We've been thinking for a while now about homeschooling our kids. Many, if not most of the the western families a the temple homeschool. Some of the Indian families do to. Corbin got into a REALLY good school as part of the Options Program. It's 30 minutes away and they bus him each way. Totally free normal public school. It's a K - 8 and he's in 6th grade. If he didn't get in there, the neighborhood middle school SUCKS. I hate middle school it is torture. Little kids in a high school setting when they're not old enough for high school. Lockers, 6+ different classes every day. And with class sizes out of control to where there are kids sitting on the floor in some math classes. A kid like Corbin would be LOST in middle school and I just wasn't happy about him going there. So we tried for the options program and got in to this rad school. Its in a rich neighborhood, and for that neighborhood, it's their school. It's very new--just opened in '09. HUGE and beautiful. The 6th grade is broken into 2 'homerooms' and they do most everything together with the other class. 2 teachers; one for math & science, one for humanities & writing. Together, they go on "Expeditions"--Field trips where they do field studies. Like to the forest to make observations and do writings about their findings. All good stuff.
SO: About homeschooling. I was really wanting to do it if Corbin didn't get into that school. But he did and I still kind of wanted to. Only I don't want him to miss out. But he's struggling bad in math and it seems like I'm helping him a lot and I'm no expert either! It would be nice if I were doing it with him all along. And then the struggle has brought to light that I don't really like the whole system they use. Like, he'll be like 6 assignments behind, we'll get him caught up, but then like, he never has to turn anything in so who's to know anyway? If THAT's the way they're gonna do it, we can just do all of that on our own! and we can do field trips, and he can take art classes and sports and clubs too! One of the Indian families who does homeschooling lives across the street from Corbin's school, and the kids go in for specials like PE and clubs they like.
The Connections Academy is a FREE public online school for K - 12. So it's the best of both worlds: Homeschooling and public live school. So we're not just flailing on our own. I have to be the learning coach and log in every day. He has to attend virtual classes on a schedule with other kids. I'm getting info on it. Seems VERY interesting to me.
I've heard some good things and some bad things about home schooling. I guess it's the people doing it and the resources you use. At least you can reverse the trend for the USA to fail hard in math and science! XD
ReplyDeleteI wasn't a math person in school either, but I think that was a combination of giving up if I couldn't be perfect and bad luck with teachers. I had one or two really good ones who helped me heaps, and the rest were utter shit -.- My parents shifted us to a school where I started learning heaps with a really good teacher, then pulled us and sent us back to the school with the shitty teacher. UGH so now I'm barely numerate.
If he's enjoying the school and he's learning lots there, let him stay. I've spend 20 years hating my parents for ruining my education like that.
Omg do you get to go along as parent help on the field trips? Can you take photos of the forests? PLEASE?!? *puppydog eyes*