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A friend of mine mine I have known since grade school has homeschooled her grandkids since the late 70s and now she is homeschooling her grandkids. Her children are extremely successful with jobs as doctors and attorneys. So they had an extremely great education.

Although she doesn’t participate in one of these pods, for the last 30 or 40 years she and other concerned parents have established their own homeschooling programs.

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I wish these were around when I homeschooled mine. I did it all on my own. Worked out fine though!

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Dec 25, 2023Liked by Dear Rest Of America

My three children attended a Christian school thru grade twelve. Some of the teachers were volunteers. This helped keep the cost down for parents. My wife was a volunteer. To make extra money I got up at three a.m. and delivered newspapers. This was a small price to pay for the benefits. Your children are our future, invest in them.

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Dec 25, 2023Liked by Dear Rest Of America

I retired from the public school system in 2018 because even then I had had it up to my eyeballs with the garbage coming down from the state. And don't even get me started on state testing, all just a big money-making endeavor for the publisher of the "tests." I often encouraged parents to consider homeschooling because of their concerns. I pray that these pods and co-ops grow exponentially.

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Dec 25, 2023Liked by Dear Rest Of America

THANK-YOU FOR THIS POST AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND FAMILIES TO SEARCH OUT OR CREATE THEIR OWN HOMESCHOOL EXPERIENCE AS THERE ARE NO LOSERS...ONLY WINNERS IN THIS EDUCATIONAL OPTION.

Our Educational Co-op has been overpopulated since its inception in 2018 and resources revolve around all parents and their resources as well. Many disciplines and 'Skill Sets' are possible to teach contingent upon the needs and wants of any given child. We have some extremely gifted parents contributing specialized learning; as Foreign Languages and Robotics. Many have expanded their interests to include knowledge and experience with Mechanics, Engineering of many types, 'Food Prep/Preservation', Animal Husbandry/Training, Gardening...Basic Equestrian Skills, Sewing with our Amish Seamstress and other functions in Home Economics and Knowledge surrounding 'Survival Skills'. We're discussing an adventure for this summer with Dessert Survival taught by a few Vets from the Iraqi/Afghan Wars.

Our kids are testing an average of three years beyond their cohort and they're far more diverse, and advanced with deductive reasoning. They exhibit advanced emotional and moral behavioral dynamics surrounding responsiblity and decision-making. They own errors and are far superior in comparison to those their own age with 'Crisis Resolution'. It's a place where the young learn from and watch th older and the older are raised as good 'Role Models' for the younger kids. We're all so very proud of the kids. WE ARE A PLACE WHERE APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR IS REINFORCED AND THERE ARE NO BULLIES OR 'MEAN GIRLS'.

More parents are finding us and are becoming viable constributors in the 'Teaching Aspect' of the School. We've twice reconstructed buildings to provide space in our growing enterprise based not on money or profit; but in building whole human beings of strength, integrity and honor for a world where such characteristics are sorely lacking.

WE DO NOT HAVE PROBLEMS WITH PORN, GENDER CONFUSION, DRUGS AND PERMISCUITY...Amen!

At this time, we are NOT prepared for children not fluent and functional with English...That is the only weakness with our Homeschooling Model.

Can't recommend this option enough...It produces WINNERS all the way around for all.

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Dec 26, 2023Liked by Dear Rest Of America

great piece, as a father and now stepfather to kids in the public school system, there's allot to consider. My sons who went to both private and public schools, the education was completely different. The biggest difference was in the private school they aren't tied to curriculum that the kids have to get through in order to graduate. they can take time to discuss aspects of situations that happened. example. while discussing 9/11 in private school they asked the question how and why did 9/11 happen? Lots of kids raised their hands and gave the usual narrative, but when my son raised his hand and said it was an inside job, and that the government needed a false flag situation in order to get the american public behind going to war in the middle east. he wasn't looked upon like he had a third eye, they said great we'll dive into that as well to see if he's correct or not. in the public school systems they don't have the time or the energy to go off course because kids are supposed to X before they can graduate wether X is true or not.

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Dec 25, 2023Liked by Dear Rest Of America

We can also continue the Great Action of Mission Be at home by bringing mindfulness to schools. For 2000 years, Buddhists have been practicing some forms of meditation that can be very useful for the goal of knowing ourselves better. Toxic relationships, self-esteem, stress, anxiety, depression... are words and states that we live with day after day and that we must analyze.

We must stop to think about what we want to be, what we want to become. In a society where we are taught to compete, we must establish ourselves in our true self, without building walls based on dreamed images of ourselves. Self-realization comes with the knowledge of our interior. We cannot feel fulfilled if we do not allow ourselves to feel fulfilled in the depths of our being.

The philosopher Sören Kirkegaard points out that “man cannot be abandoned except by his and hers.” And fleeing from the despair that comes from distancing ourselves from our authenticity means facing Being, with capital letters. Namely, who we really are and not who we have been taught we should be. To connect with our self-esteem and rebuild ourselves, we must begin to enter the world of meditation.

-------------------------141 BENEFITS OF MEDITATION. Some of them:

1) Strengthen these 9 key brain regions. Harness the power of meditation to make your brain smarter, happier, and healthier. Change your brain, change your life.

2) Longevity, life extension and anti-aging

3) Heal the "intestinal and brain axis.

4) Increase immunity, develop health, defeat diseases

5) Reduction of stress and stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and fibromyalgia

6) Strengthens "grit" and mental toughness.

7) Balances the left and right cerebral hemispheres

8) Meditation makes us so happy.

9) How to neutralize bipolar disorder.

10) Improved memory.

11) Attention capacity.

12) Improved willpower.

13) Sleep better.

14) Less pain.

15) Decrease in blood pressure.

16) Less anxiety.

17) Less depression.

18) Meditation can help you better understand yourself, find your best self, and increase positive feelings and actions toward others.

https://eocinstitute.org/meditation/141-benefits-of-meditation/?mind_power_2&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAyp-sBhBSEiwAWWzTnq-eHd0XhFQrJx1L8Vr_Vt1IgQV01cIX3NMyowBlE0B1Q0T4rFMz1xoCV2oQAvD_ BwE#/

In the links types of meditation and scientific evidence that mindfulness practices, such as meditation, have a positive impact on our mental health. Here are some of the tests.

https://www.weliahealth.org/2022/07/meditation-and-benefits-for-our-mental-health/ (2022).------

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Dec 28, 2023Liked by Dear Rest Of America

Homeschooling has so much potential... Children being educated instead of inculcated. I homeschooled my children... in the 90s and early 2000s. There were challenges... but we survived and they are both doing well career-wise. More importantly though, they are able to examine and process with critical thinking skills their personal walk and that of the cultural influences. The community we lived in had several homeschool support groups, and there was a place where homeschool parents with specialties (math, history, literature, etc.) gave classes to help out the learning process.

I am very inspired to see how much the homeschool movement is growing... I pray God's guidance with it, and protection from any attempts to detract from the true benefits to the children and our communities through any malevolent actions. I look at the growth of homeschooling being a good sign emerging from the horrors of the past few years and what that has made more parents aware of the need to know how their children have been set up for disaster by certain sectors of our societies.

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Dec 26, 2023Liked by Dear Rest Of America

Wonderful article! Thank you ❤️

It is so sad, tragic, the efforts of so-called educators hell bent on capturing young minds into a dark world of “normalizing” porn. There are studies which state that porn is more addicting than heroin :

“ Researchers tell a Senate hearing that internet porn is more addictive and harmful than street drugs.”

"The internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors," Layden said. "To have drug pumped into your house 24/7, free, and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it -- it's a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind."

https://www.wired.com/2004/11/internet-porn-worse-than-crack/

Great job highlighting the problem and absolutely wonderful effort to stimulate the imagination with real creative solutions!

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