So I was thinking that my last post about this probably sounded a bit jumbled, but the thoughts were just running through my head as I was writing them down..

Well, I want to make it perfectly clear that I do not think that public schools are evil or anything. I do feel, however, that if you are able to homeschool your kids, then you should at least give it a try. You will not ruin them! There is so much information out there on the internet, at the library, that it really isn’t hard to learn what needs to be learned. I have learned so many more things since I graduated high school just from studying up on things over the internet.  Sure I could have paid to go to school to learn how to build a website and all that goes along with that, but you know what? I’ve done my own research and taken the time here and there to learn from all of the free information out there, that I now know how to build my own website and how to write in html, css, and I even know alot more about php than I used to.  It’s taken awhile, but that’s only because I’ve had kids along the way and I don’t spend every day working on that stuff.

I just really believe that a big issue with public schools is that there are too many kids per classroom. A teacher cannot possibly deal with every childs individual learning abilities and styles. They don’t get a whole lot of one on one time and many parents just send thier kids to school but don’t  do much to reinforce thier learning once school is out.  I also believe that teachers ought to get paid according to thier performance. I know when I was in school, I had certain teachers that I loved, and most other kids did too. I learned the most from those teachers and they were the ones that seemed to really enjoy teaching and really took an interest in thier students. 

Anyway, so now that we have all these resources at hand, I really think that many parents can get back to teaching thier own children from home if they so choose.  Back in the “old days” parents didn’t have all the things necessary to teach thier children apart from reading, writing and arithmatic. But when it came to history, science and advanced math, a school teacher really was necessary.

As far as how much the government is involved with homeschooling. I am one that believes there should be some way to monitor how homeschooled kids are doing. Otherwise you will get more people keeping thier kids out of school and then not teaching them anything and these poor kids will go out into the world not having much of an education to help them.  I don’t think there ought to be any rules on how or what should be taught, but I do think that testing every so often is not too much to ask.  Oregon, which is where we live, only requires that homeschooled kids be tested before grades 3, 5, 8, and 10. 

I do not think there should be any more restrictions than that. I am in favor of testing for a couple reasons. How else are you able to determine how a child is doing and where they are at? Also, some parents may not take thier childs education as seriously if there are no deadlines. Given the fact that in Oregon you don’t have to register as a homeschooler untill your child turns 7 on or before Sept. 1st, and then you can choose to start them either in 1st or second grade, I think that gives plenty of time to be ready for a test by 3rd grade, especially when children that are homeschooled tend to advance faster than in public school because of the one on one teaching.

I really don’t think one should be afraid of tests if they know they’ve been putting forth the effort to teach thier child what they should be learning.

Well, that’s my homeschooling soap box for now.

To be continued……