VI Homeschoolers Yahoo Group

I AM SO GLAD I FOUND YOUR POST! I AM COMING IN JUNE AND HAVE 3 GIRLS, 4,9,13 WHO I WILL PROBABLY HOMESCHOOL, WOULD YOU PLEASE INCLUDE MORE INFO, LIKE GROUPS GETTING KIDS TOGETHER, THAT SORT OF STUFF, I HAVE NEVER HOME SCHOOLED BEFORE.
THANKYOU

We are relocating to STT in June. I have a 9 year old son that I will be homeschooling. Would be interested to know what everyone is using to homeschool their children and what price you are paying for your materials. I am currently looking at Florida Virtual School, but have not made a final decision on anything.

Please excuse my butting into this conversation. My sister is a professional school teacher with almost 20 years experience. I see how much time and effort she puts into her job and I have a question for Stephanie and anyone else who is planning on home schooling.

If your husband needed a gall bladder operation, would you look on the web, get a book on such surgery and plan on performing it at home? If not, why do you think that you can successfully teach your children at home. Don't you believe that a school teacher brings the same skills and experience to his/her profession that a surgeon brings?

I am not trying to be scarastic, nor am I putting people down who, for whatever reason, think their children do not belong in the school system, be it public or private. But why think you can do a professional job of teaching your children without any credentials?

hmmm well alot of the time most home schoolers are born again christians who do not want their child exposed to anything secular, thats how it was with my stepfathers new wife, they got born again and started having children and she homeschooled them to keep them away from anything secular.

Hmmm.....Linda J...... Trying to be polite to.
Before you judge someone you might want to know their background. I have a degree in Elementary Education and have been in the education field for 15 years. Who better to homeschool my child?

A woman named Teresa posted on this board for 3 years about her experiences living with her family on STT. I always suggest that people with children do a search for her posts and read them all. It is an excellent diary of her personal experiences while living in the VI with kids. She has moved back to the states and no longer contributes here - a great loss.

Please keep posting as you continue your journey.

Many if not most homeschooling parents are college educated. Many of them are also former educators. While my children were educated in public school in Virginia on 3 different occasions I removed 3 of my 5 children from public school and home schooled them for a year. The first time was when my daughter was in 4th grade and still could not read. She was tested in 2nd grade by the school psychologist and I was told she was depressed. She was tested in 4th grade and I was told that she was ADD and should be put on Ritalin. I removed her from school and home schooled for 1 year during that time we found out she was dyslexic. The second time was when by law in Virginia I had to enroll my 4 year old son in kindergarten. His birthday is September 10th. I knew he was not ready for school. The first week of school his teacher called me and said, " he cannot read. Hasn't he had any preschool? By Christmas break the principal asked me to remove him from school because he wasn't ready. The third occasion was when my youngest daughter was in 8th grade and held at knife point in the bathroom. She had gone to her teacher and the police officer assigned to the school on 4 different occasions for help. No charges were filed and no students were suspended. This was a "good school".

I worked and volunteered at the schools my children attended until they entered high school. I wish all parents had the chance as I did to eat lunch in the teachers lounge. You would be horrified at some of the educators that you entrust your children to each day. While many educators are truly wonderful, devoted professionals many are not. Many teachers are burned out by the amount of work required of them. They don't have time to teach anymore. They also have to deal with extreme behavior problems because no one is allowed to discipline their children anymore. We can however, drug them to keep them manageable for the teachers and the parents.

While I am not a practicing Christian, I truly bless the Christian homeschoolers. This is a huge group that have made it possible for parents to have the right to provide an alternative education for their children. They have bands, proms, graduation ceremonies, field trips and their children usually are taking college classes by age 16. They also have paved the way and helped non Christian homeschoolers by offering homeschooling legal defense for $100 a year. Homeschooling also enables families who travel or move a lot to give their children a decent education. I do not know of any colleges that do not accept home schooled children. I applaud the OP for this post offering support for people who choose to home school. It is very difficult to do it without support. Wasn't our 16th president self taught at home?

With all that being said, please forgive me if I have offended any educators. That was not my intention. To all the parents out there I urge you to know who you are entrusting your children to each day.

StephanieV & Wannabeislander - I would like to urge you to join the group I have listed above. It is free, but you do need to make a yahoo id. The group is new, but I am working to get people into the group so we have a way to communicate with each other and pool our resources. Ideally, I would like to have regularly scheduled outings/events that would allow the children to have social activities, free play, and learning opportunities. If you do not want to join the group, you can private message me and I will be happy to give you my contact information.

LindaJ - Although you are entitled to your opinions you might want to consider that you might have a very limited and/or one-sided view. You might also want to take the time to educate yourself about homeschooling, and the people who were homeschooled and very successful. Additionally, I have read Teresa's post and although her experience is well documented, it has not been my experience, nor the experience of many people who live very happily on the islands with children. In the end, it is up to each parent to make the choices they feel are right for THEIR family. Although, I agree that anyone considering moving here should read all Teresa's posts, it should be remembered that it was her experience and not everyone feels that way about raising children here. I could list many pros and cons concerning the subject of children in the USVI, but my pros far outweigh any cons. Also, comparing teaching your own child to doing surgery is really comparing apples to oranges, but we can give it a try. If the only doctor in town used dirty implements, had a surgery room with broken equipment, had to deal with out-of-control Patients and/or employees to the point he/she was interrupted continually while trying to do his/her job, and in many cases was so undereducated/qualified that the minute anything out of the norm happened he/she was not able to deal with the situation...then maybe I would seek out other alternatives to letting him/her cut my husband open.

Dougtamjj is correct it stating that fundamental Christians did pave the way for others. Although this has nothing to do with my reasons for homeschooling, I fully support those who wish to protect their children from the ills that are rampant in so many schools.

Good Afternoon! (see, I'm practicing) For those of you in STT already, do you have an idea of how many homeschooled kids there are in STT? Is there an active group now that get together on the island? I'm weighing the options of private school or homeschool. I dont think I'll homeschool unless I know of other social outlets for my kids. Thank you for any input.

There are many families that homeschool on STT, but I don't begin to know how many. As far as I can find there are no active home school groups on STT. The reason I created the yahoo group was to hopefully help build an active group that would have regular social outings.

Hi again crescent point,
Another question....you mentioned earlier that your son is in the Antilles after school martial arts....are you able to participate in afterschool activities there while homeschooling?
I admire anybody who homeschools, its alot of work and sacrifice on mom's part. I have thought about it but dont know if it'd be a good idea for my family as we have never homeschooled before and the move plus homeschool might be too much for both my kids and I. But it would be a cost saver and offer flexibility to the family.
Thanks!
Carol

Carol,

Yes, you can attend the Antilles after school programs without being an Antilles student. Their programs are a little high on the price, but with the limited activities for children I was more than willing to pay the price. One thing I would like to do if we can get the group growing is to ask the instructor to do a Ju Jitsu class that would not be affiliated with the Antilles. He currently teaches an adult class at a different location. My son really preferred Ju Jitzu over the current style.

This will be my first time to homeschool, but I gave it several months of consideration before I decided to do it. I have read so much to try and learn as much as possible. My main concern was being able to fill the social interaction time for my son since he is the only child at home. Luckily my very good friend who has boys 9, 7 and 1 1/2 decided she wanted to homeschool also. So we are going to be doing a cooperative type thing. She has taught in the past, and her family has been such a blessing to me. Adapting to the island might have been much harder without her help. If you would like to have me send you an invite to the group just private message me your email address. You don't have to currently be homeschooling to join.

Natalie

our family is hoping to move to the USVI soon, and we are going to homeschool our children. so great to see this thread, I'll send you a private message to register to the Yahoo group, I already have a Yahoo ID.

so far, we have a 4, 3 and 1 year old, and hoping for a lot more :o) we haven't started homeschooling yet, or at least not officially, as we do preschool things at home all the time. we may start K in the fall, we'll see (our oldest taught herself how to write at 3½, so I'm not sure if I should start her on the K curriculum soon or let her play for a couple more years).

I was just at a homeschooling conference this weekend - my first one, and I'm all fired up about it! for people like Linda J, I have to say that the first time my husband made the announcement in front of his whole family (including me) that we were going to homeschool our children, my first reaction was an out-loud "no we're not, are you crazy?!" but thankfully, I've had about 4 years to look into it, did a lot of research, talked to homeschooling families, and the more I learn about it, the more I believe there's no better way to educate our children.

For those of you with young children, feel free to come join several mommies and children (usually 4 and under) at the Tot Lot (On 33 between Caret Bay and Four Corners) on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. It took me several months to find this group of young moms and kids, but they are a great group and it's nice to be around other stay-at-home moms with kids!

Smile,

Thank you for adding this. It is a great help.

Natalie

Just a bump.