**Not sure if this thread should be under here, or under parenting.
Mods, feel free to move it if need be.
We are highly considering homeschooling starting this August.
Okay, I have some questions for all homeschooling families.
Here goes:
- Do you have a separate room in your home only for “class” or do you have class in the family room, kitchen, etc.? I would think for the kids to have a more structured environment that a separate room would be needed so it can be ‘decorated’ for school purposes and that way they could focus more on learning than on other distractions around??
Again, I am asking for ideas here.**
The kitchen table. It has plenty of room to stack books, etc., on, and my son doesn’t get distracted by things like toys, the TV, etc.
2) Do you have school desks? Or table and chairs? I just don’t want the kitchen table to be looked at as a school table and then have the kids have to have class and meals at the same table, know what I mean??
Why does it matter?
Maybe it’s just me, but when I was growing up, the kitchen table was used for everything from eating to reading to fixing appliances to processing deer.
Of course, I grew up in the country…
3) Curriculum ideas? Seton, Kolbe, CHC? Angelicum? Have you ever participated in a co-op program for homeschooler families? Any ideas that you may have or advice, please offer it.
Still working on this one myself. I haven’t used a “formal” curriculum yet; I’ve been laying the groundwork since last winter by using various books picked up from here and there, along with a dryboard and sheets of the elementary-school style lined paper. He’s doing well with reading, and I throw in bits each day dealing with stuff like geography, history, natural science, etc., and of course catechism…for that, I’ve been using the old
Baltimore Catechism. Must be working because it’s his favorite subject.
mamacita said:
Another question that I forgot to put in the original post is how did your parents/in laws react to the idea of homeschooling?
Within the family, we ran the gamut of reactions from skepticism (“Are you sure you can do that?”) to dismay (“Why, you can’t do that!”) to outright hostility (“I won’t hear of such a thing!”) The last came from sisters-in-law, all of whom are public school teachers.
One in particular was very hostile, and every time we’d meet would go on and on about how terrible it was (“just a travesty!”) that we were depriving our son of a “formal education”, and about how wonderful the local public schools are (she has friends who teach there); until the last time she started in, I pulled a newspaper clipping out of my wallet about several elementary children in that very same school who were sexually molested by a member of the administration of that school, slammed it down on the table, and asked, “Is this the type of environment you expect to put my son into?”
She mumbled a series of weak defenses and excuses, and I haven’t heard a word out of her since.
**
