As we will be heading back to the States this summer, I'm once again becoming preoccupied with homeschooling. Here in Moscow, our children have been attending a private school for diplomats and pretty much anyone else who can afford the fees. This school is incredible. If only every school could be like this one - negligible bullying, international student body and faculty, sushi bar, individualized academics, etc. and so on. But we'll soon be back to being ordinary, middle-class income earners with no way in hell to afford out-sourcing our children's education to such an institution.
Despite the high quality of this school, it hasn't been a great fit for several of my children. They don't like the busy work or the trendy classes with six weeks of course work on recycling. They don't love the posters, group projects, and the power-point presentations.
They went from reading several books a week to reading one book a quarter, sometimes the same book from the previous year (the third grader is the exception. She is assigned lots of reading both in and out of class). Their textbooks are much drier than the material I taught from -- two examples of my material: Big Bang: Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh and The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas. Good, huh?
Another difference btwn homeschooling and attending an elite private school is the time after school devoted to homework and studying. Not a bad thing, if you are academically inclined. But several of my children would just like to get on with it and then go play sports or write computer programs (we're looking into college alternatives for these two...)
I understand these complaints aren't specific to this school. It's in the nature of educating a crowd. And my other two children are thriving in this hard-driving, competitive, and slightly conformist environment. We're going to start enrolling them in college courses when we get back.
Overall, our school experience has been great. And my children finally got to go to school and see what it was all about. They all have enjoyed it, but not one of them regrets going back to homeschooling. I think they now have a better idea of what a formal education is all about. They are now better prepared to help guide their education with a goal in mind.
And I use "home-schooling", "home schooling", and "homeschooling" indiscriminately. Thought you might want to know.
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