Comments on: Monday Q&A-Aldi Ethics plus Homeschooling

By: Elizabeth M.

Elizabeth M. — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:53:07 +0000

I stumbled on this looking for the opening hours for our local Aldi — ours is right next to a Goodwill too. And we homeschool — three kids, each three years apart. The oldest is 13. I heard about homeschooling while I was still in high school, and thought, “That makes so much sense — why would anyone want to do anything else?” This was while I was in public school, with siblings in private school. I didn’t have a particularly bad school experience, but the amount of wasted time was phenomenal.

I would suggest anyone thinking about homeschooling ask themselves what it really means to be educated — really give it some hard thought. Keeping that in mind as our goal helps us steer a course through the curriculum options. We realized our kids needed to be able to recognize and communicate the truth; that guides everything else we do. And we want them prepared for whatever God has planned for their future, so we try to stretch their abilities and their strengthen their weaknesses. Obviously, you aren’t going to know all this about a kid from the moment of birth, so it’s a developing process. One resource to check out is the Maryland-based The Homeschool Resource Group — http://www.homeschoolresourcegroup.org/ — they have live people who can answer questions.

By: Tania @ Larger Family Life

Tania @ Larger Family Life — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:24:10 +0000

We homeschool in pretty much the same way as you. It’s very interesting to hear about different ways of doing the same thing but most of the points are the same for us too.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:50:53 +0000

I used Sonlight for 10 years and LOVED it! Very flexible, but enough structure to keep you on track. “Literature based” means that they use a lot of historical fiction and biographies to give the kids a feel for the historical era, rather than textbooks. Also, they tie the language arts lessons into the books the kids are reading for history, to reinforce the history. It’s Christian-based, but you don’t have to buy the Bible curriculum if you don’t want to, and they aren’t “preachy”.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:24:42 +0000

The wealth of information out there and the curriculum options are somewhat overwhelming at times. I love reading about other people’s homeschooling experiences.

Julia: I totally agree that the topic of education in general strikes a chord with me too. I want to raise happy and fulfilled children too.

For anyone who is interested, I came across a Christian literature based curriculum that looks like it might be good. I don’t have any personal experience about it, but from their website and catalog, it looks like it might be a good option, if I decide to homeschool my little guy. It is, Sonlight curriculum, http://www.sonlight.com/

By: Jennie

Jennie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:29:18 +0000

I have a question regarding homeschooling. My husband and I both attended public schools, but we are considering homeschooling our kids. Can anyone point me in the right direction (good resources, etc)? I have started checking around, but all of the info is very overwhelming and I don’t know where to start. I have a little time (our kids are 3, 2, & 2), but I would like to be prepared so that we can make the best decision for our kids.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:39:24 +0000

Hey Kristen, sorry to hijack your blog this morning! This stuff just really strikes a chord with me, I want every kid to be happy and fulfilled and challenged and appreciated for who they really are.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:37:07 +0000

@Battra92 "Now I’m just smart but still a trouble maker". That's funny. It's the trouble makers that change the world, you know!

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:34:07 +0000

@WilliamB
Thanks for sharing your experience, William. As for math capabilities, I feel like my son at age 8 has already passed me. (My husband explained binary code to him and they were both talking about it and they lost me at the very beginning.) My brain is just not a math brain, it’s a language brain. (I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude with a BA in German.) I have spent enough time in an academic setting to accept my own weaknesses, and I freely admit those weaknesses! So starting in the fall, he will have a math tutor, perhaps a science class, and whatever sort of “enrichment” classes (money permitting!) that he needs to keep himself busy and challenged. He likes to figure stuff out on his own and not be spoon-fed in a classroom or by me either, for that matter. So we are really more of an “unschooling” family than strict home-school house style homeschooling.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:24:01 +0000

@Stephanie
You’re spot on about the amount of time wasted waiting for the class to settle down, standing in line, herding 25 – 30 kids from point A to point B. As I alluded to in my original post, my son would pick up the negative emotions of every kid in the class in moments like those, every bit of chaos, every rude thing someone said to him, and store that till the end of the day—then he’d let it loose on me, physically and verbally. He was only 5, 6 or 7 years old, he couldn’t process all those feelings and all that negative energy on his own. Now, he will work on a project literally for hours (yesterday he spent 3 hours working on a “store” for gladiators, this involved history and math and drawing and writing) and I don’t interrupt him unless I have to. I want him to have that kind of focus for writing college papers. And there are people who would say that’s wrong of me, when he gets a job he will need to know how to handle interruptions, how to handle the other people he works with or meets during the day, etc. That’s true, of course. But he’s still only a little boy, he’s learning about who he is and what works for him, there is time in the future for learning to deal with the world at large. I completely understand him in that regard, because I’m an introvert too, I get so stressed out by crowds and noise and the stress of dealing with other people. One last note: most private schools do offer financial aid, should you decide one day to try to put your son in a school. We paid only 1/3 of tuition at our son’s school. That was still an enormous amount to us, but we did get value out of it that first year. The hard part is dealing with the wealthy parents and their kids, their values and their lifestyle were quite different from our own and I didn’t like my son being exposed to that consumer-driven lunacy at such a young age. My mother-in-law just bought him a Wii for his birthday, something he’s wanted for years, and something we told him he’d have to wait until we could afford. His first comment was, “now I can tell my friends from school that I have one too!” (Most of his friends had 3 or 4 game systems, we had none.) Oh man. That shocked and upset me, but it was a remnant from his time at a fancy school! (And so far he hasn’t played with it as much as we thought he would, he prefers to make up his own games. I’m glad it was her $250 and not mine!!)

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:04:59 +0000

@Kristen
The flexible schedule is one of my favorite parts about homeschooling, too. Letting my son sleep in and wake up when he’s ready is just priceless. Every morning used to be a huge battle, one or the other of us would end up in tears half the time, and he’d end up brushing his teeth in the car during the mad dash to school, I’d be putting sunscreen on him while we were in the school parking lot, ugh. He also often has trouble going to sleep at night (can’t turn off the brain) and so now I don’t have to worry that I’ll have to wake him up at 7:30 for school even when his body needs more sleep. If he needs to sleep till 9:00 a.m., that’s okay. If the weather is nice (not a given in Seattle!) and we want to go to the park in the middle of the day or for a nature hike, we can do that. My husband gets 4 weeks of vacation a year, so we can schedule those for times when everyone else is in school, then we can travel during the cheaper off season or just do stuff in our own town during the week when there are no crowds. We haven’t been able to afford it yet, but next year we plan to accompany my husband when he has to travel for work, this means we still get to be with him but also can explore another city, without having to worry about missing school. I traveled a lot when I was a kid and that played a huge part in making me who I am today.