I actually know several people who are teachers and have chosen to homeschool their children.

This brings to light something I’ve never clearly understood. People who are trained educators in the public system home-schooling their own kids.

Is it that they know that they and their peers do such a poor job at work that they wouldn’t want their kids to have to suffer through?

Something bugs me about this, and I can’t quite put my finger on it.

“Our children have been taught morals, values, and high standards. We don’t let them “run wild and party”. We have had plenty of discussions with them about making out, sex, drugs”

Hey, it looks like we’re in the same boat here! I’ve been fully educated on all of those subjects too. I think you may have some misconseptions about our family…let me give you a bit of background so you know where I’m coming from.
I started homeschooling in Grade 3 for a number of reasons…basically my dad was the VP of a local Christian school so he knew the ins and outs of what went on, and needless to say, we weren’t too impressed. Around 4 families in our church all pulled out the same year aswell. I have in no way grown up in a perfect bubble world, where I’ve been hidden from the things of the world…we do have a TV, computer, facebook, etc..and I’m at dance classes twice every week where there a girls who talk about partying and drinking, and it happens at my youth group among “christian” teens as well.

I’m friends with people who go to school, as well as lots of home-educators, with people who are Christians, and those who aren’t, people who are walking with the Lord, and ones who are running a bit “wild”.

I don’t plan on not filling my kids in on what the world “has to offer”, but my goal would be for them to be so in love with Jesus Christ that they realizes that the life of abundace He offers us is FAR surpasses that anything they’ll find out in the world. That the people who drink, smoke and sleep around? They mostly end up unfulfilled, empty, broken, or with STD’s brain damage, and lung cancer.

I believe that if kids are FILLED with JESUS from a young age, they’re not going to desire the things of the world later on. They wont even want a “taste”, becuase frankyly, God schools everything.

That’s the way I’ve been raised; that The Lord is all I need. And I’m completely satisfied in Him.

I do know that sometimes parents sincerly try their very best and kids still go awry, but the Bible does say if you train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he WILL NOT [not maybe] depart from it.

To Kim, yes theres always the question of finding a spouse who shares the same convictions as you. And I do realize that you will never find a guy who perfectly meets all the things you would like, so somewhere you have to learn to come to a comprimization. My parents have modeled that wonderfully for me.
However, many of our friends (how have sons my age might I add) DO share the same views as us, there are several in out church, and we were actually just down at a conferance in Seattle a month ago with over hundreds of families (or 1000 people) who are all on the same track as us.

So don’t worry, I know God has it all taken care of and I’m sure it will work out just fine :)

On another note…what is FHE and EFY?

I feel like those who choose to home school tend to be ultra sensitive and defensive when it comes to the topic.

That usually seems to be the case of anyone who is repeatedly judged by others for their choices.

Janessa,

While I admire you for having conviction and already knowing how you want to spend the rest of your life, you should consider that your future husband may right now be thinking the opposite of what you are thinking. The ability to comprise is an admirable trait in a spouse.

Yes Kim I do, and you only asked me about my opinion of home schooled children previously. And, as I said before, the same applies here, it is also in relation to being sheltered by the parents.

I feel like those who choose to home school tend to be ultra sensitive and defensive when it comes to the topic.

It is your choice. Whatever works for you. I didn’t say that your kids are lacking in social skills, or that all home schooled kids are lacking in social skills…I said that “some of the home schooled kids that I know are lacking social skills.”

In response to your “bubble world” theory, I said “in many cases” not, in all cases, or without a doubt, this is the absolute cause…like I said in #42, it is just what I have observed, and therefore, my opinion.

I would say that some of the home schooled kids that I know are lacking social skills

Do you know any public schooled children lacking social skills?

I have seen a child from a bubble family move out into the “real world” and go wild, because they feel betrayed by their parents for keeping them so sheltered.

Likewise, I have seen so called bubble children fully interact in the world as adults without the effects you listed, and I have seen non-bubble children react just as you described upon leaving home.

I think it’s difficult to say with any accuracy that one is the cause of the other.

“6 hours a day 5 days a week is a lot of influence from somebody who doesnt have the same morals and values that I would want my children to be taught.”

“Train up their children in the way they should go” and they have “married” their kids to the childcare and school system and have left it to the employees there to do their JOB for them.”

I think that it takes more than just parents to raise and teach children. I am assuming that you all do to. You send them off to Sis. So & So, or Bro. Bob, who could be a complete wackadoo for all you know. It takes interaction from peers, teachers, family, friends, and even the freaky deakies to make a well-rounded socially prepared person.

Janessa:

Our children have been taught morals, values, and high standards. We don’t let them “run wild and party”. We have had plenty of discussions with them about making out, sex, drugs, and all the things that they do see at many of the “LDS” parties that they are invited to in this town. They do not “go off the deep end” like many of their friends, who have never talked about it with their parents who live in a bubble world.

Bubble World ~ Definition by Dar
These are people who think that if they take these kids to church, have daily family prayer, send them to seminary, have FHE, send them EFY, don’t let them watch tele (at home), no R rated movies (again at their house) absolutely no dances or dating until they are 14 or 16, no talking of sex drinking, or drugs (especially if you experimented as a youth),and give them the full armour of God, (some are even home schooled) basically, think that they are protecting them from all the evils of the world, and in some cases pretending that there is no way that anything evil exists, or that your child is participating.

Our town, and many small LDS communities are full of bubbles. Many of my family members are also living in bubbles.

In many cases…I have seen a child from a bubble family move out into the “real world” and go wild, because they feel betrayed by their parents for keeping them so sheltered. It starts with simple things…R movies, drinking Coke, going to a bar (just to dance), and progressing to more serious things.

However, if you give your children a little taste of this world, and are very open with them, it isn’t so TABOO and they don’t feel the urge to try these bad and dangerous things.

I am not claiming to know everything, I am just speaking as a parent, from experiences I have had, and from conversations that I have had with the youth in this town through my work.

“It is a real world we live in”

I am fully aware of the fact the the world is “real”. Yeah, the world is full of sin. I don’t plan on lying to my kids and telling them it’s not. You don’t have to live on the street to experience the “real world”. I hate it when people try and tell me that rasing your children with high standards and not allowing them to experince things they call “real life” (but the Bible describes as sin) somehow will make them not be able to “handle” the “evils” of the world when they finally walk out of the front door. It just dosent make sense.

I think yes, in a sense “sheltering” our kids and not letting them run wild and party BETTER prepares them for when they are on their own, because they have been taught pricipals to live by and if they have been trained well they’re not going to fall prey to a lot of the junk in the “real world” because they have been given a solid foundation that wont make them go “off the deep end” when they see a couple making out or sniffin’ something.

When people say things about being “sheltered” it has always confused me. I have never pretened to live in a perfect world, in fact, the exact opposite is true. How could I not see all the awful things that go on today? For that to be so, my parents would have had to have locked me in my room for my whole life. Dar, please give me an example of what you think “keeping your kids in a bubble” is, and how you think it is harmful to them.