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(Fred Lynch)
"When people homeschool, people are harassing them constantly about socialization," she said.
When Arthur, Misti Laws and three other women formed the organizing board for the association, they started planning classes to provide more education in subjects like art, physical education and music.
Laws said she would have been content to start with just the five families. Arthur said she initially expected 30 to 40 children. Each Friday, more than 115 students flood into Mount Auburn Christian Church for the classes, which started Sept. 4. Some families come from as far away as Farmington, Marble Hill and Southern Illinois, she said.
"We didn't know we'd blow up like this," Arthur said.
Aside from creating more social opportunities, she said, sharing resources is another advantage of combining art, foreign language and music classes. The association has a Girl Scout troop and is starting a Boy Scout troop. The group also started nursery and preschool classes because of the higher-than-expected demand.
By sharing resources, parents are also combining areas of expertise.
"We've been blessed with parents with talent and skill," she said. Many parents, she said, are certified teachers.
Cindy Jackson, a homeschooling parent and former music teacher, is directing a musical for the group. Students will perform "Bows of Holly" in December.
The group holds class from 9 a.m. to noon. During the final hour, students study music. Jackson said the students are progressing quickly.
"I have kids that have already memorized the whole CD," she said.
Arthur said the organization will offer twice as many classes next semester, including sculpture, twirling and Spanish. Members of the community have also been generous to the group, she said. Employees from Southeast Missouri Hospital came in to teach students about germs. Members of the Red Cross will also teach a class about emergency preparedness. Ellen Hahs, the curator of education at the Crisp Museum at Southeast Missouri State University, helps with art lectures.
Laws, who homeschools her four children, teaches the art class with Hahs. She said she wanted to start doing more art with her children, so she researched art-related activities for the group.
"Some of the things we can do are a little more out of the box," she said.
Parents will rotate teaching responsibilities each semester, she said.
Vicky Dowdy, who homeschools her two children, said the different classes will help round out their education.
The association provides a learning opportunity for the parents also. She said they are learning from each other and expanding knowledge of teaching techniques.
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930 N. Mount Auburn Road, Cape Girardeau, MO
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Comments
Fantastic to see passionate people, people passionate about anything, especially their children. Homeschooling is not the easy way. Keep the course.
Homeschooling is just plain weird. Not to mention, the kids turn out weird too.
Do you know any homeschooled children/parents, Ike?
The only 'wierd' thing about the kids is that generally they are so far advanced in learning (and behavior) compared to their counterparts in 'regular' school settings.
When a six-year-old is capable of being a 'pen pal' ... or her younger brother knows his alphabet and numbers ... and when their personal manners and conduct are generally better than the average child's ...
It isn't all in the 'educational' aspect ... part of it is perhaps due to more 'personal attention' from their mother than in an average family. It does take a dedicated mother to give up her professional career in order to assure her children's future, though ... so maybe that is 'wierd.'
An article on Missouri's homeschooling rules/regulations in MO might be interesting.
I agree, homeschoolers are weird. It's not the norm for people to spend their day with their children. It's hard. Are people like Jennifer Love Hewitt, Agatha Christie, Theodore Roosevelt, Wolfgang Mozart, Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Pulitzer a bunch of oddball homeschooled weirdoes too? Just naming a few; not so bad company really though. Really glad to see some parents taking initiative and doing all they can for their kids. Wish you much success with your efforts.
I have lived in the area for 15 years. My mother is a Professor at a major university and my father is a high school administrator. I came up in the public school system as did they and it was certainly adequate. My children attend a private school within Cape County for the simple reason that adequate is not good enough for me and I do not have the time or patience to do the right thing; HOME SCHOOL.
Considering the rather mediocre standards of schools who seem to only teach kids how to get high scores on government tests linked to "funding", I don't have anything to say against home schooling.
My kid just graduated and I am appalled at the general level of knowledge she has. I guess it's great that she understands quadratic equations... (although I asked a few people, and not one had even used algebra since leaving school). However she doesn't understand how banks work or even properly understand the US polical system.
It's good to see that these kids get some sort of socialization, although I would imagine that the group is pretty like-minded. Like it or not, eventually we will all have to be around people who are different. We may or may not like their ideas, but we can't stay at home forever. For this reason, my son is in public school. Further, I do know a home-schooled child, and she is, in fact, weird. She is bright, but she is clearly lacking in social skills and manners. I'm sure that not all home-schooled children are this way, but it is a legitimate point with some, just as it is a valid point with some children in traditional schools.
For those who are home-schooling, I certainly hope they have the education and training to be effective.
Rivertales: You are exactly on target with the "like-minded" most of the home schooled people I know were fairly well socialized.... but only within their insular group of mostly similar white middle class Christian home schoolers. They hit college and have to work beside people from all sorts of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds and typically come across as bigoted toward others because of their ignorance of different cultures and different religious traditions.
The biggest exception to that was among children of missionaries who were home schooled. It seems like most missionary families home school and virtually every child of a foreign missionary I have ever met has been both highly intelligent and also able to socialize with people of every background. So in my experience it seems that exposure to the wider world is worth much more than lots of socializing within a like minded group.
First rivertales you said you imagine that the group is pretty like-minded. You imagine wrong. In our homeschool group we have conservative Christians (wear dresses only), Muslims (some in full veils), Christians in shorts, Catholics, athiests, and every color of the rainbow. Which is one reason I do homeschool. My child would not be exposed to these cultures in the public school, or even if they did the children have no time to socialize and learn about each other.
And as for this weird comment. Are you claiming there are no weird kids in public school? Why is someone who is different than you or have different learning abilities or personalities or color skin, or clothing or religion weird? Perhaps you are the one who is different and weird.
I think that this is awesome. in Florida I homeschooled my 3 children, and loved it. We had a great support system and lots of activities for the kids of all age groups to participate in. We moved to TN 4 yrs ago and were led to put our children into public school, which has been a good fit. Our children have no "socialization" problems, and in fact are leaders in their schools. They have a confidence level that is better than their peers and they do not suffer from esteem problems. I firmly believe that that stems from the upbringing that they received through homeschooling. My 18 yr old has dyslexia and centeral processing disorder, and although the school system felt he needed to be on a technical path in high school, he removed himself from that and put himself on the college path. This would not have occured if we had kept him in the school system when he was younger! You can do all things through Christ who strenghtens you!
Upsetmom, if you fully read my post, you will see that I clarified that likely the "weirdness" was not true of all home-schooled children. I also indicated this could be true of kids in traditional school situations. You are making assumptions about me and what I constituted as weird. Suffice it to say that my threshold for "weird" takes much more than the criteria you assumed.
Glad to hear that your group is so diverse. Clearly I was wrong about that, and thanks for the info. I do disagree with your statement that kids in traditional school wouldn't get to see these differences. In five days a week, I know my son has learned a lot already about his classmates.
rivertales
First, I apoligize for pointing you out. I was responding to all of the foolish weird statements.
Second, I am glad that there is public school out there where a child gets a chance to learn about his classmates. Around here, the only time the children are allowed to even talk is at a 20 min. break outside. They are of course not allowed to talk in class and the administration has decided that the kids get in the most trouble during lunch and in the halls so they are not allowed to talk then. Of course, many new schools are even being built without playgrounds so kids in those schools will not even have that. A lot of parents have told me that more and more schools are doing this. So the fact your child really gets a chance to talk to and interact and do things with others in his class is a great, and rare, thing. You are truely lucky to be in that school district. I highly suggest you do whatever it takes to stay in it.
Ok, I don't usually comment online, but this is worth commenting on! Call it "weird" if you must, but homeschooling is absolutely the best thing to do for your child/children. When you send your child to public school, they are getting more of an education than you could ever imagine. You know, when someone joins the military, they do NOT send them out on the front lines right away. They go through what is called "basic training" (right?)....THEN they ship them out. We are TRAINING our children, not just "Teaching" them. We are training them to be respectful, productive, NORMAL adults. After they go through their "basic training" at home, they have not only gotten an education in academics, but how to handle the things that are not so nice about the world...and they are not a small child then trying to cope with all the garbage they've had thrown their way!! As a young adult who's not been "isolated", but "insolated" (if you will), they are far more ready to navigate the jungle of adulthood in the world. It is a literal "war zone" of all kinds of things for kids to handle in this day and time. I graduated from a public school, so I do know what it's like. I was there....and it's worse now than it was then. Hats off to homeschooling parents.
I agree with trainingathome's post. We are training our children. Have you seen on Fox News, what Kindergarteners in New Jeremy were chanting? It's a big story, maybe not on the liberal networks though. They are chanting a song praising the President.
Public School system has kicked God out of school.
Homeschooling--the parents know what is being taught to their children. It is a big deal what is being taught to my children. They have plenty of Socialization with family, church family, and being out in public. They are not backward. They are like Hi to people all the time, and talking to them.
I graduated from public high school. Took English up to level 4. And when I went to a Christian College...I had to take Non-credit English because I didn't pass a test of English that I should have learned high school.