I realized there are a lot of things I would have done differently, other things I would keep and some I wish I had never used... So I was wondering if any of you out there have the same thoughts? Here is my 'homeschool blessings' to pass on; I would not have forced my kids to sit in desks for five years of schooling at home; instead I would have let them all do school in the tree house like ds2 did! I would have taken more feild trips to the beach, the mountains and the lakes around me to do hands on science instead of sitting at the work book and in house projects. I would have gotten messy and made mistakes more! I would have kept "Mrs Slip Skirt" a bit more busy with subbing for me as the kids seem to have really enjoyed it and it made teaching times more fun for me when I had a bad day! ( I may write a book about her!) I would have kept the Hubby reading time with the kids because they all learned to read with him more than me. Thank you CS Lewis for sparking the thrill of a good book! I would have done copywork for hand writing more from the beginning-- one child out of three has bad hand writting. I would have pushed one child more and two children less! I would have kept the later relaxed way of teaching over the early intense teacher mom attitude I had and have less fear that someone would force us to go to public school. I would have built more pride of being a home schooler earlier so my oldest would have enjoyed it more. I also would have kept him home through High School instead of giving in to family and son begging to go out.. although I did pray about it I think one year would have been fine. I would not have stopped my dd from excelling as far as she wanted to. I would have encouraged more personal assessments, to see what they knew. BTW IF ANYONE WANTS AOP used to have and may still have, free assessment placement tests online. I would do more crafts, and encouraging more earn your own money things. I would have joined hsspot much sooner! Okay veterans of home school what would you do? :love::wink:
Good to know. Yes, I have heard recently of the importance of being relaxed (having faith that it will all work out).:angel:
We're about to reach the high school stage... can you tell me why you wish you would have kept your child at home through high school?
I've kept all three of mine home through high school; my youngest is a ninth grader currently. I've not regretted it at all. That's not EXACTLY true. I placed my oldest in a cyber-school at the end of her Junior year so she could take classes at the community college free while still in high school. She got a whole year's worth of her gen ed classes out of the way. It was an excellent experience for her; she will be graduating from Wright State in December in Engineering (honors program), is getting married the same day as the graduation (she's not walking), and then going for her MA (she already is taking graduate classes). My middle one is totally different than her sister. We graduated her in December, and she's currently taking classes at the community college. The idea is for her to transfer after two years; she wants to study marine biology. Her personality is such that I think being in a school (especially a public school) would have made her more introverted. She doesn't make friends readily as it is. My youngest is a social butterfly, mostly with young ladies!!! If we arrive somewhere to pick him up and we can't find him, all we have to do is look for a group of girls, and he's usually right there with him. He's an all-around good kid, and the girls appreciate the fact that he knows how to be a gentleman. A year or two ago, I would have said he'd follow along with everyone else if her were in a school, but I can now see him maturing to where he has his own convictions and would know what to join in and what not to join in. But he's still a bit lazy when it comes to school work, and I think in a school he would just do the bare minimum to get by.
Faith, Yes, my oldest picked up some really not good thoughts about himself from his peers. His first year I prayed and believe it was Gods plan for him to go out but his private school had a total transformation after that year and it just was not as well run. Even though it was a said Christian School there was a teacher who taught a few things that were iffy as truths. This was good for him because he had to figure it out, but the peers were very ... influential in his attitudes. He became a 'big shot' where he thought, still does think he knows everything. If he had stayed home I would have been able to help in his writing more, he would have had more of a joy of learning as the year he went out I found a home school group and in retrospect he also mentioned had he had a group of kids 'like us' he would have enjoyed home school more. He learned to slack basically, my older son. My Middle child learned that there are 'Mean Girls" even in the smallest of private schools. she went out one year only. The only plus was I got to teach Drama 101, and she was certain of her major from that year. It was easier to teach that to a whole class. The last one, I think would have been good either way. This was way more than you asked but I am recovering from oral surgery and a bit ramble mama. I personally missed the years I dropped off and picked up my kids and have no idea how parents do that on a full time all the years basis. My two youngers loved home schooling, one may home school thier kids someday and the other said probably not, the third is waiting for spouse to figure that out hahah. Fun, love and support when you can't get something man reasons.
I'm new to this forum but not new to homeschooling. I'm very blessed because the Lord gave me two older children that I was able to homeschool through High school and now two younger ones that i'm starting all over with. So i'm able to apply many of the things that I would "Do" Or "Not do". 1. I don't worry about the house cleaning.. (As much) 2. I enjoy the messy projects and do more crafts 3. We read books...all the time , any time. 4. I'm more discerning about the "friends" I allow my children and i've learned to go with my gut. 5. I experiment with all types of curriculum and make sure to find what resonates with my children and their learning styles. 6. I enjoy them... A LOT!! 7 I don't worry about academics as much as Character. 8. I REALLY Enjoy them!! 9. Lighten UP!! I just wanted to also say that no matter how many mistakes we make, our children are still better being homeschooled. Both my older went on to college...they are both planning on homeschooling their children. In fact. I'm also a grandma. People say to me, "Oh you know what to do, you won't make any mistakes". I laugh and say, "No, I'll make a whole new set of mistakes, but in the end, I know whom I serve and HE is full of MERCY AND GRACE". Some of the best lessons we teach our children are when we realize , just where we went wrong.
Jackie and TeacherMom, I appreciate it. I don't know if you remember my last posts... our school aged children wanted to try out public school. I let them and didn't like the results (changes in the older two kid's personalities that were startling). Our youngest school aged was willing to come home, so we pulled him before the next school year started. Our oldest two started the second year and we pulled dd because her behavior was just too poor (think TONS of teenaged attitude from an 11 year old). Oldest ds was doing okay (but he had changed a lot). We decided to let him keep going, but then his grades began to slip (the previous year, he had lettered for such good grades and had always done well in homeschool). One teacher commented that he was not the same kid she fell in love with the previous year. I realized it was because she had met the homeschooled boy... this year he was the public schooled boy. We pulled him. The youngest two school-aged kids have readjusted. Oldest DS still wants to go to public school and I kinda feel bad. Our oldest two are very social, although one has several friends that live on our street, so she is just fine. Oldest ds is having trouble keeping in contact with school friends and he isn't really interested in making friends with the homeschooled kids in our group... I think it's just to prove a point. We are struggling with what to do for high school with him. I think if he goes back, he will misbehave again (class clown type) and his grades will slip. This will affect where he gets into college, for sure. Here, he will get the good grades because he can focus. However, he is pretty upset with us for having to go back to homeschool. Any suggestions? It sounds like you have experienced this.
Thank you so much for sharing!!! I am so glad you are so open and honest. We all can learn from this post!
