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Forum -> Chinuch, Education & Schooling -> Homeschooling

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amother

Papaya

Tue, Nov 24 2015, 10:31 pm

I keep flirting with the idea of homeschooling. Dc has been experiencing teasing and I am considering homeschooling. Before doing that, I thought I should gather information about others who are already homeschooling.For those who homeschool, do you have a group of homeschoolers so the kids can make friends outside the family circle? Are you enjoying homeschooling? What are some advantages and disadvantages that you found so far?Any regrets? Thanks!

yaelinIN

Tue, Nov 24 2015, 10:43 pm

I have been homeschooling for nine years (!). I now have three children I homeschool; I "graduated" one to high school (Yeshiva Ohr Yisrael in Boston) this year.

My children make friends with other children in the communities in which they have lived; Jewish and non-Jewish, frum and not yet frum. They all have friends to the degree that they want them. They also like each other (when they don't hate each other LOL) and play together at home.

I enjoy homeschooling most of the time. I have frustrating days and days I wish to put them on a school bus or on a Greyhound out of the city. It's all normal.

For us the main advantage of homeschooling is/was tailoring their education to our hashkafa and their needs, having flexibility to travel and do things on our schedule, and a strong family unity. The only disadvantage for our family is that it is a lot of work and thinking for me as the main teacher. Figuring out curriculum (if one uses it), grading/evaluating, and worrying do take up head space and physical time. Making sure the main teaching parent gets time for him/herself regularly as well as getting time to interact with other homeschooling families alleviates many troubles.

I wish you luck with figuring your family's educational path!

amother

Papaya

Tue, Nov 24 2015, 10:58 pm

yaelinIN, thank you for your post! Very encouraging( and funny lol)!Which curriculum did you use for grades 1-5? Also, how did you find homeschooling families in your area?And did you ever have to deal with outside pressure( like ppl who think homeshcooling is not ok)?

yaelinIN

Tue, Nov 24 2015, 11:26 pm

amother wrote:

I use many different books/materials for each subject and each child. A common hangup for new homeschoolers is to think that you have to use a complete curriculum and be schoolish to be successful. Most people who have continued to homeschool find that their children may excel in one subject and yet lag behind in another so having a "3rd grade) curriculum will not work at all. Some children need material presented in a different way for successful education and some parents feel that their child is innately equipped to figure out what and how they learn best (with parental structuring/scaffolding). You would greatly benefit from going to your local library and taking all the books on homeschooling home and getting a hot cup of tea/coffee and learn more about home education. The internet is good too but I find that books have a more realistic and balanced view.

As far as finding homeschool community here in my hometown, I know a couple of Orthodox families. But we are not close to any of them; my kids have their friends (not homeschooled) and I have mine (although I hang out on homeschool forums for socialization). It's nice to have other homeschooled families to interact with, but for us it is not a make or break thing.

Of course I have to deal with people who think HSing is bad or wrong or stupid or will lead my kids OTD or to the poorhouse! In our families, in the community, in the general frum world. I don't care what they think. Smile

I have my convictions, I have a rav who give me psak halacha about chinuch, and a husband who is supportive. That's all I need. A external support group is a bonus, but if everyone/anyone else tells me I am incorrect, I smile, change the subject, and move on. I don't need to change their mind and they certainly won't change mine.

Dolly Welsh

Wed, Nov 25 2015, 12:12 am

I have never done it but I notice there are a lot of archived threads here about Torah Home Schooling. If you google you will find websites that offer teaching materials.

amother

Amethyst

Wed, Nov 25 2015, 12:37 am

I was homeschooled for a few years...long story but there was a very good reason.
We used a textbook for things like math, social studies, spelling ect on my level, not necessarily the correct one (higher or lower). English was a book we chose that was on my reading level (then did a project, essay etc on it). But the beauty of homeschooling was the flexibility- learning from outside sources, going to museums, extra curricular, and learning things in a way I would understand (hands-on, taking extra time with it etc).

HappytoHS

Wed, Nov 25 2015, 6:53 am

I think I homeschool very differently than Yael but I echo everything she wrote Smile

amother

Papaya

Wed, Nov 25 2015, 7:12 pm

HappytoHS, how do you homeschool? You got me curious!
I did go through old threads and now I'm looking at some homeschooling books, I would love the freedom of choice it provides. And thank all of you for clarifying and giving me a better idea of how it's usually done.
Did any of you use tutors for topics in which you weren't proficient?

Dolly Welsh

Wed, Nov 25 2015, 10:29 pm

There is an organization for Torah Homeschooling. Contact them and see what they can tell you about structuring, pacing, milestones, and legalities in your particular state and locality. They hold regular meetings I hear. I have never done this myself.

yaelinIN

Wed, Nov 25 2015, 10:38 pm

amother wrote:

Did any of you use tutors for topics in which you weren't proficient?

Sure! My oldest took an online class in informal logic last year and a rebbe for Gemara for the last two years. I thought it was a good idea for him to have a daily (Gemara)/weekly (Logic) class with a different teacher with different expectations. He stumbled a bit at the beginning (didn't think he needed to study for tests), but straightened up with scaffolding from us and high expectations from his teachers. We could have done either class but we wanted to outsource those classes so that we could focus on the overall process of homeschooling everyone.

queenert

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 7:42 am

yaelinIN wrote:

You would greatly benefit from going to your local library and taking all the books on homeschooling home and getting a hot cup of tea/coffee and learn more about home education. The internet is good too but I find that books have a more realistic and balanced view.

Any particular books you'd recommend?
Thanks!

yaelinIN

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 8:08 am

queenert wrote:

Any particular books you'd recommend?
Thanks!

I would any book on HSing you can find. Many have Xian references or are Xian based, but I would advise reading and filtering as the Xian homeschool movement was out there in force HSing for decades.

Books by John Holt are also wonderful. He was an educator who realized that children can and should learn outside of the standard educational system.

HappytoHS

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 3:40 pm

amother wrote:

HappytoHS, how do you homeschool? You got me curious!

Every homeschool looks different because every family is different, even if 2 families have identical philosophies. Ours is unschool-inspired, interest led, what might look like not a lot of structure from the outside, although I know what's going on, who's doing what, how and why. We use a lot of living books and documentaries as opposed to textbooks or formal curricula, except for math from about 3rd grade (before that we do lots of living math and math games but nothing formal required). I do a lot of strewing of great books and other resources and we read a lot and have lots of interesting discussions. If I'm not mistaken, Yael is a classical homeschooler and I would imagine her homeschool looks very different than mine both in content and method but I think that most of our main goals are the same: strong family relationships, socially and emotionally and spiritually healthy kids who are curious and internally motivated, learn how to learn and who own their education.

HappytoHS

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 3:49 pm

amother wrote:

Did any of you use tutors for topics in which you weren't proficient?

My high schoolers both chose to learn math with tutors for their bagruyot (we're in Israel). I am sure they could have done it on their own (there are excellent resources geared to the student) but I think their many years in school prior to being homeschooled embedded certain ideas about how learning must be done that were harder to transcend at their ages. In any case, they did/are doing beautifully and both have discovered that they have an aptitude for math where they both thought they were lousy at it when they were in school.

Dolly Welsh

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 4:12 pm

I wonder how it's done when you have a goodly number of kids, some quite different in age, all being home schooled at once.

sequoia

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 4:14 pm

Dolly Welsh wrote:

I wonder how it's done when you have a goodly number of kids, some quite different in age, all being home schooled at once.

Ask Happy Mom Smile

HappytoHS

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 5:00 pm

We have 8 kids, BH. The youngest is a baby and the rest range in age from preschool to high school senior (who's already taking a college chemistry course).

Dolly Welsh

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 5:48 pm

Any remarks about how you finesse and schedule, so you can take care of schooling all of them? Do you group by similar ages?

chavs

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 5:58 pm

I homeschool my children and I enjoy it. They've never been to school and are now 10, 7 and I have a one year old as well.

We go to homeschooling groups where our kids meet other kids for playing and we do after school clubs as well.

I am more structured but also quite relaxed so when I am not feeling well or the kids need a day off or we are busy all day there is no structured learning.

We tried unschooling for a bit as I felt that they needed a break from formal learning to find what interested them again and to see if they'd learn more this way, but my kids ended up calling a family meeting asking if they could please have done more structure.
They do most of their learning online. My husband and I looked at the various programmes and gave our kids a choice of a few different ones.

Any other questions feel free to ask.

amother

Salmon

Thu, Nov 26 2015, 7:21 pm

I hschooled my two youngest from birth to grades 7/8 respectively. It was a great experience, and we lived OOT at the time (by design to avoid the negativity from community). Now they are 17/21. DD17 was at a Bais Yaakov for 3 years and now boarding for senior year at an OOT school. 21 year old went to yeshiva for high school (ended up OTD, but high achieving scholastically/National Merit Finalist, and at university now excelling academically). I will say, we are a very independent family (own our own business) and owning our school fit nicely. I loved those years the best. Used many methods and constantly modified to fit the changing needs of the kids. I started a hschool parent support group during those years for the 7 or 8 frum families in the nearest community for chizuk. I wouldn't do anything differently. My child going OTD most likely would have happened anyway, but hschooling kept him from being forced on meds by the "system." He's brilliant, but could never have achieved in a classroom all day.

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