Why do you homeschool?

[Pastorj]

If we can be of assistance in any way, please feel free to contact me.

Ed

[Anon]

My son is in ABeka Kindergarten this year and I assume it would be very much like the videos (but he is in Christian school) and it is awesome, he is learning SO MUCH not to mention tons of Scripture. It's great!

[Junebugwv]

Mike, we have homeschooled for 19 years and have always used Abeka. As they get older we use the DVDs, but used the Abeka curriculum and taught them in K. I must add, I always had to supplement their work as it could easily be covered in 1.5 to 2 hours. I did this with a variety of material that seemed relevent. I think the Abeka reading program is excellent and even that needed supplementation. Usually, I would write out simple story sentences that correlated with the phonics sounds they were learning at the time. Hey, it can be a challenge to come up with a sentence when the only vowel sounds they have learned are the short sounds!
Tim is it.
Tim can run.
Run up the hill, Tim.

It is especially fun when you teach them the names of their siblings and use their names in the story.
Most names need to be taught as sight words.

BTW, the reason I chose Abeka was interesting. When my first child was 1, we moved to Puerto Rico and went to an English speaking IBF church that had a Christian school. A lot of the kids were from bilingual homes and didn't seem to have a good grasp of either language. I taught the 4-6 year old Jr church and found the children to be extremely immature (still used 'binkies') and very backward. A friend taught the K class in the Christian school and SHE barely passed high school. Imagine how impressed I was by Christmas time when those same children could read and were proficient in math skills. So be encouraged. I am a college grad, but teaching wasn't my field. Why can my five children excell and the ps children educated by state-certified teachers (at $7,000 per child) graduate with sub-standard skill levels?

As for the sorry hs kids you have known, they would be sorry ps kids if they were sent to school. They can't succeed if the parents don't make the effort.

The Bible gives us the mandate to train up our children. Whether we educate them ourselves or send them to someone else, it is still our responsibility.

I hope someone will address the topic of the opposition you will receive. I feel like my response is already too long.

God bless.

[Pastorj]

[quote="Junebugwv"]
Mike, we have homeschooled for 19 years and have always used Abeka. As they get older we use the DVDs, but used the Abeka curriculum and taught them in K. I must add, I always had to supplement their work as it could easily be covered in 1.5 to 2 hours.
[/quote]

[Pastorj]

[quote="Junebugwv"]
Mike, we have homeschooled for 19 years and have always used Abeka. As they get older we use the DVDs, but used the Abeka curriculum and taught them in K. I must add, I always had to supplement their work as it could easily be covered in 1.5 to 2 hours.
[/quote]

Junebugwv,
I know you have homeschooled for 19 years and I am sure your kids turned out great. Please don't take what I am going to say as a personal attack on your abilities. I don't know you and I am sure you have done a great job with your kids.

As far as the ABeka curriculum is concerned though. It is impossible to complete the entire curriculum in 1.5 to 2 hours if the children are completing all of the work that they are to complete.

My wife was trained at PCC and has taught k-6th. We currently homeschool our 3rd and 5th grader.
Bible - 25 minutes (Song time, Memory Verse, Bible lesson)
Math - 45 minutes (Drill, Teaching and papers)
Reading - 20 minutes
Language - 45 minutes (Teaching and self work)
Spelling - 15-20 minutes of drill
History - 30 minutes (Teaching, oral reading, and comprehensive checks
Science - 30 minutes (Teaching, oral reading, and comprehensive checks

Most parents leave out the drill and teaching times. They just give their children the papers and say go to it, as if it were a ACE pak. ABeka is not a self taught curriculum. It is designed for the parent to be the teacher. My kids go to the Pastor J. Christian School.

Again, I mean no offense by this to anyone who is or has homeschooled.

[GentleLearning]

1.) Prov 22:6
How can I make sure that my child will go in the way he should go so that he will not be misled off the path of righteousness?

2.) Deuteronomy 6:4-10
How can I make sure that my children?s training in righteousness is consistent and continuous?

3.) 1 Timothy 3:4, and Titus 1:6
How can I make sure that my household is managed well and my children are ?under control? as a testimony of my maturity?

4.) Proverbs 13:24, 22:15, Hebrews 12:7f
How can I make sure that my children?s disobedience and sin are promptly and properly disciplined in love?

5.) Matthew 18:5,6
How can I make sure that I am not putting my children in situations where they will be tempted to sin, or worse, which cause them to sin?

6.) Proverbs 13:20
How can I make sure that my children walk with ?the wise? and do not become harmed as the ?companion of fools??

7.) 1 Corinthians 15:33
How can I make sure that my children?s good character is not corrupted by their falling in with ?bad company??

8.) 2 Corinthians 6:14
How can I make sure that my children do not become spiritually, emotionally, or socially ?yoked together with unbelievers??

9.) 2 Timothy 2:16-19
How can I make sure that my children are not under the authority and influence of false teachers and false teachings?

10.) Romans 12: 1-2
How can I make sure that my children do not become conformed to the world, but are transformed by the renewing of their minds?

11.) 1 John 2: 15-17
How can I make sure that my children are taught to love God and to do his will, and are not taught to love the world or anything in the world?

12.) Ephesians 5: 15-17
How can I make sure that I am being careful with my children?s lives, redeeming their time and making the most of my opportunities with them in an evil age?

13.) Proverbs 4:23
How can I make sure that I am guarding my children?s hearts against ALL ungodly influences?

14.) Ephesians 5: 11,12
How can I make sure that my children are not enticed by the ?fruitless deeds of darkness? or exposed to those things God calls ?shameful??

15.) Philippians 4:8
How can I make sure that my children?s minds are filled with and trained to think about only those things that God considers worthy of praise?

For our family, the answer to all of these questions is: Homeschool
So...that is why we homeschool :thumb

[war_eagle]

My mother and her husband have a home on our farm. It's about a mile through the woods. She is a college instructor (as well as a highschool teacher for many yeard) and her husband is a retired college professor. My grandmother, who also had a home on our farm, was a high school English teacher for fifty years. I taught high school for several years. My wife is the only one of us without a background in education, but she does just fine.

There are a couple of reasons we chose to homeschool.

The biggest is that, based on my experience teaching in public schools, they're just not very effective. Government schools are designed always to cater to the students at the bottom, slowing the class down, so that the bottom students can catch up, rather than teaching to the stronger students of the class and allowing their rising tide to lift the other boats.

The second is that they would have to spend a total of more than three hours a day on a school bus and that just seemed like too big a waste of time to us.

The third is that government schools generally don't teach subjects such as the Bible, economics, rhetoric, philosophy, etc, and I wanted to see that they did learn these things.

We also liked the fact that we could cater lessons to build on their strengths and shore up their weaknesses.

And then, there were the usual issues of drugs, peer pressure, etc.