CandyLandCondoResident asked:
Your opinion? If you could be more involved in the school as a stay at home parent and send your child to an average public school for elementary school or go back to work full time and send your child to a good Catholic Private school (for example $8,000 a year per child), which would you do, and why? Or would you home school your children?
No tag for this post.
Your opinion? If you could be more involved in the school as a stay at home parent and send your child to an average public school for elementary school or go back to work full time and send your child to a good Catholic Private school (for example $8,000 a year per child), which would you do, and why? Or would you home school your children?
I think it depends on the public schools in your area. I would have loved to attended a private school since I attended public schools and charter schools in my county and was disappointed (education here in Florida isn’t the greatest).
As someone who just graduated from high school and started college, I felt like I wasn’t prepared. If the public schools in your area have many Honor and Advanced Placement courses that can challenge your children then do that! But since they are still in elementary school does it really matter that much? Even a parent can teach their children the basics they learn in grade school. I would have enjoyed my parents more in my life when I was younger, they were always off working. If I was you I would be a stay at home parent and send your children to a regular school and then as they get older put them in schools that challenge them.
But you’re the parent! You know whats best for your kids.
:) 
Well, seeing as I’m not Catholic (nor Christian), no child of mind would ever be accepted to a Catholic private school.
I don’t much care for the whole concept of religious educational institutions, anyway, regardless of faith.
Beyond that, the private schools are only moderated better that the public schools in my area.
I would never, EVER home school. 1) because I’m not qualified, and 2) because home-school children miss out on a lot early socialization that is very important to their emotional and social development. When you shield your child from the world, they never learn to function in it properly without you.
And finally, I don’t think I could tolerate being a stay at home mom once my kids were school-aged and gone most of the day. I’d be bored out of my mind. My own mother went back to work for that very reason once my sister and I were both in school.
I do homeschool my children. It is the best option for our family.
They get a customized education instead of a cookie cutter one, with 100% parent involvement WITHOUT the inflated tuition.
They learn about the real world by living in it, rather than reading about it in an artificial, forced-socialization environment. Where else in life are you segregated solely based on your year of birth and neighborhood? Public school is not the only, and is certainly not the best, option for socialization.
I think that people have a mistaken opinion of private schools. Just because you are paying for it, does not make it better. I’m not saying that all private schools are not as good as public, but they may not be any better. Also, if your child has any learning disabilities, the private school is under no obligation to give your child any extra help as they do in public school. That said, of course there are public school that are horrible. Do some research, go to the websites and /http://schooltree.org/ they rate most schools throughout the U.S and offer a lot of information. Then you can see how your local school rates and you may be able to see how the local private schools rate. Not all private schools are included. I believe though that your children would prefer you to be at home.
It depends on the schools and on the kids, and I would go and interview and observe any schools you are considering. My eldest would had some early learning issues which might have benefited from being homeschooled, except that she was compulsively social and would have absolutely hated not having kids around most of the day. I ended up doing a lot of tutoring until she was up to par, but kept her in formal school systems. As to the public private thing, I have tried both public and private schools. In some places the public schools were better than the private ones; in others it was the reverse. I am myself Catholic and I tithe, so that the local Catholic school system is free to me, but there was a time when I sent one kid to the Catholic school, and the other to nonreligious private school. (The local public schools at that time and place were bad in all respects.) The secular private school was more academically challenging but had a problem with drugs and alcohol. My risk taker therefore got sent to the Catholic school, my cautious kid to the other.
I am a mother of 3 and worked until my oldest was 4 1/2. At that time, I quit my job as a teacher to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. My youngest started kindergarten today. I have volunteered in my children’s classrooms for the past 2 years and will continue to do so this year. Volunteering is one of the most satisfying experiences you will ever have! You get to know all of your children’s classmates on a personal level and it allows you to participate in your children’s lives on a whole new level. There are many wonderful public schools out there! Do some research. Talk to some parents who have children attending the schools. This is the era of choice. If you live in a district that is unsatisfactory, you can open enroll and choose a school that works for you. No school is perfect, but with parental involvement, all schools are made better!