Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Home Schooling, My Story.

 This in in memory of my 1st wife who passed away when my youngest was in 11th grade. She was not a teacher by trade but her legacy lives on it her children.
I was reading Heroditus Huxley  where she was explaining why she is homeschooling her kids, it prompted me to write this blog and maybe encourage some who are doing it or considering it.  

All 4 of my kids (now grown) were home-schooled and graduated as such. My daughter is now married and has a small home business, My eldest son is a doctor, My next son has his degree and is now starting law school and my youngest went to trade school and has a good paying job as a diesel mechanic for a dredge company and gets to travel.
It is not as hard as you might think and we found there is tons of information out there to help and contrary to popular belief most states do not set any real standards. You can get curriculum form MANY places and there is always online lessons as well.
After registering as home-schoolers we never had any problems or questions from the county school board. We were required to send in a end of school year "report" so to speak, for us it was a SAT test the kids signed up to do (the test are mainly reading and basic reasoning, very easy). There are many tests out there they will accept, and due to the high number of home-schoolers  there are many avenues for testing.  In my opinion school boards love Home-Schoolers because they still get to collect the taxes and it lowers their class size. College is not a problem either, when my eldest son signed up for college he took the standard SAT's and all I had to do was sign a form saying he graduated from home school....no report card, transcripts or anything. I think they realized that by law they HAD to accept any grade I gave him and I could lie about it so they figure what's the use just sign a paper saying he Graduated....I know hard to believe but that is ALL I did.

Most kids in school only have about 2 hours of teaching a day by the time you factor in all the other "junk" they do. break time, lunch, changing class, roll call, settling everyone down etc and then they get almost no one on one teaching so you can home-school in a lot less time and you know what they will be taught. The neat thing is you can take vacations during the school year, the weather is better, no crowds etc and chalk it up as a field trip. You can visit interesting places and they can do a report about the history there and they will never forget it. A kid in school will never get that experience.
My kids loved home school, they would get up early and self start and be finished before lunch. All my kids played sports at the local High School, By law they had to be accepted but they were quickly liked by the coaches because they were generally more disciplined.  

We have stayed a week in Key West in the winter and the the kids would write  essays about the history and geography, something they never learn as well in a book. As I said earlier the state sets no curriculum you have a lot of freedom. Even High School is not hard, for example, you  have to have 2 years foreign language my daughter studied sign language, she had a book to study from and she would sit in the deaf section at church and in  few weeks she actually got good at it.
If you get in a group you will find TONS of support and help. You will find other parents who will co-op their skills to teach groups of kids once a week. The big thing for me is they wont be indoctrinated by the liberal teachings like "hug a tree day" or learn  America is the scourge of the planet.
One of the neatest stories was when my son was in college a professor asked him after class where he went to school because he was so disciplined and knew how to think for himself when he said he was home-schooled the professor told him any home schooled kid would always be welcome in his class.
Nobody cares about your kids like you do so why leave it to a government  employee to teach them their values.

On a final note, you never know the friends your kids will make in a home-school group. My 3 sons played flag football with a little home-school kid, they got to be friends, he would sometimes come with his mother to our home and play and they would go to his home as well, His name?............. Tim Tebow.

27 comments:

  1. Amazing who the kids meet up with isn't it?

    Homeschooled all 4 of my kids too, we began in Germany and finished in New Mexico, with a world in between!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Humble Wife, good for you. Thanks for the input.

      Delete
  2. Great post. Congrats on the family and their accomplishments. You did good, my friend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John, thanks. I owe most of it to my wife, I could not have done as good.

      Delete
  3. Thanks for sharing your story. The Queen and I are strongly considering home schooling when we have school age kids. Public school is a last resort.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shepherd K, Hope I give you something to ponder. Thanks.

      Delete
  4. Dear Duke - Humble Wife is the first blog that i read that convinced me that home schooling was the way to go. and i am glad that you reinforced everything that she has said/done. her kids are amazing, and yours sound just as amazing. thanks for sharing all of this information.

    your friend,
    kymber

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kymber, thank you good friend. You are such an encouragment.

      Delete
  5. Well-written, Duke. We home-schooled our daughters. The oldest (22) is a pharmacy technician, and the youngest (16) graduates high school this month & is working 3 days a week as an assistant bakery chef - her chosen field. They know history & the truth about our Founders, the Declaration & Constitution, and both are shooters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rev. Paul thanks, you are proof it works as well. The truth is they will be better suited to move on in the world because they will be more secure in themselves.

      Delete
  6. mmasse, It can be done you have to be creative. I will say the younger you start them the better it is.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Can it be done when both parents have to work? Did you do any of the teaching, or was it your late wife?

    Cripes, I'm afraid I'll scar Progeny for life, since I have all the teaching ability and patience of a Drill Sergeant with Roid Rage. DW might do a better job, but she still has to work.

    If there a way I could get to keep the "tuition" I have to pay to the School District, to boot...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TinCan Assassin, It can be done and it has been done...maybe a little harder but you have to be creative. Some do evening studies, as they get older they can work more on their own at a grandparents home for example. It does not take the same amount of time they spend in school.
      My wife did almost all the teaching. I would do a small amount at times. During the High School years I taught the boys a shop class, we rebuilt an old Jeep.

      Delete
  8. awesome story...I would like to home school our grandson but I don't know if I would have the discipline to follow through. The folks at the end of the road home school their 7 kids. Mom is an RN, dad was laid off 2 years ago so he does the schooling. Those kids are as nice and polite as can be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mamma Bear, Thank you. The thing to realize is there is lots of co-op groups who will help you out. Once you get involved you will be blown away how big a movement it is.

      Delete
  9. Enjoyed your story! My daughter is homeschooling her two sons-ages 13 and 11-and is in her third year of doing it. They all love it. What she is unsure of, they can go to the computer and the answers are there for them. The are learning stuff this grandma has never heard of! They are in a whole neighborhood of homeschooled kids, so have lots of friends there and in Boys Scouts and church. Not the isolation some people think it is.
    Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cotton Lady, One of the biggest lies about home school is lack of social interaction, It simply does not need to be that way. My kids interacted with more kids and adults through travel, church, sports, co-op groups, neighbors etc.
      Thanks for the input.

      Delete
  10. I love these kinds of great home schooling stories!! You and your DW did good:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mystic Mud, thank you, I think you have a great family as well.

      Delete
  11. Great story. I home schooled our oldest all the way to college and our other 4 for a while. Long story why we ended up putting them in school, but really neat to read your experience.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. agirlandhergun, thank you so much for stopping by, glad to hear about success among home schoolers.
      Duke.

      Delete
  12. Well said, friend. Sounds like you have a lot to be proud of.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Nice story, Duke. It sure is encouragement for those of us who are still plugging along. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hobo, I enjoy posting the most when I give people encouragement and maybe a little help as well. Thanks.

      Delete
  14. I really enjoyed this story. Thank you for posting it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahermitt, thank you for taking the time to read it, I am glad you enjoyed it.

      Delete