Hi there! Welcome to the group :) I did go through all 12 hellish years! I do get a lot of encouragement from an unschooling list I am on. Please visit the Unschooling-List user.mc.net/~kwentz/ULfaq.html - This is a very busy list and is for unschoolers, or parents wanting more info on how to go less structured.

Anyway back to my point. lol On the UL we have several parents who were homeschooled, and quite a few have grown children with families of their own, who are also homeschooling them.

Sorry this got long. :) MAKE a great day! Cathi

I went to numerous schools until I was 7, when I was homeschooled for a few years, then went back to the itinerant schooling, then back to homeschooling for four more years when I was 13.

My parents were neither attempting to recreate school at home, nor idealistic unschoolers... they generally gave me a limited number of basic tasks to work on, and left me to my own devices for additional study. In my later teens, they left me mostly to my own devices for curriculum and materials (because I had demonstrated that I wanted to go to college).

Before I was about 15, I thought homeschooling was better than school... but around that age I was starting to think about how I was going to go to college, and I happened to visit an alternative high school in Mendocino, California. There, I started to realize that there were many things being traded off for my self-determination... and even a conventional school could offer more resources for learning than my homeschooling did.

At this point (25 years later) I have a very low opinion of unschooling... in the best case, it encourages kids to pursue only what they already "like"... and in the worst case, leaves kids unprepared to function in the world on their own.

I think an ideal education involves an educator who leads by example, and poses questions that illuminate why less attractive areas of study will be good to study anyway. A real education has to be formed in the tension between real teachers and real students... be they in a classroom, or at home.

I, did indeed, go to School - and hated it after third grade. I LOVED college, but everything else was torture. I hope to homeschool my daughter, both un-schooling and other methods.

Unfortunitly I went through public school. Drpped out after the tenth grade too. Then I went to join the navy, but they won't except drop outs. So I took this long and drawn out test that was supposed to prove that I needed to go back to school, after the test I was questioned on how I was able to cheat. after a while, I was presented a diploma by the state of Pa. I graduated in the top 3% of the state, but never finished school. The point is, that throughout my childhood, teachers always thought I had a learning disability, when in fact I have a photographic memory. The point is, my oldest kid, my boy, is autistic, and the public school he was in wanted to hold him back his first year. I said therer was no way in hell they where going to do that, so we pulled him. Any way, he is about to be ten in a few months, and is floating in the 9th grade math area, and in post high school astronomy. These things would not be tought to him if he where in public school, and his three sisters all want to beat him, they do as much as they can, and I do not do anything to force upon them, it is a game to them, and games are fun. If I was to send them back to school, they would be outcasts. Here at home, we can do anything, go anywhere, and not have to worry if the teacher with 36 kids will actually try to teach them....

Eric, I would love to read about your experience, what you liked and did not like about it, and the method/s your parents used. Thanks for offering.
Natalia

>Did YOU go to school?

Yes, I attended public school for elementary, high school, and college (my wife did as well). Be happy to talk/write about the experiences therein if anyone desires.

>Hi folks, I just joined this tribe.

Me, too ;) Only you joined in 2004 and I'm joining in 2006...hmmm

>Although I also hope to home-school my own kids (once they exist...), I was actually looking for >other people who were home schooled.

Did you find many?

>If you want to ask me any questions about what it's like to be on the kid's end of home >schooling, feel free. I went to kindergarten briefly, and then never attended school again until I >started community college.

What would you change about your homeschool experience if you could?

>I think maybe I'll start a new tribe for home schoolees..

Did you do this? I know some teenagers that have recently finished thier homeschooling and might like to join you.

As a quick intro: My wife and I have been homeschooling our children since infancy... They are now 12 and 9. We currently roadschool as we travel full time and we maintain our residence in Missouri for several reasons one of which is that the homeschooling laws there are quite favorable to us. We are currently physically in northwest Arizona, learning many things including desert ecology...Soon we will be heading north and west up through the Sequoias to the Redwoods and on up to Seattle....