Home schoolers - why do you do it?

[horseshowmom]

This is not an attack on home schooling, but for you that home school, are you highly educated? I find it kind of disturbing to think about home schooling your children if you yourself are not that highly educated. I do understand if you live in a bad school district tho. I did know someone who was actually on this board a couple years ago that home schooled her children, and she herself had atrocious spelling. I'm sure it does work at times, maybe if your children live in a bad school district, etc. I remember LOVING school. Just trying to understand it, that's all.

It happens that both my husband and I have Master's degrees. I do NOT necessarily consider that as being that important. In our case, I used A Beka's curriculum and found it to very amply meet what was needed. We just used their curriculum through 8th grade, and then enrolled in the video school for high school. If there's anything you don't understand, rewind the teacher as many times as you wish (they never get tired of repeating themselves ).

I might also add that parents of public school students might be surprised to find how often classroom teachers are not what is considered to be "highly qualified". Often teachers teach on "emergency licenses" that allow them to teach while they work on becoming highly qualified. I have taught high school math several times over my career and did now have certification in that. Fortunately, I was capable of teaching the Algebra courses I taught. That's not always the case though.

I might add, that my child LOVED homeschooling. She has indicated that if she ever has children she will homeschool. Her husband who is a public school teacher agrees. (BTW, both my husband and myself were public schooled and work in public schools now. This is a personal choice not a slam on the public school system.)

I homeschool. I was a high school teacher and counselor before I had children. I keep up my credentials as I do plan to go back at some point.

3. We have the time to do things we want to do when we want to do them. Our schedule is not dictated.

4. We can teach things that I still find important, like phonics and Latin.

5. Our values are not necessarily the same values the general public adheres to.

Where we live, there are so many activities, both academically based as well as socially based, that I never worry about them not getting out or getting what they need.

Dawn

Just to add a little here: I very much agree with #3. DD horseshowed fairly seriously, and she was able to attend out of town/state shows and visit her trainer as needed while we worked school around a flexible schedule.

#4 - I agree very much with this as well. Unfortunately, schools are often so focused on mandatory state testing that many important things (IMHO) are overlooked. I gave her a much more well-rounded education than the students I see in public school getting (although I never made it up to Latin, Dawn!).

#5. Again, I agree. A Beka included Bible in each year's curriculum, and that was important to our family. DD has a strong foundation in not only what she believes but why. (I will add that we had some minor differences of opinion with A Beka - primarily the KJV issue, but overall we were well satisfied.)

What happens when they go to look at colleges? Do the colleges just look at their SAT scores and other activities they were in, since of course there is no ranking. Can they do AP courses as a home schooled student?

Thanks for all the info!

We were very pleasantly surprised when we began investigating this. One of the reasons that we enrolled DD in A Beka's video program was to make sure she had a transcript since we knew she would be going into a professional field (thought it would be vet school but she changed her mind and went into pharmacy instead). Most colleges now have a section in their handbooks dealing with homeschool graduates. Our experience was that they were welcomed.

DD applied for the very competitive Early Entry Pharmacy Honors program during her senior year of high school and was accepted. When we went to visit the campus in December of that senior year, we found them to be very open to homeschoolers (this was a major state university).

DD did not take any AP courses although that is an option. I will add that her sophomore year she received a scholarhsip to tutor other students. Some of them actually turned out to have taken AP courses in the subject matter so while AP courses are a good thing, they aren't always as good as they should be.

I don't doubt the kids can get a quality education at home, however my years in school involved interacting with many different people both older and younger, teachers who shared their life experience and simply dealing with things like conflict resolution, following directions, time management and so many life lessons that have helped me in my adult life. Many of my lifelong friends were cultivated through my school years. Traveling to sporting events, pep rallies, proms ect, were some of the most memorable times of my life. I would hate to deny my kids those great times. I think sheltering kids from the outside world will hurt them in the long run, think what the Dugger kids will go through when they have to get a real job and mom and dad are not there to tell them what to think and do, just my thoughts, I respect any parent that has that kind of dedication to their kids, I couldn't do it

While I know that you believe what you are saying, you couldn't be further from the truth. I have never understood why people think that homeschooling is "sheltering your children". Almost none of the homeschool children are like the Duggars.

My daughter spent a great deal of time traveling to sporting events. In her case, she competed in Horse Bowl, Horse Judging, Hippology, and others through 4-H. These are all team events. She made 3 trips to the National Horse Classic Championships in Denver, CO (two as a competitor, one as the only teenage coach who had ever been sent). Our state university sent them out on the athletic bus with other state winners, and they had a ball. Her Horse Bowl team (she was Captain) was the National Chapions, and I think the Hippology team was 5th. They also competed at AQHA Congress as well as many, many district, state, and regional competitions.

In addition to that, she competed with her horse. At horse shows she had great fun with other friends - competing against each other in classes, flirting and carrying on at the dances that were generally held, and just hanging around in general.

Prior to becoming deeply involved in horses, she played softball at the league level and on the All Star (traveling) team.

That doesn't even begin to include church activities and field trips with friends. She also took piano for awhile until she decided that wasn't her thing.

Others have addressed your other points already. So I'll only add my 2 cents to the bit I bolded.

Homeschoolers typically interact with a much wider variety of people than public schooled kids. Your typical public schooled kid goes to the same class every day and spends most of their time interacting with same-age peers and teachers. A homeschooler interacts with the broader community (including infants, the elderly and disabled people), and attends activities and classes with children both several years older and younger. One comment I hear a lot is that homeschooled kids actually know how to talk confidently to adults, while public schooled kids tend to mumble and look away. I'm sure that isn't true for every kid, but it seems to be an overall trend. And it would make sense... the homeschooled child meets and interacts with strange adults every day they're out in the world. The public school kid only interacts with people they already know well.

Homeschooling - to my mind - is the opposite of sheltering your child. Unless of course you're living in a religious compound in the middle of the desert. But the folks don't represent the homeschoolers I know (and once was).

Absolutely! I can't tell you how many times I had people comment on well spoken and confident my daughter was. It served her well because her dad and I didn't come from horse people. Many, many adults in the horse community took her under their wing and helped her advance her career largely due to how well she communicated with them. When she applied for the Early Entry Pharmacy Honors program, she had to go through an interview process. The interviewers commented on how well she interviewed. She competed in Judging that required her to orally defend her reasons. She was top score many times even when her placings didn't match the judge's, because she was confident, logical, and could verbalize her selections. Sheltered - nope, well rounded - definitely!

I don’t agree with Tim Tebow.

I think it is unfair for a homeschooled child to play for their local high school team. The child that is home schooled has an advantage. They don’t have to worry about the big paper due on the same day as the big game. They have more time to practice. They can sleep in the day of a big game, instead of sitting at a desk at 7:30am. Their parents can adjust the course workload during the “sports season”. Etc. Not to mention the recruiting nightmare that would ensue if children that didn’t go to a certain high school were allowed to play sports for that school.

IMO, If you want to play on a high school team, you should attend that school.

Otherwise, I think homeschooling (done under the correct circumstances) is a wonderful thing!

Don't agree at all. While my daughter chose not to participate in school based sports, I pay taxes just like everybody else. If she had wanted to do so, she should have been able to do so. While I doubt very seriously that our local school is even aware of it, our state does require schools to allow homeschoolers to participate in sports if they wish.

It's usually mentioned around election time and more locally than state-wide, but we had a candidate who was all for making home schoolers more accountable to the state, more testing and if they 'failed' then they would have to be enrolled in school. Luckily he didn't make it far.

From time to time, I hear people voice this. When schools start holding back all of the students in their own classrooms who don't perform satisfactorily on the standardized test, then I will be more willing to discuss options, but I don't see that happening.

(I say this knowing full well that my own daughter would have done fine. She had a 32 on the ACT and wound up with the highest academic honor her university conferred when she finished her bachelor's degree. She will graduate from pharmacy school in May as an Honor's graduate.)


I loved homeschooling, and it served my daughter well. I didn't have a hard time deciding to do it. Nobody had to talk me into it. To each their own though!

 

[bellebud]

There seems to be a misconception about homeschoolers that the kids are completely isolated and never get to mingle and learn with other kids. The vast majority of homeschoolers are a part of homeschooling groups where they meet up for certain subjects-phys ed, music, field trips, whatever. I would think it would be a much healthier type of socialization than what happens in the public schools. This is probably one way homeschoolers deal with teaching subjects they are not strong in-maybe one family has a mom who is strong in math, they all meet and that mom teaches math while the other mom loves to do phys ed. I would venture to guess that it is the very rare homeschooler that is isolated.

My kids are all public schooled.

I just wanted to thank you for your post, especially since your kids are all public schooled. You seem to have an inside view - do you have homeschooling family or friends? Just curious.

Wanted to add to the general discussion - we own our own retail business, and Christmas is our 'season'. DD11 has been learning to do the books w/ me for the past year (I do them manually). I can hand her an invoice, and I'm done. She makes out the check properly, marks and files the paperwork, makes out the envelope, etc... all I have to do is sign the check. She even makes out the payroll checks (even hers, which she loves, of course!)

She decided during december she wanted to go to work w/ dad every day. She went to work from 6am to 6pm for 3 weeks straight (7 days a week). She LOVES being a salesgirl... she was on the sales floor the whole time, wearing her nametag, dressed nicely, helping customers (who we were comfortable w/ her helping - some people don't want to be helped by an 11yo, and we understand this and so does she). She also wrapped every present that needed wrapping (freeing up our sales staff a lot)... and she got many tips from the grateful men whose gifts she wrapped. We pool tips (because they're really, really rare for us anyway), and she got so many tips, she was able to treat all our employees to lunch 2 different times. She was so proud of herself and excited about that. Those 3 weeks of work were worth more than anything a textbook could teach her. Of course she did no "schoolwork" those 3 weeks, but the learning that took place was priceless. She stands up tall when speaking to the customers, smiles, laughs, engages the children of the customers - we get so many compliments on her - someone asked if she was around 14yo because of her maturity behind the counter. I'm not saying this is "because" of homeschooling, but the opportunity for her to do this wouldn't be there if she were in school. My ds9 learns other aspects of the business and is finding what he likes and doesn't like. There's nothing better than the kids seeing and actually doing work, seeing bills being paid, seeing the money come in, and go right back out! Interacting w/ the general public constantly, and w/ our employees behind the scenes. The real life socializing our circumstances allow our kids is a real plus in our homeschooling life.

 

[npmommie]

Op did you ever say why you are thinking of homeschooling?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Op did you ever say why you are thinking of homeschooling?

She chose not to due to the nature of the reason. (nothing intended by my statement, just sharing that she chose no to share)

 

[npmommie]

She chose not to due to the nature of the reason. (nothing intended by my statement, just sharing that she chose no to share)

Ok that was why I chose not to put much into this thread, especially when an attempt to get a debate going was posted. I questioned the motives of the question.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Ok that was why I chose not to put much into this thread, especially when an attempt to get a debate going was posted. I questioned the motives of the question.

I was concerned as well. She PM'd me and told me why and I found her decision to not post the reason to be a wise choice.

She was sincere in her inquiry. She was not looking to debate. She may, per her reasons, have to homeschool.

 

[Buckalew11]

Well, she did say something about her child's school passing something that she disagrees with and if it comes to pass, she is thinking of homeschooling.

 

[bellebud]

I have something else to add to the "are you highly educated if you're a homeschooler" question

Very many private schools do not have to hire "certified" teachers.

The private catholic school my kids went to before we started hsing had some teaching who were not certified teachers. Who knows what education these people had. And I'm not saying they weren't good at teaching our kids - just saying - it can make no difference either way, whether homeschooling or attending school. Two of the worst teachers my kids ever had were both certified teachers... they were simply boneheads. And one of the non certified teachers did a good job teaching her class (as did many of the certified ones). So really, it doesn't matter.

 

[Creekermom]

I really 'enjoy' being with my children. I went to school to teach... I do work PT in a complete other field which I love but I cringe when people call their children brats or they can't wait till they go to school...
I mean we have our days or circumstances but mist HS families lve being with their children.

Also most schools don't test for advanced placement until 3rd grade... My daughter would have hated school by then... HS allows us to work at HER speed... Shes doing a grade ahead. she'll be able to take freshman college corded when she's a SR in high school. & work too.

Maybe she'll shadow someone in a field she's interested in.

I like the fact too that if we ate studying something & it peaks her interests we can take that as far as we can & learn all we can about it.

Thus creating interest in something that might end up
Being her passion.

 

[goofy!]

I might also add that parents of public school students might be surprised to find how often classroom teachers are not what is considered to be "highly qualified". Often teachers teach on "emergency licenses" that allow them to teach while they work on becoming highly qualified.

I think that is state dependent also. I know our teachers cannot teach on an emergency license. My daughter had a teacher on an 'emergency license' in 7th grade (SpEd teacher) and she had to have a qualified, licensed substitute in the classroom at all times as she was not allowed to teach until all her certifications were in order.

As for highly qualified, heck, I am just a plain old para and I just had to submit my college transcripts to prove that I was "highly qualified." Teaching certificate not required, but college transcripts with an emphasis in some child related major is required.

 

[goofy!]

Op did you ever say why you are thinking of homeschooling?

She said that her school district was thinking of implementing a policy that she was 100% against. She wouldn't divulge the nature of the policy, but did say that if the policy was implemented, she would need to make the decision to pull her kids and homeschool.

 

[goofy!]

She chose not to due to the nature of the reason. (nothing intended by my statement, just sharing that she chose no to share)

Ok that was why I chose not to put much into this thread, especially when an attempt to get a debate going was posted. I questioned the motives of the question.

not true.

The only thing she did not divulge was the nature of the policy being considered by the school district.

She did state that she was not in favor of the policy and that if implemented she was going to home school. Thus, she was trying to become more informed about home schooling in case that is what she was going to have to do.

I'm asking because I may be faced with having to home school if a certain policy gets instituted that I am 100% against. I can't say what it is but suffice it to say that I would pull the kids out of school. So my intentions are genuine!

 

[bellebud]

OP - have you seen the homeschooling thread on the Family Board here? Make sure you check it out too for more info for your decision.

I do want to say though, if you go into it feeling like you're not really wanting to do it, it really might not work out well for you.

I personally LOVE when my kids are home. I'm not saying I love my kids more than any other parent. But when my kids were in school, I volunteered in the school everyday - but some parents needed that time away from the kids.

You hear it every September, lots of parents can't wait till school starts... I always dreaded it! So homeschooling was something that I feel is "my cup of tea" (to use a quote from my mil). My mom was the same way - she said when my brothers and I were growing up, most every other mom in the neighborhood was dying for Sept to come, she always hated it! She loved summer vacation with us kids home. Again, not that she loved us any more - just different strokes for different folks.

Really think about that part of it too. It's very important.