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PaulinVA
Guest
Yes, I have learned a lot about the various reasons to home school. I’m sorry that you had a bad experience.
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gardenswithkids
Guest
This is a great line! I hope this statement applies to me and my family too. **Great thing about homeschooling: **we found our life became less chaotic and our homelife became more loving.
Paul, the people you want to give up homeschooling and join you at public school may not be the same people if we didn’t homeschool. You may be looking at the fruits of homeschooling, trying to place those fruits onto a different tree. You can’t simply pick apples, tie them onto an orange tree, then expect the tree to continue yielding apples.
Ours was not a “loving home”–we were stressed when my children attended regular school! My morning routine involved screaming at my kids to hurry. During the school day, I didn’t help out much at school because I had no babysitter for the younger children. (Spending most of the day alone with young babies and toddlers brought different stresses too.) Staying involved by attending evening school meetings and committess was difficult. We often had time conflicts with our other activities. Seeing my older children get off the bus in the afternoon filled me with dread, as I knew it would be rush, rush rush to get snack and do homework and eat dinner before we dashed off to ccd, sports, or scouts. One of my children in particular was exausted by the end of the school week, and we spent our family time on the weekend with a crabby and uncooperative child.
The constant busy-ness wore away at my family. It was somewhat managable when we had fewer children, but by the fifth child. our life was chaotic. There is no way I’d be able to stay actively involved with the school life of 7 children in formal schools–the age spread alone would mean we’d have to keep up with 3 different schools. You may think you want parents like me and our children involved in public school, but we wouldn’t be the same people if we didn’t homeschool.
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leonie
Guest
I know that we wouldn’t have six kids if we had used traditional school. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have had these last two.
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monicatholic
Guest
i really think our family size can also be partly attributed to the lifestyle of homeschooling, not necessarilly just the practice.
there’s something about the peaceful acceptance of ‘being home’ that has really shaped us differently, i think.
still, God calls others in other ways.
on my honor, if holiness were a race against my fellows, i’d lose.
there’s something about the peaceful acceptance of ‘being home’ that has really shaped us differently, i think.
still, God calls others in other ways.
on my honor, if holiness were a race against my fellows, i’d lose.
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eliza3b
Guest
I have a question for hs mothers: Do you ever feel isolated? I ask because I really look forward to picking up my children after school not only to see them, but to chat with the other moms on the playground. It is a real treat for me. One of the reasons why I don’t hs is because I’m afraid of being cut off from my little town and life here. We live in a very “Mayberry” like community, with neighborhood schools (no busing), sidewalks, older homes. It’s the kind of place that lots of people don’t think exist anymore, yet it is within a 30 minute drive to NYC. My older children walk to school in the morning with a gaggle of neighborhood children. It really is wonderful.
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bear06
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Em_in_FL
Guest
Looking back at the recent posts from PaulVA, I do have to agree with his reasoning of why we’d personally like to send our children to traditional schools.
It really is an active role of evangelization in the world.
I am confident that my children can influence others for the better!
That says nothing against why others choose to homeschool, though.
In my past posts I looked at motivations for why certain people choose to homeschool. Maybe they themselves had their faith challenged in traditional school and fear their own children would fall away from the faith.
That’s understandable. That’s their experience and their choice.
But there are also others out there that believe entirely the opposite thing… and believe that our influence in the world can bring Christ to others.
This type of evangelization, like the choice of homeschooling, is NOT for EVERYONE… not everyone is *called *to that kind of evangelization.
I really don’t belive we should be comparing our callings as better or worse… these parenting styles are just simply different.
BOTH have true faith-filled merits. BOTH can be callings of faith in our roles as parents…
It really is an active role of evangelization in the world.
I am confident that my children can influence others for the better!
That says nothing against why others choose to homeschool, though.
In my past posts I looked at motivations for why certain people choose to homeschool. Maybe they themselves had their faith challenged in traditional school and fear their own children would fall away from the faith.
That’s understandable. That’s their experience and their choice.
But there are also others out there that believe entirely the opposite thing… and believe that our influence in the world can bring Christ to others.
This type of evangelization, like the choice of homeschooling, is NOT for EVERYONE… not everyone is *called *to that kind of evangelization.
I really don’t belive we should be comparing our callings as better or worse… these parenting styles are just simply different.
BOTH have true faith-filled merits. BOTH can be callings of faith in our roles as parents…
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luvmykids
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eliza3b
Guest
Let’s end this post on the fact that JP2 attended public school until he entered the seminary.
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drawnhome
Guest
I was a little worried about that at first, now I realize it was silly to worry because the homeschool group is a great source of friendship for me. And I still have the friends I always had. When we hs moms bring our kids to the Algebra co-op or to Scripture Study or to park day or cooking day at someone’s house, the kids always want to know what all that laughing was about.
We have a pretty good time. And we chat on the phone and send out group emails and share materials and cook for each other if someone gets sick, carpool for field trips, etc. Communities that thrive are the same everywhere. This is just another one.
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rayne89
Guest
I have a group of friends I’ve known since I was 12 that I see on regular basis and I have women friends from church and our homeschool group. So I really don’t feel isolated. And my personality is not one that I need alot of fellowship. Even as a child I liked my few close friends and I was content with that.
It’s sounds like you live in a wonderful community.
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kamz
Guest
nicely said
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Contarini
Guest
I haven’t seen a single post on this thread asking you “why don’t you homeschool?” And yet you explicitly ask homeschoolers “why don’t you send your kids to public school?” That is a legitimate question, but let’s keep straight who is questioning whose choices.
My perspective as an ex-homeschooler is that public school is a totalitarian institution, and we must never surrender to totalitarianism. The answer is not to set up a homeschooling totalitarianism of our own–which I think my family did. The answer is to break down the dichotomy–to raise children who mingle with others on their own terms, not on the terms of some authoritarian secular instution.
I say this as someone who has not yet made up his mind about homeschooling for his own daughter. . . .
Edwin
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leonie
Guest
There’s no reason that you can’t still associate with the kids and parents on the playground.
I started a little girls club (Little Flowers) when I first started homeschooling. That’s how I met most of my hsing friends. Actually, the club started out with girls that were in school and hsed girls, but the second year all the girls in school dropped out. I think it was because I switched the meeting day to Saturday morning. We still have this club–7 years later.
I didn’t actually join any homeschool groups until this year (now in our 7th year of hsing).
Mostly, I get my friend fix by inviting moms and their kids over. You can still do this by inviting some of the moms you have met on the playground. Could they come over after school? I bet if you offered them an afterschool snack and a cup of coffee, they love it!
Also, there is no reason why you can’t walk the “kids” to school. I bet the other parents would really appreciate this! Or, walk them home. In fact, I definitely try to keep up their friendships. It takes a little more work.
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bear06
Guest
nicely said
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