I side with the skeptics about homeschooling. I too have a post graduate degree and work in higher education. I can only see homeschooling when the schools in the district are physically unsafe and/or lose their accreditation. (and this is sometime the case in the US), and/or because of highly particular individual circumstance. Otherwise, I too say beware! It just is not plausible that a kid could engage with and absorb a deep, rich curriculum by sitting in front of a computer screen by herself.
I know this is a bit off the original topic but I have to address this. The original post wasn't asking for whether homeschooling was a good idea. She just wanted help in juggling full-time work with homeschooling and gym.
It is posts like these that get to us, as homeschooling parents. And people wonder why we get so defensive. This comes up every time homeschooling comes up and inevitably, someone posts about how it is impossible for a parent to do just as good a job as a trained teacher or how the kids can't be properly socialized (whatever that means).
Seriously folks, if you have never homeschooled or have not known many homeschooled families, then you really don't have the knowledge to be able to discuss this topic intelligently. And unless you have used these online programs, you can't say just how engaged the students are. The programs are not all alike. Many have developed ways to increase interaction and extend learning opportunities. And really - if you observe a typical middle/high school classroom, you would be hard pressed to find much engagement either. I am not saying that online schooling is right for everyone. It is not. But to imply that it can't be as good as a *typical* classroom in this country, without ever having experienced it personally, is just wrong.
I am a pretty highly educated person and I know there is simply no way I could replicate at home the kind of learning my kid is doing at school. And she is not yet in high school.
Thankfully, we are not trying to replicate what the kids would be getting at school. Why would we want to replicate all the wasted time, discipline issues, needless homework and endless testing? The reason we have them home is because we do not believe in the way that that they are being taught in school. I really wish there was research detailing just how much time is spent with teachers actively engaged with students vs the time spent managing the classroom, students moving between classes, doing busy work, etc. It would be a real eye opener to parents, which is, of course, why the research will never be done.
I have said it before - Teaching is not rocket science. And before teachers get all upset with me - I am NOT knocking you or your training. I was a certified teacher many moons ago in special education and in elementary ed. Yes, teachers are well trained, but the training is mainly for how to teach groups of children with wide variety of abilities and learning styles. There is nothing inherently difficult about teaching one child, particularly you own. You know how they learn best, their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, etc.
Yes, teaching high school math and science is more difficult than lower levels and many homeschool parents do not feel properly prepared to do this but there are so many options - community college courses, online courses, homeschool co-ops, independent study, a tutor. My dd is in 8th grade and taking Algebra 2/Geometry. She is learning this almost entirely independently, with an A+ average on her tests. And she is not a math kid by any stretch. From early on, we taught our kids to learn independently. It is one of the major issues with traditional schools - Students do not learn how to learn independently. They are "taught to" for most of their schooling career, including college. It is just the nature of the beast when you have 25+ kids in the classrooms.
Of course, there are always exceptions to a rule.
Hundreds of colleges across the country would respectfully disagree with you that a successful homeschooler is an exception to the rule. Many colleges now have separate admission counselors specifically for homeschooled students and actively seek out this population because of their track record of being independent, reliable, socialized (yes, socialized, not only with their same aged peers like in school, but with people from all walks of life and all generations), and better prepared academically.
. Just that we do it. My kids are older. 1 in 6th and 2 in 8th. They are very independent. We follow an approach that has taught independence from the beginning. I do not work a traditional job - I make my own hours and I do all my paperwork on the weekends. DH also has very flexible hours. All 3 of our kids is heavily involved in a year round sport so it gets complicated in the evenings and weekends for their competitions. But we manage.
