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Mr. Luddite

On 8/12/2015 12:38 AM, wrote:
I know the first thing most people think of when you say "home school"
is a bunch of religious fanatics keeping their kids out of school so
they won't hear that the earth is billions of years old and Jesus did
not have a pet dinosaur. The truth is home school has been reborn as a
school board controlled program where the kids have an online teacher
and follow a similar curriculum as their classroom bound peers.
My daughter has 2 kids in the program, simply because they were bored
in school. The oldest one is now testing 2 grades beyond where she is
supposed to be.
They started in Palm Beach Florida but now that they are in Michigan
they found out the program is up there too. She is not sure but her
impression is that the Michigan program is behind the Florida program
she just finished. She may come out of this 3 grades ahead. at 13.

I was a little worried about the social interaction problems but these
programs include a pretty wide range of extracurricular activity.

I think the teachers may like it because they do not have to deal with
classroom disruptions
This is also only for the better students. If you are not cutting it,
you have to come in.
My niece's kid was in a similar program (4 days at home and one day in
school) in PG county in the 80s but you had to be an A student to do
it and they didn't have the PCs. They got a week's assignments and
tested what they did last week, study on your own with no real help..
That was more of a way to just save the smart kids from the riff raff.

We have neighbors who have home schooled both of their kids. He is an
engineer and she is an ordained minister. Nice people. She is not a
"holy roller" by any means and does not wear her religion on her sleeve.

When we moved here almost 15 years ago and he told me about the home
schooling I was a little surprised because our town has a very highly
rated school system. Their oldest (a daughter) is starting college this
fall and the younger kid (their son) is entering the equivalent of his
senior year in high school and has started the college selection
process. Both are well adjusted, polite and responsible kids with many
friends who share their positive attributes. Far cry from the creeps
you will find hanging around at the local shopping malls.