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The problem is that homeschooling and schooling in a classroom environment are two fundamentally different things. Tasking parents with mimicking a school envir

• OJFord 6y ago
  Interesting (to me anyway) that (it seems?) you decided you wanted to home-school separately and before you decided how? I suppose I just imagine most people have an idealised view of their child's education, and then decide they need to home-school to realise it. But perhaps that just wrong, I've no experience, first-hand or otherwise.
  • jcims 6y ago
    >>However, it was miserable to start primarily because we tried to mimic the exact school environment and schedule at home; a complete disaster They had decided how, it just turned out they found a better way after giving it a try. >I suppose I just imagine most people have an idealised view of their child's education, and then decide they need to home-school to realise it. But perhaps that just wrong, I've no experience, first-hand or otherwise. They do, and they also have idealized views of their children. If you go into home education with a rigid plan of execution, you (and your children) are likely going to have a bad time. Teaching is hard. Striking out on your own vector of pedagogy is a large risk that, if done well, can yield very large rewards...it can also be a disaster.
• txsoftwaredev 6y ago
  Precisely. We have homeschooled our three kids from the beginning and learned a lot. It only takes a few hours to go through the curriculum for three kids of different ages. It might take a bit longer if they are being difficult or going thru a new concept but rarely. After that we have various activities around the house / neighborhood they will participate in on their own. We would also have activities outside the house, piano lessons, P.E. classes with other homeschooled kids etc. They are kept fairly busy but not with the busy work you would typically find in public schools.
  • bcrosby95 6y ago
    How did you manage 3 at once from the beginning? We're debating what to do come August. We have a 5 year old entering Kindergarten. We live in a good school district, but we don't want to be part of an experiment as they figure out how to do online learning. Online learning for 5 year olds sounds disastrous too. So we've thought of trying home schooling. The thing is, that 5 year old comes with twin 2 year olds. And the 5 year old has a huge attitude when dealing with us, but not teachers. She is way more productive when it comes to learning stuff in pre-school than with us because she flat out ignores us at least half the time. Can't imagine how my wife would manage that along with twin toddlers running around destroying everything. Days are already frustrating as hell for her. A majority of the day is spent with at least one of them crying over something. Trying to stack learning on top of it sounds like a recipe for bad times. Edit: especially with social distancing. Any other time we could lean on grandparents or local families in similar situations. Right now we can't. Not everyone can use extended family in normal times, much less the current problems we're facing.
    • aidos 6y ago
      That’s been the hardest part for us the last few weeks. The older 2 you can manage and get them to sit down to learn something, it’s the 1yo running around being distracting that makes it hard. 9, 6 and 1.5 = children with very different needs.
    • prawn 6y ago
      We had kids aged 2/5/7 at home while we were working in recent weeks; schools stayed open here in South Australia but many who could work remotely pulled their kids out as a precaution. The 7yo is fine. 5yo is learning to read and can look after herself with some programs but needed help now and then - she also learns better with teachers. The 2yo disrupts everything unless you put her in front of an iPad for hours on end. The older two went back to school today and the 2yo back in childcare a couple of days a week. Depending on your work situations, I'd suggest leaning on formal schooling and get the 2yos in childcare a day a week to get a break for work or even just catching up around the house. I think it'd be difficult to do the 5yo's homeschooling justice with 2yos helping.
• ryeights 6y ago
  Do you have any concerns about your son’s social development? If so, how do you address these? Personally, I would be worried about accidentally isolating my kids and causing them to miss out on certain soft skills.
  • centimeter 6y ago
    All of my friends who were homeschooled did boy scouts, church programs, etc. and almost all of them have better-than-average social skills. I wasn't homeschooled but, based on the outcomes I've seen, I'll be homeschooling my children at least until high school.
    • asdff 6y ago
      A potential confounding variable is that homeschooling doesn't happen without a good home environment with dedicated and involved parents, and that the student would be just as successful in a traditional schooling environment for those reasons alone.
      • EdwardDiego 6y ago
        It can happen without a good home environment, and then the results are very poor indeed.
  • agensaequivocum 6y ago
    Virtually all homeschooling families are extremely active in at least one social group.
  • gliese1337 6y ago
    Do you have any concerns about the social development of kids who go to traditional schools, where they interact solely with other kids close to their own age or teachers who are much older than them and whose interactions are rigid and artificial? Sorry to sound snarky, but the idea that homeschool kids are somehow socially stunted is a myth that needs to die. If anything, it's the other way around. Homeschool kids are exposed to a much wider variety of social situations which develops a broad base of social skills and preparation for adult responsibility much more effectively than the stifling and artificial environment of public schools does.
• Spooky23 6y ago
  I disagree based on my school at home experience with 2nd and 4th graders. IMO the two big issues are teachers who have difficulty with the online model and more importantly parents or caregivers who cannot control their kids. We’re lucky in that our teachers get it and are doing a college like schedule with weekly assignments and three days with 2 one hour live sessions with two days of office hours and recorded sessions.
• charlieflowers 6y ago
  You have to remember, the main purpose of school is to provide babysitting so all of the adults can work and keep the economy humming. If you take a hard look at the time spent during school, you will see tons of filler. If you were _only_ going for schooling, you wouldn't need homeroom, lunch, PE (get your activity at home), and several subjects. Not to mention, at home you can tailor the lessons to your kids, and you don't keep getting interrupted because some kids out of 30 in your classroom are being disruptive.
  • chasedehan 6y ago
    > you don't keep getting interrupted because some kids out of 30 in your classroom are being disruptive. That depends on if you have multiple children and one starts flipping out. Overall your point is pretty valid though
  • toomanybeersies 6y ago
    > the main purpose of school is to provide babysitting so all of the adults can work and keep the economy humming This point has been especially proven by the fact that a lot of countries right now have reopened schools, but only for children whose parents can't supervise them at home because they have jobs that require them onsite still.
    • stef25 6y ago
      Then there's the rest of us, couples who both have to work 8hrs / day from home as well as look after 2 young children. It's really tough.
    • watwut 6y ago
      That just proves that school also provides babysitting. Which is a good and great thing, there should be more of that. It does not proves that is the purpose of the school is babysitting. Moreover, schools are currently doing online education for kids at home. As flawed as it is and as it requires involvement of parent, it is organized by the school.
  • apatters 6y ago
• newshorts 6y ago
  Just curious, how do you deal with socializing the kids?
• jvvw 6y ago
  It is a weird position at the moment too where you are home schooling but you know your kids will be returning to school and the schools are still setting work, so you are forced a bit into the 'school at home' thing. We're trying to get a balance - doing an hour or so of the set work each day and doing other more stealth educational stuff at other times. Unfortunately a lot of the staples of homeschooling such as museum trips (other than virtually) are obviously out at the moment!