1. Want to be a Positive Parent? : Click Here
    Dismiss Notice

Homeschooling Vs Traditional Schools..

Discussion in 'Schoolgoers & Teens' started by anika987, Mar 15, 2019.

  1. anika987

    anika987 IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,969
    Likes Received:
    20,846
    Trophy Points:
    538
    Gender:
    Female
    saw a debate in Vijay tv about homeschooling and traditional schooling..

    Infact,heard lot of people doing homeschooling for their kids back in India.Even here people do it.

    For me one of the reason I choose
    Traditional schooling over homeschool
    Is not about education alone but kids get to Socialize with each other and learn how to adapt.

    That could be a deficit in homeschooling which is more protective of the kids and when the child grows up as as adult and enters the real World..won’t he or she find it difficult to mingle?

    I am Infact very curious about the advantages of homeschooling also..I feel the way society is becoming unsafe virtual schooling might start very soon..

    Anyone homeschooling the kids?Is it till 12 grade or until a particular age?how does it work?
     
    Loading...

  2. alady2018

    alady2018 Silver IL'ite

    Messages:
    56
    Likes Received:
    81
    Trophy Points:
    58
    Gender:
    Female
    Hi,

    I wanted to share my experience of a few homeschooled kids I met during the last few months - I was absolutely amazed at them. :)

    Two kids were late teens - the son was homeschooled till highschool - after that when given a choice to go join traditional high-school - he wanted to do and so parents enabled that. The daughter didn't want to join traditional high school so parents were happy to continue to homeschool her till she joined college.

    I met these kids at a team party - they are the children of my colleague and I was so impressed at their socializing skills - that I started reading a lot about homeschooling. Throughout the party I hung out only with these kids to be regaled by their stories of growing up and doing things they love in their neighborhood. My colleagues are in their 50s - very knowledgeable folks.

    One of the requirements is that the parents need to be highly motivated to do this and be very hands-on and super passionate. I ask a lot of questions to my colleague on how the years went by - and he tells it was a LOT of hard work outside of school.

    Every morning mom would make a picnic bag for her and the two kids and they would head out with an agenda based on their lesson plans on their bicycles.

    For example, here is how they learned Civics. They would visit the Mayor's office and the City council. They would watch any proceedings open to the public and take notes. They would then have discussions on the actions being taken. If there were any Bills the children got passionate about, they would head to the library and read all about it's related regulations. At dinner, all this would be shared with Dad and discussed further. Then they would go to public demonstrations and have children make placards on ideas that they believed in.

    As an alternative, I learnt Civics from a book in a traditional school for many semesters. But I can't recall anything now.

    The family had annual memberships to almost every museum, zoo and park in the neighborhood. It is a big city so many resources were available. They learned a lot of science from science museums. Mother had a master's degree in biology and was basically passionate about science. So they had a structured program and learnt a lot through experimentation at home.

    And then weekends were packed. Dad would organize free carpentry, home building classes, computer science classes at their home for neighborhood kids - so the home would have lots of kids - and their children made very good friends.

    For Biology - they have the most proficient garden I have seen in a while. Inspite of a small sized garden, they managed to grow every vegetable, fruits and fun plants. Kids were responsible every day to tend to garden.

    (Imagine with working parents and school-going kids - even if we have gardens at home many of us can't find the time to tend and enjoy our gardens everyday)

    Also homeschool in the US - can be very structured. You will get lesson plans and materials and even testing from accredited sources. But parents need to be on the top of their toes - because a lot of choices and prep work is needed to keep the children engaged.

    But the best part is the "time" flexibility. One semester the family would focus on "theatre" - they read many Shakespeare plays together - did a lot of research on costumes, history, etc. Then based on their experience the son auditioned at the neightborhood theatre club got selected and then it became his absolute passion over the next few years.

    Regarding socializing: At the party - these teenagers took turns to intro themselves to everyone at the party - were naturally curious about each one there, asking about their backgrounds - cracking some joke about what they knew or how little they knew. Despite the generation gap and cultural difference, everyone at the party noticed how these kids just shined.

    Personally I have been inclined to ponder about homeschooling after I met a few preschool teachers for my toddler - some of them are not very qualified as teachers - but due to the circumstances end up being teachers. And as we all know, teachers in almost every country are over-burdened and under-paid. And usually have 6 to 20 students to manage and guide.

    Don't mistake me - I don't have anything against teachers. I grew up thoroughly loving my teachers - I was lucky to get a few who have been a true inspiration to me in my life-decisions. I wrote poems about them and they were my role models. But these great teachers are so few and rare.

    In summary,
    Benefits of homeschooling:
    1. Highly customized education - that can cater to your child's specific needs/wants and your values as a parent.

    2. Time flexibility to allow children the ability to explore and fully enjoy life. (one set of parents mentioned about how they used to spend hours and hours at every library and book store all the way till closing time - we didn't need to worry about sleeping on time to make it to school next day!)

    3. Diversity of exposure not possible in traditional school (I know all children go for extra curricular activities but if mom/dad are spending evenings and weekends chaffeuring kids to a few activities - I feel there is a compromise to how much exposure child gets and quality of life/parent-child interaction time)

    Prereqs of homeschooling though:
    - Highly motivated and hands-on parents.
    - One stay-at-home parent.
    - Sufficient financial resources to invest in education (for e.g: a professional high-quality tutor if parent notices child is getting more interested in a topic than parents can guide and enable well, Science experiment materials, memberships to places,).

    Also there are some programs using which the kids can attend one / two classes at the neighborhood assigned school so they can meet kids their age and also get a feel for whether they want to get back in to the traditional route.


    I will add another note when possible about the other set of kids I also met and was impressed by. The above experience is in the North American context. :)

    Thank you for letting me know about homeschooling in India - I hadn't heard about that at all. Please share any info about this if you get to know more. Thanks. :)

    I've realized the best place to learn about homeschooling is from the parent's blogs chronicling their experiences for other parents to learn and adapt from.
     
  3. gorgeous23

    gorgeous23 Silver IL'ite

    Messages:
    195
    Likes Received:
    207
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Female
    i too have read a lot about homeschooling in america but i want to know about it in indian context.
    also, as alady2018 has pointed out, it means a lot of hard work for the parents too. a few forums/websites i found online about homeschool show it is not easy. the parents have to actually do a lot of work, i mean I cant imagine myself being solely responsible for my kids education.....i dont know how that sounds.
    but given the indian society & traditional structure , i honestly want to know how successful or realistic is it.
     
    GeetaKashyap, alady2018 and anika987 like this.
  4. senorita2019

    senorita2019 Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    403
    Likes Received:
    732
    Trophy Points:
    173
    Gender:
    Female
    @alady2018
    wow such an inspirational post. Homeschooling can this this much informative and fun?
    New perspective and amazing way to approach it.
     
    alady2018 and anika987 like this.
  5. anika987

    anika987 IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,969
    Likes Received:
    20,846
    Trophy Points:
    538
    Gender:
    Female
    Wow! So informative but from what you said I feel homeschooling is for hands on and extreme passionate and dedicated parents.I am stunned by those parents who did so much! god bless them.

    It does take a lot.

    I actually saw a “Neeya naana” Tamil debate show in Vijay tv and was shocked to see so many parents Just in Chennai alone homeschooling kids.I also heard parents from Bangalore and Pune doing it.


    It seems to be growing a lot and now
    It makes me Wonder.Maybe it is a lot more hardwork but fruitful
     
    alady2018 likes this.
  6. alady2018

    alady2018 Silver IL'ite

    Messages:
    56
    Likes Received:
    81
    Trophy Points:
    58
    Gender:
    Female
    Thank you @anika987 I really want to know about how it is being done in India - while trying to search whether I could find the Neeya Naana episode online, I found a mother's blog about how she is homeschooling her kids:

    A little note about homeschooling!

    From some of the pics and references, this may be an Indian family - so I am going to do some binge-blog reading. :-D
    Sharing it here, in case others are also interested.
     
    anika987 likes this.

Share This Page