Here's a great article about homeschooling parents who are very happy with their decision, and whose kids are thriving in the home environment:
Before the decision to home school their daughters was made, parents Shawn and Susan Lorenz said they did a lot of research into the matter.
Shawn said he originally had two concerns: whether his kids would be socially illiterate and whether they would be able to get into a good college. He said it did not take much research to discover that these concerns were unfounded...
"The general conception of what a homeschooled child looks like is a kid in a cabin in Montana who wins the National Spelling Bee," Shawn said. "That really isn't the case."
Good for him for doing the research, instead of just buying into the myth that kids who homeschool are complete isolates (or are covered with bruises).
While Susan does most of the teaching, her husband helps out sometimes. For subjects neither of them know well, they usually try to get outside help. For math, the Lorenzes buy a program called Math-U-See, which consists of a workbook, a teacher's manual and a video lesson for more than 40 different chapters.
Other outside help comes in the form of homeschooling organizations. The Lorenzes belong to three of these groups: the Home School Legal Defense Association, which provides legal advice, the Family Resource Center in Salem, which organizes group trips, and another organization based out of Andover that provides the necessary standardized tests.
"There's a ton of homeschooling groups and you could go crazy trying to belong to everything," Susan said.
Nice of the article to present all this informatino to readers who may already be "going crazy" to try to figure out the rules and regulations about homeschooling, and who would be eager to contact these groups.
Shawn said his decision to homeschool his daughters did not have anything to do with the public school system, though he did say his kids could learn more at home.
His main problem with the middle/high school [in Georgetown the two are combined] was that it has children of so many different age groups.
"Putting my 11-year-old girl in the same building as 18-year-old boys (is a concern)," Shawn said. "They sit on the corner and smoke cigarettes and having my daughter walk past that to get educated is a concern."
Good for him! I'm sure some people might complain that he's trying to "control" his daughters too much, but it's not a wild idea to think that an 11-year-old could be a target of harassment, or worse, from guys seven years older. I'm all in favor of parents who try to keep their kids from growing up too fast, and who control their environment so that they're not exposed to inappropriately sexualized ideas, or left to their own devices in an area with older kids.
A former school teacher with a dual degree in special education and education, Susan said the hardest part of teaching her kids at home is finding the time to do everything.
"I never, ever thought I'd be homeschooling, but I'm so glad we are," she said.
While Susan said home school is the best option for her family, she admits that it may not suit other families.
"This is something both of my kids really wanted," she said. "If you have a child that doesn't want to be homeschooled, it can be really frustrating.
"This isn't something everyone can do," she added. "But traditional schooling is not for everyone either."
Good conclusion, especially in pointing out that a former teacher - with an education degree - can see the value in homeschooling as opposed to traditional schooling.
Posted by kswygert at October 16, 2003 11:36 AM