Homeschooling

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I taught both my daughters how to drive a stick shift. It was brutal. I spent a year doing it. I would have them mind meld with the engine, the sound that an engine makes just before it dies. I taught them how to respond in a panic stop. They were not even allowed to leave the driveway for the first month while we practiced going from a stop to movement, transitioning between brake and clutch. Their final test was going from a stop on a steep hill and accelerating without killing the engine and without being allowed to go backwards. The secret is to use the emergency brake.

I taught them how to change spark plugs, change tires, check the oil and other fluids and many other skills that girls and even many boys have not learned today. And I taught them and my grandchildren many other skills such as carpentry. When we build a small log cabin, they were pounding the nails.

A skill is a skill and the best teacher of life skills is a parent. It is them passing down their skills to their children.

Reading with one’s kids is a lot of fun. Great memories for the child and parent!

It’s much more important to learn to love books than to learn to read as a preschooler, I’ve found. Some parents are in a big hurry to get their kids to read before school which probably isn’t a great way to get them to love books.

The only things I can do that involve a car are get gas and call AAA.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 13 May 2019, 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

I can change a tire, and put fluids in the car. If I read up a bit, I could do my own oil change.

Otherwise.....it's pumping gas and calling AAA for me!

I should learn how to do other stuff, but I’m just not interested. I don’t really like cars.

I want to learn to drive stick-shift!

I hated going to school. I was bothered by the kids, and bothered by most of the teachers, too. I wasn't exactly "happy" in school.

It got a little better in my senior year in high school.

There was no such thing as "homeschooling" back when I was in school.

It seems like most of us (including myself) preferred homeschooling, but I’m not sure if it’s the best path in the long run, especially in recent times with the strides that have been made toward understanding, accepting, and aiding kids who are on the spectrum.

I think that naturally liking to read enabled me to be successful in college. My cousin who also homeschooled was not a reader, and she flunked out of college despite trying her best.

My nephew totally flunked out of college----but he went back, and eventually got his degree.

Are you going to encourage your cousin to try college again, or try something like "x-ray technician," or something where you can get a certificate in?

Probably not. She’s rather pushy when it comes to religious stuff. My relationship with her is a bit complicated because of that, and we don’t talk often these days.

I think she’s resigned to cleaning houses and helping out with the family business. It’s decent money, but the physical work is not so great for my aunt and uncle who are getting older.

She also thinks she’s stupid at this point which is sad.

When I started college, I thought that there was a strong chance that I was going to fail. I was very surprised when I got straight A’s instead.

I just wish we had a better system of "trades"-oriented education like they do in European countries.

In the US, it's almost like it's "college or bust."

In the US, we don't make use of Gardner's "multiple intelligences" enough. We need a plumber at least as much as we need a professor.

A school district I was in as a kid had trade programs. Kids could pick a trade and take those classes instead of various electives.

I had mixed feelings about it. Most 16 year olds don’t know what they want to do so many would take classes for a semester and then drop out of them, and the program also limited their access to academics.

There are many smart people who just aren't academically-oriented.

But they can damn well fix your overflowing commode.

If homeschooled, less bullying. Seriously suspect that I could have, done better academically, if homeschooled

Although then I would have been even more weird than now

I've have experience in both being homeschooled and attending standard schools. The latter, a large-ish public school in one of the better districts in the USA, was hell in 3rd and 4th grade, which led to me being homeschooled until 7th grade, then attending small private schools until finishing 12th grade. Homeschooling really helped me focus on my academics and made it fun without dealing with bullies, though I did have a huge fear of schools after 4th grade and until a few months into 9th grade.

I briefly attended a large public school after being in a small one for years. It was awful! That’s a large reason why I decided to stick with homeschooling permanently. I had been homeschooled in 4th but went back to school in 5th.