FACT: The children Jaycee Dugard bore and mothered by her kidnapper were taught BY HER how to read in their backyard prison. When Jaycee and her children were rescued, the children tested above grade level for children their respective ages. Ha!
I completely agree with you about how horrible public school was. It was brutal—and it was brutalizing. Be bullied or be a bully yourself. Those were the options. Both are bad. I know now that there were potentially other options for getting along with others more harmoniously, but at the time we were savages who were being socialized by other savages.
Bonus points: I used to tell my kids to use the number on the front of the math book to answer "what grade are you in?" But then 12yo decided staying on grade level was too boring. It's him I'm relearning algebra for... so now the book-number thing doesn't work anymore and we're back to just shrugging and looking exasperated about that question.
I gotta answer according to subject with my oldest. Emotionally, he's seven. With language arts, third or fourth grade. Math, fifth grade. Where do ya want him
I started homescholing my daughter before all the woke stuff. There was a Harvard study back in the 80s or 90s saying all children are great at some things. 95% still have their early genius when they started school at 5. 5% still had it when the left school at 18. Sounds like a 90% failure rate to me but likely a 90% success rate for the system.
I'm a skeptic when it comes to the usefulness of IQ measurements.
It tempts us into a back-assward perspective of the problem. It's not that imaginative play (or being outdoors, or whatever) makes kids smarter. It's that imaginative play is their default setting, and anything that interferes with that is amputating their brains.
Ohh I remember hearing about that now! Probably very few of us will remain as genius as a preschooler, but there is a lot of artifical dumbing down taking place for sure.
I virtual school so I'm technically not the old definition of a homeschooling parent but my kids are learning and becoming more responsible and accountable. So I'll take what I can get. 😉
I would have happily done homeschooling just for the sake of avoiding having to wake up to be at school at a god damn time of 7:40 am every morning. I'm a night owl by nature and sometimes it would feel like it would take all day long for me to just really wake up!
No caffeine / 5hr energy / red bull...
Just the grogginess of another psuedo hang over morning 😵💫👎🙀
I feel you, I am so not a morning person! My parents made me do concert choir at PERIOD ZERO and wanted me to try out for the school musical, which practiced even earlier! I put my foot down for that one. I was already barely conscious when I arrived
Public school means sitting silently bored out of your fucking mind for 6 hours a day staring at the walls while the teacher explains prepositions to the other 29 morons in the class.
My brother and his wife home-schooled their two. My wife’s brother and sister-in-law did it with their three kids. All of them now in their early 20’s and the most well-adjusted, smart young people I know. Yeah, a small sample size, but I keep hearing this from anyone who has run the gamut and been willing to give it their full attention.
I skipped one grade in school, even though they suggested skipping two (that was a long time ago). Graduated high school at 16, youngest student at my college. Had I known about getting a GED, I might have tried to graduate in 7th grade... school was - academically - a gigantic waste of time.
I graduated with a 2.25 GPA because I couldn't care less about grades. Had I been homeschooled, I could have kept learning and learning and learning, which is what I really wanted.
I spent high school skipping class, playing pinball, and shoplifting because I was bored. On my first day at college I met a kid who already had a semester's college credits. I asked how, and he said he went to an ACE school... Accelerated Christian Education. I'd never heard of such a thing. When he told me that he was able to learn at his own pace, and keep learning and learning, I almost broke down crying.
It's nearly impossible to home school a foster kid. The kids who are having anxiety attacks and thinking about their abuse all day have no choice but to sit still in class... super unfair.
Looking back, I wish I had been homeschooled. Not sure about the socializing part, but even as a teenager I knew I didn't need twelve years to learn it all. It felt like such a waste of time.
The socialization children need is how to get along with people--not just 30 children of their own age. A homeschooled child can easily be "socialized" by interacting with your local community etc.
To even make this argument now is pathetic. All of us see the dumpster fire public schools have become. Yes, many are good but too many are so dysfunctional and chaotic, I’m amazed kids survive them.
I would be doing it all myself, but...parenting plan limits me. I do the same thing though, my kids all make music, art and write. They take the lead, I facilitate the interest. They've watched me do this stuff their whole lives and we enjoy sharing our creative work with each other.
Washington State has been bad about lady pedo teachers, serial killers, and most recently planes. Most parents of neurodivergent kiddos I know have taken them out of school and they are thriving. My children legitimately do need the socialization. They've been isolated by our abuser, in part due to his hoarding. Middle and High School kids have been very cruel to my son, who finished out last year remotely due to suicidal ideation after being bullied by his father, who chased him around campus the first week of school (drawing the concern of a security guard, who thought he was a pedophile) and then by peers. In middle school, there were students trying to set up the SPED kids to fight, by stirring up shit.
An 1800 student comprehensive school was not the place for him. We are hoping to transition him to in-person this term because he does not know anyone his own age and would like/should get to one day. He will be 16 in March. Our dissolution/custody shit has been going on 6 years.
Congrats to you and your kids. We homeschooled all 11 of our kids starting in the 80s when it was against the law in many states. I could tell endless stories about the harassment we received, but I wouldn't change a thing. Guaranteed you won't regret it and neither will your kids.
The homeschooling 11 kids part and the part about managing it when it was illegal, if that was the case where you lived at the time! Both sound very interesting!
Haha, well I won't admit to breaking any laws. I'm sure I'm on a list somewhere, probably several. We moved to the woods in a state that was more friendly and laid low most of the time. But even then, we were told we were harming our kids, raising "Wolf children", and threatened with calls to law enforcement. People are afraid of what they don't understand. Neither my wife's parents nor mine supported our decision to homeschool. The church didn't support us and said, "You have no excuse for your children turning out poor and uneducated.", as if we needed one. When my oldest was ready to enter college, I wrote his transcript. It said, " My son has no grades, but here are the subjects he is proficient in." That, his SAT and ACT scores, and admissions tests were enough to get him in because colleges had realized by then that homeschool students were outperforming public school students by wide margins. It's bedtime for this old man but I'll share more tomorrow and happily answer any questions you might have. Thanks for your interest.
FACT: The children Jaycee Dugard bore and mothered by her kidnapper were taught BY HER how to read in their backyard prison. When Jaycee and her children were rescued, the children tested above grade level for children their respective ages. Ha!
Oh—and recall Jaycee never went past fifth grade.
That's amazing!!! This is now my favorite fact.
I completely agree with you about how horrible public school was. It was brutal—and it was brutalizing. Be bullied or be a bully yourself. Those were the options. Both are bad. I know now that there were potentially other options for getting along with others more harmoniously, but at the time we were savages who were being socialized by other savages.
yep. Relearning Algebra this year.
Bonus points: I used to tell my kids to use the number on the front of the math book to answer "what grade are you in?" But then 12yo decided staying on grade level was too boring. It's him I'm relearning algebra for... so now the book-number thing doesn't work anymore and we're back to just shrugging and looking exasperated about that question.
I gotta answer according to subject with my oldest. Emotionally, he's seven. With language arts, third or fourth grade. Math, fifth grade. Where do ya want him
For a while we tried "just tell them how old you are instead". But that only confuses people.
Omg 🤣🤣🤣🤣 the socializing the is so hilarious. And yes, birthdays are totally school holidays! 😆
I took off the entire month of May this year. Wasn't feelin' it
I started homescholing my daughter before all the woke stuff. There was a Harvard study back in the 80s or 90s saying all children are great at some things. 95% still have their early genius when they started school at 5. 5% still had it when the left school at 18. Sounds like a 90% failure rate to me but likely a 90% success rate for the system.
Yikes! We did similar, but it was studies about time spent outdoors-- we looked at school+homework and just went... nah, they need more time outdoors.
Everything that's happened since in the schools has only made us feel better about that decision.
And the studies about how much free imaginative play when young has numerous benefits for long term success including having higher IQ later.
I'm a skeptic when it comes to the usefulness of IQ measurements.
It tempts us into a back-assward perspective of the problem. It's not that imaginative play (or being outdoors, or whatever) makes kids smarter. It's that imaginative play is their default setting, and anything that interferes with that is amputating their brains.
Ha! I love how you put that.
Ohh I remember hearing about that now! Probably very few of us will remain as genius as a preschooler, but there is a lot of artifical dumbing down taking place for sure.
I virtual school so I'm technically not the old definition of a homeschooling parent but my kids are learning and becoming more responsible and accountable. So I'll take what I can get. 😉
I enjoyed these very much!
Thanks for checking them out!
I would have happily done homeschooling just for the sake of avoiding having to wake up to be at school at a god damn time of 7:40 am every morning. I'm a night owl by nature and sometimes it would feel like it would take all day long for me to just really wake up!
No caffeine / 5hr energy / red bull...
Just the grogginess of another psuedo hang over morning 😵💫👎🙀
I feel you, I am so not a morning person! My parents made me do concert choir at PERIOD ZERO and wanted me to try out for the school musical, which practiced even earlier! I put my foot down for that one. I was already barely conscious when I arrived
Public school means sitting silently bored out of your fucking mind for 6 hours a day staring at the walls while the teacher explains prepositions to the other 29 morons in the class.
Or conversely it means being bored and terrified when you are one of the 29 morons who doesn't understand anything of what is going on.
My brother and his wife home-schooled their two. My wife’s brother and sister-in-law did it with their three kids. All of them now in their early 20’s and the most well-adjusted, smart young people I know. Yeah, a small sample size, but I keep hearing this from anyone who has run the gamut and been willing to give it their full attention.
I could definitely tell some home school horror stories, but I'm still a fan of -- let's call it -- one-on-one personal tutoring.
I skipped one grade in school, even though they suggested skipping two (that was a long time ago). Graduated high school at 16, youngest student at my college. Had I known about getting a GED, I might have tried to graduate in 7th grade... school was - academically - a gigantic waste of time.
I graduated with a 2.25 GPA because I couldn't care less about grades. Had I been homeschooled, I could have kept learning and learning and learning, which is what I really wanted.
Learning is fun! Wild how they make it a chore.
I spent high school skipping class, playing pinball, and shoplifting because I was bored. On my first day at college I met a kid who already had a semester's college credits. I asked how, and he said he went to an ACE school... Accelerated Christian Education. I'd never heard of such a thing. When he told me that he was able to learn at his own pace, and keep learning and learning, I almost broke down crying.
Aww! :( More kids deserve that chance, for sure.
It's nearly impossible to home school a foster kid. The kids who are having anxiety attacks and thinking about their abuse all day have no choice but to sit still in class... super unfair.
Looking back, I wish I had been homeschooled. Not sure about the socializing part, but even as a teenager I knew I didn't need twelve years to learn it all. It felt like such a waste of time.
The socialization children need is how to get along with people--not just 30 children of their own age. A homeschooled child can easily be "socialized" by interacting with your local community etc.
To even make this argument now is pathetic. All of us see the dumpster fire public schools have become. Yes, many are good but too many are so dysfunctional and chaotic, I’m amazed kids survive them.
I would be doing it all myself, but...parenting plan limits me. I do the same thing though, my kids all make music, art and write. They take the lead, I facilitate the interest. They've watched me do this stuff their whole lives and we enjoy sharing our creative work with each other.
Washington State has been bad about lady pedo teachers, serial killers, and most recently planes. Most parents of neurodivergent kiddos I know have taken them out of school and they are thriving. My children legitimately do need the socialization. They've been isolated by our abuser, in part due to his hoarding. Middle and High School kids have been very cruel to my son, who finished out last year remotely due to suicidal ideation after being bullied by his father, who chased him around campus the first week of school (drawing the concern of a security guard, who thought he was a pedophile) and then by peers. In middle school, there were students trying to set up the SPED kids to fight, by stirring up shit.
An 1800 student comprehensive school was not the place for him. We are hoping to transition him to in-person this term because he does not know anyone his own age and would like/should get to one day. He will be 16 in March. Our dissolution/custody shit has been going on 6 years.
Mannnnn, what a rough time! I'm sorry he's going through all that.
For meeting peers, I take my kids to 4H and church youth activities. I hope you can find something your boy enjoys!
oh man, that was great. Thanks for that!
Congrats to you and your kids. We homeschooled all 11 of our kids starting in the 80s when it was against the law in many states. I could tell endless stories about the harassment we received, but I wouldn't change a thing. Guaranteed you won't regret it and neither will your kids.
Wait what? Can you write more about this?
Maybe, I'm not the best writer. Which part?
The homeschooling 11 kids part and the part about managing it when it was illegal, if that was the case where you lived at the time! Both sound very interesting!
Haha, well I won't admit to breaking any laws. I'm sure I'm on a list somewhere, probably several. We moved to the woods in a state that was more friendly and laid low most of the time. But even then, we were told we were harming our kids, raising "Wolf children", and threatened with calls to law enforcement. People are afraid of what they don't understand. Neither my wife's parents nor mine supported our decision to homeschool. The church didn't support us and said, "You have no excuse for your children turning out poor and uneducated.", as if we needed one. When my oldest was ready to enter college, I wrote his transcript. It said, " My son has no grades, but here are the subjects he is proficient in." That, his SAT and ACT scores, and admissions tests were enough to get him in because colleges had realized by then that homeschool students were outperforming public school students by wide margins. It's bedtime for this old man but I'll share more tomorrow and happily answer any questions you might have. Thanks for your interest.