The Joy of Homeschooling My Kid.

Wish I could give that post multiple likes. Nice work, Dad!

Home school is fine if done right, and for the right reasons. I've seen it work great in the right situation. Unfortunately, in my experience it is rarely done right, and rarely for the right reasons. I have two grandkids who started home school about 1 1/2 years ago. After being in public school for 6 and 2 years respectively they both hated it.

The oldest went from 6th grade gifted classes to doing the same work they give to special ed kids. They spend 30-45 minutes/day on schoolwork. Many days none at all; and are bored to death sitting at home all day with nothing to do.

They say idle hands are the devil's workshop. The 8 year old, in search of something to break the boredom, died in an accident doing something he wouldn't have done had he been in real school. The soon to be 14 year old is kept home to babysit her 2 year old brother so her stepdad can work from home. Please excuse my rant, but that's the reality of most home schools.

But good on you for applying the practical reasons for using math and science. One shortcoming of education, private, public or home school, is that too many just teach the subject with no practical application to use it.

I too think that's wonderful. He's going to learn something he's interested in so much better. Then I see location: South Central Ohio and I think Dayton/Cincinnati area. Then I think about what's going to happen when he starts talking different velocities between a 115 grain bullet vs a 147 grain, or force between a 9mm and a .45, and I think Ohhhhh.
I know it's wrong to be concerned about such things, but in todays environment, I am. Or am I just weird?

Howland937 said:

There's a lot of math and science in shooting and reloading... From basic math to geometry, chemistry to physics.

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Yes, there certainly is.

It's a lot of work, indeed.

We went the "home schooling" route in the early years with our three kids.

I put that in quotes, because my wife's idea of home schooling was anything BUT home schooling. It's hard work and requires dedicated, structured teaching with quantifiable goals and testing to standards.

My wife is anything BUT dedicated in any way, shape, or form when it comes to such structured teaching. As in AT ALL.

With me in the Navy and deployed a lot, this meant home schooling was utterly non-existent.

So we started our kids in public school, the oldest at 2nd grade, the next 1st grade, the youngest pre-kindergarten.

Daddy's Little Troublemaker fought that hard, and told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted to be home schooled.

I told her "No. What you REALLY want is to stay at home where you can play all day. That's not what school is all about. Mommy does not have the capacity to home school and YOU don't get along with Mommy well enough to make that happen."

It's hard work...and not everybody is cut out for it. My hat's off to those who can.

I can't imagine wearing two "hats", in front of one's own children.

Shakespeare's quote of "Familiarity breeds contempt" might create tricky challenges during any homeschooling.
This would appear to be a primary concern, while trying to motivate.

jmr40 said:

Please excuse my rant, but that's the reality of most home schools.

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I am sorry that your experience with home school is what it is. But the reality of most home school is not like you describe! In fact many many military families home school so that kids can stay on a good curriculum as they move across the world from location to location.

Howland937: Your situation looks good. My kid is grown, and attended an ok (ok means they stressed sports more than most academics) private school.

If a kid ever misbehaves more than once, remind them of not just the Yellow school bus, but ...maybe... --delicately-- remind them of the short Blue school bus which goes through our area every day.

A significant number (most?) home-school parent are simply not qualified or educated to teach their kids. Everyone thinks it's so easy. I've been teaching for 28 years, and I assure you it ain't. You have to be an expert in your content area. You need to teach different kids in different ways. You need to keep up with both your area of content and the various laws and regulations concerning your students. You need to keep abreast of current teaching methods, changes in curriculum, and changes in content. And to top it off, you're supposed to teach without subscribing to or pushing any particular biases. I am confident that most parents are not. So instead of raising independent, educated, and productive citizens, they are doing nothing but creating little "Mini-Mes".

"He's going to learn something he's interested in so much better." Ah...this would be called the "History and Practice of Video Games and Cell-Phone Use".
Good luck with that.

My hat is off to any parent who does a good job of homeschooling. It's a lot of work, much more than many people expect. Done right, it yields great dividends. Done wrong, it's a disaster.

I'm no great fan of the whole teacher certification business. It's more about the teacher's union controlling the market supply of teaching labor than about insuring instructional excellence. Looking at the teachers I had through high school, a few were outstandingly capable. Many were OK. And a few might as well have stayed home in bed for all the good they did. All were certified.

Up through 12th grade, you are required to be certified to teach. But as soon as a student enters college, only requirement is a doctorate in a related field. Just like that, certification no longer matters.

Homeschool done wrong is called “unschooling” or “unschooled”.

That being said, it has to be better than being trained to be a communist in our “finer” institutions.

In before the lock.

I have never figured how home school teachers can effectively teach certain topics, like electron spin-up/spin-down and the S, P, D, F orbitals, and then move into a knowledgeable discussion of the Silver Panic of 1893, its effects on local places like Leadville and people like Horace Tabor, in addition to national impacts. The day finishing with a lesson in parametric equations in 3D spaces. Pretty typical day in HS for me.

jonnyc said:

A significant number (most?) home-school parent are simply not qualified or educated to teach their kids. Everyone thinks it's so easy. I've been teaching for 28 years, and I assure you it ain't. You have to be an expert in your content area. You need to teach different kids in different ways. You need to keep up with both your area of content and the various laws and regulations concerning your students. You need to keep abreast of current teaching methods, changes in curriculum, and changes in content. And to top it off, you're supposed to teach without subscribing to or pushing any particular biases. I am confident that most parents are not. So instead of raising independent, educated, and productive citizens, they are doing nothing but creating little "Mini-Mes".

"He's going to learn something he's interested in so much better." Ah...this would be called the "History and Practice of Video Games and Cell-Phone Use".
Good luck with that.

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I have worked in/with several school districts in my state and have met MANY teachers that I would consider functionally illiterate. No kidding. I have met teachers within these PUBLIC education systems who were blatantly pushing WICCA in their classroom. Again, no kidding, and this despite the many cries of "seperation of church and state" (and yes, Wicca, is a religion). I taught at a secondary public institution where the MAJORITY of incoming students had limited reading ability, did not know basic american history (for example: the difference between the U.S. Constitution and The Declaration of Independance), and were NOT capable of basic maths such as converting a fraction into a percentage. So, the self-serving, slap-me-on-the-back-I'm-a-professional-teacher-accolades mean nothing to me. I have seen your work and the work of your peers and it is nothing to applaud.

Likewise, I have met homeschooled students who tested and were placed directly into honors classes in the colleges where they applied. I have met families with SEVERAL homeschooled children who all had earned several college credits before they had earned their high school diplomas. Again, true story.

I cheer the original poster. Keep up the good work. Don't let the public schools get a hold on your kids. And to your detractors, the "professionals", tell them to go pound sand.

I’m all for defunding public education. Public school is the last place I would want my kids. Kuddos to you taking initiative and getting them out of the system!

Especially with homeschool networks, there are people gifted in different subjects that homeschool groups can create their own set of advanced curriculum.

Keep teaching the bullet drop tables and ballistic coefficients!

Homeschooling is a lot like this.



Yes, you pick the topics but your ammo budget can turn into liquor fast. Anyway, I homeschool my 8 year old son. It is somewhat structured. But it does help I can pull him aside and teach him basic fundamentals like sight alignment.

Howland937 said:

Our local school is one classroom per grade, 25 kids per...until they get to high school. In kindergarten the teacher tried really hard to challenge my kid to keep him engaged, so she'd send him to read to 2nd graders. Reading, language and writing skills advanced well beyond other kids his age.
By the time he hit 3rd grade, other kids are catching up. Teachers with kids at every level of learning ability have a harder time tailoring individual lesson plans. A couple of teachers he had took a more hands off approach and just let him do his own thing... Pick his own books, assign his own homework.
Too easy, so he got lazy. Teachers, principal, his mom...all made excuses for why he wasn't progressing at the same rate he had previously. B.S.

So his firearm curriculum may not be of much use at a high school or college level (he's 11 now), and he may not remember all of it. But hopefully at least he's going to understand how to learn things even when it's not easy.

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The hardest thing anyone can ever do is live up to their potential. And a lot of really smart kids never do because they're lazy. But that is part of the human condition.

Well-done on keeping him interested. It's the most effective way to teach anyone.

The work involvd is well worth the time with the kids.
Your going to make some good adults soon.
We Homeschooled our kids in tents, Caribou Hunting and Fishing, Trapping, following the seasons, and using our house in the village and put them in school for the sports seasons.
We usually got in to our village at the end of August and stayed untill late January, back to camping for a few weeks, untill the kids rejoined us camping in March. Some years were year round s home school some years were year round in a village school.
Our oldest graduated Valedictorian, the second a standard Diploma, the oldest daughter a salutatorian, the 4th and 5th kids were valedictorians and the6th oldest graduated in camp Homeschooled "Because Covid"
We have one kid left and shes all A's, and is living in the village with her sister, so we can camp and she can be on the basketball team.

The boys are hunters, the oldest girl was a covid director for the village, but now shes sewing fur parkas for sales, the second a book keeper/accountant, the 3rd girl is the City Administrator for Ambler AK, the 4th an Artist/Hunter/Trapper, the 5th is a Jr. in HS.

I, too, included guns in many lessons, as well as our Constitutional Rights. Man, did I love Civics class!

Besides teaching them to Read n Write n Math, a good work ethic, we gotta throw down some basic morals and rewards for their legally earned living, plus some hobbies or interests pursued, add up to a good kid.
Round them out with some travel and the results can be pretty good.

Those who can, do.
Those who cannot, teach others to do.
Those who can do neither get jobs in local school systems telling the FBI parents are terrorists and brow beating everyone else with cliched ideas that only a certified teacher can teach humans to teach humans.

The schools are the problem. The teachers are the problem.
The children that want to just learn real things and parents that want their children to succeed, by choosing not to sent their progeny through a corrupt system are not the problems.

My apologies to the very, very few actual teachers across the land. All my maternal ancestors were teachers, culminating with my sister.
Who teaches theater, and lobbies for a boy in a dress to use the girls restroom, to pee standing up…

Teaching as a profession died with my Grandmother.

You shall receive only accolades from me @Howland937. The thought that some stranger cares more about my children’s education than myself is absolutely laughable. Every family is a drunken, careless, degeneration of mammals to a teacher. I wonder what their private life looks like? Ask one, tell me the repulse you received from it, as they inquire about your homes “stability” because you work and refuse to take welfare and try to show your children to do the same.
And when that kid does fail, the excuses take wing, or, well, it’s all his fault…


Again, well done, Howland. If I wasn’t single or if I was independently wealthy I would absolutely take my kids out of the schools here. They have since slipped back down to average after the schools decided they will work again for their pay. But I have to work for my pay too and can no longer afford to do everything.
Keep being weird and actually raising citizens instead of thralls.