The gist here is that not all homeschooling is equal. Yes, you have homeschooling that’s designed to facilitate raising your kid to be an idealogue and and ignoramus, but there’s also homeschool intended to be a true alternative to public school sites. I ended up homeschooling my kids for a few years because they both had really bad ADHD and both were too young to be medicated. In my first’s case, the school refused to assess for it (because it would cost money and resources (money) if she did have it) and just allowed her to flounder. Like, the teacher just got to the point of ignoring her in class. When we tried to talk about what to do, the teacher pulled her aside and said “okay, [child], I need you to focus in class from now on, can you do that?” Ah, yes, just focus. Quality education from our taxpayer funded institutions.
Anyway, homeschooling was hell for me, turns out I really don’t like being a teacher, and it was tough on everyone, but I’m confident that my first at least learned more than she would have in public school over that same time period.
I can totally see homeschooling as an alternative to the failings of the US school system, but I don’t think you can recreate the variety in a public school setting where everybody from the community is there. It’s not a want to thing it’s a can’t thing – I’m not sure you can have the scope of awareness yourself to expose your kid to everything to properly prepare them.
I have ADHD too and was only diagnosed in my 30s, so I feel for you and your kids – Make sure they know it can be part of their superpower too ;)
The gist here is that not all homeschooling is equal. Yes, you have homeschooling that’s designed to facilitate raising your kid to be an idealogue and and ignoramus, but there’s also homeschool intended to be a true alternative to public school sites. I ended up homeschooling my kids for a few years because they both had really bad ADHD and both were too young to be medicated. In my first’s case, the school refused to assess for it (because it would cost money and resources (money) if she did have it) and just allowed her to flounder. Like, the teacher just got to the point of ignoring her in class. When we tried to talk about what to do, the teacher pulled her aside and said “okay, [child], I need you to focus in class from now on, can you do that?” Ah, yes, just focus. Quality education from our taxpayer funded institutions.
Anyway, homeschooling was hell for me, turns out I really don’t like being a teacher, and it was tough on everyone, but I’m confident that my first at least learned more than she would have in public school over that same time period.
I can totally see homeschooling as an alternative to the failings of the US school system, but I don’t think you can recreate the variety in a public school setting where everybody from the community is there. It’s not a want to thing it’s a can’t thing – I’m not sure you can have the scope of awareness yourself to expose your kid to everything to properly prepare them.
I have ADHD too and was only diagnosed in my 30s, so I feel for you and your kids – Make sure they know it can be part of their superpower too ;)