home educator

Well my friends, we took the leap......we have been for one compleate week a Homeschooling family!

What pushed us this way, or persuaded us down this path are a collection of events. First and formost is my desire that my children recieve the BEST possiable EDUCATION avaliable to them, and my full belief that it is my job or rather our job as parents to ensure our children's education to its fullest potental. Secondary to this is a grouping of events that have transpired over the course of most of this school year.
It all starts with the school, overall Rosedal North is a good school, but due to recent budget crisis, the school was forced to increase thier child to teacher ratio for this school year to 31 students in the kindergarten class room. Which in my opinon was WAY to many children for one teacher to adiquetly teach. BUT, after much milling it over, Rob and I decided we should give it a shot....after all, Matthew would surely benefit from social interatcion with his peers, and the opportunity to interact with an adult instructior and a structured environment is important too....right?
So let me enlighten you as to what my 5/6 year old boy learned in the 6 months he attended public school:

1st, I'll start in the class room:
My son learned that you should never question authority, even if they are wrong. Case in point: Matthew comes home and says: mommy did you know that its a myth that flamingos are pink because of the food they eat? My response (after I looked it up to be sure, since I'm not a zoologist) No son they get thier color from the brine shrimp and algea that they eat.........Him: No! Miss Cable said it was not true!
Second Point: Matthew got in trouble for going down the slide head first at reccess, when I asked him why he didn't follow the rules, he proceeded to tell me how he was playing with a little girl in his class and they fell-slid down the slide on accident, and that she had gone down head first as well, but Miss Cable only saw him. When I asked why he didn't tell her? His response: because I didn't think she would believe me.
Also in the classroom my son learned that its ok to break the rules and talk, but you should be sure you don't get caught, lest you be the one who misses recesse time.
He also learned that its ok for your teacher to belittle a little girl in front of her peers for farting on the rug, its ok for a teacher to single out a particular student because "you need to make sure you pay attention Mariah, because your one who doesn't KNOW how to do this"
He also learned that even if you follow the rules and raise your hand, you won't neccessarily be acknowledged and what you have to say has vurtually no value to the person who is supposed to be teaching you. I actually heard his teacher say to a child who had his hand raised for some time wanting to use the restroom "I see your hand Joeseph, but I'm ignoring you right now because I need to take roll" She told that poor child not that she saw him, however he needed to wait just a moment while she finished the task at hand but simply that she was IGNORING him, his needs held no value to her own.

Also in the classroom, my son learned that just because you are able to compleate a task compleatly and fully, does not mean you should do so. He got in trouble many times for Jumping ahead and finishing the task before the other children.......which I would have supported had he not actually read and followed all instructions given to him and compleated them correctly. What he was being taught was that the Public school system has a standards box, and if you don't fit in that box you are eithier singled out because you don't know enough, or pressured to stay on task when you know to much, and not activley pursue more knowledge than what is being given to you.

Outside of the classroom, my son learned the word, fat, he worried about being made fun of for the clothes he wore, he listened to 6 year old girls talk about not eating to much junk food so they wouldn't be fat, he listened to his teacher describe Martin Luther King Jr. in such a way that he came home convinced that "we don't like black people, because we are white, right mom?" a simple miss understanding I assumed until I brought up Lincolon's birthday and he informed me that he knew about him already, Miss Cable had told them he was a president, and this one man didn't like him very much so he shot him in the head and he died!
and these things happened in a "controlled" environment with just 30 peers and 2 adult supervisors, I can only imagine what he will be subjected to when he has recesse with grades 1-3 and just 3 aids for the WHOLE school yard??

Just a few weeks before I pulled matthew out of school, I recieved a notice that due to budget cut backs, the school would no longer be able to provide kleenex, papertowels, or liquid hand soap for the kindergartners, so If parents could make donations that would be great...first they are taking away my childs individual attention by increasing class size, and now they are endangering his health by denying him basic sanitary iteams? I don't think so!

those are just a few of the many examples that made us decided to change our educational goals for our family.

We have currently enrolled Matthew at Valley Oaks Charter School. VOCS is a "public school" that is state funded and accredited with the state as a "homeschool support"
The school provides me with all materials that I need to teach Matthew in each subject, at no cost. The provide a resource teacher (someone who is a credientaled teacher with the state) with whom we meet once a month to discuss any concerns or questions I have about matthew's progress. Monica also files a report with the state monthly for me that includes a sample of the work that Matthew and I do at home and I bring to her, as a way for me to "prove" that we are meeting his educational goals. (no paper work for me....I love that part!) VOCS also participates in state testing like all of the other public schools, so we will have regular proof again that we are doing our job as parent educators.
Some of my favorite things about the school are : They offer a passport membership for free to enrolled students, so we get into a TON of local and national museums and science centers for FREE. They also offer enrichment programs at no cost for the children once a week at the school in all diffrent subjects like art, PE, Agricuture, ect... They have 900 students in K-12th grade for Bakersfield and a few of the outlying communities, and last year they offered 150 diffrent field trip activities to the children. They have a wood shop, the have a computer lab, a library, hands on science kits for learning, a Partents Club, they do soap box durbies on an new track they recently bought, they offer a prom for the older kids, and at the begining of the year when funds allow, they also offer outside enrichment free or low cost for the kids such as gymnastics, t-ball, karate, flag football........ect...
On March 16th I will be enrolling Matthew in the Living History Week that they have at the school, he will have the opportunity to go for an entire week from 9am-1pm and dress up in pioneer period clothing, and learn about living in the west, he will also learn an age appropriate "trade" each day. The event is supervised by school staff, and while I am welcome to stay and participate, I am also able to let him stay alone and interact with the children and staff.
I have gotten many worried questions about sociallizing from many friends, and my answer is this: in Public School, your children spend an average of 20-30 min. twice a day outside "socializing", they are not permitted to talk in class, and in most schools now they aren't even allowed to talk during the 20 min they have to eat lunch. so If you add that time up Public schooled children average 2 1/2 hours of peer sociallization a week in school and about 3 hours or less daily of socialization at home with Mom and dad and family after you figure in homework, meals, and preperation for the next day. My son will be getting 3 hrs. of enrichment classes (that is hands on, classroom engaged instruction) one day a week from the school, and given that our student to educator ratio is one on one at home we accomplish our school work in about 2 hours a day. leaving about 7 hours of FREE time after you factor in the same meals and next day prep.
another day a week some of his time will be spent in homeschool play groups, and the rest is spent at home with his family and friends developing long lasting and loving relationships, with not only his immediate family, but all of our close friends who come into our life each day because we are free to spend that quality time with them.
The break down:
Public school: 17 1/2 hours average free time each school week for emotional, social, and childhood development outside of a controlled environment

Homeschool: 31 hours average of free time each school week for emotional social, and childhood development outside of a controlled environment

And secondly I ask this- Each year your children spend an average of 2-3 months on Summer Vacation, away from all of thier friends at school, and surrounded by family and close friends- are they any LESS social at the end of that 3 month period then they were when it started? So that begs the question, what does "school" have to do with socialization?

The public school cirriculum offered to matthew was Kidergarten level except for his reading which was given to him at 2nd grade level.........why, you might ask did he not recieve more complicated work if he was able to do it correctly? the response I got was that " It would be a distraction to the other children if he was doing work so diffrent from thiers" Again, he must fit in the box. At home, after our inital assesment at VOCS, we are currently in our second lesson of 1st grade Math, We have been provided with 1st -3rd grade reading material, and our social studies and science this week was done at the San Diego Natural History Museum where we discussed the diffrence between rivers and oceans, the diffrent wildlife that survive in the climates in California, and what it means for animals and seeds to lie dormant, while wating for periods of rain. and that was just the first exhibit we saw!

The changes in my sons behavior are amazing! he is no longer full of pent up energy, he is never bored, and we have a continuing list of things he thinks about and wants to learn about that we pick from each week, and research to his satisfaction. Most recently we made sugar crystals.

I can't wait to continue to update you all on the journey of homeschooling, it will be a journey, and not every moment will be a great one.......but in the end, I believe that the journey itself will be!
for anyone considering homeschooling or interested in learning a little bit more about the public school system and what it actually teaches your children, I suggest that you pick up a book entitled: Dumbing Us Down, By John Taylor Gatto