Homeschooling, Anti social.... Not ideal??

ceo

Tue, Nov 21 2006, 7:44 pm

thank you Motek. Actually, we live in a city with a number of schools to chose from. My husband STILL thinks he wants to homeschool basically because of this last quote! He says, "It seems that no one who runs the schools knows what they're doing. So don't tell me they can do it better than me!"

su7kids

Tue, Nov 21 2006, 8:22 pm

GR wrote:

Quote:

I have heard of Shluchim sending their children to non-Jewish schools.

I find that a bit hard to imagine. Confused

I know lots of Shluchim that homeschool, and the new online school is a dream come true.

I do know of it happening in a place where there wasn't a good frum school. The day school that was there was not frum, all classes were mixed, etc. so the Shaliach chose to send their boys to an all boys non Jewish school, and he did the Judaic studies at home.

gryp

Wed, Nov 22 2006, 9:34 am

Quote:

The day school that was there was not frum, all classes were mixed, etc. so the Shaliach chose to send their boys to an all boys non Jewish school, and he did the Judaic studies at home.

it seems to me there must have been another factor in the decision that we dont know about. I'm sure most shluchim have some sort of day school with mixed classes in their areas and I think it is a very rare scenario for a shliach to be sending to a completely not-Jewish school.

besides, what kind of school is all boys? he sent to a private school?

I actually had a first hand glance at the online Shluchim school yesterday. it really is a dream come true. it takes away the need for the shluchim's kids to leave home at a very young age. the learning is excellent, the program is just really incredible.

amother

Wed, Nov 22 2006, 9:57 am

Quote:

Where I live, almost all schools are single gender. The Jewish school isn't, so some of the frummer familes here prefer to send their teenagers to single gender schools.

There are probably less problems sending your child to a non-Jewish school then one run by conservative or reform. Would you want your kids taught torah by someone who doesn't believe in basic fundamentals of Yiddishkiet? Or, the school may be nominally orthodox, but the teachers are not frum.

gryp

Wed, Nov 22 2006, 10:21 am

Quote:

Would you want your kids taught torah by someone who doesn't believe in basic fundamentals of Yiddishkiet? Or, the school may be nominally orthodox, but the teachers are not frum.

That all usually comes from the home and the shliach's kid knows he is different from the others at the school.

Quote:

Where I live, almost all schools are single gender.

That's interesting. can I ask if you live in the US?

Tefila

Tue, Dec 12 2006, 12:26 am

Last edited by Tefila on Tue, Dec 12 2006, 4:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

HindaRochel

Tue, Dec 12 2006, 6:46 am

A lot depends on a lot depends.

I think the "Social weird because of homeschooling" is really getting the cart before the horse. I think a lot of children who don't fit into the typical school system are thought of as weird, and therefore, sometimes in desperation, the parents homeschool them. I don't like the word "weird" because it makes the child sound defective.

We homeschool our 13 year old because she wasn't fitting into the school system socially and wasn't gaining educationally. It wasn't for her. SHe is a bit of a loner, and needs more space than most children. She has had three years in the school on the Yishuv and things have ended up harder for her socially not easier. So we decided to homeschool.

She is branching out in terms of becoming more social and learning to stand up for herself.

So what should you do? What are the reasons you wish to homeschool? What are the various problems you will face and how can you circumvent or overcome them? Or are they serious enough issues in the first place? How do you want to homeschool? What methods? Just in secular studies or in all studies? Tutors? etc. etc.

Chani

Tue, Dec 12 2006, 6:55 am

GR, I'm not the amother, but I can tell you that growing up in Memphis, I went to a girls' school. I'd say that the majority of private schools there were single s-x, regardless of whether they were secular or Christian affiliated.

chaimsmom

Tue, Dec 12 2006, 12:31 pm

We have been happily homeschooling for 7 years. Before homeschooling, we tried both day schools in our community and they just didn't work for our son. I don't think homeschooling is for everyone, but for many, many people it is the best educational option.

Ruchel

Wed, Dec 13 2006, 11:10 am

How exactly is homeschooling done? Do you have a book for each course (maths, english, history...) and teach the child from the book according to a pre established program (monday = chapter 1, tuesday = chapter 2...)? What about the exams? Do you send the child's paper to some official organization so he gets a recognized degree? How do they make sure the parent isn't helping a bit? lol

chaimsmom

Wed, Dec 13 2006, 11:59 am

Different homeschoolers do it differently. Some people buy a pre-packed curriculum with everything they need for a given grade level. A lot of homeschoolers refer to this as "schooling at home" At the other extreme, some people have no fixed curriculum at all. Rather, they let the kids decide what they want to learn. This is called "unschooling". Like most homeschoolers, we do something between the two extremes.

I get a lot of materials, particularly math, from the website edhelper.com but I also ask my son what he is interested in learning about and put together lessons around those topics. I pay attention to my state's educational standards, which are available on-line, to make sure he's getting everything he's supposed to. However, I don't necessarily do everything when the state says it needs to be done. For example, a couple of years ago we happened to be traveling through PA, so we did a unit on the Civil War before the trip and went to Gettysburg on the trip. I figure as long as he gets everything the state says he should have, it really doesn't matter when he gets it. Lately I've been doing a lot of things with Boy Scout merit badges. My son is in scouts and the merit badges make great unit studies on almost every topic you could want.
With the exception of Math and Hebrew reading, we don't do every subject every day.

My state doesn't require outside testing, but I think some states do. Also, some states require that parents submit a curriculum. In the younger grades, I don't think testing is a big deal. We haven't decided what to do about high school - some homeschoolers do it on-line or in conjunction with a university. That way the student gets some kind of diploma. Other parents have their kids get a GED. I'm not sure how the on-line/correspondence places know the parents aren't helping, but I think most homeschooling parents do it because they want the best for their kids, so they're not going to cheat. If anything, my son has been to known to complain that he can't get away with things that he could if he were in school. I teach every concept to mastery - there's no being satisfied with getting a "B" because we keep doing things until he gets it right.

Raisin

Wed, Dec 13 2006, 3:45 pm

A friend showed me this website for kids: Brainpop, and Brainpop Jr. Its a science website which my dd loves.

ny21

Wed, Dec 13 2006, 3:51 pm

I went to "High school " in a attic of a shul

their were three kids in my class .

for 12th grade , I went to college and earned credits

that went towards my high school diploma.

Recently I met a frum women who said "oh it was like being homed school.

I never thought of it that way.

trafficgal

Wed, Dec 13 2006, 4:21 pm

Hey you knwo me am I weird (ok dont answer that Smile

but you know I was homeschooled right?

Tefila

Wed, Dec 13 2006, 6:55 pm

Quote:

but you know I was homeschooled right?

No I did not Surprised

Ok I am gonna give that women a peice of my mind...... perhaps those that don't aprove of the homeschooling system are weird themselves Twisted Evil