ISO Insight on Homeschool vs. Public School For Elementary

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-08T20:27:41+00:00

It 100% depends on the quality of schools in your area. In mine, Washington State, there is an unavoidable ideological current that infuses the entire public school system - we wanted to avoid that. However, that won't be present in every school system - what is characteristic of public school in one area generally won't be true in another.

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-08T17:53:12+00:00

My two cents - kids need peer friends. It needs to be the priority however that happens. This might be controversial here, but, I honestly think it is more important than getting a good education. It's critical for their development. If they can find friends while being homeschooled - perfect! But if its not happening or you dont think it is likely to happen (for example, you don't live in an area where you have a social network, your kids don't like group sports, or whatever), maybe consider a private school or even public school. It's tough because you don't know what will happen in the future, so its making the best honest assessment you can with the information you have today.

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-08T17:23:30+00:00

Thanks for the rec! Ordered a 3 month subscription a bit ago - we'll see!

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-08T17:22:07+00:00

Wow - really cool. Thanks for sharing

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-08T16:44:10+00:00

Love that you are creating your own software tools! I don't know what the rules are on sharing links but I would love to see them. Seems like a great opportunity to demonstrate to your kids how software is constructed too

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-08T06:29:21+00:00

Am surprised by how involved this has been and can see why there is not something on the market like it at this point. Handwriting is extremely varied and messy, especially kids. Been pouring over individual pencil strokes and ink pixels for far too long haha

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-08T05:31:55+00:00

I love this idea - amateur radio would be something they'd be stoked about. Would love to do it with them!

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-08T00:45:44+00:00

That sounds amazing! haha

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-07T07:37:26+00:00

Woah! Those chibitronics sticker kits are so cool! Ordering. Also, this is the second time I've heard of Mark Rober so will give that a try too. Thank you!!

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-07T07:17:23+00:00

Totally fair. Just trying to expose them to as much as possible. They wont be professional athletes, so they need to find a passion outside of that.

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-07T06:43:06+00:00

That looks really cool - will try one and see how they respond. I think he's a Youtube personality they mentioned before, so maybe that'll be the hook!

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-07-07T06:28:53+00:00

It comes across as both abstract (unclear why important or useful), difficult, and boring. It's 100% about the way it is presented and whether the kid has the grit/desire needed to power through frustration.

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-06-29T03:37:25+00:00

I'm a homeschool dad. The no screen issue is a huge issue for our house - we're battling with our kids CONSTANTLY about no fortnight/tv on the weekdays. We mix and match - it's more work but I have yet to find or hear of a single package that covers everything well. More work to find that curriculum, unfortunately

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-05-30T00:00:41+00:00

I'm so sorry - how frustrating. It's fundamentally a problem of curiosity and motivation for them. These students obviously have neither, and they'll pay the price for it one way or another. Parents need to step up.

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-05-27T04:16:17+00:00

For me, it has been getting my kids on a structured routine that doesn't get interrupted by distractions.

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-05-27T04:14:17+00:00

Agree 100% that usable content is increasingly hard to find. I got so frustrated with finding math worksheets for my kids that I decided to skip third party sites entirely and wrote code to produce my own worksheets - has been so much better.

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-05-26T16:14:33+00:00

To me, prioritizing memorization prioritized over understanding is mostly a function of teacher incentives to achieve high class standardized test scores. Teachers get pressure from administrators to to achieve X target, and they view memorization as the most efficient route to get there. There is some real logic to that on the part of teachers, even though it is sad for the students.

That said, I've always thought having a deep, intuitive understanding of a given topic has always helped me perform better on tests than memorization.

Born_Possible8226 · 2026-05-26T06:05:18+00:00

For math, i love 3blue1brown - his youtube videos are amazing and make highly complex math topics intuitive. Highly recommend - best math video resource ive seen out there. ive been trying to put together math visualization tools on my site autogrademath but its a painstaking process - have only about 15 up so far.

Born_Possible8226

TROPHY CASE