While she’s had some time during her pregnancy, Melanie’s been reading up on homeschooling and is starting a series of posts on the topic at her blog. Read the first entry to see where she’s going with it.
One of my projects during this gestational semester when I’m not teaching is to read up on homeschooling. I know, I know, it’s a bit early to think about the kid’s academic career when she won’t even be born until May. But I need a project now and after she’s born I won’t necessarily have as much free time for reading as I’ve been used to up to now. (Though I maintain I won’t ever become one of those mothers who “doesn’t have time to read.” I’ve never in my life been too busy to steal time for a good book. Reading is like breathing, I wouldn’t know how to stop.) I’m going to post short reviews of all the books I’m looking at. That way I’ll have a written record of them when five years from now it will be time to start seriously putting together a plan of action. But I thought before I jumped into individual books I should explain my philosophy of education and why I’m considering homeschooling in the first place.
Update: And the second entry on the book “The Well Trained Mind” by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise.
Technorati Tags: education, homeschooling
I’m honored, in a weird, sort of pathetic way, to be the first to comment on this post.
DO IT!
Homeschooling is the only way to go! When you look at what kids are exposed to in public school, I am of the opinion that parents that send their kids to public school are guilty of child abuse.
Extreme, yes. But when you start to analyze the bovine group-think that has convinced people that it is “normal” to send their precious children to be indoctrinated by a state employee eight hours a day, maybe not extreme enough.
Oh, and this “decision” people make is done KNOWING that the system is a complete failure. Would you send your car to be worked on by someone that has a reputation for horrible service, workmanship and results? Only stupid people would do that. Oops! I was extreme again.
More to the point, it is the best thing for your wife, and your baby. The time goes so quickly with kids. Grab every moment you can!
A little story: My 10 year old son was playing outside one day, and the neighborhood bully came by and started bugging my son about being homeschooled. My son turned to him and said, “Well, at least I know my teacher loves me!”
Well, my kids are now 16 years old (triplets). They are smart, beautiful, well-adjusted kids. They are brilliant musicians and artists. They are just beginning to look at colleges. One son is hoping to get into Juilliard.
It was the BEST decision my wife and I ever made.
Oh, let me be the first to ask you THE question:
“WHAT ABOUT THE SOCIALIZATION?”
You’ll think that is funny, in about five or six years. : )
Suggested Reading: “The Underground History of American Education” – John Gatto
God Bless your family, Dom!
I would tend to agree with DaVinci. Having, in the not too distant past, gone through one of the best Mass public school systems for eight years and then Catholic schools for four years of highschool, after my parents were totally fed up with the public schools, I don’t think either choice is particularly good if parents have the means to homeschool.
In public schools I was bored the whole time because the classes were so slow. In first grade my parents were told that I had a learning disability—why? because I spoke two languages (in truth I had a slight problem with mixing pronunciations between the two), I had bad handwritting, was shy, and loved to read. Their solution was to tell my mom to stop speaking to me in her native language Polish and they put me in a special reading class. By middle school when the school system realized that I should have been place in their “honors” program—they informed my parents that it was too late to get me into the honors program.
After moving to a private first class Catholic High School I did quite well in my honors classes, graduating in the top 10% (#13) of my class. The problem at my Catholic school was not so much academics, but a lack of a Catholic identity. It was in high school that I considered leaving the Catholic Church (I didn’t).
In contrast, I have observed homeschooling families and noted that their students tend to be intellectually better developed. Most likely because a parent doesn’t need to waste the same amount of time that is wasted in public schools, time wasted on sexual and political propaganda, on discplining other children, teachers workshops, etc. Also for boys, a free schedule, so that they can run off their excess energy seems to make more sense. The homeschool children I have met seem also to have much better familial skills, they seem to be more social with all age groups, learning early in life to take care of younger sibblings as well as to talk to adults more maturely, and they tend to be more cultured (most play instruments, or sing, or dance).
So in my humble opinion homeschooling is a great option, however, I would recommend that if you do homeschool, homeschool with a community if possible. At Mt. St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg there is a great homeschooling community, which brings their kids together for sports, daily mass, outings, etc. and it seems to work quite well.
One added advantage (that I somehow forgot) is that their children grow up Catholic so that when they leave home for college they have a strong foundation in their faith.
I’m glad my continual rantings over the years on this site of homeschooling as the only choice finally got through to someone.
Go for it, Mel. We are homeschooling our three youngest, and it is not unusual for our 9th grader to correct her CCD teacher regularly.
If you want to meet up with homeschoolers in your area, go to the First Friday Noon Mass at the Carmelite Chapel in the North Shore Mall in Danvers. The Catholic homeschoolers of the area attend together (with kids) and then go bowling, or roller skating or to the park. Great time to talk with other CATHOLIC homeschooling parents.
NOTE: I’m going to refer Jeanne to Mel’s Blog.
NOTE2: Check out SETON Homeschooling. http://www.setonhome.org/
Peace!
Homeschooling is an incredible commitment, but also offers incredible rewards. You are very wise to research and plan now. Here is my only word of caution—You haven’t met your children yet. I had my first child after I had been practicing medicine for a little over a year. I had been telling mothers how to take care of their children with a professional degree and years of study to back me up. Then I had my own child. I quickly learned Nelson’s Textbook of Pediatrics had never had children. I was humbled by my ignorance. My point is, no amount of reading or talking with other parents will completely prepare you for the unique human being who will soon join your life. Make plans and set goals, but be flexible enough that you can accomodate the unique needs of your child.
Hi all. Thanks for the enthusiasm and encouragement. If you haven’t clicked over to read the whole blog entry, please do so. Some of the comments are echoing things I wrote about at length there. Dom just excerpted a little bit.
Dom’s sister is planning to start homeschooling her daughter this fall (she’ll be five) and is already connecting to the local Catholic homeschooling group. Of course, I have no idea where we’ll be living when I’m ready to start with more formal schooling so I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
One reason why I’m just doing background research and not buying curricula yet is because, as Catholic Mom says, I haven’t met our child yet and don’t know what her learning style will be and what sorts of material will suit her. Right now I’m just collecting as much data as I can so that when the time comes I’ll know how to find the best resources. I do know that I don’t believe in a one size fits all approach to education.
I’ve looked into Seton and think that’s what my sister-in-law plans to do. I don’t think it’s for me, though. I want more flexibility to do my own curriculum design. After all, I am a teacher, albeit I’ve taught college and that’s a bit different. But one reason I was attracted to teaching at the college level is that I have the freedom to do my own thing, work at my own pace, and change things up in response to the actual students that are in front of me. In most high schools you answer to someone else and have to stay within pretty strict guidelines. Naturally this is also a factor that attract me to homeschooling.
I’m leery of using textbooks except as reference works or as a jumping off point for further exploration of a topic. (Obviously math is an exception.) I prefer to work with primary sources whenever possible.
If you come over to my blog and follow the series of entries I’m planning you’ll see my philosophy of homeschooling emerge as I discuss what I like and dislike about the verious books I’ve read.
I wholeheartedly encourage y’all to homeschool. We did (my son and daughter are now in college) and I would not trade our learning adventure for all the money in the world.
You mentioned using books as jumping off points, except for math. That’s pretty much what we did. We enrolled in Seton for our second year, and decided that it was too rigid for us. Others love it. For us, it was better to take a more relaxed approached. One year, ds did no formal math at all. Instead, he focused on history, including art & music history, and chemistry. When he was ready, he mastered math concepts easily. Waiting for readiness was a discipline I had to learn.
I would suggest that you read Dr. Mary Kay Clark’s book on Catholic homeschooling, even though you don’t plan to go the Seton route.
I’d also suggest reading whatever you can find by Cafi Cohen, Linda Dobson, and David & Micki Colfax. You may also want to explore a wide range of homeschool websites from Home Education Magazine’s (the Hegener’s children are now homeschooling their own children) to Keeping it Catholic. Even though I didn’t agree with every view expressed on these sites, I found them, and many others, valuable resources.
Don’t feel obliged to join any groups or align with a particular style of homeschooling. Sadly, even among Catholic homeschoolers there’s much division and some ugly behavior. We did informally get together with other homeschoolers in some of the places we lived, and not in others. Our kids did not enjoy doing group academics, so we did not get into co-ops for languages or science.
You’ve already experienced the defensiveness of some non-homeschooolers. It will get worse, but I’m sure you’ll be able to let the remarks roll off your back. It wasn’t until both of our children received academic scholarships to college that many of our relatives & dh’s coworkers came around.
God bless your family in this new adventure!
UAHmama,
Don’t worry I’m pretty independent minded. And Dom will tell you I’m stubborn too. I’ve got some firm ideas about what I do and don’t like but also I’m willing to admit that a good teacher is adaptable and must teach to both the strengths and weaknesses of the student. I’m interested in meeting other homeschoolers when the time comes; but as far as our level of participation in a group, I guess it depends on both the group and our kids. One reason I’m attracted to homeschooling is to get my kids away from peer-pressure situations, not to replace those in one environment with those in another. If I found a group that didn’t fit my style, I’d probably not bother. I’m pretty shy in group situations anyway.
UAHmama (and anyone else who might know),
I’ve read Kimberly Hahn and Mary Hasson’s book, Catholic Education: Homeward Bound and while I agree it is a good resource for someone considering home schooling, I found I had already thought through most of the issues it raised and there was little that was actually new. I’d recommend it to others, but don’t want to read anything else that just covers the same ground.(I’ll be posting my review of Hahn and Hasson’s book on my blog soon.)
Have you read it and can you tell me what Mary Clark’s book adds that Hahn and Hasson do not cover?
I’m certainly trying to review as many materials as I can and learn as much as I can and I may go ahead and try to borrow it from the library. I do appreciate any and all reading suggestions especially those people have found useful.
It’s been so long since I read CE:HB that I don’t recall much about it. Dr. Mary Kay Clark’s book, OTOH, felt like an all-in-one resource for me. The appendices alone were worth the price of the book. Some of the information is outdated (my copy was pub. in 1993 – there may have been an updated version issued by now), but much of it is not. More than that, I felt that Clark’s personal approach was more relaxed and realistic about family resources, time, temperments, etc. than just about any other homeschooling book I read. Also, the chapters on parental rights and dealing with authorities, written by Kenneth Clark, were very helpful during some of our relocations.
If nothing else, I think you’d enjoy reading about this slice of history of homeschooling.