Posted: 9/23/2025 8:56:31 AM EDT
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Just a post on how homeschool is going for us... My wife and I decided to homeschool our twin boys for their Freshman year this year for many reasons. We actually liked their public school overall but thought that it was too large to give them the attention they needed (over 1000 in their graduating class). I had one boy do so poorly on a state standardized test that he was removed from a STEM elective to take a remedial math class (while having an A in 8th grade math...that was all on him not even putting in the effort though). They're both in band and the public school band here is a larger program than even their football program, so it would have monopolized their time. With Boy Scouts and sports, one was willing to give up sports and the other wanted to give up band to play sports which I didn't want them to do. They have generally been A and B students, though one of them received a D this last 8th grade semester in Language Arts. And, one of them got in a fight. To his defense, he beat up a kid that was bulling him and some other kids. (The assistant principal, who I love, brought me aside and told me that he saw the video footage and my son got "several good licks in on him". LOL) So, we started Classical Conversations this year. We also enrolled them in the local homeschool band which meets once a week for an hour and a half. They are allowed to play sports for the public school that they are zoned for so they both are on the swim team and they're both in Boy Scouts. Well, they hate it and, it's pretty miserable for my wife and I. They are putting in the same effort that they would in public school, which is the bare minimum. We have to be on them and constantly. But, with the individualized attention, they can't slide below the radar. They complain that they "never" see their friends even though they see friends at sports and scouts. And, almost ever weekend we have friends sleeping over or they're spending the night over at friends. Our only real solace is knowing that they are learning more than they'd learn in public school. We all decided that we were going to do this for the 9th grade year and re-evaluate at the end of the year. Not sure we're going to continue. I'm pretty sure public school is out of the picture but maybe private school? We'll see. |
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We homeschool our 6 kids with a classical LCMS approach. Started when the oldest was in 2nd Grade. If you are going to a Classical style education after your boys being in traditional education for their whole career, I think that to be an uphill battle. Normally I'm all in for homeschool and some homeschoolers here might disagree with me but I think you've missed your opportunity and should probably send them back to school |
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We homeschool all of our kids and have from day one too. It is certainly a "culture shock" to go from a class of 1000 to 2. The thing to remember (in my mind) is why you pulled the to be homeschooled. It wasn't because of their social life. Giving them the old social life instead of the solid education is not a good tradeoff in the long run. The one thing my wife and I do is we technically do a distance learning homeschool for their high school years so they get an accredited diploma. This also means they struggle less with being forced into a GED or such just to show they actually did their classwork. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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I know everyone talked up Home-Schooling your kids.......but not all parents are cut out for it. It takes a great/special parent to home school their kids, actually get them a good education, AND not make them turn out to be some socially awkward and overly sheltered from the real world kid when it's all said and done. Some parents just aren't cut out for it. |
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Its one thing to home school elementary school aged kids but its another for older kids. You took them from their social settimg and social life. You dont look at it that way but it was their life. Besides that, kids who grow up home schooled are just weird. Every kid I've ever known who was home schooled ended up weird. I think it robs them of building social skills. Another thing is, they're only going to learn what you and your wife know. Im not just talking about math problems. Im talking experience and experiences. They will never have the interaction of 20 different teachers to learn from. Life and life skills aren't just about being book smart. Its also about experiences and learning from experiences. Both, the good and bad. Im sure you had some great and some crappy teachers that you learned from. Im sure every teacher thought they were great. Im not saying youre either but keep that in mind. Im glad I had a bunch and wasn't stuck with one my whole time in school and also had a lot of interaction with people going through the same exact experiences as me. Thats my personal thoughts on it. I would find a private school before I ever tried to home school. |
Proud deplorable. MAGA!!
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1000 students is a lot to me. I graduated with 28 in my class (after combining schools and including a foreign exchange student). My brother graduated (before the schools combined) with 9 in his class a couple years prior to me. I'm not sure how I'd handle your situation OP. To be honest I don't know how people deal with these huge schools for their kids. |
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You're the parent, play the long game. Kids want short-term comfort rather than long-term strength, even when they know the short term comfort is poison. You make the decision that's best for them and stand your ground. You have to care for them more when they're 25 than they think you care for them right now. If classic conversations doesn't work, try to look for a Hillsdale College Barney charter school. I've been a classic educator for 20 years. Feel free to message me. |
Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out.
General education should not be mere job training, but training in how to be fully human.
General education should not be mere job training, but training in how to be fully human.
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Thanks for the insight, gents. All good feedback. Both my wife and I have advanced technical degrees and have taught/tutored at the college level. But as pointed out above, not at the high school level and certainly not our own children. Throughout middle school, we felt like we were teaching them the material anyway...though usually in a rushed manner the night before a test or the night before a paper was due. The good thing is, no amount of involvement in their public school education will equal what we know they've learned with us. And, I'm certain they won't be any worse off education-wise than they would be having gone to school. Socially, that's yet to be determined. We're going to finish this year then make a decision on how to proceed...we'll see. Our neighbor is an elementary school teacher and she's asked us how it's been going and our response has been "Their teachers lied to us! They're NOT a joy to have in class." |
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Originally Posted By Firestarter123: 1000 students is a lot to me. I graduated with 28 in my class (after combining schools and including a foreign exchange student). My brother graduated (before the schools combined) with 9 in his class a couple years prior to me. I'm not sure how I'd handle your situation OP. To be honest I don't know how people deal with these huge schools for their kids. I was talking to a customer who asked if I thought I would get into Texas A&M nowadays. I was being humble and joking about how I wasn't sure how I got admitted back then. I turned to this guy and asked him if he thought he'd get in. Of course, he said he'd easily get in. He was one of the top students at his school. So I asked how many were in his graduating class? 15. LMFAO |
"Now none of the frightened soldiers moved, for they saw that cowardice and valor purchased equal plots in the sniper's killing field."
"Not interested in a lecture by either side”
- isaidme
"Not interested in a lecture by either side”
- isaidme
| I'm sorry to hear this. If they want to put in minimum effort and you can't motivate them to do better, I'm not sure it matters academically where they go. There are probably social aspects or moral reasons to prefer one over the other, but if they're not driven by internal or external forces to succeed academically, it may be a wash from that perspective. |
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Originally Posted By ARAMP1: Just a post on how homeschool is going for us... My wife and I decided to homeschool our twin boys for their Freshman year this year for many reasons. We actually liked their public school overall but thought that it was too large to give them the attention they needed (over 1000 in their graduating class). I had one boy do so poorly on a state standardized test that he was removed from a STEM elective to take a remedial math class (while having an A in 8th grade math...that was all on him not even putting in the effort though). They're both in band and the public school band here is a larger program than even their football program, so it would have monopolized their time. With Boy Scouts and sports, one was willing to give up sports and the other wanted to give up band to play sports which I didn't want them to do. They have generally been A and B students, though one of them received a D this last 8th grade semester in Language Arts. And, one of them got in a fight. To his defense, he beat up a kid that was bulling him and some other kids. (The assistant principal, who I love, brought me aside and told me that he saw the video footage and my son got "several good licks in on him". LOL) So, we started Classical Conversations this year. We also enrolled them in the local homeschool band which meets once a week for an hour and a half. They are allowed to play sports for the public school that they are zoned for so they both are on the swim team and they're both in Boy Scouts. Well, they hate it and, it's pretty miserable for my wife and I. They are putting in the same effort that they would in public school, which is the bare minimum. We have to be on them and constantly. But, with the individualized attention, they can't slide below the radar. They complain that they "never" see their friends even though they see friends at sports and scouts. And, almost ever weekend we have friends sleeping over or they're spending the night over at friends. Our only real solace is knowing that they are learning more than they'd learn in public school. We all decided that we were going to do this for the 9th-grade year and re-evaluate at the end of the year. Not sure we're going to continue. I'm pretty sure public school is out of the picture but maybe private school? We'll see. I went the route of supplementing the public curriculum with whatever I felt was missing with my kids. We have excellent public school programs in SC, particularly for High School. Both of my kids are attending SC governor's schools this year and we couldn't be happier. We're an intelligent, well-educated couple, but we couldn't come close to providing the variety of expertise they get from having 70+ PHDs on staff for 280 kids, as is the case at my seniors' school. We've never really had any politically objectionable issues and the governor's schools seem to be even less so. I get the appeal of homeschooling in primary school, particularly if your state/district/school board doesn't share your values, but in HS not so much. There are SO many options for HS these days, and the kids sort themselves such that they find a peer group that matches their priorities and values, IME. One big advantage of a big school is that it can offer a bunch of different tracks, so kids end up learning with their near-peers of similar interests. I'm not personally a fan of most private schooling in the US. IMO, they're either underfunded and lack resources and quality instruction, they're heavily subsidized by a church that may not reflect your beliefs, or they're ridiculously expensive and in an urban area where they can find enough wealthy parents to sustain that model. In any case, they're shaped by their customer base that may not entirely reflect your priorities and values either. They also tend not to offer as many options/tracks, and any selectivity advantage gets countered. TN has several public magnet schools and STEM academies, and many programs available through them or in partnerships with local achools that are probably worth looking into as alternatives to the standard curriculum. There will also be dual enrollment programs at community colleges, tech programs for trades, agriculture, etc., and I'm sure they have a virtual course catalog as well. Nobody is going to tell you about any of those options unless you look into it yourself, local high schools are typically just focused on mainstreaming as many kids as possible and getting them to grade level, which is only optimally serving a small fraction of kids. |