Homeschooling versus Public Schools

My granddaughter is going to be going into Kindergarten next year (2010). But this is when we have to think about where she will be going.

I have a hard time with the public school system if the children are not average. I really believe that the public schools are fine as long as the children fit the average mold, but if they are much below or much above average then they can really be out of the loop.

I have a neighbor where her son is autistic, but teachable autistic. So he is not at the level that I worked with as a teenager where my the child doesn’t know anyone and is completely in another world. Brandon does connect and after being home and homeschooled for a year, he is finally started to read a little at 11. That is a major improvement. But since he was a special needs student, he was really not getting everything he needed at school.

On the other end, my granddaughter is at the high end of the scale. Her verbal skills are amazing and she is starting to read now. When she gets to kindergarten she will already be reading well, and that’s what they should know by the end of kindergarten. As she goes into Pre-Kindergarten she knows most of what she should know at the end of the this year already. What does that do to a child other than bore them out of their mind?

If you have an amazing teacher, they can challenge a child that is advanced in the class, but since the schools are so worried about teaching for the tests and making sure that everyone passes at the end of the year, the advanced students are quite often used as “helpers” rather than challenged to get even farther ahead.

I am not willing to have that happen to Destiny. I allowed that to happen to my daughter and it did not prepare her for harder programs at all. She never had to study or work in elementary or middle school and when she entered a really hard program in high school, she was totally unprepared.

Homeschooling allows a child to go at the speed they can. As long as there is an adult that can work with them, and as long as you get them involved in lots of social activities, homeschooling is truly a great way to encourage learning for those that do not fit the mold in public school life.

I have been going back and forth on a really high-end private school or homeschooling, but truly I know that Destiny would learn so much more at home. The only question would be would she get a lot of socialization, could we get her involved in a lot of activities?

So, my thoughts today are going back and forth, and we still have a year left to decide.

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