Home School...

[SoCal10s]

I was at the Copper Bowl this past week and one of the sponsors was a HOME SCHOOL business , I want to get some idea about this... HOW MANY OF YOU KIDS ARE HOME SCHOOL or if you know any home school kids and how are you/they doing in the studies ?? what do you think about HOME SCHOOL ?

[feyya]

I do. I actually go to school till 12:30, and get to the courts at 1 which is when the academy starts.

[TennisCoachFLA]

I would say about 25% of our tennis students are homeschooled. We also home school our 2 kids.

Almost every state has online schools that make it pretty easy if the parents are willing to put in the time. I believe I read that home school kids outperform traditionally schooled kids on standardized tests. Most colleges will give homeschooled kids a good look as far as admissions goes.

[SoCal10s]

I would say about 25% of our tennis students are homeschooled. We also home school our 2 kids.

Almost every state has online schools that make it pretty easy if the parents are willing to put in the time. I believe I read that home school kids outperform traditionally schooled kids on standardized tests. Most colleges will give homeschooled kids a good look as far as admissions goes.

Thank you... this is the kind of stuff I wanted to know... what's the downside ? I talked to a few kids who were home schooled and now they are back into the regular public school system,I didn't get a chance to go in detail but they said.. when they were home schooled they missed out on the friends.

[tennismom42]

I was at the Copper Bowl this past week and one of the sponsors was a HOME SCHOOL business , I want to get some idea about this... HOW MANY OF YOU KIDS ARE HOME SCHOOL or if you know any home school kids and how are you/they doing in the studies ?? what do you think about HOME SCHOOL ?
Independent study is not the same as home school.

With my son's independent study program, kids *have to* show up for at least 1x per week for testing & homework turn in at the local school district. The diploma come from the public school district.

I don't think home schooling works that way.

[SoCal10s]

Independent study is not the same as home school.

With my son's independent study program, kids *have to* show up for at least 1x per week for testing & homework turn in at the local school district. The diploma come from the public school district.

I don't think home schooling works that way.

YES ,thanks there something I didn't know,.. I thought everything was home school...

[sureshs]

Home schooling has certain regulations. For example, the parent must be enrolled as a "teacher" and has to meet certain qualifications. But the home school lobby is so strong that these rules are not enforced. When a judge tried to enforce them recently, legislators threatened to reverse his decision. As a result, anybody can home school their children. But they do need to file paperwork with the state, attach themselves to a school district, keep a diary of topics taught, etc It began with religious parents fed up with the gangs/drugs going on in public schools, but now it is sort of a diverse lot, including tennis parents. Some parents homeschool with the help of a school, even a public school. The kids attend the regular school once in a while. As far as socializing goes, it depends on your beliefs. There are parents who believe that socializing in the rough and tumble environment of a public school is absolutely necessary to understand social realities and also to truly judge where you stand academically. They go as far as to say that home schooling violates the constitutional right of children to education. Others believe that since adults stick to their own circles as they grow older, there is nothing wrong with a kid being exposed to family and friends only. In any case, there are lots of businesses providing event services for home schoolers to get together. Many zoos and science museums have special homeschool events so that students can claim to have fulfilled the science requirements (labs are a big problem for home schoolers). I personally don't believe in home schooling for several reasons: insufficient exposure to society, total imposition of parents' irrational beliefs on their children, false evaluation of academic strengths (everyone's kid is always a genius), lack of professional teaching (a well meaning parent is not necessarily any good as a teacher), lack of classroom learning with its elements of adjustment and "surprise", etc. Sometimes there is friction during college admission, with colleges saying the minimal requirements have not been met, and the parents threatening to sue. What exists today is a don't ask-don't tell enforcement policy where those who want to home school do, with few questions asked.

[Moz]

Anyone from the UK tell me whether home-schooling is legal over here? Never heard of it being done.

[SaunderS]

Yeah, 'Petekbladetour1' is home schooled. I think people at Sutton Academy are aswell. They play 5/6 hours of tennis a day.

[sureshs]

Anyone from the UK tell me whether home-schooling is legal over here? Never heard of it being done.

What about the private tutors and governesses for the royal aristocratic lot? :-)

[sureshs]

There are couple of variants to home school. One, as mentioned already, is the school co-located with a tennis academy, like Bollitieri. The school hours are adjusted to make room for tennis. I don't consider that home schooling at all.

The other kind of school is an "Internet" school, where kids go from tourney to tourney while doing homework in hotel rooms on a laptop. I guess that is equivalent to online colleges.

[SoCal10s]

how do these home schooled or independent studies kids do in college? not everyone is gonna be a big time tennis pro... where do they all go ? 4 more years of hitting tennis balls on a tennis scholarship then no diploma then what?

[tennismom42]

Home schooling has certain regulations. For example, the parent must be enrolled as a "teacher" and has to meet certain qualifications. But the home school lobby is so strong that these rules are not enforced. When a judge tried to enforce them recently, legislators threatened to reverse his decision. As a result, anybody can home school their children. But they do need to file paperwork with the state, attach themselves to a school district, keep a diary of topics taught, etc It began with religious parents fed up with the gangs/drugs going on in public schools, but now it is sort of a diverse lot, including tennis parents. Some parents homeschool with the help of a school, even a public school. The kids attend the regular school once in a while. As far as socializing goes, it depends on your beliefs. There are parents who believe that socializing in the rough and tumble environment of a public school is absolutely necessary to understand social realities and also to truly judge where you stand academically. They go as far as to say that home schooling violates the constitutional right of children to education. Others believe that since adults stick to their own circles as they grow older, there is nothing wrong with a kid being exposed to family and friends only. In any case, there are lots of businesses providing event services for home schoolers to get together. Many zoos and science museums have special homeschool events so that students can claim to have fulfilled the science requirements (labs are a big problem for home schoolers). I personally don't believe in home schooling for several reasons: insufficient exposure to society, total imposition of parents' irrational beliefs on their children, false evaluation of academic strengths (everyone's kid is always a genius), lack of professional teaching (a well meaning parent is not necessarily any good as a teacher), lack of classroom learning with its elements of adjustment and "surprise", etc. Sometimes there is friction during college admission, with colleges saying the minimal requirements have not been met, and the parents threatening to sue. What exists today is a don't ask-don't tell enforcement policy where those who want to home school do, with few questions asked.
paragraphs dude!

[Moz]

Yeah, 'Petekbladetour1' is home schooled. I think people at Sutton Academy are aswell. They play 5/6 hours of tennis a day.

Thanks mate. I think Sutton is affiliated with a local school. Would be impossible to home school as many live away from home I would have thought. Would be interested to hear how it workds for Petekbladetour1.

What about the private tutors and governesses for the royal aristocratic lot? :-)

As far as I know all the Royals go to public schools (which are the equivalent of private schools in the US).

[robertg06]

Anyone from the UK tell me whether home-schooling is legal over here? Never heard of it being done.

I saw it on a TV show about really smart kids, and a lot of them were home-schooled. Not got much to do with tennis but it was an example of home schooled kids. Isn't Laura Robson homeschooled? Or, she was?

[sureshs]

how do these home schooled or independent studies kids do in college? not everyone is gonna be a big time tennis pro... where do they all go ? 4 more years of hitting tennis balls on a tennis scholarship then no diploma then what?

I think the tennis part is more important than the home school part in this case. If you are talking academic preparation, results are all over the place. There are home schooled children who perform very well academically. After 4 years in college, who knows what will happen? Remember that students have been using variants of home schooling for decades: getting the GCE by home study or private tuition, or taking correspondence courses by mail to pass the GCE. It was not much talked about then. Usually these students dropped out for some reason, then wanted to get a diploma later.

[sureshs]

Thanks mate. I think Sutton is affiliated with a local school. Would be impossible to home school as many live away from home I would have thought. Would be interested to hear how it workds for Petekbladetour1.



As far as I know all the Royals go to public schools (which are the equivalent of private schools in the US).

Rugby and Eton eh?

[tennismom42]

I saw it on a TV show about really smart kids, and a lot of them were home-schooled. Not got much to do with tennis but it was an example of home schooled kids. Isn't Laura Robson homeschooled? Or, she was?
I still think many of you are confusing Home Schooling with Independent Study. They are similar, but differ in who administers the tests & issues the diploma.

If it's Independent Study, then they have to comply with State regulations with a non-biased person in charge of testing & homework grading.

[sureshs]

paragraphs dude!

Never did take the writing class seriously :-)

[sureshs]

Alexa Glatch was home-schooled.

[sureshs]

I saw it on a TV show about really smart kids, and a lot of them were home-schooled.

Yes they win spelling bees and all that. There are also colleges which specialize in accepting home schooled kids. As people like to point out, Abe Lincoln was home schooled. But I don't see why that is useful today ...

Family-wise, it almost always requires a stay-at-home mom who is HIGHLY motivated.

I can see both sides of the arguments, but think that the responsibility of educating is best left to professionals.

[TennisCoachFLA]

In Florida you have several options. The parent can be the teacher and the kids are evaluated by a licensed teacher and take standardized tests.

The colleges have records and test scores to evaluate. Most of our kids have no trouble going to college should they choose.

The reasons kids go back to regular schooling is the basic stuff why teens do anything....rebellion, too much parents in their business, miss their friends. I know of 3 out of about 20 kids who choose to go back to school.

Our kids socialize with their friends in various activities and so far love homeschooling.

As far as teaching being left to the professionals like the last poster said, I disagree. A study of 16000 homeschooled kids showed that they performed much, much better that traditionally schooled kids. Standardized testing, college admissions, it was no contest, the homeschooled kids were much better.

[sureshs]

Internet is a powerful factor. Just as it once sounded far-fetched to work from home instead of carrying that leather briefcase stuffed with files and heading out to work, more and more education will move online, be it college or school. MIT is putting all its lectures online. Soon the distinction between physical and virtual education will start blurring.

[sureshs]

As far as teaching being left to the professionals like the last poster said, I disagree. A study of 16000 homeschooled kids showed that they performed much, much better that traditionally schooled kids. Standardized testing, college admissions, it was no contest, the homeschooled kids were much better.

Or maybe the homeschooled kids were better off to begin with, and from a better demographic and better (more stable) families. Schools have to cater to a variety of students, from the brightest to the special ed kids, and from different family backgrounds. There are also many intangibles in education, which are not captured in SAT scores. I know of organizations which conduct sports tournaments for homeschooled children, and places which provide lab work opportunities. Someone availing of these is basically getting a "distributed" education in different venues, rather than strict homeschooling. But to each his own.

[10isDad]

There's a good summary/overview regarding home-schooling and college admissions on fastweb.com:

http://www.fastweb.com/fastweb/resources/articles/index/100882

In Arizona, my guess is homeschooling is NOT the norm. Of course, there aren't really in live-in academies with the exception of a small program at the WigWam. I know of only a handful of kids who are home schooled here.

My son has a friend that tried an on-line high school program through the Mesa Public School system. He hated it because there wasn't the teacher-student interaction and nobody to push him/keep on top of him. His mother and father are divorced, both work, etc. Probably not the ideal candidate for that type of program.

His tennis improved, but he ended up re-enrolling in public school the following year.

[game set match 46 TIMES!!]

I was at the Copper Bowl this past week and one of the sponsors was a HOME SCHOOL business , I want to get some idea about this... HOW MANY OF YOU KIDS ARE HOME SCHOOL or if you know any home school kids and how are you/they doing in the studies ?? what do you think about HOME SCHOOL ?

im home schooled. and i think you learn alot. you learn about 2 more things a week in real school. but those arent to important :wink:.

[tennismom42]

im home schooled. and i think you learn alot. you learn about 2 more things a week in real school. but those arent to important :wink:.
I hope you were texting (typing)

Im = I am
alot = a lot
arent = aren't
to = too

[TennisTaxi]

My son has done it all... did the program through Laurel Springs, then worked through an Independent School program through our home school district, later, he also did a 1/2 day school program through another school district while at a tennis academy...and now he is back in regular school. If you are doing a lot of travel, being in real school is next to impossible (1/2 day or not)because the kid will miss too much school to keep up, so it is like being home schooled....but something has to give... and it seems to be the education!

As far as I am concerned, unless a parent is also a "real" teacher, the kid is going to suffer not being in regular school or working with a real teacher. My son was NOT able to teach himself Chemistry or more advanced math, like Algebra 2 espite the fact he was getting OK grades. This showed when he returned to regular school and was way behind when we initially though he was ahead. I guess it really depends on the kid, the program and the motivation. He also realized he was missing the social aspects of school and as a high schooler, this is very important so he opted to return to school.

Luckily, since being back in school he has caught up and is getting good grades...and yes, he is playing less tennis but he now has a more normal social life and will be better equipt educationally and socially for college. He will play in college but he is not one of these kids with a crazy notion of going pro...so we decided reality (real school) was a better option as he ends his junior tennis career.

To this day, I am not sure if we have made the right decisions but as they say, hind sight is 20-20...