Worst Arguments against Homeschooling article...

I woke up this morning and saw this on my facebook....  

So ...... I wasn't going to read - it was 6am - I was worried about finding the kittens my cat had during the night, but ..... thought...... nope, I'm curious.....  

I love  this article. (<--- link)

I homeschool AND I send my kids to public school.  We are a split family.  I also homeschool the two that are IN public school.  I homeschool Nathan when he's missing a lot of school and I homeschool Kaedyn because he hates being left out when we do homeschooling stuff.  So a lot of the experiments, art, and of course the field trips include ALL the kids.

I have been through the whole bullying thing even through a school shooting IN MY CHILD'S SCHOOL ...  I have been through good teachers and bad teachers.  There are teachers who are absolutely amazing, and some that just down right sucked.

One of the things this guy said in his email was that "it's parent's fault that the teachers fail" ..... um, scuze me?  How about it's the ... governments fault?  Whom ever it is that sets the guild-lines for what every child has to learn in a year.  Because four hours of "homework" is NOT ACCEPTABLE.  Kids learn at different rates, and to expect every child to be a robot and learn at the exact same rate is ridiculous.  Then there are parents like me.  I have four kids.  Four kids in public school added 2 to 4 hours of homework for each one - yeah... that's setting a parent up for failure.  Sitting down at a table and helping each child at the same time for that time period, who has time to cook, clean, bath their children -let alone give them time to play and be a kid.  It's an evening of frustration, arguments, threats, bribes, and that's after the calm talking, trying to explain, etc and so forth resulting in a note on the homework, "I sat here for hours trying to get this done with him/her and I don't even understand it."  Yep, that's a failure on the parents.  All the parents fault.   Another point is - yes, like I already said - I am the parent of four.  Two of which have medical issues which involves going to countless doctors appointments.  I have to have a certain calender just to keep all the appointments straight.  My weeks are pretty much non-stop.  Sometimes - things don't get done because I don't have time.  Sometimes I have to do things on MY schedule - what works best for our family.  I  may not get home one night until 7pm because we had appointments two hours away -and yet, I'm suppose to keep my child up and do two to four hours of homework?  When my child is crabby and unwilling to work because they are tired?  

So yes, lets blame the parents.  The world is a colony of Stepford Wives, we all do what we are told when we are told.  At least, we should.  (for those who don't understand sarcasm, that was sarcastic.)

I don't have an issue with public schools - per say.  Like I said, I have two kids who are in the "system" ..  I like Nathan's school.  I love Kaedyn's teachers.

But I would pull them out to homeschool in a second if things change.

I am satisfied with their education right now.

I was - however - NOT satisfied with Cal or Noah's education both in Wisconsin and here in Washington.

Calahan - went through YEARS of bullying and it was a vicious circle that continued over and over despite my "working with the school" ..  the bullying happened all through grade school.  It would happen, they would be told, something would happen, it would start right back up.... Cal would stop telling me because nothing was happening... when I threatened to call the cops one day because Cal was followed home by another kid who kept telling him he had a screwdriver in his backpack he was going to stab him with and kill him, they begged me not to.  Dad went and spoke to the parents.  That didn't help.  It all kept continuing.  He gets in middle school and they put him in a different "group" of kids so he's not around those kids that bullied him, but what happens?  Those kids talked to other kids and it ends up being the kids in his group start bullying him.  My absolute last straw was when a kid pushed him up against a wall, put his hand around his throat, and yanked off the necklace he was wearing.  ... I called the school and told them that he would not be returning the following week.  I had been calling the counselor for a month prior - several times, no call back, but after that call - you better believe that counselor called me back immediately and tried to talk me into keeping him in school, then started trying to make me feel like a failure for deciding to pull him out.  There was also the phone call I got from one of his teachers when Calahan got up and walked out of class one day because some kids were teasing him and he wanted to punch them, so instead of punching them, he removed himself from the situation like I told him to.  I was proud of him.  They punished him.

Noah I pulled out to homeschool him when I did Calahan in Wisconsin BECAUSE I was homeschooling Cal and Noah got sick so easily from school it was crazy.

When we moved to Washington I gave the kids the choice to homeschool here or try the public school.  They both wanted to try the public school, so they did.

Calahan started getting teased, not even bullied, but the second he felt threatened, he shut down.  He wasn't feeling safe at school - and it was discovered he has PTSD from the bullying.   He also has anxiety.  So I felt the need to get him out of the school experience where he was currently learning nothing because of the PTSD an anxiety factors from the bullying.  He was learning NOTHING.

Noah .... once we got here.... was okay.  But I had begged the schools here to hold him back.  Not to keep pushing him forward into grades where he was not understanding the curriculum.  However, they always told me NO .... it was "more important to keep him with his peers."  Which I did NOT agree with.  Yes, it can be damaging to be held back - however, it can be damaging to also be pushed forward too.  How?

Noah got pulled out from class for special one on one or small group education.  In 4th grade, he had a folder in his desk in his classroom that had work that was at his level...  he would take it out when discussions were going on that he didn't understand.  Group work, the other classmates would write on his papers (after asking him the answers) and do most the work.  They would carry him.

Noah started to come home saying "I'm dumb" ... "I'm stupid" ... "I don't understand what the other kids understand" .... he was being damaged, deep down ... wondering WHY he couldn't do the same work the other kids were.

I had to stop that thinking in it's TRACKS.  No matter what I said, it wasn't helping.

On top of that, he was missing a lot of school due to being sick all the time.  He would catch everything.

This year, Nathan got sick - ALL THE TIME.   He missed more school than he's been in it.  So next year, it maybe that we might have to homeschool him too.

We haven't made that choice yet though.

Meh .........

I need to get better about posting in here :)    We have had a lot of sickies in our house over the past several months - really puts a brick in our plans.  But I'm gonna get us back on track ......and I need to catch up on some older entries of stuff we have done.  

I need to use our blog as a better way to keep track of some stuff :)  

We're Moving!

Homeschooling is on hold for a bit while we get moved and settled!!

Excitement ...

Noah is getting excited about homeschooling.  Tonight, we had a little discussion about what he had been doing in public school and what he wanted to learn about while homeschooling.   Because this is going to be our first hard-core year...  I think it's an important question to ask. 

First I asked him if he was learning multiplication .......  remembering the several times where we played "what is ? x ? equal?"

His response......    HUH?

::: Sigh :::

Then we talked about other stuff ....  I asked him what he was working on in school when it ended and he said ...  "I always did my own work" .... this really makes me sad.   He goes on to explain to me that he would always just work on the folder of stuff he had while he was in the classroom.  When he did participate - although he was interested - he always had to ask his classmates for help.  And then he says "I would go into Mrs. G's room and we'd work on stuff and then we'd go in another room and work on stuff, but when I was in my classroom I would just work on my stuff."  Mrs. G - btw - was his reading and math teacher (special education) ... so ... yeah, I feel bad.

I asked him if he was excited to homeschool .....

YES!!

Then he says .... "Daddy is going to be my computer teacher and my cooking teacher..." and I confirmed it.  Told him Daddy would probably handle science stuff, too.   I'm going to be doing reading and math, art ...  we're going to both be doing history and other stuff.  We're both going to be involved with ALL of it - but ....  that's how the break-down is for the most part.

So when I asked him what he wanted to learn about ....  first thing he said was ...

"Making stuff and seeing how it works."

That's pretty good answer!

In addition to that,  he is really interested in dinosaurs, animals, archeology....  when I asked him if he wanted to learn about the stars and space he said .... "but I'm not going to be an astronaut." ... to which I answered, "that doesn't mean you can't learn about space!" ....  So I'm glad that he's excited!  Sounds like he's really looking forward to the science part of it :) 

Last Day of PUBLIC School

So today is the kids last day of PUBLIC school...   I thought about letting them just stay home, but I also have this need to make sure that they do what they are suppose to. 

Calahan is finishing up his Sophomore year, which he completely and utterly failed. 

Why did he fail?

1. He didn't turn in work.
2. He has a lot of trouble asking for help.
3. He has major anxiety.
4. The School was not following his I.E.P. 
5. He stopped caring.
6. He was uncomfortable at school
7. There was some bullying. 
8. He had a lot of absences

So yeah, there are a lot of reasons - some in his control, some not.  Regardless - my biggest concern is that they aren't following his IEP.  I brought it up - and the first thing out of the counselors mouth was "are you reminding your teachers?"

I realize that a lot is piled on top of teachers these days... they are over worked, over stressed, and have to use a lot of their own money to make sure their classes are fun and interesting.... 

But since when is it the CHILD'S responsibility to make sure their I.E.P. is followed??? 

So we are certain we're going to allow Calahan to Homeschool/On-line School this coming fall.

Noah did really well this year... 

He "finished" 4th Grade, and by finished, I mean he made it through the school year.  He is at a 1st or 2nd grade level academically and they just keep pushing him forward even though I don't feel it's doing any good.  I have asked repeatedly that they hold him back a year.  I was told "no, we feel it's more important to keep him with his peers then giving him the stigma of being held back" .... Thanks No Child Left Behind Act ..... but let me ask you this....  How do you think it makes him feel to be pulled out of the class and exposed to the fact that he isn't at the same academic level as the other students in his class? 

When we moved here and decided to give the school district a try here ... I asked them to hold him back a year then, to make things a little easier on him.  They wouldn't.   So this past year, he was pulled out of class a lot, he couldn't work with his classmates because he wasn't at their level...  he was allowed to not do work because he couldn't... because it wasn't at his level.  When things were too hard in class, he had a folder of work (at his level) he could do ...  so he would pull that out and work on that while the class worked on something else.  Which is great, he showed initiative on pulling out work he could do... but ...  I don't think it's fair to him.  What exactly is he learning by this?

And then, he expressed to me one day - he doesn't feel smart because he can't do the same work as the other kids.

This broke my heart....

............ broke it....

So DB and I discussed it - and we're going to give it a chance through the summer and see if he'll listen to me and do his work, if he does - we're going to homeschool him, if he doesn't ... then I have no choice but to put him back in public school next year.  

Noah is a whiner - he whines at me all the time not to do stuff.  I still make him do it but it's a chore and hard  ... he doesn't act like this at school.  He listens, he's good, he's behaved....  I wish I had that Noah more often. 

In addition to that - we found out that Noah has Dyslexia - which I suspected and Calahan has something called Dysgraphia.   I actually wrote a blog about the Dysgraphia recently ...  check it out. 

I'm giving both kids a week off - one because it's my birthday on Monday - ha ha - and I don't want to start then.  But I think we're going to start the following week, on July 2nd.   That'll give me some time to get a plan in place. 

As for the babies ..... we'll see.  Nathan *hates* going to school - he cries everyday.   Kaedyn LOVES going to school ...    Nathan gets services through school like Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy ...  which are important.  And he needs to be exposed to a structured social environment right now, due to his Autism.  So we feel it is important to at least *try* to get him to like school.  He's starting a new school next year, and Kaedyn will be returning to the same pre-school.  We have no idea how this is going to go over since they were in school together this past year, and next year, they aren't even at the same school.  

So we're going to start off with the older two, and see how it goes with the younger ones..I'm excited!!

Crazyness Ensues ...

Loooong long ago I decided to homeschool my boys.  Due to bullying issues and a few other issues that were going on with Noah just not learning.

We spent a year "de-schooling" and not doing a lot.   It was everyday learning type of stuff... plus two babies in the house - I was B.U.S.Y ....

Well, we moved to Washington State and we debated between homeschooling and putting the boys back in public school and try it out here ......

At first, we were going to homeschool... so I started to prepare .....

And then.......  Cal decided that he wanted to try public school.   So we started down that route ...

They are about to finish their 2nd year in the school system here....   we're not happy.

Calahan is starting to deal with bullying again here ..... but at least here he has friends here.  It's nothing like what it was in Wisconsin...  however, he was hit a few times by one kid, and being the GOOD BOY that he is, Cal befriended this kid.  I remind him a lot of "bullies" have bad home lives.  So he became friends with the kid who was slapping him occasionally.   Then this other - bigger kid - I guess ...  one day... was trying to pull the chair out from under Cal when he was sleeping in class (don't get me started on the sleeping in class) ....  and when the first kid dropped his books and papers all over the floor, and Cal stopped to pick them up ....  he was bent over on the ground gathering them up - and the second kid came and kicked him in the butt sending Cal flying into the fencing.

They also are not following Calahan's IEP at all....  he's suppose to be pulled out for testing because he has trouble getting thoughts from his head out through his hand (he has Dysgraphia) ...  one way or another he's suppose to verbalize the answers to someone who writes them down for him. 

Because of all this - he's failing .... and doing his work at home or through home ... means I can keep a better eye on what he's done and what he hasn't.  I have also asked time and time again that the teachers email me with work that he hasn't gotten done each week so I can keep on top of it ...  and they don't.  I can't help him - if they don't help me....

He wants to e-school next year.

Noah is still only at a 1st or 2nd grade level depending ...  he was diagnosed with dyslexia.  I keep begging the school to hold him back ... but ... thanks to No Child Left Behind ...... he's getting pushed further.   He wants to participate in class, he wants to learn - he's very eager but he gets pulled out of class and he doesn't understand some of the hard stuff in class so he's forced to pull out a folder of work (which he does on his own) to work from while the class carries on.  He has expressed to me more than once that he's "stupid" because of this.

In addition to that - one of my worst fears came true.  There was a school shooting at Noah's school, it made national news.  I really don't want o rehash it but you can read about it on my main blog .....  Serial Killers & School Shootings .....   and my gut instinct was to pull him out and homeschool him again.  Yes, the shooting was an accident, but it was because the kid was BULLIED.... 

My biggest problem homeschooling last time was that Noah wouldn't listen to me and do his work (this was before we knew he had dyslexia but I suspected it.) and coming up with work ...

But now I found the best resource EVER .... Pinterest!  I have tons of boards on homeschooling lessons and ideas ......  I'm really excited.  If you homeschool and want an invite to Pinterest - leave me a note with an email address I can send a invite too :)  (heck even if you don't homeschool! LOL)

So I told Noah that we'll do a "trial" over the summer - and if he listens, then we'll homeschool.   He really wants to do it .... so I think it'll be a success ...

YAY!!!

Oh my oh my.... Decisions

Yep...  Decisions, with a capital D!

It has been a long time since I updated this blog.  If you don't read my other blogs, a lot of things have happened.  First off we made the big move from Wisconsin to Washington State about a month ago. I gave the kids the choice of checking out the public schools or just continuing to homeschool. 

Well, we didn't even really go check out the schools.  But we've decided to continue to homeschool, we're at least going to give it one more year, at least. 

We spent the last year "deschooling" - taking things easy.  We have done work, don't get me wrong.  Working on reading with Noah and Cal has been working on his math and stuff.  We've been trying to do some catch up.  Noah still doesn't like to "work" per-say but he's going to have to start doing his work because this year we are going to become more structured.  We don't have the freedom of "unschooling" here like we did in Wisconsin.  (Not that we were really unschooling, we were more decompressing from the rigid cycle of school) ...

So there are some big changes coming up.  We are moving into our own place in about a week.  We'll be setting up our school area, and we'll be making a plan.  I have already been seeking out the local homeschooling groups and trying to get contacts around here.  We've marked our calenders with the great programs and events the library is throwing this summer along with the great reading program :) 

We are excited and it'll be nice to get back to working on this blog :)

Quick Note

I just wanted to drop a quick note in here.  We've been really busy with life - 3 of us in the family have had surgery (me, Cal & Nathan) and between recovering and trying to get into the swing of things .. life has run away with us.  But we are starting to get back into the swing of things so posts should be showing up again soon :)  YAY!

Looking forward to sharing more of our Homeschooling Adventures here!!

Off Track....

We have been off track lately, between medical appointments with in the family and my surgery, life has been busy and we haven't been buckling down the way I had hoped.   Found out the baby had a loud heart murmur (probably normal)..  Noah's kidney's are starting to fail again.  And Nathan, well, he's a medical aww on his own.  LOL...  and me I had major hernia surgery. 

I hope that we will be getting back on track this week.  We hope to go out and collect leaves, and talk about why they change, the Fall season, Halloween and it's origins, we plan on going to a pumpkin patch and hope to take the kids to a haunted house/trail.   We're going to make some soup, and do some crafts.

Today my goal is to organize a bunch of links and add them on here .. which is always nice, because no matter where we are or what computer we're on, we have access to those links.  

Choices ...

We're making hard choices today, and I am pretty sure what I will be doing.

Pulling my 13 year old out of school, and homeschooling him.

It's a choice I have been wrestling with for years. Ever since he was little and out of pre-school, I knew he wouldn't *thrive* in public school... my getting notice that he's failing almost all (5 out of 8 classes) was the last straw.

Add into the equation constant bullying and various other issues.

We're going to give it next year (8th Grade) and go from there.

I am also homeschooling my 7 year old this summer to try to get him to "catch up" to his peers. He is a social butterfly and I think he does very well in public school. For now anyway.

However - I totally have a plan in my head for my 7 year old, I have NO CLUE where to start for my 13 year old.