Questions and Answers
Do any other homeschool veterans see new trends in the homeschool movement? I have been homeschooling for 15 years and the proportion of parents wanting to come into homeschooling without cost and time commitments seems to have been birthed lately and is growing at an alarming rate.
I see it here in the questions posted. I see it in homeschool co-ops too. It used to be understood that if you participated in a co-op you shared in the labor and cost. I am finding a steady stream of new homeschoolers that are surprised when they are asked to help, yet they almost demand a seat in the co-op for their children.
I think some of the posts I have read here by the teens who want to go back to public schools are because parents are buying the curriculum and handing it over to their kids and telling them, "Here, learn it." They don't spend time leading and interacting with their kids in the homeschool endeavor.
What do you think?
Mmmmm, I am not talking about unschooling. Unschooling has been around since before we started. My first exposure to homeschooling was unschooling (Colfax book). This is different somehow. It is hard to articulate. Unschoolers are passionate. This new trend is dispassionate, disconnected.
I am glad I asked the question. It is somewhat like being a scout out in the woods and just sensing that something is amis but not yet knowing exactly what it is. Reading the responses is helping me to clarify what it isn't at this point. LOL. When we started homeschooling there wasn't much curriculum available. We had to learn to live on one income, and about midway through the 15 year stretch my husband started over in a new career path so we had to survive on $18K for a family of 5. So I made most of our curriculum and used the libraries. So what I am sensing isn't about not buying expensive curriculum. I am a big proponent of the eclectic method, internet use, and make your own. But in all of these, there is an investment in time, if not money. There is heart for doing it. What I am sensing is flat, no heart. It is more of a "homeschooling is easy. I don't have to do anything, or someone else will do it for me" mentality from more and more of the parents now.
I think I know what you are talking about… Just like you I can't articulate it that well. Its just an attitude. If the people displaying it have a lot of money, it shows itself with them just wanting something easy- they'll pay the cost of the curriculum if it teaches itself! If the people displaying the attitude don't have the money- then they want it both easy and cheap! I even see people asking things like "how can I get a teacher to come to my house and homeschool my kids?"
I see this same thing when it comes to co-ops… Where is the sense of community that used to bond homeschoolers? The parents stand there, while the few who are working with kids are running from child to child to help with an art project. The parents will criticize when they feel the class is not adequately taught… But never offer to teach. They would rather go to a community center class and pay exorbitant fees than help pass out paints- or worse yet they'd rather do neither so their kids don't get art at all.
I posted a really neat, really easy experiment on my blog… And one of the comments posted by my readers really embodies this attitude, the person posted that she was going to have her kids look at my blog rather than do the experiment herself (apparently her kids are studying the same thing and she's been putting off this experiment). So she is just going to have her kids look at my photos?!! Why not just hand them a book and walk away?! And her reason? The experiment used a saucer and she was afraid something would happen to the saucer… Hasn't she ever heard of thrift stores? You can buy a used saucer for 10 cents at Goodwill or Value Village, then you can use it and if it gets ruined you are out a whole dime… Whoopee doo!
I think part of this comes from the increasing failure of the Public School system… I think some parents are homeschooling not so much because they have a passion for it, but rather because the schools have gotten so bad that they feel they have no choice. Because they are used to their kids schooling being "free" or at least seeming free because all taxpayers share the cost… And they grow to feel entitled. They feel they have a "right" to have the benefits of homeschooling handed to them on a silver platter. They feel that they should be able to have someone else do the work and bear the cost. They may not consciously think this, but its an unconscious attitude about them.
I wonder where the passion went? Even when people hear that there is a threat to the freedom to homeschool they often can't be bothered to take action.
Could it be that newer homeschoolers just take the freedom to do so for granted? They are too young to have seen the homeschoolers who were dragged in to court to win the right to homeschool. Too far removed from the days when people risked losing custody of their kids.
Could the rise of Public School at Home programs be contributing to it?
Oh I don't know… And I am not altogether sure that I have described it any better than anyone else. It just seems that there is no real commitment. Like if the people could afford it they'd just send their kids to a private school… But since that is out reach they have grudgingly decided to homeschool.
But like I noted above, it isn't always just money… The same attitude manifests itself with well-to-do families that just seem to say, "Oh I'll pay you… But don't ask me to get involved in their lessons!"
Its not just in the homeschooling community either… Many Churches are desperately seeking Sunday School teachers and nursery workers… Seems everyone wants the service but no one wants to help with it.
And even just parents in general… How many parents do you know that just can't wait to get away from their kids?
Could this be more an issue of American complacency?
As I said, I don't know if I said it any better… But I sense something too… And I don't like it.
I'm sick of going to public school . I hate it , always have and always will. So I thought a good alternative was doing my high school education online at home . Does anyone know any good online schooling websites for high school education level that doesn't cost money , or doesn't cost a bunch of money ? Thanks for the help !
Oh and by the way i live in Mississippi ? If that has anything to do with anything lol.
Yes, online schools used by homeschoolers cost a lot of money. They cost anywhere from $3000 to $10,000 a year for middle school and high school. The online school that Porscha mentioned is an online pubic school for student in Utah.
MS has an online public school but they are not taking students for the current semester. Nov first is the date that registration opens up for the Spring semester: http://ift.tt/1hdPssN;
I also suggest you read up on homeschooling, as it can be done very inexpensively as long as you do not enroll in a online/distance education private school: http://ift.tt/1odjoEm;
I want to go to school at home but my mom wont let me until she knows how much it cost so please i beg of you help me out!!!!!!!!!! Please.
Our family homeschools for very little money. We pay our monthly payment for online connection. We, the complete family, use the computer and internet to research anything we want to learn. We even use the internet to make our trips to the library more economical. They will hold the things we place on hold that they get from neighboring libraries.
Our state does require a yearly standardized test and that costs anywhere from $10.00- $50.00, depending on the type of test we use and the source.
Home schooling has worked for our family because we have the freedom to learn what we want and when we want to learn. Learning is fun. Only the public school system and their style of teaching create an atmosphere that makes people think that learning is difficult and hard work.
Lawmakers table statewide school choice idea
Skeptical state lawmakers on Monday put the brakes on draft legislation that would allow North Carolina families to choose to send their children to any public school statewide.
Does Homeschooling Cost Money
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