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Nightmare

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I've had a fair amount of experience with homeschooled people from different walks of life and different styles of homeschooling. The one common theme with them is all of them have social problems. All of them. Some worse than others. The ones with the most severe problems were ones raised in those religious homeschool communities where they all teach their kids together for socialization. They're just off and they don't think there's anything wrong with them. People always ask me what's wrong with said person. I've started referring to them as victims of homeschooling.
 
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Namon

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Homeschooling is a tough call but I can certainly understand why you would decide to do it under the circumstances.

Biggest thing is the socialization challenges - plenty of homeschool associations here but yeah vast majority are faith-based and likely using Ken Hamm bullshit curriculum.

Good luck with whatever you decide - so glad mine are on the home stretch as far as education goes.

It works a bit differently here in Tennessee. There are what they call co-ops where home school families can get together. Our small town has a church that isn't crazy that has one so we are going to use them. They offer elective courses like art, music, etc, and then have athletic programs. I'd be nervous if it was Westboro Baptist Church, but it's not and many of my good friends go there, so I'm ok with that. (Not a complete Atheist here).

As far as the curriculum goes, as long as the basics are covered, I'm golden. Once they get to high school, most of it is dual enrollment in state colleges anyway. I can counter act some of the crap in the younger grades by signing up with CK12 and Carnegie to supplement. Compared to others, I'm pretty religious myself. I'm just not crazy devout nor do I think the word of the Bible is absolute.

And Noodle I completely understand. Homeschooling is not the problem it's the parents who are homeschooling solely because they are paranoid whack jobs who think the shitlibs are ruining everything. Which is patently crazy in a state that is 70% red.
 
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Namon

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I've had a fair amount of experience with homeschooled people from different walks of life and different styles of homeschooling. The one common theme with them is all of them have social problems. All of them. Some worse than others. The ones with the most severe problems were ones raised in those religious homeschool communities where they all teach their kids together for socialization. They're just off and they don't think there's anything wrong with them. People always ask me what's wrong with said person. I've started referring to them as victims of homeschooling.

And I've met both. It honestly depends on the parents and yes a good chunk of them are doing it for all the wrong reasons, to shield their children. But no matter what, love it or hate it, the world is what the world is, and all you are doing is actually making things worse, because at one point, those kids are going to step out into that world. If they just want to have more control over their kids' education (or hands on) or are just simply doing it due to logistics (Move around a lot, or live in places with bare bones education system) then most of those kids turn out ok.
 

Gurgeh

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Homeschooling is not the problem it's the parents who are homeschooling solely because they are paranoid whack jobs who think the shitlibs are ruining everything. Which is patently crazy in a state that is 70% red.

I'm not convinced that homeschooling can possibly work, kids need other kids to socialize, in significant numbers and in various kinds. Very unlikely to happen with homeschooling.
 
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Namon

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I'm not convinced that homeschooling can possibly work, kids need other kids to socialize, in significant numbers and in various kinds. Very unlikely to happen with homeschooling.

Agree 100% but luckily we don't live in a cave or out in the middle of nowhere. They have lots of cousins, and I'm signing them up with local clubs and what not to fill that gap as well. It's not like they are really allowed to socialize at the school anyway. It's run like a prison camp where it's all about keeping their noses in books to rank high on the state school ranking, which is the reason I'm pulling them out in the first place.
 

Prodigal

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Alexis Rose will be 1 year old next week! That was fucking fast(but fun).

Beautiful! I remember being surprised at how much fun they were at that age - thought the early years would be more tedious than fun. My daughter turned 1 a few years ago.

Now she’s 20.
 

Gurgeh

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Agree 100% but luckily we don't live in a cave or out in the middle of nowhere. They have lots of cousins, and I'm signing them up with local clubs and what not to fill that gap as well. It's not like they are really allowed to socialize at the school anyway. It's run like a prison camp where it's all about keeping their noses in books to rank high on the state school ranking, which is the reason I'm pulling them out in the first place.
You live in Tennessee, China ? Kinda suck to not have more option I guess :/
 

Noodleface

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I certainly can't tell someone how to raise their kids but since this is the internet I can tell you that to me it's a mistake .
 
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Namon

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I certainly can't tell someone how to raise their kids but since this is the internet I can tell you that to me it's a mistake .

And that is totally fair.

I was hard line in your boat a year ago. It's not ideal... not going to pretend that it is. But private schools here are ultra religious and expensive. The one secular private school is even more expensive beyond my means.

I was totally fine with public school for my kids. But when this new principal took over the elementary school, things went to shit for our son, and we've tried voicing our concerns on deaf ears. They doubled down on work loads all in a chase for rankings in the state turning the whole thing into a sweat shop. It is causing my daughter to be physically ill from the stress they put on these kids. My final straw was the absolutely insane policies they passed in reaction to the Parkland shooting in February. Expulsions for kids voicing any kind of thing that can be construed as a threat. No backpacks are allowed. Basically they think they can policy away every bad thing that is out there, and all they are doing is making an already miserable experience that much more painful.

Keepin' on, keeping on is just absolutely not an option at this point, so I fell back to the only other option I have, which again, is not ideal but it's far better than the shit our school system has become.

I also need to clarify. After doing research, we are NOT just buying a bunch of books and trying to teach them ourselves. We are doing an online school where all the course work is done via web based apps. They will still be graded and assessed by licensed teachers, they just won't be going to a building to do so.
 

Big_w_powah

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And that is totally fair.

I was hard line in your boat a year ago. It's not ideal... not going to pretend that it is. But private schools here are ultra religious and expensive. The one secular private school is even more expensive beyond my means.

I was totally fine with public school for my kids. But when this new principal took over the elementary school, things went to shit for our son, and we've tried voicing our concerns on deaf ears. They doubled down on work loads all in a chase for rankings in the state turning the whole thing into a sweat shop. It is causing my daughter to be physically ill from the stress they put on these kids. My final straw was the absolutely insane policies they passed in reaction to the Parkland shooting in February. Expulsions for kids voicing any kind of thing that can be construed as a threat. No backpacks are allowed. Basically they think they can policy away every bad thing that is out there, and all they are doing is making an already miserable experience that much more painful.

Keepin' on, keeping on is just absolutely not an option at this point, so I fell back to the only other option I have, which again, is not ideal but it's far better than the shit our school system has become.

I also need to clarify. After doing research, we are NOT just buying a bunch of books and trying to teach them ourselves. We are doing an online school where all the course work is done via web based apps. They will still be graded and assessed by licensed teachers, they just won't be going to a building to do so.

I was homeschooled. I turned out fine and successful in a job that relies on social interaction.

It can happen.
 
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lurkingdirk

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Homeschooling isn't the end of the world, there are absolutely ways to do it well. The trouble is, those ways take huge amounts of effort, and most people don't do it.

That said, there's not a chance in hell I would ever homeschool any of my kids. Someone would die in the first week.
 
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Soygen

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The problem with homeschooling is finding a decent weed connection at school.
 
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mkopec

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To me school is about 50% socialization and 50% learning the basics. You take away that crucial 50% socialization, at the most formative years, you get non adjusted people. Im sure some come out fine, but are you willing to take that chance?

On the other hand our schools are more and more leaning to be Leftist ideologues, so there is that.
 

Prodigal

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I don’t think anyone is really advocating homeschooling here, but here locally there are organizations that have relatively large groups (100+ kids) that meet up 3+ days/week for physical ed/recess activities, do field trips regularly, etc. There are even a few that field athletic teams. So there are solutions to the socialization issue.

Biggest concern would be the “diversity” of the demographics the homeschooled kid is exposed to. I was against private school for that reason, even though I’m not really a fan of our public education system either.