| Original Message |
Melissa Heeren (Login mheeren)
Forum Owner
Posted Jan 15, 2005 2:01 PM
I found that homeschooling my kids was much less stressful than making them do homework assigned at school.
A couple of reasons:
1) In homeschooling your child is only being given work that is appropriate to his or her level - it's not going to be too easy (boring busy work) or too difficult (major confusion and frustration) because you know your child! A school assignment is given to the whole class, and the teacher is trying to hit the middle. You tailor your child's work to him. Much less stressful.
2) With homeschooling you can hit the hard stuff early in the day, when your child is fresh. Homework assigned at school comes at the end of a long day, when your child is tired and cranky anyway.
3) Homeschooling is incredibly efficient. If you end up as an eclectic or unschooler, you will find that "academics" are finished quickly (the three R's) and pretty painlessly, leaving lots of time for musuem trips, park days, reading for pleasure, hobbies, etc.
4) Homeschooling does not have the toxic testing that exists in some states. Yes, you may have your kid tested, but your school's "grade" and teacher pay don't depend on every child hitting a magic number. Some teachers and administrators in states where testing is a big deal do a great job of sharing their stress about the tests with the kids, with the result that you have kids getting physically ill on test day from the stress. Ick. Not in homeschooling.
Mine are all high school age now, and for a number of reasons they are all in school now. But they were homeschooled through grade 6, and I loved the TIME we had to let them be kids and explore their own interests. For reading they READ. We did math, and they never loved writing, but there was so much time for so many other things that we were never butting heads the way a parent does when that stupid project is due TOMORROW MORNING!!! (sound familiar? 
Good luck whatever you decide to do, and welcome to our corner of the web.
Melissa |
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