Hello! I live in Oregon and I have been into prepping and mainly learning to homestead for the last 6 mo, but our first major "coming out of her" moment was 2 years ago when we pulled our kids out of the public school system to homeschool them. We have also tried private christian school (for preKindergarten for both our girls) and while that was a better option than public school, it wasn't financially feasible to maintain ($6k per year per kid here!) and still had a lot of worldly issues we wanted to avoid.
Admittedly, though I am a lifelong Christ follower, I am new to following Torah and open to learning more. However from my understanding, living sanctified and set apart cannot coexist with putting/leaving my kids to be educated in the public school system. I am not trying to sound snarky or rude, but so many Christians have this attitude that the public school system is "just fine" because they were raised in it and survived, and it always boggles my mind. The public school system now is NOT the same as when we were growing up and I believe it is the number one tool that the enemy uses to indocrinate and teach our children atheism and abortion, not to mention that the majority of hours of your kids' day is spent following role models that are not of God or at the very least not of your choosing. Plus bullying, gender issues, sex education, anti govt teaching, rewriting of history, removing the Bible and the Pledge...I could go on and on.
I understand that homeschooling isn't for everyone, but as followers of Yah I wonder how the decision is made to put your children in the government's education system when you are purposefully withdrawing from society in so many other ways. I would love to see a discussion about this. Even if only from the prepper mindset, having kids home affects so many things positively, as they can then learn the important trades and traditional skills that will be needed around the homestead as well as the academics needed to succeed in life. Academics can be accomplished in only a couple of hours a day and still be so far ahead of their public school peers. Thoughts on coming out of her my people and how that affects schooling?
Thanks, yall!!
I have homeschooled our oldest the whole school year and am planning to pull the younger 2 out next fall (they are home but we still report in to the teacher). We live in a very liberal area and my tolerance of the system has reached it's limit. That said, there have been seasons that having them in school has saved me while I was going through some really rough parts of my life. Our kids are on the spectrum so working within the system is frustrating and after last year I was ready to homeschool. We have the same mindset as far as teaching life skills and the ability to finish school work in a few hours. Our oldest is finishing 6th grade and he is usually done his work by lunch. We have a small farm so the freedom to have the kids help with projects and call it "school" is really nice. My goals for them is to be well read, have good math skills, good organization, well spoken and be a fully functioning independent adult by the age of 18.
Truly, I think blanketing the public school system as "bad" is not fair. Every state, county, town and teacher are going to be different. Every parent and child is different. I know some families that homeschool some children and the others go to public or private school. But, if you are seeing things in your child's school that goes against your values and you don't want them exposed to it, pull them out and homeschool. Just base your decisions on reality and not ideals. Homeschooling can be vastly romanticized when in reality it is you and your kids day in and day out learning together which sometimes means you have bad days. Those are the days you have to remember you are a parent first and your relationship is not worth ruining over multiplication. Community is also extremely important for both you and your kids! Co-ops are a must!
I hope this helps and adds to the discussion. Blessings, E
Hey, you do you, God wants a lot of different people reaching different people. That said, I myself was homeschooled k-12, and am going that route with my kids. My girl is in second grade, has plenty of bad days (hyper, distracted), and she’s still getting a phenomenal grasp on her subjects. We love the flexibility and the chance to decide what isn’t and what IS a battle she’s ready for, and what social issues are a big deal to educate on. We won’t be co-opping, but we live near an awesome activity group.
Home schooling seemed like such an outlier up until the covid lockdown pushed many school districts to elearning at the last minute. I had to manage my 3 daughters that are elementary school age with it and it was very challenging. Looking back I equate the frustration to the fact that the teacher had the educational relationship with my daughters and not me. Lots of "That's not the way my teacher does it" and trying to decipher what the teacher was trying to get across in the activity.
I have not home schooled or ever been home schooled, but it seems that it requires dedicated attention and follow through on one or more of the parents to be successful. It becomes a part of the family lifestyle.
Where as with public education it is surface dedication by one or both parents since the majority of it is handled by the public/private school that your children attend.
The experience of elearning/ covid lockdown learning has added priority points to incorporate some variation of home schooling to the preparedness plan that I will drive with the members of my MAG.
The biggest downfall of many homeschooling parents who were not homeschooled and did not start their children homeschooling is they try to replicate public school at home. Last year I pulled my oldest out for 6th grade and we spent last year basically "un-schooling". It's a thing, look it up! He still did book work everyday and had a routine but, we didn't do anything like "school". This year we have all 3 kids at home and are using a Charlotte Mason curriculum. We found this is the one that makes the most sense to us because we have a farming lifestyle and CM is very big on hands on and outdoors as well as good literature and Bible.
Yes. There are so many ways to approach it. It can be incredibly frustrating or a complete sweet spot depending on your family’s needs, and whether your efforts are meeting them. I know there are single, working parents managing it, but I myself have the advantage of being a stay at home mom, and can’t quite picture trying to do this under those kind of circumstances.