.
To anyone who is against Public Schools: The author's child is obviously in the above average-gifted range. If he were to attend Public school in Texas - a diagnostic session would take place upon enrollment and his specific academic needs would be met. I can say from experience that a child like this would be very successful in my district. I have never witnessed or seen a documentation of regression in a Public School System.