We did similar projects when I was in Jr High on the late 70’s. Sort of like show and tell with a theme. There was a class called Man and Society or Man In Society where we all did a project where we had to research one of our nationalities and do a report, wear some clothing and bring some food.
Just saying it seems like a typical middle school social studies assignment.
Not sure how many kids would resonate with this, but in school, I found it boring, because it was too easy. It was made for average people to do well, which means it was below average.
In 6th grade, I read a book everyday, during class, and only “missed” one lesson due to the book. The rest, I got everything and still read an unrelated book.
When tested, they said at 13, I was reading in college level. I didn’t find that flattering. I wondered why college people are reading at the level of a 13 year old. Why aren’t they smarter?
Basically, I didn’t find much to be inspired to achieve more. I did have a few rare teachers who demanded more, but most were just there, not trying to change the world, and it showed.
Bullying caused me to home school my son for the first year. Then the two years after that were because we moved out rural where the schools were known to be horrible. We found a charter school after that, and it took some time because the public system really didn’t want people to know about that charter school!
That first year of home schooling was sudden. My son had barely made it through the previous year with his sanity, then we tried a private school at the beginning of the next year, and he was immediately bullied again, by a child whose parents gave generously to the school. So the school wouldn’t touch the little darling to stop the bullying. I know my kid is odd, but just because someone is odd doesn’t mean people should go out of their way to make their life a living hell.
In the span of 3 days, I withdrew my son from that school, got a refund of the private tuition, and dug like crazy into all sources to find out how to home school. I found what courses our state taught for 8th grade, what text books were used in public school, and ordered copies of those textbooks where i could.
Shirley English, Saxon Math, and the Science and Social Studies texts used by the local school. To that we added Rosetta Stone Spanish, time for PE activity outdoors mostly riding his bike or going for a walk or hike. I had a religion class too, but 7 hours of work was too much.
We cut the religion class since he was already attending CCD with church, slacked off on the PE unless he just wanted to do something, and he already enjoyed Rosetta Stone Spanish and thought it was great fun like a game.
Focusing on the 4 basic classes he would be tested on at the end of the year worked great. His standardized test results were excellent, and when he went back to school, he was ahead of the other kids.
We tried Connections Academy for a while out on the homestead, but it required better internet connection than we had available. Public school re-entry at the charter school went smoothly.
I hope to home school or help to home school my grand children if their mothers want to do that. At the very least, I can encourage early learning and a love of reading and basic math. Little ones knowing the basics can help them self-teach even if they’re in a bad school (public school).
Here’s a teaching technique maybe useful for the home-schoolers - multifactorial learning.
One of my favorite “public school” classes was Spanish 4, where the teacher played us Spanish pop songs just about every day. Then we’d get tested, and we’d have to fill in the words in each of the songs he had played for us. For some reason, if you attach music to words, I remember the words really well. I never studied at all, and I think I missed 4 words out of 150 questions?
Outcome: I used this same skill to learn songs in other languages too. I can still sing the “Sukiyaki” song (actually: “walk with your head up”: Kyu Sakamoto) a long time after learning it. Why walk with your head up? Read the translation to find out.
There may be a “music & memory” attachment of some sort.
Sad story about Sakamoto: he died in a plane crash.
@swampmama3 Most kids wish they had such a mom.
We homeschool our 4 kids ages 4 to 10 :-). My husband was also homeschooled his whole life. When he went to tour colleges, he thought they looked too boring. So, he just continued building up his own business. Having him be self employed gives us so much flexibility! We also built our own home pre kids.
For our homeschool we really focus on time spent outside (love the 1,000 hours outside podcast and website), real life skills like gardening, construction, cooking, etc. Reading books. Going to church. Time spent with grandparents and friends. I also do love Logic of English and am just getting ready to order more levels.
I am not the most organized/structured person so sometimes I worry we are not doing enough structured learning, especially when my time is divided amongst 4 kids…but overall I think homeschooling is giving them a good foundation!
I definitely would encourage other families to homeschool too! It looks different for each family and that I think is part of why it is so great for kids 
For those wanting an English version for lyrics, it’s is said that the Bobby Vee cover was reasonably accurate.
My four kids were unschooled and are now ages 27-34. I have no regrets. First-born was surprised he scored the highest on an English paper in junior college. Number two wanted to go to school and was chewed up by the public charter home high school, with its fundamentalist teachers. Number three wanted to go to school and tried twice --once in first grade, and once in second grade. He didn’t last more than two weeks. He essentially said to me “They’re not going to teach me anything that will help me!”, and I couldn’t argue with that. Putting a kid in the system means you have to do a lot of damage control, and I never had the time or energy for that. I never trusted schools to keep my kids safe, and I never would have let them have my disabled son (child #4).
I love reading this. I have a similar experience with my kids, especially my oldest. Often times they spout information that I have no idea where it came from (because we didn’t teach it to them). Then I remember, oh yeah - they’re avid readers.
Reading unlocks everything.
Unfortunately this is now one of the leading drivers of parents deciding to homeschool their children. Again, this goes back to the underlying issues that have infected our culture. Too often, the victims are blamed or punished, and the bullies avoid any actual consequences.
This may not be useful or helpful to anyone, but tossing it out anyway.
If anyone is in the middle-Tennessee area and is considering homeschooling but overwhelmed with the hows & details, please shoot me a message. My wife & I are homeschooling our 4 (soon to be 5) kids, and have close connections & involvement with multiple coops, tutorials, and more informal support networks for homeschooling. These range from “coffee once a week for moms to discuss challenges” to “full-time employed, accredited tutorial with rigorous academic requirements, focus on college prep, dozens of paid staff/experts in their field, and 100-200 students with hundreds more on the waiting list.”
We started homeschooling in part becaus we were concerned with the quality of education in public schools, and the additional garbage we knew we’d have to deal with. As we were considering the elementary school that was 400 feet away on our road, several of the teachers there (friends from church) begged us NOT to enroll our kids, but to homeschool instead. That helped tip us over the edge. Around the same time a dear friend shifted from a college-prep private tutoring business and started what is now one of the most respectable homeschool tutorials in the area. It made sense.
We haven’t regretted a moment of it, and it’s worth the sacrifices. Our kids are wonderful young people and haven’t missed out on anything BENEFICIAL in public schools that they aren’t getting elsewhere in better quality & quantity.
Please reach out if you’re in the mid-TN area and on the fence about this. No pressure, just discussion & gentle encouragment. Any decent parent can homeschool.
Great idea!
100% agree. I am happy to help people get started as well, West Central Idaho area.
I haven’t read many of the comments but felt obligated to include the effects of no child left behind, affirmative action and dei. To be sure students who had problems being “educated” weren’t “uneducated” the rest of the students had to be “less educated”
Homeschooled my 3 kids, well ‘we’ did. Mostly my wife did. It is not hard to homeschool. Think of this. Your child learned how to talk without any special training. The child nor the parent had any special training or went to school to learn how to talk. But the child learned it. And you the parent helped them do that. Most children are conversant by like what… 3yo?!? or younger?
Ran into this video today. I watch this and it just confirms that America is in deep deep trouble in the near future.
My husband taught our first son to read with 100 Easy Lessons to Teach Your Child to Read. They sat together in a recliner, facing the kitchen, while I made dinner. He was reading at 5.
We used that also. I started with another well know phonic program and we hit a brick wall. Waited a while came back and hit it again. I was in a HS forum at the time and that book was suggested. I was resistant because of the title when so had seen it but the other HS mothers described how and why it worked for them. We were quickly off and running. Followed up with Explode the Code then Beyond the Code