I don't object to outside activities--I object to the sheer number of them that most parents foist on their kids. In my opinion, one or two things is sufficient. Any more than that and the kid is just plain overscheduled. There is no time for *playing*. They are running from one practice to another to a recital to a meeting to going home and doing homework.
Plus, I think that it doesn't leave the child time to really learn where their interests lie. It's just too much.
I am all for being well rounded--and my intent is not to shelter at all, that's not my style--but I would rather follow my child's cues than drag them along on the extracurricular ride. If and when they show an interest in outside activities, I'm there to encourage it. It just rubs me wrong to see these families where every single night is devoted to something or other. There's no down time where they all just hang out and entertain themselves.
And before you ask, I participated in extracurricular things as a kid..not too many, not too little..and feel that I am a well rounded adult as a result. But my mom was a big advocate of the extracurricular activities enhancing our family, NOT taking away from it.
Btw, the homeschooling kinda happened in a weird way. H asked me to do it when my oldest was 2. Bad timing...I was dealing with a rotten two year old and fired off a 'when hell freezes over' reply to him. He kept at me, over the years, even bought a cassette tape on homeschooling and asked me to listen to it (which I never did ). But then I started looking into it because my sister in law was thinking of doing it, and also because NOP mentioned that his wife had done it (that was before the Mrs had discovered us) and I started feeling called to at least find out about it. So I researched a little bit and what I found knocked my socks off! There were groups and activities and this whole subculture (lol) built around it. So after a few sessions of picking MrsNOP's brain and going to a couple seminars on it, I decided to take the plunge. My husband was thrilled but had this sorta "I knew you'd do it all along" attitude that frosted me, but whatcha gonna do. He has been extremely supportive of me, and I'm sure that I would not be able to do it without him being my rock and #1 teaching fan.
I can see having to take comp science classes as part of the general education requirements but it should be in addition to math, not a substitute!
That's frightening.
Lillie, ITA with you. There seems to be this attitude that literature is too advanced for today's kids and that "Kids today watch, not read". I mean, my daughter 'watches' her info for her weekly report, but she's in *kindergarten*. She's just learning to read. If she was a teenager, I'd be really distressed at that assignment. And in the gifted program, no less.
Good points all around HP. I wasn't questioning your motives, just looking for more info/insight. Thanks again. I'll definitely look into it, but I'm afraid around here the homeschool groups are doing it for religious reasons, and I am opposed to that in general.
"Recollect me darlin, raise me to your lips, two undernourished egos, four rotating hips"
I'm not opposed to it in theory, but in practice I can't even imagine what it looks like.
For instance, I like the fact that we start our school day with a prayer (the Pledge first, actually), and that the curriculum is a Catholic one, showing pictures of Jesus, etc. I like that, though it's not all that different from what you would get in a private school, I'll admit. I guess what appeals to me about it is that if D has a question I will not shoo her and say, Not now we are learning long U's in phonics. It's not the time to ask about if anyone has ever seen an angel in real life. I can address her question and I like that..so in that sense, it is a plus for me--that I can be as religious as I like, when the moment strikes her.
Otoh, I will teach evolution simply because it is irresponsible NOT to. (don't you love that I repeatedly end sentences with prepositions and I'm her TEACHER! Zoinks, lol)
There's good and bad to homeschooling, for sure. I just happen to think the good far outweighs the bad. Although my neighbors think I have agoraphobia or something, due to the homebirthing and now homeschooling. The two are completely unrelated but try telling that to a group of nosy no-life-havin busybodies.
"Don't get me started" indeed! And this in a country where we CLAIM to value education! Where do we put our money? Into professional sports teams-- yeah we need those, too... don't want to get a fight going along those lines... but a socitey puts its money where its values are. Look around!
Teaching is such an important job, and our society does not support teachers. We don't pay them enough, or give them the resources they need, but we expect miracles. "Don't get ME started..." 'Nuff said!
HP, I gotta wonder if your reaction to your H's asking you to read the homeschool books, listen to tapes etc isn't all that different than his reaction to you asking him to read "light her fire", kwim? I suppose none of us want to be pushed into something we aren't comfortable with, even though we might discover we like it.
FWIW folks, the homeschooled kids I have been in contact with have without exception excelled scholastically, with many of them well ahead of their peers. All take advantage of homeschooling co-ops to get a better breadth of expertise as well as for some socialization. That said, the ones I am familiar with have not really learned how to negotiate with their peers for whatever reason. Perhaps not enough time away from mom/dad so they don't learn to stand on their own? I dunno, but that is my observation. BF or was it Chromedome made a good point about religious reasons for doing the home schooling. Most if not all the homeschoolers I know are doing it for religious reasons and I think wind up shielding their kids too much from the real world. That is likely a big factor in the poor socialization I have noted. From the little I know about HP, I think she's aware of this and will carefully avoid keeping her D's too coddled in their learning. We don't do it because we need time away from the kids, and neither of us feel we'd be able to provide a sufficiently good education. We are sending ours to public school for k-5, then to the Catholic schools (which have a very good reputation here) after that, at considerable expense.
My experience with homeschooling is similar to what you state. I believe the kids are also not as socially independent and self assured as other kids. But I believe the reason can be found in the parents. I think there are two types of homeschooling parents. One type is lazy, does not really teach their kids that much, doesn’t take them to homeschool classes, and really doesn’t want to be bothered. Therefore you rarely see these kids. But I think they are out there.
The other type of parent is overly involved, participates in all aspects of schooling, has a desire for the kids to excel and sometimes pushes too hard, IMO. But overall, the kids are over guided by the parents, who control way too much. So the kids are not allowed to differentiate and develop their own independence. The academic accomplishments are outstanding, but that is not all that is required to be successful.
Oh, and the religious theme is very strong too. I also thought some of the parents were way to conservative for my taste. And some had a major problem with authority, or so it seemed to me. They didn’t like the school district dictating policy and telling the parents when the kids had to be in class, when the parents could visit, blah, blah, blah. Just another side of an overly controlling parent. I’m glad my kids are now in public school.
I do have a problem with authority, but am not a controlling parent AT ALL.
I guess a more accurate description would be to say that I have a problem with useless authority. Purposeful authority I am okay with, and even welcome.
We'll see how it all turns out. Socialization may be a drawback to homeschooling my kids, but there's plenty of drawbacks to traditional schooling as well, and it's a tradeoff I'm willing to take.
I give you credit for taking on this task. Alot of parents are more concerned about gettnig there kids out of there hair for a few hours, As working parents look at schooling as free babysitting.
My kids are in public school. Point blank I do not have the patients nor the ability to homeschool. I live in a area home school is rampant. Some parents do this because they do not like the amount of violence or unruliness in the school systems. Others because they do not feel there kids get enough one on one focus to truely learn and understand the basics which builds a poor foundation for the child to later expand into harder aspects of a subject.
My recent job put me around alot of homeschooled children. The mannors and behavior they exhibited compared to the public school children while touring the farm was tenfold better and controled. We had groups of 28-30 homeschooled childrens who's parents brought them on field trips together as part of the socialization aspect of school. Most of these children also participated in sports through youth groups or the YMCA. So again they were exposed to other children of there age group and seemed to function well with them.
The religious part yeah there are some that seem to hide there children from the mean mean world which does them some injustice. And these children tend to shy away from others and scare easy while young. Then crave attention from others as older children. But I believe you can make it a healthy experience all together.
My kids in public school have/do take Bible classes all through elememtry. It teaches the Bible and what it says as a subject, It does not teach nor have any paticular religions spin to it. It is taught just as history is to these kids. Which IMO I think is great.
). But then I started looking into it because my sister in law was thinking of doing it, and also because NOP mentioned that his wife had done it (that was before the Mrs had discovered us) and I started feeling called to at least find out about it. So I researched a little bit and what I found knocked my socks off! There were groups and activities and this whole subculture (lol) built around it. So after a few sessions of picking MrsNOP's brain and going to a couple seminars on it, I decided to take the plunge. My husband was thrilled but had this sorta "I knew you'd do it all along" attitude that frosted me, but whatcha gonna do. 
He has been extremely supportive of me, and I'm sure that I would not be able to do it without him being my rock and #1 teaching fan. 
