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Sarah M
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| Posted: April 28 2008 at 12:45pm | IP Logged
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I'm just curious- how many moms here were homeschooled themselves? If you were, what about your own experience are you trying to replicate in your homeschool now? What are you trying to avoid?
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 28 2008 at 12:59pm | IP Logged
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I was homeschooled through most of my high school. It was out-of-the-box early years of Seton Home Study. Many things have changed since then of course. Back then it was textbooks and a syllabus -- not much explanation or support.
I had to get a tutor for Algebra and Geometry. Biology was a joke. My mother didn't have knowledge nor support to flesh things out to make it come alive or explain it well to me. We were a minority in Shreveport, Louisiana. No other Catholics, just Protestant and Mormon homeschoolers. We were considered strange by the other homeschoolers and our fellow Catholics. So were pretty much loners.
And what I enjoyed the most was something not in the syllabus. American Literature I started reading other works by the same authors, and started my own little study on the religious beliefs of many of the authors. It was quite revealing to me.
But I "wasted" time because I didn't finish my senior year -- it took me two years, and the last semester was at the real Seton School. I have a lot of gaps, and I was extremely burned out to even think of college.
The papers and exams were what kept me from finishing. I dragged my feet and didn't want to do poorly, so I didn't do them at all. 
What would I do differently? I'm not sure. High school is completely different than grade school. I helped my siblings in their own schooling, so I did observe some things. I didn't think there was anything else than boxed curriculum, so that was my journey in finding Catholic Charlotte Mason and Real Learning. It opened up the window and let in fresh air, but I haven't hashed out the actual nuts and bolts of what we will do here.
I liked having plans and something to answer to, but I also like freedom to explore. I'm a unit study type in my own life, and love books to supplement any interest. I need accountability, but not rigidity. I want hands-on learning besides just text and workbooks. And I don't necessarily desire Catholic texts in everything, especially math and spelling.
So, clear as mud.....
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Jennifer G. Miller
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mellyrose
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| Posted: April 28 2008 at 4:37pm | IP Logged
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I was not homeschooled.
BUT, we moved quite a bit and my parents instilled a love of learning in me by encouraging research about new places, writing letters to family, providing lots of reading material and sometimes more "official" assignments to fill in the gaps between moves. There were times when we'd be in temporary housing for a month or longer when I wouldn't be enrolled in a new school. I think this experience made me much more excited about the learning process and my ability to make it happen outside of a structured environment.
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Melanie in AZ
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Leslie
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| Posted: April 28 2008 at 8:04pm | IP Logged
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I was homeschooled 2nd-6th grade by my parents choice. (I later chose to homeschool again for the last 2 years of highschool, but that is another story).
We lived in California at the time and were some of those earlier "trail blazers" (or at least it felt like it!). I would say I was "unschooled"--but I'm not sure my parents really called it that. I was not raised Catholic, but was raised in a very religious family. That being said, we had pretty much ultimate freedom to follow our bliss. This was WONDERFUL in so many ways--although I do feel it has left some gaps for me to fill as an adult, mostly in the area of self-discipline  . I have so many happy memories of days upon days spent along the Monterey coast searching tide pools, or reading all day in my PJ's--usually anything by Madeleine L'Engle I could get my hands on, or making up a silly radio show and recording it with my BFF (also a homeschooler and we just got back in touch!). My mom must have been constantly strewing (is that the right word? I feel like I read it somewhere) because I know I wouldn't have taken up the study of geology (for a brief time) unless there were books on it lying around. We had books...piles and piles of books. When my dad's business went bankrupt (he was a teacher before leaving to go into sales) we moved to Woodland Park, CO for the summer and I remember getting lost (quite literally) with my brother in the woods behind our house and when we weren't doing that we were reading the piles and piles of books that my mother couldn't even part with to put into storage  .
In our family, going to college was always the ultimate goal. I did go to NYU. I didn't finish. Then I went to Salem State. I didn't finish there either  . I did really well academically, but my parents went through a nasty divorce in my freshman year and then I was pretty much on my own for a while. I don't think I'm ashamed that I didn't finish college (I have about one year left), but for some reason I wish I could just point to a degree when I meet up with skeptics (I have known oh so many in my life!). That must be pride, though.
I'm babbling.
Somehow,I learned everything I needed to learn to do well during the times I was in school (even one year at an expensive preppy high school) and in college. I wish I could put my finger on how. As I'm sorting it out I'm sure I'll share more here. The best I can come up with at this moment is my parents were invested in us. They believed in us. They surrounded us with good literature, fine art, and an awareness of God's love for us. They discussed all manner of ideas with us and taught us to always think for ourselves. Most importanly, they somehow conveyed that learning is the same as living and never a chore.
As far as what I'd like to do differently? Teach my kids how to do chores so that they aren't fighting as much of an uphill battle as their mother is in her 30's . And, of course, I want to pass along the seedling of faith I am discovering as a new catholic. I am sooooo grateful for these boards to help me in that journey! :)
P.S. Even though I was unschooled, I am completely undecided about what I feel comfortable doing with my own children. I haven't (and may never) defined our current family's approach to homeschooling. This year is a bit of everything. Next year I think I am going to use CHC as a spine curriculum...I'm praying, and muddling, my way through it all!
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Leslie
Mom to Kyler 6, Maddie 4, & Lucas 2
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Red Cardigan
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Homeschooled from sophomore to senior high school.
Loved it.
Biggest thing I want to replicate: moving my daughters toward educational self-sufficiency. That means that by high school I want them to be involved in selecting curricula, I want them to do all their own lesson planning under some general guidelines from me (such as when tests are scheduled and how much material they have to have covered by then) and I want them to be positive and focused about schooling, even if that means tweaking things on occasion.
Things I may change: there are so many programs and resources out there for high schoolers now, and I hope to be able to take advantage of these to help my girls get a better grasp of some subjects. Math wasn't that much of a problem for me, but science, particularly physics, was--a little outside help would have gone a long way, but it just wasn't available back then.
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aiereis
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I was homeschooled during grades 7-12. I really like the idea of homeschooling, but in my case I think it was deficient. For the most part, my mom would just give me the textbook and have me do the next lesson. Then I would grade it on my own. I rarely was given help in math, so by the end of each school year I was only able to do about 1/3 the problems in each lesson (it was Saxon). I barely studied any science during that time and the only classic literature I read was a few Jane Austen books, and one each of Dickens, Shakespeare and Canterbury Tales. When I got to college, people would make statements like, "That's just simple high school biology" or refer to MacBeth or Hamlet, and I would have no idea what they were talking about. My point is, I want my children to have the basics of a well-rounded education and be able to understand what they are learning instead of skipping what they don't know.
By the time I was in high school, we had moved to the country and I didn't know anyone. I only went out for piano lessons, Mass and grocery shopping. I know people give lists of things homeschoolers do for social activities, but I didn't have anything like that. The only people I ever saw were over 50. I was very lonely. We didn't even go to the library for me to get new reading material. When people would ask me about socialization, I would rattle off the typical statistics that homeschoolers give about socialization, but I always felt like a hypocrite because I longed for someone reasonably close to my age to talk to. I want my children to be able to interact with other children and have opportunities to do things outside of the home.
Sorry if this seems like a bit of a rant. A lot of these things have only recently come to the surface of my mind, since before a couple months ago I never thought much about my homeschooling experiences. In fact, before I realized these things, I was very pro-homeschooling. Now, I realize it is the best, and I WANT to homeschool, but part of me doesn't because I am afraid my children will suffer like I did.
Christina
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 10:16am | IP Logged
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Leslie wrote:
| or making up a silly radio show and recording it with my BFF (also a homeschooler and we just got back in touch!) |
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Too funny! I was not homeschooled, but one of my best friends was, and we did this very thing growing up! One of my best childhood friend memories! We did commercials and everything, lol!
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Lindsay
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tracym
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 12:06pm | IP Logged
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I was not homeschooled.
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Tracy M- mom to Allen 12, Laura 9, Joeseph 7, and Anthony 4
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marihalojen
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I was homeschooled for middle school using Our Lady of the Rosary with lots of CM tossed into the mix by my English major/Shakespeare minor of a mother. I loved the time to follow my own interests and the time to be outside, and I have to say their booklist was great. I still like looking back at my nature journal from that time a la Edith Holden.
Regarding what I'm trying to avoid? From Sea to Shining Sea.  The most banal, awful text I've ever had the misfortune to come across in my entire life. 
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~Jennifer
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 2:22pm | IP Logged
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marihalojen wrote:
I was homeschooled for middle school using Our Lady of the Rosary with lots of CM tossed into the mix by my English major/Shakespeare minor of a mother. I loved the time to follow my own interests and the time to be outside, and I have to say their booklist was great. I still like looking back at my nature journal from that time a la Edith Holden.
Regarding what I'm trying to avoid? From Sea to Shining Sea. The most banal, awful text I've ever had the misfortune to come across in my entire life.
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Jennifer, I think I've asked this before, but was OLRS based in KY or VA at the time? What years did you take the courses?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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marihalojen
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I'm uncertain where it was based, Jenn, but the years would have been the early 90's, my sis just turned 17 and we were homeschooling when she was born...
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~Jennifer
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The Mari Hal-O-Jen
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Erin
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I wasn't homeschooled but my six younger siblings were for most of their schooling until a nasty divorce forced them into the school system.
I have nine+ large boxes in my shipping container filled with every text book on the homeschooling market 18 years+ ago. Rod and Staff, A Bekka, Bob Jones Every grade of old Seton books and many other miscellaneous books. All there and I can't bear to use them. I did however pull out the never used (LLAL) Learning Language Arts Through Literature books recently and may use them.
I figure I got a head start I learnt what did and didn't work on my siblings before I even had my own children. 
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Erin
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SallyT
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I wasn't homeschooled -- I went for fourteen years (ages 3-17) to a girls' prep school. The gaps in my education, especially regarding math, are enormous. And I was right there in that classroom, for which my parents were paying good money, the whole time . . . I think that regardless of where you are, you learn what you're ready and willing to learn -- being offered something is no guarantee that you'll take it! So gaps in one's education aren't unique to homeschooling . . .
One thing I like about homeschooling my own children is that 1) they are learning to live together, which my brother and I really never did, going to separate schools and leading separate lives; and 2) they are far better at being autodidacts than I was at their ages.
Just for what it's worth . . .
Sally
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Sparrow
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| Posted: May 07 2008 at 4:18pm | IP Logged
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I wasn't homeschooled or raised Catholic, either (dh and I are both converts). School was a big source of frustration for me for myriad reasons, even though I was bright. I'm not sure what I'm trying to avoid, but I know I want my kids to enjoy learning in a flexible environment that's sensitive to them as individuals.
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Mackfam
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I wasn't  , but my brother and sister were. I was always a little jealous. I saw them blossom. Their talents and gifts were fostered. My mom really succeeded in cultivating an awareness of and appreciation for beauty. I loved watching this take place and I certainly benefited even if only in a second-hand sort of a way.
I'm grateful for the example - it meant I was never really intimidated by this lifestyle. That isn't to say it doesn't have its challenges - it does! Just that it isn't something foreign.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Topic: Were you homeschooled?
