I'm sitting here watching the fog lift, hoping for a beautiful sunrise. It's 10 degrees on our back porch and we have about a foot of snow.
I'm never going to homeschool. I've got one more year of teaching high school after this year before I retire. So, why, then, am I so fascinated with homeschooling that I'd read a whole book about it?I picked this up at the library figuring I'd just skim through it but ended up enjoying it so much that I read every single page.
When the Millman's oldest daughter was in second grade at a Catholic school, her teacher marked an answer wrong that was really right. When her parents questioned the principal about it, he agreed that it was right, but she got it wrong because it was a fourth-grade answer and it wouldn't be fair to the other kids whose parents didn't spend time helping them learn. It was then that they decided to begin homeschooling their children.
They didn't know anyone else who homeschooled so just went into it blind and learned as they went along. They ended up homeschooling all six of their children. The oldest three are now in excellent colleges and the 3 youngest are still at home.
They took a kind of middle-of-the road approach to homeschooling. They weren't extreme. Sometimes they used TV but not to excess. Sometimes they used textbooks and worksheets but not too religiously. Sometimes they had a schedule but, more often than not, they just let the day unfold and produced lessons from that. Every trip was a learning experience.
In other words, it was a wonderfully well-rounded education.
There are times when I wish I could rewind the clock and go back to when my kids were young and do it all over again. I know, I'd seriously consider homeschooling.
2 comments:
I hope you got to see your beautiful sunrise, Linda. I was up until 3 this morning and so there was no way I was going to see the sunrise this morning. Fortunately the animals agreed with me and slept in themselves.
The book you read about the Millman's experience with home schooling sounds interesting. I can't believe the school their daughter was going to would promote wrong answers. It shouldn't matter the children's ages.
I hope you have a great week, Linda!
It happened to me in highschool. I had taken a test on Greek & Roman mythology. Many answers were marked wrong. I took it to the teacher after class. She said that while I was really correct, they did not cover the alternate names of the gods & goddesses in class so it would be unfair to the other students if she marked it right.
In my French class, we had a young man whose father was the assistant to the US ambassador in France; had lived in Paris since he was 3. After class, he tried to tell the teacher she was telling something wrong...in a respectful manner. He explained they did not really use the word she was using in France. Her response was, "I dont care if that is not the way they do it in France, if the teacher's book says that is the way they do it, then that is the way I am teaching it!"
One of the MANY reasons we homeschool.
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