How not to homeschool:

[chaotic life]

My newest son's fake mother is into this character training garbage. She uses more than *just* the Bible, but one of her children's entire curriculum is nothing but Keepers of the Home.

Of course, that would explain both why his math teacher is using Khan Academy to try to help him catch up AND why I tried to tell him we set up an email address for him so his teacher can set up his own account with Khan and he looked at me like I had three heads.

I have homeschooled and public schooled children. For the most part, I homeschool elementary schoolers and transition them to public school at some point in middle school when I think they are ready to make the move. I'm not against homeschooling per se. However, I am mothering a child disrupted out of one of these homeschooling families who espouse that the Bible is the only thing that matters and character training is the only purpose of schooling. I can see first hand the damage this crap does to kids.

I know it wasn't uncommon to teach reading from the Bible in the past. While I think that is irritating, it's certainly doable to teach reading and writing. I do NOT believe it will teach spelling sufficiently. I know it won't teach any other subjects.

My children leave homeschooling to become honor roll students. Some do so easily and others have to work a lot harder but a childhood of mastery is a habit you do not lose by entering public school. I take educating my children VERY seriously and the more I see the horror of my son's educational neglect, the less I resent that I just moved to a state with strict laws on homeschoolers and the more I am convinced that yes we DO need to find ways to force people committing this level of neglect to put their children into public schools (my current state does have that authority and it freaks me out as the mother of a brillant dyslexic who might struggle with the standardized testing they use to gage that level of competency).

Of course, my son comes from a state with strict laws and authority to intervene on educational neglect cases and it meant NOTHING because the family was unregistered, under the radar AND HSLDA will defend you even if you are in violation of state laws. So, none of the strict oversight and consequences mattered at all for my son, nor did it make a BIT of difference when the system was alerted to this family and their shop of horrors approach to teaching.

[skrmom]

Does she not know that the days of the week (i.e. Monday, Tuesday) are supposed to be capitalized?

[ILoveJellybeans]

Why is there such low standards for homeschooling that parents can decide to only homeschool their children with a book not even written in this century.

All children have the right to a proper, modern education, but so many dont get it.

Also, I dont think the Bible is a suitable book for a small child to be learning to read and stuff from, because of the old fashioned language and hard words in it (and also the less pleasant bits about the millions of people God killed, and the bits that endorse slavery or violence)

Sure, be Christian, but theres loads more to know than is in the Bible.

[julie paradox]

...we may, without any elaborate defence of culture, content ourselves with answering simply: "no man(sic), who knows nothing else, knows even [his] bible."

- Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888

[Dixiebelle]

From a comment

You did a disservice to your Kids, well you daughter maybe not as she is to be not seen and heard anyways, but to your sons who suppose to be leaders and providers you did a great dis service.

Leaving aside the SOTDRT spelling and grammar...WTF? Doesn't "to be not seen and heard anyways" go WAAAAAY beyond submissive wifehood? And then how does writing a blog fit in with that? :roll:

[Witsec7]

From a comment

Leaving aside the SOTDRT spelling and grammar...WTF? Doesn't "to be not seen and heard anyways" go WAAAAAY beyond submissive wifehood? And then how does writing a blog fit in with that? :roll:

Blogs get a pass since these folks seem to think they are ministries.

[pixydust]

That makes me so sad as a home schooler! So the Bible teaches multiplication? Rules of punctuation? Who Harriet Tubman was? How the US government works? How to write a book report? Creative writing? This is not hmeschooling, this is brainwashing!

[shrillharpy]

I've seen this line of thought a lot in fundie and fundie-lite homeschooling circles. Basically, it's a cop-out.

Homeschooling your kids in a way that will prepare them for college or trade school demands a good deal of time, and energy. It also requires money, though the amount varies wildly. Most of all, it requires at least some academic knowledge, and that is an area where fundies often fall woefully short.

Many of these families are low on funds, time, energy and academic knowledge. They would have a tough time homeschooling one child, let alone a dozen. So instead of putting their kids in the ebil government schools, they just brush aside academics as unimportant. It's a self-serving philosophy for home schoolers with too many children to clothe, house and feed properly--let alone educate.

[Aeryn406]

That makes me so sad as a home schooler! So the Bible teaches multiplication? Rules of punctuation? Who Harriet Tubman was? How the US government works? How to write a book report? Creative writing? This is not hmeschooling, this is brainwashing!

Oh! Quiz questions! Can I try?

1. Multiplication - The animals boarded the Ark 2 by 2. (Secondary answer: "Be fruitful & multiply.")

2. Punctuation - End a sentence with a dot (Can't say "period" - that's naughty), put a comma wherever you would take a breath & use apostrophes wherever you put an "s" at the end of a word.

3. Harriet Tubman was a very angry woman who ran away from the house where she worked. She didn't understand that she was really in a better place because she was being taken care of and didn't have the stress of making her own decisions. She should have submitted more.

4. The government hates God.

5. The only book you need to read is the Bible and writing a report about it might cause confusion as to what the verses really say. It's better to listen to the authorities (or Daddy).

6. Creative writing - What's this?

How'd I do?

[Mouser]

I don't know... I'm kind of glad to see these fundie children being raised to do nothing more than function as labourers and domestics. While it's sad the children are without the education needed to break free of their crazy lives, had they education and ambition they could do a significant amount of damage to their local communities, to the US and ultimately to those of us abroad.

Better to see toilet scrubbers for Christ than well-educated political operatives bound to do His bidding here on earth.

I never thought about it this way but I like it.

[tropaka]

There was yet another mother mentioned on here somewhere who used only the bible as a textbook - I remember it because she had written something crazy about only one book being able to be used to teach Spanish and about the "dangers" of libraries...

[pixydust]

Oh! Quiz questions! Can I try?

1. Multiplication - The animals boarded the Ark 2 by 2. (Secondary answer: "Be fruitful & multiply.")

2. Punctuation - End a sentence with a dot (Can't say "period" - that's naughty), put a comma wherever you would take a breath & use apostrophes wherever you put an "s" at the end of a word.

3. Harriet Tubman was a very angry woman who ran away from the house where she worked. She didn't understand that she was really in a better place because she was being taken care of and didn't have the stress of making her own decisions. She should have submitted more.

4. The government hates God.

5. The only book you need to read is the Bible and writing a report about it might cause confusion as to what the verses really say. It's better to listen to the authorities (or Daddy).

6. Creative writing - What's this?

How'd I do?

I think you got an A! Seriously, the things I mentioned are what I covered with my 7yo today. Today. Oh, and spelling....can't forget that (and her spelling words are things like "float" and "come", not "Jebidiah").

[Black Aliss]

One of my favorite poli-snark blogs, wonkette.com, has been running a series on Sundays of reviews of home-schooling textbooks. Here's the first in the series: http://wonkette.com/482983/fun-with-chr ... ook-part-1

Reading these reviews, you might start to think that the kids who are taught only from the Bible are better off than the ones subjected to the A Beka books.

[Brittany15]

She said you can pick up math from natural things in life. Yes you can pick up third grade math. Your child will not learn algebra naturally. Your child will not pick up long division naturally. You will not pick up math from the Bible. Could you open math class with a Bible passage? Absolutely. Could you teach math with a Bible passage? Absolutely not.

[Hane]

blog.inkleinations.com/p/about-copying-bible.html

The Klein family use the Bible for homeschooling.

Had to laugh about this one. Friends of mine have this surname. The mom is a Wiccan/feminist UU SAHM, and the dad is an IT guy into Society for Creative Anachronism, who is majorly pissed off at the Boy Scouts of America for going full-tilt non-gay. (He found scouting a safe and creative place for activities with their son, who has Asperger's Syndrome.) Let us say that, if my friends decided to homeschool, their curriculum would be WAY different!

[skrmom]

I checked the SOW website and was not impressed. There is a lack of math and science. It seemed 'dumbed down' and would not be challanging toabove average students. One quote was something like "we believe home-schooing should be 360 days a year-no, that's not my typo-it did say 360 days a year.

[Koala]

I checked the SOW website and was not impressed. There is a lack of math and science. It seemed 'dumbed down' and would not be challanging toabove average students. One quote was something like "we believe home-schooing should be 360 days a year-no, that's not my typo-it did say 360 days a year.

We'll everyone has to have a break...I guess 5 days sounds good to them :lol:

[thoughtful]

The bible is a big help when a kid needs to learn measurements. i hear there is a big movement to bring the cubit back.

Right. What's a cubit?

:D

Some things that were planted in my brain when I was a small child cannot be erased - for those who don't get the reference, watch this:

ATGrbTN63H4

ETA -- should've read ahead! Escaped Cardinal beat me to it.

[joannesmith]

The bible is a big help when a kid needs to learn measurements. i hear there is a big movement to bring the cubit back.

Well, it's before friday but I'm not here to defend myself. Just wanted to say thanks for the laugh :lol: Seriously, this was funny.

Now I must get back to doing nothing. Have a good day!

[Witsec7]

Well, it's before friday but I'm not here to defend myself. Just wanted to say thanks for the laugh :lol: Seriously, this was funny.

Now I must get back to doing nothing. Have a good day!

You fundies can't stay away from the Jingers. You may want to prey for some self control.

[FeministShrew]

One of my favorite poli-snark blogs, wonkette.com, has been running a series on Sundays of reviews of home-schooling textbooks. Here's the first in the series: http://wonkette.com/482983/fun-with-chr ... ook-part-1

Reading these reviews, you might start to think that the kids who are taught only from the Bible are better off than the ones subjected to the A Beka books.

Sigh. :oops: The Christian school my kids started out in used A Beka. Thankfully it closed a few years ago, supposedly because of the poor economy. I still can't figure out why we, along with many other parents, spent over 3K a year per child (we got a multi-child discount but it wasn't much) on such a crappy place when we were already paying taxes for pretty good public schools.

I've apologized to my kids many times for subjecting them to that crap, and they forgive me. And since they're both agnostic liberals, I don't think it did any permanent damage.

[Hushyomouth]

I was homeschooled/sent to religious schools using A Beka. (along with Bob Jones and a smattering of other religious-based "texts") There are so many holes in my education, it's not even funny.

But I can totally explain the party line to you, which has landed me exactly 0 jobs, so, there's that...

[Koala]

Well, it's before friday but I'm not here to defend myself. Just wanted to say thanks for the laugh :lol: Seriously, this was funny.

Now I must get back to doing nothing. Have a good day!

Today's lesson? We capitalize the days of the week. Spread the word.

[Koala]

also edited because DAMN THE EDIT FEATURE!

[Koala]

*sigh* n/m

Damn I hate our editing feature.