Discussion Board: Homeschooling

[color=darkblue]A lot of questions can be answered at: [url]http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/NZHomeEducators[/url] People interested in becoming homeschoolers [home educators] are welcome to join up, read the archived messages, and ask questions about the hows and whys of home education. This Australian site I think you will find useful once you decide to homeschool. I just found it this morning: [url]http://www.design-your-homeschool.com/ [/url] I homeschool, in our 4th year. cheers, j [url]http://nowTHEN.bravehost.com[/url][/color]

also if you do a google search (but selecting the NZ option) that brings up quite a few sites about homeschooling and very informative too!

I'd love to hear from someone actually doing it and here their perspective, such a challenge!

:o)

and how they think they will school their children and why?? plus pros and cons of beinf a home school student??

Hi, I considered it with my 9yo when he was being bullied at school when he was younger. He's highly intelligant, but gets easily distracted.

I still send him to the local primary, but I also teach him at home. I got some stuff from the local book shop. Maths books for his year at school. He does studies from home. In the last holidays we went to visit the old North head army thing, so he did a massive study on it, including photos that we all took and stuff from the net. His teacher loves to see what hes doing at home, and his school work has improved lots too!

I just think that even reading with kids at home, and taking an interest in their school work is a wonderful way to get to know what they are doing and to help give them more confidence for in the classroom.

what parents need to know to be able to home school?? can any parent do it? would there be some sort of class you go to to know what you need to teach?? i guess all the support groups out there would help to wouldnt they??

I don't know of any official requirements, I think that pretty much any parent can do it.

But the one thing that really sticks out for me against home schooling, and is why I ended up leaving my boy in school is that even though they end up being streets ahead of their peers educationally, they seriously lack the appropriate social skills, which impares their future interactivity in the public sector.

So for anyone considering homeschooling, I think that they need to take this seriously into consideration. Thats why my boy is at school, and I home tutor him on top of that.

Both my partner and I are very intellectual people (haha...) But with my partner having been head down bum up working all his life, rather than talking, socially he is not as "out there" as I am, and alot of oppertunities pass him by as he just lacks the social skills to take advantage of them at the correct times. He's rather shy, cute and adorible I know, but not what bloke needs in the workplace!
He can turn his hand to pretty much anything, but is quite oftern too shy and akward to do the whole talking and interacting thing.

hi my sister and brother were both home schooled by my mum in auckland and they do not lack any social skills. Auckland has a great home schooling group HASCA, homeschool Auckland Sports and Cultural Association. But they play sports agaist other schools, have dances, trips aways everything like a normal school and the support and friends that both my mum and my sister and brother made are wonderful. i think home schooling is great as they also get to lern about real life which school cant give them. as for requirement if the child is under 16 the minstery of education is involed and they do check up on you

Hi there y'all! Well, I've become a member to post a message in this forum!

I'm a busy mum of 4, oldest was 5 in May, youngest born in April this year.

I have decided to homeschool after much thought, reading, talking to friends who homeschool etc etc.

I think like anything in life, homeschooling families vary hugely, from unschoolers who let the child learn when they want to at thier own pace ie - very 'unstructured', to the other extreme where everything is structured, basically 'school at home'.

I like alot of others no doubt are somewhere in the middle. I've had to look at what my definition of 'education' is. The decision my hubby and I have made is that we want education for our kids to be just an extension of everyday lives, learning to be responsible members of society, caring for other people and obviously the academic side, and of course having fun and making learning fun!

What first made me consider to homeschool was when I realised that my child could have a really awesome teacher, or a really bad one and I had no control over that. Once I started looking into it, a whole new world opened up to me!

One of the pros of homeschooling to me which I'm sure is for others is that you can focus on character, attitudes and morals as well as academic skills.

I reckon any parent who is motivated and able (ie at home) to homescool can at least give it a go. I read in a book somewhere that if you can teach (or facilitate) a child to walk, talk, eat, go to the toilet, then you can homeschool! I think society has somewhat disempowered parents into believing they have to send thier kids to school to get an education, I say if you want to do it, you can! With the information now available to you via the internet, if you don't know the answer you can certainly find out.

ITo be continued, too long apparantly!

I did consider the 'socialisation' aspect, - I think that anyone homeschooling in isolation wouldn't be doing thier child any favours - I believe as long as your child is involved in the community, sports, or whatever and dealing with a wide variety of people regularly, they'll be right. Isn't socialisation learning to be part of society? I believe homeschooling can do this awesomely, I see school as a somewhat artificial environment, only in schools will you see children grouped in age, with such a high adult/child ratio.

So...my son who is now 5 is at home with us and we are all having a ball! I'm lucky also to have a husband work from home, he loves the outdoors, so they were on a south island 4wd trip last month having a ball, I think homeschooled kids generally learn by 'doing'. He got his first lego set recently, and plays with it every day! Now that is education.

Homeschooling families find learning opportunities everywhere everyday, even in the simplest of things ie - fractions while cutting toast in the morning! Its great fun learning alongside your kids, I'm sure my homeschooling journey will see me learning just as much as the kids! We are reasonably unstructured at the mo, I will have to organise my MOE exemption when he is coming up to 6 yrs.

I also love the fact that my son's younger siblings will be learining from him as well, I think it's so cool!

Obviously anyone considering homeschooling has to enjoy spending alot of time with thier kids, and also needs a support network, other like minded people to bounce stuff off, because no doubt alot of people will think you are nutty for homeschooling!

There is so much info out there for anyone looking into it, good luck!

Once I made the decision, a great weight was lifted off my shoulders. I have been (and still am) just enjoying my last baby and not stressing (which says something for me, I'm a bit of a stress head at times!)

So there you go, a little on my education philosophy, hope I didn't bore anyone!

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