RE: October/November/December Homeschooling Miscellany
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Seems like a decent enough few months. Tell me Ry, is it detrimental to go into and out of the school system? Can that have a negative effect? And what does the school system think of it?
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As far as life goes it was pretty good but our life is generally pretty good :) As far as homeschooling goes, it wasn't brilliant but also not a complete loss.
Umm gooooooooood question, I'm not actually sure as this is my first experience with it. I would hesitantly say yes in my case because it's brought up a lot of behavioural issues, but now that we've had this thrown in I have no idea how much of it was related to going to school and how much of it she might have done on her own anyway because teenager, and I won't know unless she decides she absolutely has to go back (which I'm still hoping she doesn't because it's entirely too much work that I have less than zero interest in). If you're talking education-wise well even though she was definitely doing a lot more she doesn't seem to have learned much more than she would have at home because stuff you're not interested in/find irrelevant doesn't seem to stick no matter how much people scream at you that it's absolutely imperative that you learn it.
I asked a friend who has had kids in and out of school, and they said it was beneficial in their case due to severe bullying and after a period of homeschooling and some added maturity theirs was fine when they eventually went back.
I've also been told the school system hates it because they don't support homeschooling, though the one we were using didn't kick up a fuss when I told them what was going on when I pulled my child out (which was probably safer for everyone at the time as I was well and truly over everything by then).
Hmm, interesting. You know we don't have kids, but my brother in Cairns intends to homeschool his lad (currently 16 months) and so it's on my radar now.
I can't really have an opinion however...I don't think going in and out of the school system would be what I'd want for mine if I had kids. I think it may complicate matters. For social interaction external sporting clubs and groups (scouts or air training corps for instance) would provide it I think, so why go to school. My dad was a school teacher, back in the day when they actually cared, these days...Well, seems like they aren't really equipped to be guiding kids in those formative years. I think this for many reasons, not least of which, is the way a 20-something person generally behaves in society, online etc. Just my opinion and one that generalised.
Anyway, interesting topic.
I've read all of one blog I think where the writer described their kids as "drifting in and out of school" or something to that effect and probably didn't find it detrimental or I doubt they would have done it. Otherwise most of the people I know of were intending one way or the other (to either homeschool or send to school) and life happened that demanded a change (breakups, more income required, bullying incidents that are unresolvable etc).
There are some kids who will thrive in a more academic environments or just love school for whatever reason but that's absolutely not all kids or even most kids.
Do you have any decent links about it, the process etc. that you could share?
On what, deschooling or homeschooling? The first one I literally had no idea what I was doing and didn't really do anything out of the ordinary for me (which is apparently the right thing to do for a change XD).
Homeschooling well "it depends" XD There's about a hundred million different styles ranging from "school at home" all the way through to "unschooling/natural learning". I can tell you a lot about the last one which is most of what I do, and not much about anything else. Most of the people I know end up with pretty eclectic processes combining a lot of elements they particularly love from different philosophies.
The philosophies/processes/styles that I can remember off the top of my head are school at home (which is exactly as it sounds, sometimes distance education/school of the air is lumped in here too), Walforf, Charlotte Mason, Reggio Emilia, unschooling/natural learning, and I can't remember if Montessori counts or not as it's very structured but in a completely different way to current school systems, but I have known people who have used aspects of it.
My moderator has me down as "eclectic/natural learning" as most of what we do is natural learning with bouts of me just foisting things on them. My process involves trying to find/figure out what they're interested in (deeper interest than one question/conversation) and trying to wrap activities around that.
For example the recent AQWA excursion came about because youngest loves the ocean and is thinking about being a marine biologist. Additionally the Duyfken replica was berthed there so we bundled in that tour (actually the Duyfken tour included entry to AQWA but technicalities), so we covered biology and a few aspects of hass in one go.
In this post we covered horticulture (youngest's gardening adventures), art (the cardboard helmet, painting and sand sculptures), physical education (swimming, and during term the endless gymnastics and dance, this year we're adding judo and archery, least they're in the same place as gymnastics, send help x_x), civics and citizenship (turning up to support the friend's Christmas Eve event and contributing to the donations they collect for the children's hospital, during term we practically live at the gym), outdoor ed (is that still a thing in schools? Anyway the boating) and that's just from stuff I remember to write about.
Then of course you have to work out how much social they like. For a kid that's happy spending time alone or chatting with friends online, the occasional face to face get together with said friends or weekly club/sport/whatever they're into might be plenty. For a kid that desperately needs to be surrounded by all their friends all day every day in might be a bit tougher (if you're in a metro area and on Facebook homeschooling groups shouldn't be too hard to track down, it's just logistics that can become nightmare).
If you're wondering about a process for your brother and his tot, if they're currently out and about a lot, reading at least daily bedtime stories, safely involving him in chores (yes I know it makes it take longer especially when you desperately want to just get it done, but it will help down the line, I got viciously sabotaged in this process and might be paying for it now or maybe they would be reluctant to do their chores anyway, I'm not sure), counting things, engaging in conversation (even if it's just running commentary on what everyone is doing) and meeting up semi-regularly with family and friends especially where there's other kids running around and playing then they're pretty much doing it perfectly already.
As he gets older they might continue just teaching things as they come or if they want more structure there's plenty of workbooks (my kids "like" the Excel series, which is to say that they hated it the least as despite 13yo's insistence on loving school, all my kids including her hate bookwork XD) that can be bought from any given newsagent or bookstore, or they could find a homeschooling philosophy they like and build around that, or if they are really full on they could get prepackaged curricula (those exist too but I have never wanted to try any so can't make recommendations).
The most important thing is to keep an open mind and be fluid, the thing that works now will probably need to change later :)
Hey Ry, thanks for writing this out. I have cut and pasted it into an email and sent it to my brother. I think it will help bring their thoughts together and give them a few ideas on where to seek further information. Much appreciated.
No worries :) You're welcome to keep asking questions for yourself or by proxy even after they find local groups to gel with ;D
I can't remember if this particular brother was also on here, if they're interested there's been a couple more people writing under the #homeschooling tags (and #unschooling if they're interested in that style) which may be helpful for them. Some of them are actually informative, mine are more "this is the kind of thing you can do" as there's more than enough purely informative stuff out there now :)
Thanks Ry. That brother is on here but maintains a very anonymous profile. It's kind of funny really as sometimes people engage with him and don't know he's my brother...I've seen some interesting dialogues. Maybe all will be revealed at some stag, but not just yet, or maybe not at all.
Ahh well he can ask me homeschooling questions either on a post or on Discord without telling me who he is if he wants, I'll still answer them XD
Ditto he can join the homeschool chat (I can't remember if it's in my sig, might have to correct that oversight if I haven't), everyone else is nice ;D
I'll pass it on. He still has time though as the lad is only 16 months...He's trying to get his head around it though. I'll let him know. :)