New attitude thread list benefits to your schooling choice

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leonie

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Hi! I am frequently discouraged by the lifestyle debates we fall into on CAF.

so, as an experiment, I’m asking families to share one or two benefits they’ve had with their schooling choice. I really am looking for concrete examples.

We homeschool.

One fruit I’ve seen this week is how sweet my 13 year old is about stopping his leisure activities to play with my two year old.

And, my 12 year old daughter designed an academic game for me to play with our co-op group. I was very proud of her.
 
We send ours to a Catholic school which is somewhat unusual in its diversity. Our children are challenged academically, receive instruction in music, band, dance, spanish and art, have numerous extracurricular clubs available – scholastic bowl, robotics, chess, drama, athletics, etc., are immersed in the faith (correctly – our parish and school are orthodox), and have the opportunity to interact with a very racially and economically diverse group of people, most of whom find common ground in the universal Catholic faith.

Benefits: I feel our children are well educated and well rounded. They seem to really understand and believe Catholic teachings – sometimes their depth of understanding surprises me. They are comfortable with people of other races and cultures and for whom English is a second language.
 
dwc - I want to send my kids to that school!! Sounds great! I wish we had half the stuff you do, but our Catholic school is fairly small.

I’ll check back on the posting question
 
Good idea… I prefer the more positive threads as well! 🙂

Since my children are still young… I’ll discuss what we’d like to do based on my own personal experience growing up here in this same town.

I would like to send my boys to our parish school for K-8th grade, but this depends on finances. I have no problem sending my kids to our local public elementary school. We’ll make that decision at the very last minute depending on finances.

At the very least, I’d like to get them into the parish school for middle school (6th - 8th grade), so that they can have a slightly more controlled atmosphere during those darn puberty years (hormones are not pretty! :eek: ).

For high school (9th - 12th) our kids will, without a doubt, attend our local public schools. From my own (and my DH’s) experiences in this local public school district, I am very pleased with the academic programs available at the public school. Both DH and I also had very profound experiences in the area of socialization and evangalization during high school, and we feel very strongly that exposing our children to the public schools will allow them to grow in this area of their faith. (We have the ability to control the “education” portion of religion at home, but active evangalization and apologetics can only be experienced out in “the real world”… just our experience/opinion)…

So that’s the benefits of the choices we’d like to make. 🙂
 
dwc said:
We send ours to a Catholic school which is somewhat unusual in its diversity. Our children are challenged academically, receive instruction in music, band, dance, spanish and art, have numerous extracurricular clubs available – scholastic bowl, robotics, chess, drama, athletics, etc., are immersed in the faith (correctly – our parish and school are orthodox), and have the opportunity to interact with a very racially and economically diverse group of people, most of whom find common ground in the universal Catholic faith.

Benefits: I feel our children are well educated and well rounded. They seem to really understand and believe Catholic teachings – sometimes their depth of understanding surprises me. They are comfortable with people of other races and cultures and for whom English is a second language.
Click to expand...
DWC,

Great job by your school in helping your children to know their faith! What programs are they using?
 
Our choice was Public Schools.

DD benefits (K to Freshman HS):
Tri-Lingual - English, Spanish, Music.
Music - opportunities… she plays all percussion, piano, & guitar (bass & lead).
Athletic - 1st String Soccer, LaCrosse, Track.
Academic - AP in all classes.
Socially - exposure to every culture/mindset
DD negatives:
Socially - exposure to cultures/mindsets not aligned with “our” way of thinking…
Athletic - demands on time… wanting to “try” everything!
Academic - even in AP, not being challenged.

DS benefits (K to 6th)
Tri-Lingual - English, Spanish, Music.
Music - opportunities… he plays all percussion, piano, & reads/composes music.
Academic - AP in Mathematics
Socially - A very astute “grab” by a teacher - resulting in A.D.D. assessment, and resultant treatment.
Athletic - being courted by JH coaches for baseball & football.
DS negatives:
Socially - exposure to cultures/mindsets not aligned with “our” way of thinking…
Being a “Big Kid” (5’2", 125), and having his size/stature challenged by smaller bullies… and subsequent meetings with the school for him “dealing” (physically) with tormentors.
Academic - Not having A.D.D. possibly diagnosed earlier, struggling with classes other than Math.
 
Jay2 said:
Our choice was Public Schools.

DD benefits (K to Freshman HS):
Tri-Lingual - English, Spanish, Music.
Music - opportunities… she plays all percussion, piano, & guitar (bass & lead).
Athletic - 1st String Soccer, LaCrosse, Track.
Academic - AP in all classes.
Socially - exposure to every culture/mindset
DD negatives:
Socially - exposure to cultures/mindsets not aligned with “our” way of thinking…
Athletic - demands on time… wanting to “try” everything!
Academic - even in AP, not being challenged.

DS benefits (K to 6th)
Tri-Lingual - English, Spanish, Music.
Music - opportunities… he plays all percussion, piano, & reads/composes music.
Academic - AP in Mathematics
Socially - A very astute “grab” by a teacher - resulting in A.D.D. assessment, and resultant treatment.
Athletic - being courted by JH coaches for baseball & football.
DS negatives:
Socially - exposure to cultures/mindsets not aligned with “our” way of thinking…
Being a “Big Kid” (5’2", 125), and having his size/stature challenged by smaller bullies… and subsequent meetings with the school for him “dealing” (physically) with tormentors.
Academic - Not having A.D.D. possibly diagnosed earlier, struggling with classes other than Math.
Click to expand...
Great post! I am very envious of your exposures to different languages. Sports aren’t a priority for my non sporty kids, but I know that many families really appreciate the opportunities in school. And, athletics seems to be tied to so many positive benefits for kids in self-confidence, goal setting, and teamwork.
 
They’re not boring… they just get people to come down off their soapbox and think about the other viable solutions to a particular problem…
 
My children attend a public school in our neighborhood.
  1. My son and two daughters walk to school every morning (weather permitting). They get a little time away from mom and enjoy the walk together. They are also permitted to walk home for lunch if they so wish.
  2. I appreciate the individual attention that they receive at school. One of my daughters was struggling with reading and within a week she was seeing the reading specialist. So far the teachers have been very good about spotting problems early on.
  3. Emails, phone calls and notes are answered promptly. I have confidence that my concerns are being addressed and taken seriously.
  4. Community. We live in a small town that prides itself by its
    excellent schools. Education is taken very seriously here, most parents have college degrees and have professional jobs. This definately rubs off on the students.
 
My kids attended public schools

When we had no car (many years) they were picked up at the corner by the bus.

We’ve lived in lots of University communities and they had friends from all over the world in their schools.
 
Some benefits of homeschooling in our family:
  1. Getting to spend all that time w/ my kids 🙂 .
  2. Going on business trips w/ dh and exploring new cities.
  3. Taking the kids to daily Mass.
  4. Deciding which curriculum fit each child.
 
Nice, positive thread. Will post later. Overcoming food poisoning.
 
I homeschooled all through highschool, and now am double-majoring in a state school, still living at home. I loved homeschooling because I was able to work at my own speed (which was usually faster), write reports on whatever was interesting to me (as evidenced by my username, I’m into Harry Potter and wrote a 20 pg expository paper examining whether it was good or evil). And as a plus, we live in a city where there’s lots of homeschooling activities. As I have to explain to some people, the point is not the quantity of socialization, it’s the quality. Most everybody are pleasant to interact with (not to say there are a few strange ones, just like there are in any school).

Another benefit is that I’m an honor program student, and the honors classes are just about as challenging as my homeschool classes. The non-honors classes are easy–don’t tell anybody but I barely have to study! 😉

Plus, my siblings and I aren’t strangers; most of the time we get along like friends (but we have our bad days, like everybody else)
 
I,too, often just choose not to participate considering how the discussion usually ends up…but this looks promising…

We have our 5 year old in Public School for Kindergarten and she attends religion class through our parish.
  1. I am very impressed with the level of academic growth I have seen in her this year. She is reading at a 2nd grade level (that may have nothing to do with the school…however, the school hasn’t inhibited it).
  2. Her school uses each month to focus on character traits (honesty, integrity, social awareness, self-discipline, etc.) I find this refreshing based on what I had heard about public schools. Also, this month, my daughter was “Character Kid of the Month” for Self Discipline…so she got recognized for her display of self-discipline. I was very proud of her.
A lot of the great things I see in my kids really has nothing to do with schooling and more to do with what we expect of them at home, IMO. A lot of people tell me I am “hard on” my kids…b ut I have high expectations of my kids. And it always feels good when others tell me how well-behaved and well-mannered my children are…but I know they wouldn’t be that way if I wasn’t “hard” on them sometimes.
 
I just read the rest of the posts…and I must add that I love that my daughter is already learning to speak Spanish. I feel this will be very helpful to her as she grows older.
 
That is wonderful! It is stories like these that remind me that the problem doesn’t usually lie within the public school, it’s usually with the parent. Even homeschool parents who are lax end up with kids like those in public school. I applaud you for having high expectations! 👍 My dad did, too, and though I hated it for a time, it has helped, I must admit. What also helps is that he knows even when I try my hardest, I sometimes fail, and that’s okay with him as long as I tried.

I think I should add that I went to public school for a year and a half (because we were unable to homeschool for job reasons). Even though math is not my strongest suit (heck, it’s my worst shortcoming) I was in the Talented and Gifted program for math, and hated it. So, don’t feel like you have to go along with whatever the school says, make sure your daughter is in only the TAG programs that she will actually like, because that will make all the more difference with enthusiasm for school. If she doesn’t like school and learning, then there’s something wrong. Kids can and do and should like learning 🙂
 
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