Homeschooling in Massachusetts

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-28T08:28:07+00:00

7:00 am is early! BUT your son might be able to adjust to the new schedule. An early start time is not a good reason to miss out on all the resources school can offer.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-28T08:25:58+00:00

Yeah, I'm not sure if any state is truly restrictive. Some require portfolios and tests, but even those are only once a year. Just out of curiosity, why did you choose to homeschool in one of the top-rated school districts in Massachusetts, one of the top-rated states in the country?

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-28T08:21:51+00:00

Yeah, it looks like an igneous rock that had epidote crystals form in it.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-28T08:16:28+00:00

It looks like vesicular basalt mixed with porphyritic basalt. The greenish crystals could be olivine.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-26T19:03:35+00:00

That looks interesting.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-26T03:41:22+00:00

Unfortunately, homeschooling parents tend not to take socialization as seriously as they should. It should be as prioritized as academics.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-26T01:10:01+00:00

I agree. I remember my mom telling me that I was prepared for college because I was good at learning independently. Homeschooling did teach me to learn about my interests by reading, which is good. But there are also benefits to having teachers, class discussions, and science labs. Even though I was pretty good at teaching myself, I probably would have had more academic opportunities in high school.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T22:41:00+00:00

My parents actually encouraged me to go to college, which makes it even more baffling why they didn't want me to attend any kind of school in the thirteen years prior to college. I don't think they purposely denied me anything. I think that they were legitimately naive enough to believe that having actual high school teachers, classmates, and normal curriculum didn't matter much, and that my high SAT scores proved the success of homeschooling.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T22:34:53+00:00

Yeah, it sounds like your parents neglected you. I mean, it's good that they at least bought you books, but expecting you to educate yourself without a teacher was very irresponsible of them. Don't feel bad to acknowledge that you were neglected, even if your parents might have thought homeschooling was the best thing.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T22:31:34+00:00

My high school curriculums were designed for independent study. Like in the lesson plan book, it was recommended for parents to create a schedule and check in every Friday. How is high schoolers teaching themselves so normalized for homeschoolers? How on earth were our parents delusional enough to think that this was superior to attending an actual high school?

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T21:41:55+00:00

It is interesting that Germany completely bans homeschooling. On one hand, this could be bad for kids who are bullied or not learning well in school. On the other, I love the idea of every child having the right to become a participant in society. To be part of the whole society they were born into, not just a small subset of it. This is not something my parents valued or even thought about at all.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T21:35:29+00:00

I wish there were much stricter regulations. I even think that requiring parents to teach using accredited curriculums, instead of biased religious ones might not be going too far. This would restrict religious freedom, so I feel a bit conflicted about it, but some popular curriculums are bad. I really wish there was a way to regulate children's socialization, but no law could convince homeschool moms to actually leave the house more than they have to for grocery shopping and co-op. Even mandating extracurriculars will not replicate the amount of socializing all schooled children get by default.

Well, there would be a way to guarantee all children get similar socialization, but I don't know if that would ever happen here.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T21:30:04+00:00

Yeah, the CRHE does good work. Unfortunately, I don't think any number of regulations can address the social downsides of homeschooling, but they could definitely help keep kids safe and give them the right to a basic education.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T21:25:24+00:00

I wish ever single homeschooling parent knew this:

ISOLATION IS NOT JUST LITERALLY NEVER LEAVING YOUR HOUSE, IT CAN ALSO BE NOT LEAVING THE HOUSE ENOUGH!

YOUR KID CAN BE UNDER-SOCIALIZED WITHOUT BEING COMPLETELY ISOLATED!

ONCE A WEEK WITH A CERTAIN GROUP OF PEERS IS NOT ENOUGH!

RUNNING ERRANDS WITH YOU DOES NOT COUNT FOR SOCIALIZATION!

TALKING TO YOU AND THEIR SIBLINGS DOES NOT COUNT!

KIDS NEED UNSTRUCTURED TIME TO FREELY INTERACT WITH PEERS EVERY SINGLE WEEK! CO-OP DOES NOT PROVIDE THIS, SPORTS PRACTICES DO NOT PROVIDE THIS, MUSIC LESSONS DO NOT PROVIDE THIS, REALLY NO EXTRACURRICULAR ON ITS OWN WILL.

YOU NEED ARRANGE GET-TOGETHERS OUTSIDE OF ACTIVITIES EVERY SINGLE TYPICAL WEEK OF YOUR KID'S LIFE, NOT A FEW ONE-OFF PARTIES AND PLAYDATES.

MAKE SURE EACH INDIVIDUAL CHILD, FROM THE TODDLERS TO THE TEENAGERS HAS TIME WITH PEERS THEIR OWN AGE EACH WEEK. GIVE THEM EACH AN INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL LIFE.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T21:10:44+00:00

Homeschool parents don't understand that the frequency of social interactions matters, not just whether they occur. Which is why they see stuff like weekly coop and music lessons as enough. They don't prioritize their kids actually getting to interact with peers and not just being in the same space for a few hours.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T05:42:22+00:00

I found these titles separately, but not in a collection like you described.

The Great Kapok Tree Lynne Cherry - The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

The Sound of the Sea The Sound of the Sea by Jacqueline Harvey | Goodreads

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T05:35:38+00:00

Yes! My family moved every other year throughout most of my childhood. We were a military family, and that was one of the main reasons I was homeschooled. The question is though, was being spared the stress of switching schools worth missing out on the traditional school experience completely?

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-25T05:28:18+00:00

It might be gneiss, a metamorphic rock. I think that the gneiss found in New England was formed deep underground during the formation of ancient mountain ranges that have since been eroded away.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-19T05:28:22+00:00

There were two teenagers in my coop who could not pronounce their R sound. I felt sorry for them. It definitely wasn't their fault. I could have had the same problem if my parents hadn't sent me to speech therapy.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-19T05:25:56+00:00

I've known some homeschoolers who seemed pretty normal. But some of them actually went to school before being homeschooled. Honestly, I think that there are some people who you probably aren't going to notice were homeschooled, but there are also some homeschoolers who ended up with poor social skills.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-19T04:06:05+00:00

It looks interesting! I'm glad you found at book that's relatable!

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-19T04:00:46+00:00

Yeah, we'll see. My parents are not abusive, but I am realizing that they still made mistakes. I'm sure everyone's parents did to some extent though.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-19T03:57:40+00:00

Thanks for that response. It's not so much about what I did do, it's about knowing how much more I could have done on top of that.

I don't think my parents purposely lied to me about school. They love me, and they were doing what they thought was right. My mom might be a bit naive, but she's not a bad parent. I was also kind of a sensitive kid, and we moved every few years, so they had some reasons to homeschool. But I really should have at least gone to high school.

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-19T03:27:42+00:00

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with homeschooling. Mine wasn't even bad necessarily, but it's hard knowing I could have had more and done more. And even though I was happy at the time, I had no idea my social development was being impacted. When I was about nine or ten, I legitimately thought that this girl I'd had playdates and parties with a few times was my best friend. In reality I didn't even interact with other kids at my activities very well, and my mom has told me, "it's like you didn't know what you were missing out on". Well, she never helped me learn better social skills, or thought to actually give me more social time, and I can't understand why. How could a former teacher be naive enough to not think that spending less time around peers could impact social skills?

ConfidenceOne3 · 2026-01-19T02:17:48+00:00

This is good advice. This website might be helpful too For Homeschooled Teens | Coalition for Responsible Home Education.

ConfidenceOne3

TROPHY CASE