If you home school your children, how do you pay the bills? Does one parent have a job while the other home schools? I’ve always wondered parents have been able to finance home schooling their children.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_method
This wikipedia article describes the method and includes a list of books at the bottom of the page.
http://www.michaelolaf.net/MONTESSORI%20and%20WALDORF.html
Since someone mentioned Waldorf, I found this article which outlines the differences between the methods.
Ask her on my behalf for a list of homeschooled social retards.
So sorry that I’m just now replying! In most homeschool families, the father is the only person earning a formal salary. However, the curriculum books can be had for cheap or free, and with so many extra hours in the day (compared to regular school) there is plenty of time for the mother and/or children to earn money and contribute. You’ll find in the homeschool community a bevy of free and discounted resources passed down and around homeschooling families. The best place to get into this is through churches and other groups that have a heart for and focus on homeschoolers. When you think about the money saved (gas for the school commute, money spent otherwise on daycare, etc.) homeschooling is economically feasible, though one does need to live within their means and give up some of the finer things that two salaries might otherwise make possible. But the advantages of homeschooling are eternal and unmeasurable, far and away more important than a higher household income.
what about unschooling? I am pretty new to the idea, but it sounds interesting, anyone have any experience with it?
Quick question- does anyone know of any theorist who defends the current style and content of the public schools and universities?
Just for a an update I’ve read some Steiner- interesting in places profound in others but underlaid by some really odd Eastern metaphysics.
I’ve also added When You Rise Up by Sproul, How Children Learn by unschooler John Holt, Deschooling by Ivan Illich and For the Children’s Sake by Susan Macaulay based on the ideas of Charlotte Mason and finally the Original Homeschool Series by Mason but it’s 800+ pages so that won’t happen for a while.
This was the whole point of the feminist movement. Two taxable incomes. 2 slaves for the state, oh and their kids.
Btw, OP epic pic.
Public school turns people into social retards. Anyone who’s ever gone to one should know this.
Aaron0883 - Homeschooling and socialization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEdN6z9jihU
Stefan Molyneux
http://www.freedomainradio.com/Traffic_Jams/FDR_1570_philosophical_parenting_part_1.mp3
http://www.freedomainradio.com/Traffic_Jams/FDR_1571_philosophical_parenting_part_2.mp3
http://www.freedomainradio.com/Traffic_Jams/FDR_1573_philosophical_parenting_part_3.mp3
http://www.freedomainradio.com/Traffic_Jams/FDR_1574_philosophical_parenting_part_4.mp3
http://www.freedomainradio.com/Traffic_Jams/FDR_1576_parenting_part_5.mp3
John Taylor Gatto
Compiled Thoughts on Schooling I - http://www.altruists.org/f484
Compiled Thoughts on Schooling II - http://www.altruists.org/f485
The Guerrilla Curriculum - http://www.altruists.org/f615
(more here )
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education
http://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Liberation-Handbook-School-Education/dp/0962959170
Dayna Martin: What is Unschooling?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4GyDc8SInw&fmt=18
School Sucks Podcast
http://schoolsucks.podomatic.com/
Thanks for the links Nielsio that’ll give me even more to go from. I’m especially interested in what Molyneux has to say.
You can use me as a counterexample of someone who went through the public school process and has been damaged from all that wonderful “socialization” that people fawn over. I suffer from social anxiety disorder and major depression, which is not a very healthy thing to have. You see, dealing with people at all is a very difficult process for me; even something so simple as going to a restaurant has caused me to have a panic attack. I was a social outcast in public schools who has, for years of his life, had no friends at all. In fact, for some time, I not only had no friends but was actively harassed because A) I had a different accent B) I had different religious beliefs C) I wasn’t into sports at all D) I love computers. Going to the overlords didn’t help at all; I was told that they had good test scores, so obviously no one was threatening me bodily harm for so much as talking to anyone else. Obviously. In fact, I was the problem for taking up too much of his time.
Let’s also talk about moving to a new public school in a different state. Oh, you took that history class in 8th grade? Well, we can’t accept that, even though you took the second part to it in 9th grade. So you’ll have to take it all over again. Oh, looks like that means you can’t have any language classes this year. Too bad. Hmm, looks like you didn’t have the same science in 9th grade that we had, so we’ll have to make you take that. We’ll also make you take all of our retarded standardized tests. What, you passed the test for both histories with a perfect score on them? Too bad, take the class anyways. We will also make you take PE again, because we suck at reading transcripts and can’t realize you’ve already taken the required number already. At least you’ll get driver’s ed. What, you already have your learner’s and have been driving a lot? Too bad. You see, by crossing the invisible line into the state you magically become too immature to drive. All that driving experience is imaginary. We won’t even get into the school’s failure with security cameras and vandalism on my truck…
Except for social retards.
Yeah i definetly recommend you look into Unschooling which is essentially learning by living and nuturing the natural curiosity that children possess, which gets snuffed out by any type of schooling even homeschooling. The issue with socialising is a big issue and is one that im still thinking through, but one thing that unschooler Dayna Martin says (check her youtube channel) is that the internet is such an important source of information. I agree with this completely and I am taking this and using it with socialising: the internet is an important source of socialising. Social networking sites have just improved peoples social lives. I wish facebook came along alot sooner because my socail would be so much better than it is now (not that its not good now, its just that it would be better). I see my parents generation and they have lost complete contact with people in their secondary school never mind primary school. People younger than me have more on their friends list because they are capturing the friends that they would otherwise lose if they didnt have a facebook that have happened to the older generation.
Its all an issue of communiction; the basic is just speaking and interacting with people now this could be done by just going into town and saying thanks to the bus driver, speaking to the shop assistant. The next is actually chatting to people this can be done from the stranger in the street to your best friend. The next is chatting via phone (so non-physical interaction). After that it is correspndance which used to be paper and pen, now its emails, a more personal form is texting and now is social networks like facebook. Its all a matter of mindset. I got my job because someone i knew who i hadnt spoken to in over a year post a facebook status asking anyone if they were interested. It was actually the dream job that ive wanted for so long. Even though me and him didnt know each other that well, we are now speaking to each other like good mates. It is how it happens.
For me school does things in halves; it is only have good at teaching children and half good at devolping social skills. Children are contantly told to stop talking, alot of children dont do homework because they do actually have a (social) LIFE!! Also school puts them in a very artifical environment of being around alot of people the same age, when in real life does that happen?? In a tribal society people from all ages learn from each other and it is alot more beneficial.
Now there is a danger that they could turn into vegetables sitting in front of a computer screen looking at a load of thumbnails, thinking that that is their social life. NO. Like writing letters, sending emails, texting, chatting on the phone, using facebook, these all ENRICH your social lives, they are not your actual social lives. Your social lives is the actual direct interaction with other people. The issue with virtual communities becomes interesting one at this point but i wont go into it. Ok, so how can they interact with people and meet people if they are not in school, and people that they could meet are in school?? Well that is the only thing that school could be said is good for (but only if you look past the other crap they have to put up with like learning to be submissive to authority and learning about things they dont need to know), however as i said before im still thinking it through. Anything active like sports is a good way of meeting people but you dont even need to go to sports clubs; i used to skateboard and after a while at the skatepark you see the same faces and after a while you just get chatting to them and you become friends and hang out and you might go off elsewhere and do things and its all part of making friends. Actually one thing i have noticed schools do is that once pupils make friends they have a tendancy to stick together and have their own little in-groups and it makes it ery difficult to become a part of those groups if you are “approaching from the outside”. They become centred around their group throughout their school life and if they lose that group for watever reason like going to different Unis then they relise that they wernt the best friends after all and have to make other close friends. In that time they could have been under-achieving at school because of there peer influences. The unschooling mindset is great for families that move about the country or indeed the world. Putting children into schools after the children have made there friends and developed there little in groups is very hard on children, because they become socially isolated, MORE isolated than if they were to stay at home. So give them a mobile, let them have internet access and let them go out. Social capital is just as impotant as their intellectual capital. Just remeber it is how you bring them up aswell that will determine how sociable they are. (I would just like to apologies for my bad grammar and spelling but im in a rush)
Enrichment is opinion. Unschooling seems to ultimately still accept that there is One True Way as written in the Holy Scriptures and all else must be banished from the Earth.
Im not sure I understand you. Are you referring to the fact that unschooling rejects all other types of education in favour of it own education philosophy???
Im not sure I understand you. Are you referring to the fact that unschooling rejects all other types of education in favour of it own education philosophy???
Has anyone read any books on Unschooling? I’ve just checked for it on Amazon and there’s loads of them. Recommendations please!!!
I went to public school and still ended up a social retard !
just get your kids into sports n stuff, tbh i’m having the same debate with my girlfriend, just put your foot down lol.
I’ve read a few. “Dumbing Us Down” by JT Gatto is a devastating critique of government schooling. “Teach Your Own” by John Holt and “How Children Learn At Home” by Alan Thomas are both good, practical books. I’ve got “Weapons of Mass Instruction” by JT Gatto as well, but I haven’t read it yet.
Thanks Nielsio for providing that list of resources. The videos by Dayna Martin are very good.
No. It kowtows to the prevailing doctrine that everyone should know x and do y.
The key thing with homeschooling is to find other homeschoolers so you and your kids aren’t isolated. There are local groups for homeschoolers. Find them. Try to recruit others with small kids to join too.
A key advantage of homeschooling is the opportunity for children to be part of the community. They can interact with people of different ages - adults and children.
Older children are perfectly capable of taking care of younger children, and can assist the adults. (Apparently this how one room schoolhouses were run - delegation of authority.)
Kids can be taken to see the real world in action.
Also having connections with other families can help with the time burdens. Also resources like text books can be shared, advice can be sought, etc.
Sudbury Valley schools are good. Definitely read how they do things - children follow their own pace. Even if they don’t choose to learn to read for a while that’s fine. When they they’ll be so in to it they’ll do well. (This is especially true of math - it isn’t hard but kids don’t like it so it take forever to learn.)
There are many great education articles on that site.
I also wonder about any program whereby the parent is too involved in the schooling. Part of it should be self discovery, the child working on things, etc.
If you want a curriculum for kids where they can teach themselves - see this
It is very science focused.
School is not necessarily bad if we believe in the division of labor.
Definitely google John Taylor Gatto if you start to doubt that schools are dangerous places to send kids.
With proper management both parents can be freed up to earn money. The older the kids get too the more independent they’ll be. The first 5 years most kids aren’t in school. The second 5 years kids go to school. But by the time they’re 10 kids are pretty much able to manage on their own for extended periods. They may look too small, but they’re actually quite capable. I remember at that age we were able to have discussions about the advantages of public and private school.
So basically you’re not necessarily adding that much to your workload by homeschooling. It all depends on how you do it. Private tutoring is great - but often the best way for kids to learn will be through reading and working things out on their own. Listening to a teacher lecture may or may not be effective. If they have questions your can help or help them figure out how to find answers. As you get older no one is there is answer your questions anyway - you have to do research and figure it out using your head.