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Seriously *you* doubt?

*ba ha ha ha ha ha* the arrogance of this post doesn't even get a response other than laughter.

Let's play nice...

I can understand how this can be taken personally, but if one steps back they see that rdmiller is most likely considering a parent with a typcial, out of home, 9-5 job.
In THAT case, it could be difficult to properly home school a child; at least with a sane brain! LOL!

I mean: that person would have to get the child to daycare before and after work, squeeze in shopping, clean the house, do laundry, make dinner, do dishes...there are only so many hours in a day So I can see why he would have doubts about that working properly.

But, as I offered to rd (and he did not seem to object to) was that some single parents have non-traditional jobs and work hours. I believe you work from home, yes? So that would allow you the porper time to invest in your kids.
I work 2-3 nights per week, starting at 5pm. This give me more than enough time. Another mom I know, a widow, does medical transcriptioning (??LOL) from home and home schools.

Not really relevant to debating home schooling, but I thought I would throw this is in.

My daughter is a elementary physical education major. Along with student teaching in the public schools, she also teaches home schooled children at the University once a week. The parents bring the kids to the University for regular PE classes. I guess my point is that the 'stigma' attached to homeschooling is that kids are home all day, is not always true. They have many opportunities of interaction with kids their age in different environments.

On the flip side, the disaster with my ss and his 'home school' situation....ahhhhhh....

Belle:

TOTALLY!

Plus, in my state, there is a state-paid program where you recieve up to approx. 1500. per year to purchase curriculum, field trips, classes, etc. for home schooling. The state just has to 'approve' it (IOW: it cannot be 'creation' based.)

There is a long list of teachers where your child may take a specialized class, and the state pays for it.

My child takes a very, very good writing class (Excellence in Writing) with a small school room full of other home school kids.

PE: YMCA offers free home school co-op (with membership of course).

College: Our state pays for first 2 years of college courses when child is at least 16, home schooled, and passes the entrance test.

Co-ops: MANY MANY MANY Co-ops where hundreds of home school kids get together 1 to 5 days per week to take classes.


There is so much interaction, yet with the co-ops and smaller classes, the teachers have more 'authority' over the kids. If the kids act up, they are kicked out and a parent needs to get them. I have yet to get anywhere CLOSE to that with any of the kids in my class.

In fact, it's funny - I was just tellin my husband this last night - the 'problem' I have in my class is that all the kids want to discuss the homework at once! They are SO excited about the subject matter, and have opinions they want to share! But that's good - that means they're jazzed to learn it all I just have to give the ' eyebrow' look and they zip their lips..hehe!


Belle - remind me again what happened with your SS's home schooling? Did the BM totally flake out??? (obviously!) How far back did it set your ss? (how frustrating that must have been!!!) How did you guys get the child back into more 'traditional' school setting? Was it a big huge fight? Did it come to court? (sorry, I'm so intrigued!)

Here is what happened..and I hate to even put this story in with home schooling, as the home schooling was simply a cover.

SS had struggled all through school, k-7 grade. Mother insisted son had learning disability, needed special assistance etc. No proof or diagnosis could ever be made and my husband fought, to no avail, to have son stream lined or at the very least, answers to why they thought he had this learning disability. It was an ongoing battle and no progress was being made with son. Mother, instead of encouraging son, kept him down telling him he was not normal etc. Son got to the point where he learned the less he did, the more others would do for him.

7th grade, Mother withdrawl's son from public school without Father's permission, joint custody/educational decisions. When Father found out, month's later and investigated, Mother had forged father's signature to enroll in home school program.

Home school program was not accredited with the public school ciriculum or state ciriuclum, but a private school. In other words, they only had to meet their own requirements. The school had the most loose guidelines in the state, required only one eval a year and a simply $100 fee a year. This school was over 100 miles from where ss even lived.

Father requested all paperwork, eval's, etc. All the documentation by Mother was fabricated. Had son doing work way above his level that we knew he could not even comprehend.

Now we are entering 9th grade, HS. Son is on 7th grade level at best. Father requests eval by public school. Public school can help son through special classes eventually streamlining him back into regular classes. Mother blocks the evaluations and enrolls son in private school to the tune of 23k a year...paid for by her wealthy family. My husband pleaded that if the public school could not help son, than they would pay for son to attend special school and follow his progress based on county benchmarks...and he would graduate a hs student.

Mother said no. And is basically paying for a certificate of attendance. Son will not graduate with a diploma after 125k in tuition for 4 years.

Nothing legally could be done, as son is in a formal education program.

Son is almost 18, can not count money, does not know the months of the year, and is educationally on a 7th grade level. He lost years of education. Mother tried to coddle and 'protect' him, rather than encourage him.

And so that's it in a nutshell.

Wow. That is amazing! I suppose the one blessing is that you guys don't have to pay for that school tuition!

Sorry, that must've been (and still) so stressful

"Arrogance" means "overbearing pride". Is that what you call it when a person expresses an opinion based upon years of experience?

My ex and I homeschooled our children for 12 years before the divorce and the ex's psychologic condition made it impractical. We put a lot of time into it and even with the both of us there wasn't enough time to deal properly with learning disabilities. Although our two older children excelled both academically and socially, I'm not proud of our shortcomings with our two younger ones.

If it's working for you, justche, that's great. Congratulations. You've been lucky, but that's not typical.

"You've been lucky, but that's not typical."

Again, have to disagree.

There are WELL over 1 million families home schooling right now. Are you telling me you believe that almost 1 millions families (all their kids) are failing?

Here is the link the the HSLDA. I am sure you are familiar with it, since you home schooled for 12 years....but for those who are not, check it out
This particular link will give stats on home school kids,and answer lots of misunderstandings.

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/ray2009/2009_Ray_StudyFINAL.pdf

rdmiller3,

I commend you for keeping your cool and being civilized/matured. Sometimes, no response is the best response.

It also means "making undue claims in an overbearing manner"