We’re spending a few weeks in Hawaii and this time we brought the
kiddo with us, along with a backpack full of her schoolwork. She’s seven, in 2nd
grade, and not particularly quick at reading, though she loves math. This, no
doubt, will be our only brush with home-schooling—at least until our next trip
to Hawaii. And wow, it sure is an eye-opening experience. Here are my impressions -- so far -- of the upsides and downsides of home-schooling.
Upside:
She can flit from one subject to another, so she never gets
bored with any one thing.
Downside:
Are we encouraging ADD here? Focus, girl, focus.
Upside:
We can decide it’s a beach day and spend the morning
snorkeling and catch up on schoolwork later.
Downside:
Chances of actually catching up: zilch.
Upside:
She thrives on the one-on-one attention.
Downside:
One-on-one attention = exhaustion for the parent side of the
equation. Talk about a crash course in patience. Seriously, I don't know how teachers do it.
Upside:
It’s an excuse for field trips to the Mauna Kea Observatory
for stargazing.
Downside:
Field trip nearly killed our truck.
Upside:
We get LOTS of quality time with the kid.
Downside:
She’s jonesing for some friend-time. It’s possible she’s
getting sick of us.
Upside:
She can go to Circus Camp a couple afternoons a week and
learn valuable life skills such as stilt-walking and unicycle-riding.
Downside:
Not sure stilt-walking will help with No Child Left Behind
school testing.
So … the jury’s still out on this brief home-schooling
experience. It’s fun, but it does take lots of time and attention from either
me or her father. Overall, I think it’s a wonderful experience for her, though
my own writing has taken a hit. (You probably haven’t seen me as much on
Twitter lately.) But it’s worth it to have her with us for a few weeks in
Hawaii, away from the coldest, snowiest Alaskan winter in memory.
Have you ever tried home-schooling? Any tips for us? What’s
your opinion on traditional school versus home-schooling?
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4 comments:
My 17 year old niece keeps trying to get me to home school her for the remainder of her time in HS. She has trouble in school due to absentee-seizures. I am NOT going to though because I can't get her to do anything now, much less try to get her to write a report on WWII for example. There is not enough Advil &/or Whiskey to get rid of that headache.
Home schooling is not for everyone, but there are times when it is definitely worth it.
My tip? Enjoy it. Use it to encourage independent thought, curiosity and a love of learning.
We have homeschooled depending on where we have been stationed. We are doing it now because we are living in Alabama and after three years in Northern VA, it was like coming back to the dark ages. My 17 year old who loves school, band and choir BEGGED me to pull her out. Our youngest is borderline low spectrum autistic and ADD, and in a class of 35 students. And they were adding more.
We have always used a set curriculum through a private correspondence school. This time we are using Laurel Springs. It is expensive, but worth it. It has been hard this year because I have a full load and the youngest is a little behind. But, the oldest does all her work online and is enjoying it. I am not sure I will be able to convince the youngest to ever go back.
I pick private correspondence because it gives me a set schedule. I like that. I have ADD so it keeps me better on track.
We're trying it with the 7-year-old this year. She's ADD, ODD, and a couple of other things I don't quite understand. She's lovely, loving, but not easy to tame. And we're not sure we want to. So, we let her work at her pace and break when she wants to. We'll see how it goes. If it works for her and if we don't go nuts having her constantly underfoot, we'll give it a while. :)
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