I dont understand Home Schooling?

Question

Forgive my ignorance, as its not well known in Australia ( well at least not the part I live in ).

How can 'ordinary' mum or dads, just teach the kids?

What about Maths? Now I know not everyone is good at Maths ...........How do you teach it, if you dont know it?

Science? How can you broaden your childs education if you dont know everything about all subjects that would be offered at 'real school'.

Im talking about as they get older in high school ages.

Im just curious!

Answer 1

You can reasearch science with your child and that will open up SO many doors! and Math Follow the book and visiy Library and onlinE!

Answer 2

LoL! I was so sure you were going to ask "why? what's the point?" and, as a fellow aussie, I could go into my spiel about living in a remote area (think: the middle of the GAFA, the back of the back of the back of Bourke!), the Govt not knowing what to do to get by up here and how my dad reckons he "isn't paying a mob of strangers $25,000 a year to teach us bad habits when he can do it himself for free!" LoL!  

We are unschoolers so we don't "do" a conventional curriculum or syllabus; our mum supports us in our learning but she doesn't direct it - we do.

Families who take a more conventional approach to education will either have the parent/teacher learning alongside the kids or they find other people within their community to help their kids with the tougher subjects. Also some families do distance education or correspondence courses or cyber school or "school in a box" where they have access to subject course tutors by phone or email or fax or webcam etc. In addition there are private tutors that parents can pay to teach particular subjects or help out with the tougher concepts. Plus there are heaps of interactive web resources run by Uni professors etc as well as teaching resources like classes, seminars etc available on DVD.

Also (without getting bashed, hopefully!) I think you have to remember that educational expectations and standards differ widely from country to country. Many are...umm...not demanding. Hence there are heaps of countries where any half decently read parent could probably find it pretty easy to equal and no doubt surpass the expectations of their government school system.

Answer 3

I am homeschooling two high schoolers. Among our homeschool friends, we parents DONT teach our teens all their subjects.

For many subjects our kids are autodidacts and teach themselves, with the help of textbooks, videos, websites.

For other subjects, we hire out. I don't teach my son piano, he goes to a weekly lesson with a private teacher and practices on his own. Some of my friends are not able to teach higher math, so I teach a two-hour weekly Algebra 2 class and the students do their practice and exams at home.

In many states there is also the option of homeschooling through the public school system. My 13 year old daughter is enrolled in California Virtual Academy. She learns at home, but interacts with her teacher and other classmates via email and online real-time sessions, once per week, per class. It is much like taking a university course by distance learning.

There are many options for homeschooling teens. And of course if it isn't working for your family, there's also the option to go back into traditional school.

Also, many teens in our area begin taking courses at the local college at age 16 or 17.

Answer 4

Basically if you don't know how to do something that you would be teaching your kid, you are going to be learning with them. Homeschooling makes you have to get all these books and worksheets and things (just like you would be using in regular school).  But at home.  I guess it works for some kids, but there is a social factor that is missing. Some need it some dont.  Some kids can completely adjust once thrown into the "real world" after homeschooling, but some can't and end up being outcasts.  But to answer your question you learn with them, unless you have a very independent child who would prefer to just learn it from the book and can look up any questions they might have via the internet, book, other books, and solve it on their own.  That is the better way.

Answer 5

Well, for me, I teach myself as we go along.  I am living on a shoestring since this takes time and working full-time is out of the question (I've tried going back to work full-time several times while homeschooling and since I have no help from spouse for ANYTHING I end up very ill from no sleep/rest).  I study each part of whatever subject we are learning via the internet and books from the library until I understand, then I help him learn it.  My son is learning much more than he ever did at the private Christian school he was in from preschool until mid 5th.  He's a high school freshman now, and has a B average.  We are using a correspondence course from a school in a different state.  The subjects and time frame are very difficult and stringent, but we are managing.

Answer 6

Hmm, that's a good question, let me tell you a normal day for me.

I usually get up at 8, eat for a bit, then go over to my sister's (she's the one that teaches me) and get started. Now, I only do Algebra over there for the sheer fact that, it's tough, so basically I sit down and do Albebra for about an hour straight, then come back home and finish my science (anatomy), history, any remaining math, spelling, and so forth.

I know it sounds liek alot less from the goverment schools, which it is. ALSO, it gives you a chance to follow other goals in your life. Like for instense, I'm 13, and already I'm better at Graphic Design than my brother who is getting his Masters in Graphic Design. Another thing is it gives me alot of extra time to not only do that, but to play Airsoft, Skate, Snowboard, and hangout with friends. It totally rocks!

As of for how do they teach the kids, usually (but I know some people who don't do this) just by books from like Alpha Omega, off line for like Math or English.

I noticed you said "subjects that would be offered at 'real school'" what subjects might that be? Getting gunned down by a gang member or a Jihadist? Perhaps, social skills?

That's bull c**p, the goverment schools don't teach you anything but how to be a ******. =D

I'm sure that didn't help, but it was fun to type it. Cheers.

Answer 7

I have one in college, two teens, and one elementary aged child.

You really do learn right along with your kids, often finding the joy of grasping something you yourself never got while in school when you were there. It is a great feeling! I have loved learning things that I never would have understood had I not been teaching my kids. My daughter needed to take the COMPASS test to be placed into a local community college composition class since she was still in high school. This is a substitute for an ACT or SAT where the college can get instant scores for students of all ages. I decided to sign up to take it instead of just waiting around for her to finish. I scored in the 99th percentile in reading, writing, and into the trig level for math. Oh, how delightful it was to realize how much smarter I am now than I was when I was fresh out of high school.  I have gotten a great homeschool education right along with my kids! hehehehe.

Community colleges often welcome homeschoolers to enrol in their courses while in high school. This is a great option to have for those subjects you don't feel comfortable teaching.

Co-ops are another great route to take. In our co-op we have a math professor and an engineer to turn to. We co-op science so that we can pool our money for good lab equipment.

We do go for tutors in subjects that I do feel incapable of. My daughter wanted to learn Spanish. That is one subject I felt I could not teach. We have several Spanish curriculums and resources (movies in Spanish with English subtitles are great), but we also have tutors to verify she has the correct pronounciations and fluency which the static currculums cannot do as well.

Answer 8

My daughter is only in the 3rd grade, but she wants to be a Palentologist when she grows up...so she does a lot of Hands-on science.

Now I take advantage of 'outside' influences---ex: Our local History Center is having an camp day dealing with 'Putting the past together' (archeology)---for $20 bucks she will spend the day learning from the experts on her level.

   First off she learns from someone other than mum;

  Second she spends the day with others close to her age and the day AWAY from mommy ( gotta have those days away or risk losing it).

I do not claim to know everything, and I tell my daughter that. She knows that if mom doesn't know the answer, that it will be searched for (sometimes by both of us) or that mom will find someone who knows the answer.

I have learned to take one day at a time , not sweat the little things, play to her strengths and cross my bridges ONLY when I come to them.

More than likely I will have to rely on the 'experts' as she gets older...but that 'bridge' is yet to come, so not crossing it yet.

The deal is, if you are afraid to take the plunge; not going to be honest with your child(ren) or yourself about your strengths and weakness; don't want to rely on the outside world and are afraid of 'Real' teaching....then KEEP them safely tucked in goverment schools where they learn like robots, spout political propaganda and become good little zombies.

Mine is well on her way to being another Lara Croft.

Answer 9

How do ordinary moms or dads teach their children to tie their shoes? Count to 10? Make their beds? Cook a meal? If ordinary parents can do that, can't they also teach their child the sounds of the alphabet? How to write the letters? How to add 5 and 6? Or even how to multiply 5 by 6?

Math? I'm sure most parents can handle early math just fine. After that, there are GREAT resources out there that do the teaching so that parents don't have to. I actually know one mom whose son is 12 and she just feels incapable of teaching him math and hasn't found a good text for him, so she's hired a math tutor.

Science? The library is full of science books that will cover everything and much more for grades 1-9 for sure (ages roughly 6-14). For high school, those who are getting diplomas where I live tend to use the same textbooks as the schools do and find supplemental resources as needed.

Teachers don't know everything about all the subjects being offered in schools either. I don't know how it works in Australia, but here, the programs get changed every 7-10 years so the teachers are regularly having to learn new content, along with their students. My own teachers in high school were sometimes really bad--I had one who gave us a practice exam for the government exams we were going to be doing and he couldn't even do some of the questions. I ended up just learning from the textbook in that class (not that anything he wrote on the board wasn't already in the textbook). Most homeschooled high school kids are fairly independent and know how to learn; they don't need to have someone there "teaching" them. Think about it: if you wanted to learn more about some topic, let's say the history of South America, would you have to hire a teacher to be able to learn about it? Or would you know how to look for different resources and learn from them?

Answer 10

Like others have said, you learn right along with your children. This is possible for everything, even physics, chemistry, advanced math and so on.

One thing most people that do not homeschool have a hard time understanding is homeschooling is DIFFERENT.

The books are written differently. They are written so you can teach your children. They come with teacher's manuals, answer keys, lab manuals (when appropriate) and I would not consider purchasing a higher level math curriculum without a detailed solutions manual so I can see, step by step, how to solve a problem and look for errors.

Another thing people don't understand is public school teachers have all that info too, you just don't see it. A degree in education does not make you an authority in every subject. It prepares you to teach a group of children and everything that goes along with it.

Most teacher's manuals have things like teaching tips, enrichment activities, background information, all kinds of things like that.

I think one big misconception about homeschooling is people honestly think homeschool parents use public school textbooks and have to try to make sense out of them and teach their children from them. It is impossible to do that unless you have all the supplemental materials that go along with those textbooks.

That is how someone like me, that basically does not like advanced math, can help my daughter that is a natural math brained person: I have the tools I need to accomplish the task.

Answer 11

See, First of all Parents has to take decision when they go to admit their children in high school. Of course Maths is tough almost  all the pupil.So initially parents can take a step to gave them necessary education in home itself as tuition cl assess. That  is why they can improve their knowledge from the beginning stage.This is called home schooling.,I came to understand Australia is a developed country as others.You know famous one cricket team also performing well in Australia. They are wise and clever..Thanks.