One dad shares his homeschool experiences
on November 20th, 2007 at 10:31 am(I am happy to report that my kids got mostly “A’s” this past quarter in their homeschool program [3 days out of the week we teach them and the other two days are spent in an actual school])
From the blog “Play the Dad? No, be the Dad!
What does it take to homeschool?
When I began home schooling I never sat down and figured out what it would take for my wife and I to school our children at home. Basically, we hold onto several decisions that are normally made by committees, school boards, principals and teachers. We hold onto questions of class structure, content, teaching style, lesson plans and curriculum. As parents teaching in the home we not only maintain the role of parent but also keep that of administrator, teacher, janitor and lunch lady.
I never really considered this a few years ago when I consented to letting my wife to “try” teaching our kids at home. Now, I wouldn’t give away these roles. Our children gain several benefits from us not delegating these roles away. We are able to seek outside help in our state and have consultants that we pay for out of our own pocket, that help us make decisions of curriculum but my wife and I (mainly my wife) make the final decision.
The biggest benefit that I can work with is I can tailor my curriculum at the beginning of the year to the level my child is at right now. They can be halfway through second grade on one subject, at the beginning of third grade in another subject, and even further on in another subject. The decision on what is taught to my child is based on what she knows and what she has mastered. This is a huge benefit for my child over institutional school where decisions are made on some imaginary standard of a student that is used to develop grade levels. (more…)
Our son is proving to be a little math wizz. It looks like we will be able to move him into the next grade level of math this year while he does works on the same level as his peers on other subjects.
