[Home body]

I have been thinking about homeschooling our daughter, and is it just me, or is it becoming more common?

What do you think? And would you do it?

[Phascogale]

I think it's probably become a bit more mainstream.

As for what I think - it's a valid choice of education for certain people. Some kids need that sort teaching for many different reasons ie bullied at school and nothing being done, struggling at school and not getting the help they need, gifted and not having a curriculum that interests and keeps a child engaged in learning etc. It may be that there isn't a school that matches their kids in their locality and rather than travel for long distances they choose to homeschool.

As for me. No I wouldn't homeschool unless I had no choice. I see it's value but my kids seem to respond better to teachers who aren't me for their academic stuff. I don't have a lot of patience and because I have a school that meets my childs' needs,I don't need to modify my behaviour (and the kids) in order to homeschool.

[cinnabubble]

I thought about it in the first two weeks of my first daughter's first year of school and then I realised how fabulous her teacher was and how much school has given her. I know homeschooling people and they have good reasons for doing it and it works for them.

For my social, neurotypical, curious, spirited, academically average child, school has been brilliant. If problems appear further down the line, we'll reassess then.

This post has been edited by cinnabubble: 29/12/2012, 03:32 PM

[GlitterFarts]

I don't know if it is becoming more common, or just more 'available' ie, we see it more in our online/interactive lives.

But yes, we home school (although last year was a total write off lol ) and for the most part, we love it.



This post has been edited by Freakypet: 29/12/2012, 03:33 PM

[Mamacass2]

A friend of mine is going to do it with her girls and has done lots of research into it, she has looked into unschooling specifically though. I would do homeschooling if we could afford it. Possibly for the majority of the primary school years.

[Sif]

We started out homeschooling and moved our kids into school when they asked for the experience. At that school (a regular suburban PS in the eastern burbs of Melbourne), we've seen one child go to school four days a week, also one of my eldest's friends left school at the end of last year (year five) and was homeschooled all this year and will probably continue to be homeschooled throughout highschool. One of my second son's friends was pulled out early in term three this year and was homeschooled for the rest of the year and will be next year before going to a private girl's high school (the parents felt she wasn't being taught comprehensively enough for the highschool she would be entering).

So, yes, it seems to be becoming rather mainstream around here, too.

[howdo]

I don't think it's becoming necessarily more common - just more noticed/talked about in mainstream circles.

I don't think it's a bad thing but no, I wouldn't do it. I believe that for my very non quirky, ordinary kids the local school has access to far better resources that I can fund. I also think other people are better suited to teaching my children. I found the same as a child - my mum tried to teach me the piano ... *shudder*

My children also deal well with and require the kind of socialisation that school offers.

[skooch]

I have home schooled for 4 years now and have found that the network of home educators in our area is increasing.

I have found it really works for us, my son is a year ahead in work now and able to start a TAFE or Uni course early.

We started as we found the public system was just not working. The teachers were rather uninspiring and they had no time. Plus there were so many distractions such as kids getting in trouble, a couple of times classes were on lock down due to students attacking each other etc. We made the decision to home school and it has been great for the whole family. Really glad we made the change.

[Alina0210]

Access to Internet, online support groups and information ha deffinatly helped Homeschooling becomeore 'normal'.... I know quite a few people home schooling for various reasons.

[snuffles]

I don't know if it's more common. I'd consider it I felt that it would benefit my kids. However I suck at teaching, get frustrated easily and find the kids are perfectly capable of driving me crazy even when they are at school 5 days a week.

The public school they are at now I am perfectly happy with, so we'll continue with that.