Homeschool

Just wondering if there are any other homschoolers out there. Toodles, Renee

Hi Renee, I had been planning to homeschool my three kids but now that I'm a single mom I can't and am planning to go back to work, would be glad to talk with you about it though! Rachel

Hi Rachel & Renee, I know this post is kind of old, but I will respond anyway in the event that you are still keeping track. My wife and I have been home schooling our two daughters for the past 5 or 6 years. Our oldest daughter has already graduated from high school and is doing very well in her second semester of college with a 4.0 average. She often comes home and tells me that her instructors (most of whom do not care for the concept of home schooling) are always expressing their satisfaction with her class participation and knowledge of discussion topics before the class has even studied them. This is very rewarding to us as parents given the amount of ridicule we had to endure during the first couple of years of home schooling. My younger daughter is in the 9th grade and also does very well. Where my older daughter has an aptitude for the sciences and math and is majoring in accounting, the younger one has a forte' for writing and analyzing the way things work. She hasn't quite decided what discipline she will study in college. They are both very outgoing and spend most of their free time out with friends - you know, the ones that those opposed to home schooling say they don't have. My wife and I had a great deal of trouble getting our marriage off the ground. In fact, we've been married for 19 years, and for the first 12, we knew we would be divorced but just didn't know when. One day, however, we just grew up. We spent about a week discussing all the things we had been hiding from each other and regardless of how bad something is, we committed ourselves to always being open and honest with each other. I'm leading up to this. Our children are faced with hundreds of examples of the way the world does things every day. That force is so strong, that the only way to counter it is to become an example in their lives that they desire in their heart to follow. As a husband and the leader of my family, I believe it's my responsibility to be an example, not only to my children, but also to my wife. How can I expect from her what I'm unwilling to contribute myself? This has worked very well for us. Now we volunteer much of our time to help other couples through some of the troubles they are experiencing. Many of them are in their early 20's to mid 30's and simply don't know how to be married or become a family. We spend a few months with them teaching them how to do just that. It's very rewarding when we bump into them months or even years later at the mall or Target or somewhere like that and hear how well they are doing. Wow, this is a long way from home schooling. What I was thinking when I started down this trail was that home schooling can become a greater learning opportunity for your children than simply getting a parental guided education. There are two things that we believe are the keys to successful parenting, and they fit perfectly with home schooling. 1. The child MUST be taught to do what he/she is told. This enables you to get him/her started with an assignment and let them go. 2. One of the best things we can teach our children to do is to learn for themselves. Teach them to exhaust all available resources when attempting to solve a problem before asking for help. Most of the time, the answer is right there in the book, and upon going back to read it again, they will find it. Sorry for the tangent. This is something my family and I are very passionate about and have with which we have had great success. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.