Home schooling - yea or nay. how do you know...

SplitPea

Wed, Jan 30 2019, 10:51 am

I have homeschooled 4 years now.

The short answer is you never know if its a good fit until you do it.

Look at your kids needs, are they being met in school? Would emotional health be better or worse at home? Can you commit to teaching? Seeking out and encouraging friendships? What is your schedule like? What are you looking to get out of homeschooling?

Every person has different reasons for looking into it. I personally believe done right its better for almost ALL children (doing activities around how THEY learn and their needs) but its very hard on the parent.

amother

Pumpkin

Wed, Jan 30 2019, 2:13 pm

How do you find a good jewish curriculum for homeschooling?
My ds might need to move to public school for his special services & I'm thinking about homeschooling the jewish studies.
How do I find a curriculum, verify that it's a good one etc?

mha3484

Wed, Jan 30 2019, 4:27 pm

My son (2nd grade) goes to yeshiva for a part of the morning and spends the rest of the day in a therapeutic school. He gets davening and a little chumash each day at yeshiva with his rebbe.

Two options we were given were to 1) look into hiring a rebbe to learn with him. They will often know the curriculum and can keep him on track. 2) DH learns with him. We do the second. My son does not need academic help more social emotional so they do chumash with rashi together. Also DS likes to read so the little medrash says is great, Rav Zilberman has a book where each week is a story and it asks a halacha question at the end. He likes to read it to us at the shabbos table. There are lots more like that out there. It really depends on age and ability. I am not sure you need a formal curriculum.

amother

Ginger

Wed, Jan 30 2019, 6:32 pm

amother wrote:

Try jewishonlineschool.com it is geared for students that are in public schools.

amother

Yellow

Wed, Jan 30 2019, 10:17 pm

As someone who was homeschooled for a few years (no local yeshiva where we had to live during that time...) I have to say it was amazing. Why?
- I learned to love learning, I still do.
- I learned to be an independent worker- it has helped me until today. I figure things out and am not afraid to keep searching.
- I was way above my class in many areas when we did move. I was behind in other areas but mostly it was memorization which I still don't see the point to most of that. Better to understand how to get the answer and why it is that way, IMO but that is off topic.
- I am ok being alone with myself. Entertaining myself as a kid and now even.
- I think it has led me to have such a close relationship with my mom until today BH.

For English we got textbooks and other educational materials. My mom found ways to make every experience educational- cooking was a lesson in fractions, grocery shopping was all math skills (division for price per unit, estimation etc all without calculators or pencils even sometimes!). I read sections from the newspaper and discussed my thoughts on the topic.
For Kodesh we had a tutor plus my father learned at the table, parsha, Halacha Sefer etc.
social- there was another family we played with, I did extra curriculars...

You won't know until you try. Give it your all. It can be fun even. We did it out of necessity but I know people who do it because they want to.

Ema of 5

Thu, Jan 31 2019, 12:05 am

Ruchel wrote:

Very hard on the parent = not best for the kids

I don’t homeschool, but I don’t think you can make that blanket statement. For so so so so so so so many parents and kids it’s SO MUCH BETTER than being in the school system. The parents have to know themselves and know their kids, and that’s one of the huge factors in determining whether or not it’s a viable option.
For example, I know that I would never be able to homeschool my oldest, it just wouldn’t work. However, for my other kids who are in school, it could possibly work very well. I’ve never actively explored it, because it’s not going to happen, but it could definitely work for us.

amother

Khaki

Thu, Jan 31 2019, 12:05 am

I think it depends in the kids' personalities, the mom's (or whoever the homeschool teacher will be) personality, and how the kid was doing in school for comparison.

If the kid was doing pretty well (academically and emotionally) in school, then I wouldn't switch just looking for something better. But if the kid was suffering, then don't wait to homeschool; a bad school environment can be poisonous for their mind as well as their heart.