Family Forum / Parenting / Mothers / September 2005

PdB mentioned in passing :

There are a few homeschoolers near us, so DS gets together with the one boy
his age from time to time, and we do group 'class trips' so to speak.  But,
DS also plays with neighbor children nearly daily, participates in scouting,
and has been in other organized groups over the years.  One deffinitely does
not need to attend school in order to socialize.  In fact, most schools
prohibit socializing except in certain very scheduled and relatively brief
parts of the day.  Social skills, otoh, are best learned from older
individuals who have learned how to practice them well, not from other
children the same age who are at about the same developmental level and
generally just as clueless about the same skills.  Social skills can then be
practice in multi-age groups and one:one in many varied venues, without ever
entering a school building.

Well, that is a can of worms. There are quite a few different philosphies
which various homeschooling parents ascribe to. We, for example, utilize
much of the "unschooling" philosophy, while recognizing that our particular
child requires some structured sit down time to engage in formal math and
writing assignments. So, he gets education in a variety of ways, from Sat.
a.m. with me on an outing where we happen to encounter a good learning
opportunity, to sit down with math and husband from 9-10 m-f.  In other
words, as the child's needs dictate.  Testing, well that is also an area
subject to many varied approaches. There are homeschoolers who essentially
just import the classroom into their kitchen, using canned curriculua with a
specific text book series and canned tests  at ascribed times. There are
those who give tests when the child is demonstrating a readiness to pass it,
having shown they have learned the skill set.  There are those somewhere in
between.  Then, overlay that with many States that give the option [or in
some cases requirement] that in order for a child to move from one grade to
the next they must pass a stated standardized test. Group activities, well,
it depends on the homeschooler [again!].  When we were in Florida we had a
large network of homeschoolers to join in activities with, either ad hoc, or
organized and announced ahead of time. DS went on various museum, music,
art, science and similar events with the planned, monthly trips of larger
groups.  Husband would also get together with certain parents with kids whom
DS particularly got along well with for ad hoc, let's go on a nature hike to
observe xyz phenomenon tomorrow type of thing. Those happened several times
monthly, limited only by resources and imagination.

See above, about it depending on the resources available, the philosophy of
the parent[s], and the needs/interests of the child.  I have also observed
that families with one or two children to homeschool are able to be much
more flexible and utilize unschooling philosophy than those with several
children [ie: 6 kids].  In order for the parent to make certain that all
children are making reasonable progress, it them becomes important for the
*parent* to be structured in their use of their time, which often means they
find it easiest to structure a 'school day' similarly to public schools.
But, again, ymmv.

-Aula, husband homeschools DS10, now in grade 4

Well when we haven't had the homeschool group, my kids just played
with other kids...in the neighborhood, cousins, at the park. (they
still do now of course)

I do not need to give tests because I work with the kids myself and
can see whether they are getting the concept. As for group
assignments...any group of kids working together is learning to work
as a group. Some examples I'm thinking of are building a dam in a
stream, legos, and sports.

I honestly didn't really want to get into that part. I can safely say
that I have been able to teach my own children without training up to
5th grade so far. If I were teaching 20+ kids the same thing, at the
same rate and teaching to a test as so many are having to do, then I'm
sure I'd need some kind of training. But because my children have
one-on-one education (or one-on-two, sometimes three if the toddler
wants to do "school" in my case) there are no rigid schedules to
follow, and I can go by each child's learning style instead of having
to teach and just hope they get it before a test.

I actually do not have experience with that. My kids do go to art
classes at our county arts center and are in a choir, but I consider
those to be extracurricular, like drama, and sports. Some homeschool
classes (and homes, actually) are very much like a school setting but
I personally wouldn't be interested. I haven't gotten to the point yet
where I am not able to teach a certain concept. Either my husband
explains it or we look it up.
Marie

I don't think they were doing the teaching, but activities.  It's one of the
huge home school co-ops in the area ... VERY born again. figures.