[Alex Linder]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Gottfried

The case is very compelling when looking at the numbers that were offered up by one of the first reply posts. If you can give your kids 2/3 hours subject time every day then your child gets more hours by a long way than a kid at school.

HS do more real teaching in FEWER hours than PS do in MORE hours. This is because the real motive of PS isn't teaching but controlling. Genuine instruction in the basics takes 100 hours. That's all. From there you can self-teach. Of course, many will have much more to HS, but that's all that's required to get across the 3Rs, which takes PS years to do.

Now all the kids for access to the internet via tablet, phone laptop etc so the argument is how much time on a device is good for a child? What does a child miss in a social sense from just being around adults?

The kid misses nothing. Bad habits come from peers, not adults. In school, they're only around their own age. What's best for them is to be around all ages. HS are better socialized than PS - in direct contradiction of PS claims coming from the NEA.

Kids all learn things at different ages and at different rates. Not all kids start walking at 10 months and 15 days, so as a parent how are we to know when our child is ready to learn, say writing. Is it just that we give them the opportunity by reading with them and drawing letters and by themselves they will find a way... or is it just download some app that teaches kids to write and have them play that several times a week.

I would think by working with them you'll be able to tell when they're ready. Or ask them. Read to them, soon enough they should be showing interest. Teach the letters and the sounds they make. Why not work all ways, no need for just one. But phonics should be included. The key is the association of the letter with the sound(s) it makes. That's the code they need to grasp to learn to read. Once they have it they can "sound out" new words.

Do we as home schoolers give the computer more value than spending quality time with our kids? Surely kids will want to play games and such on a device not learn, how does one control that?

Computers are good for rote stuff. Like learning vocabulary and such. Limit kids by doing what your parents did re tv, telling you it's a nice day, go play outdoors. Christ, we were hardly allowed to watch tv at all. Not being allowed to watch tv will turn marginal kids into readers, which is good. As for tablets and stuff, if you're going to own these, it's harder to keep them away from kids, I suppose.