Why We Home Educate
Hi fellow Hiveians,
Today I wanted to not only enter the contest in the Edders community but have a chance to reflect too!
Why We Home Educate
Home education is something that has been tried to be vilified and demonized by the media corporations for a really long time. It was particularly difficult in the time leading up to the lock downs, where people were "weird" if they educated their kids at home. Their kids wouldn't be "socialized" or some other BS excuse to try and demonize the parents who chose to do at least part or in whole their children's educational journey from their parents in the home.
These days however, with the vast amount of parents who saw the absolute travesty that the public "school"(indoctrination camps) system is these days, they immediately knew that they needed to do something different. A lot of people have turned to homeschooling, unschooling and many other flavors of just not the public system. I think that is absolutely wonderful! The more options and competition that we have out there, the better the system will be for everyone, not just for the parents who can afford these alternatives.
My wife and I knew that we were going to have some type of alternative school type for our son. One of the main reasons for that is he has a lot of energy and these days, boys with a lot of energy are not treated well in the system. They are told that they need to be medicated and need to keep quiet, even if they don't like or already know the material presented. It's such a shame that so many people have their kids hurt by these types of harmful oppressive dictates from administrators and teachers. I'm certainly not perfect when it comes to having challenges with educating my son, but I am trying to at least find ways to try and educate him instead of just medicating him and hoping for the best.
We completed our first year of 100% at home, home-school and it was a difficult year. We tried to do a program that was through our state that we live in and we definitely appreciated that our tax money paid for it, because it's also difficult to have to spend additional money on top of everything else we have to pay for, to pay for school as well. We managed through it though and we think that our son learned more from us and the after-school program than he did in the "official" school program which is challenging. Some children are a little trickier to teach some of these things because they all learn differently and our son is certainly of that cohort. He is brilliant with things he enjoys but when it's something that he doesn't particularly care for, he has a hard time learning it. I can't blame him because I was the same way as a kid.
The important thing about trying to home educate though is that we are able to do what the parents most important job is: to instill our values in our child. One of the biggest issues I have with the educational system in so many parts of the world is that the teachers are trying to instill values in our children that quite frankly don't belong. Gone are the days of when I was a kid and my parents were kids when you had no idea about the home-life of a teacher; what they believed in spiritually or politically, who they had for family members, what their preferences are and so many others. These days, it's more about self-centered teachers egos where they push their ideals and values all over the kids and that detracts from the educational purpose of the school itself.
Educating the little ones is a trail, downhill and easy sometimes, with a long ways off uphill battle sometimes as well!
The additionally important thing though is to experiment! We tried the year at home exclusively and it was difficult with our time commitments to it and our sons learning challenges. He can and will overcome the challenges but we aren't fully equipped to handle those with some of the other things that we've got going on in our lives. We made the choice to send him to a private school next year, a Montessori style school and it pains me a little bit to have to do it, but as much as he was learning at home, he also was not learning a lot of other things that we know are equally important such as reading. He is good at numbers, can recognize and repeat a lot of those things but we struggled with phonics. Phonics is such a crucial skill and we are seeing what we can accomplish with him learning from people who are properly trained with educating the younger side of the kids on the phonics stuff.
What I also want to iterate is that home schooling doesn't have to be 100% of the things that you do! With the hybrid model that we are going to try this coming year, he will do a lot of the traditional school stuff at the campus and we will continue to do the other things at home that we can do to continue his educational journey. We read books every single night together, my son and I, on a variety of topics and not just silly picture books. We read history books, children's books on things like The Golden Rule and many others. These are certainly things that I would consider home education because they are me working with and instilling my values into him so that he can be a well rounded kid as he grows up. Granted, the stuff at home isn't all work! There is a lot of play in there as well, with going for walks, rides and many other things to stimulate the little mind that's developing.
Home education is much more than doing just math and reading. It's trying to prepare the next generation and I want to make sure that I do as good of a job as I can to mold him into his best self, so he can then shape it as he gets older and refine where he wants to!
-CmplXty. Real human written content, never AI.
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I hear you! My youngest also has a lot of energy. Nowadays there is a label for everything. Kids with lots of energy always existed, but the labels are new. Lazy teachers will try to tell you that your child needs to be medicated. I'm not saying that no child needs to be medicated, but they say that a lot more then they should. Good teachers will find a way to teach every child, they will have to adapt and be creative because everyone learns in different way.
My son struggled a lot the year before last year. His teacher would call us at school all the time. His grades were all under average. This last year he had a great teacher, who understood him and guided him. He had a great year and finished the year above average. No medication.
Teaching is not about following a recipe, everyone learns in a different way. Even on a private school you will still have to hope for a good teacher every year, but montessori schools have a good system, hopefully he will have a good year.
No matter the path you choose in the future, I can see you are looking for the best for your son and he will be successful. Good luck!
I truly think that there are more children like this than not. Both your youngest and @cmplxty's son seem like normal active kids to me. My girls struggled in the school system for different reasons, but my eldest was probably more similar to what you both describe in your children. Thankfully, the UK and Australian teachers don't (or at least didn't) seem to jump to the conclusion they need medicating as soon as they weren't fitting their ideals. They both encountered teachers who they thrived with at one point, but mostly they had teachers who they didn't so very well with.
My eldest got herself a diagnosis at 19 of ADHD. She asked me at the time why I'd never gotten her diagnosed as a child and my reply was because I saw nothing wrong with her. To me it's perfectly normal that kids are active, fidgety and often get bored. They frequently need simulation and it's actuality not normal for them to sit still at a desk and pay attention for half an hour or more. According to her psychiatrist changing to homeschooling may well have been the best thing for her and the reason why she never really had issues growing up. She tried medication to help with her university studies and didn't react well to it. I still don't understand this need to label people with these "disorders", but she seems to like the label. She has been able to learn coping mechanisms to get her through university with help due to this diagnosis.
I agree, I see my son as a normal kid, just a bit too active. I haven’t taken my son to psychiatrist yet, but we might. The problem is that I think schools are jumping to conclusions and asking parents to take kids to a psychiatrist, instead of looking for solutions. These kids need an adaptive curriculum to thrive with or without a diagnosis and I didn’t see an effort from most teachers he had.
Yeah my wife is 100% one of those people who obsesses over labels. It annoys me, I don't know why people are so insistent on labeling things and giving it an acronym. For helping extreme cases I guess it's helpful but for normal kids, I think it's a horrible practice. God only knows what the long term psychological consequences of constantly telling a kid they "have a disorder" is, when it's not at all the case. They have energy the way people are supposed to!
I think when your daughter gets to the point where she has kids, she might understand the need to not jump the gun and immediately get a "diagnosis" or "disorder" slapped on. It's pretty disgusting how that's happening these days.
Absolutely teaching requires the right people, the ones who can be creative in a fun way to help the kids as best they can. The kids are not cookie cutter and never should be. I'm glad you have had an experience with a good teacher and helping bring out your sons potential, there's nothing wrong with him! He's just got good energy levels, perfectly normal!
Home education indeed is not only the mattert of teaching mathematics and English, but shaping once moral and religious life, and building a solid social life all comes into play. Your work will result in a betterment in your child.
That's for sure! Thanks! We are trying to do the best we can with the situation we have!
Sure
. I think it's important for parents to have the freedom to choose the best educational option for their children, and home education can be a great way to do that.
I agree with you that the public school system is not perfect, and that there are some challenges to home education. However, I also believe that the benefits of home education can outweigh the challenges.
One of the biggest benefits of home education is that it allows parents to instill their own values in their children. This is something that is often lost in the public school system, where teachers may have different values than the parents.
Another benefit of home education is that it allows parents to tailor the education to their child's individual needs. This can be especially helpful for children who learn differently or who have special needs.
Yeah there's definitely a lot of good benefits for home education! I would like to do it more but we do what we can. At the moment, it's too difficult for my wife to do it but we are hoping that once he learns to read it will make things easier and we can have a better feeling about doing it at home.
Instilling your values in your kids is one of the most important things in the world. Whatever those values are, it’s best to come from you not someone else.
It is a great task and implicitly it is a challenge; but in these times of collective indoctrination as you say, it is better to make an effort because we can literally lose our children.
good writing, regards
That's quite right! I do appreciate that there are far more people who are aware of this insidious agenda. The 2020 years were difficult but they exposed a significant amount of stuff many parents were tuned out to which is challenging and great at the same time. We need to be more involved!
Greetings @cmplxty, I believe that children by nature are active, they are not quiet for long, they regularly ask questions when they are interested in a subject and observe many aspects that we adults go unnoticed; pretending that the child is still for many hours is to restrict its essence, curiosity and creativity; I wish that in the new school your son will be very successful in his learning process.
But what beautiful photographs, what a beauty of landscapes. I liked to stop by and read your content.
Greetings and blessings
Thanks