We all are well versed in the benefits of homeschooling, but do any of you have any nagging thoughts about the aspects of hsing that may not be beneficial to your child?

One thing that I know is...My ds once thrived with order, discipline, structure. He liked it. He liked knowing rules and boundries. He went to school for K and 6 weeks of 1st grade. While he wasn't happy in 1st grade....He did love that "this is centers time", "this is math time", etc. He liked the structure that is needed in classrooms.

When I first started homeschooling him, we were sitting at the dining room table doing a lesson, and he rasied his hand with 3 fingers up. I said "What?" He said "Three fingers means I need to go to the bathroom." (apparantly 2 fingers meant something else, 1 finger something else in school). I was annoyed and a little surprised...I didn't like the idea that my kid was so... "trained" ... for lack of a better word (though that is not quite the word I'm looking for). Needless to say I told him he did not have to raise his hand to go to the bathroom at home.

BUT......I wonder if our environment is doing him a disservice. While I usually have a plan...rarely is it stuck to completely. And our attitude of "what subject should we do next...okay we'll do...________" and the next day the whole thing may be different... Am I teaching him flexibility...or am I teaching him that he can do whatever he wants in his work environment..which is not really what happens in real life work environments?

Does anyone get what I'm saying here...or am I just worrying too much?

The simple thing of course would be just to create a more structured environment at home. But that is NOT going to happen. That is not my reality. Plus, that would also stifle some of the good things about hsing...the fact that it is flexible.

How about you all?

jules

This post was edited on Nov 06, 2009 01:02 AM

Jules I had to chuckle at the hand raising. My dd's raise their hands too and they've never been in any school setting but home. I think they get it from watching shows on Noggin or PBS kids as I don't require it LOL. They asked for school desks too (we used to do a table) as they liked the idea of having their own space.

So far (this is year 6 now for us) I have not found any negatives for the kids as far as homeschooling goes though. We have routines, order, close relationships. It's been better than I ever thought it could be. My house might be cleaner if the two girls were in school all day, but I'll take the messy house LOL

~Melissa~

Sometimes I think the competitive aspect of school might be beneficial. Sometimes my dd whips out a written assignment or a drawing and its not really that good. If she saw other kids who really spent some time on their drawings or writings, she might get some ideas from them and incorporate into her own, or spend more time on hers to 'save face'. KWIM?---

Puffpony, you took the words right out of my mouth.

I don't think letting him pick the order of the subjects is bad for his future job skills. Not every job has a boss directing when you do every task. When I was a secretary no one told me whether to stuff envelopes at 9:00 or 1:00 because it did not matter. I just had to get them in the mail by Wednesday, ya know what I mean?

I can't think of any aspects of homeschooling which are bad for my kids.

I understand what you are saying, and yet, none of us know what his "real life" will be like. The structure of Ps, getting up at 6, school starting at 8, etc. did NOT prepare me for working second shift at all, and it did even less for dh who ended up working third shift! And we sure haven't ever had to raise our hand to use the restroom!

It's still a matter of there's pro's and con's to anything, but "as for me and my house" homeschooling is still FAR better than ps would be.

P.S. I've also noticed that *I* prefer everything to be structured (maybe because of ps?) but life doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes "lessons" are done in a different order each day. ;o)

structure is not the opposite of flexiblity. You can have both. I would set a "time " for sschool to start like 9am . Let him have some sorr of morning routine. Get up, get dressed, makke bed, eat break fast,get supplies. Come to table. Start school. Find what ever works for you. Maybe workboxes would give him the structure he likes. i dont think there is anything that would harm him. I understand about the competion comcern but you can get involve in a co-op or hsgroup andthat can help that. HTH!

I often wonder too if my dc need more structure instead of doing school on the golf cart outside or laying on the bed.

I do have to say that Ithink my children would do better on certain assignments if they were doing it for someone else other than me.