OT- Why do you home school?

[DawnM]

So that I can go to Disney World in January!

BTW: We school year round.....so this is not a "laziness" issue.

 

[StitchFanZ]

We started out in public school, switched to private, and then when we moved 4 years ago we decided to homeshool. All have pluses and minuses. When they were in public shool, it was convenient but they were not learning. In private school, it was much better but our evenings and weekends were consumed with homework and it cost $12,000 per child per year. I hated
the homework almost as much as the kids. We didn't have time for many things. I'd get home, eat dinner, do homework and then it was bedtime.

With homeschooling, we work until we are done and then we have our evenings free. If they don't get their work done, they don't get to go to fun activities and play so they learn pretty quick to focus and get finished. Some of the best parts are they don't have to wait for everyone to catch up. When they master a topic, they can move onto the next section. We will easily be thru calculus and upper level sciences before they finish high school. Not because I made them but because they move on when they master something. Learning is fun and more interesting when you can learn at your own pace.

Your hear a lot about the extra time that homeschoolers have. Bottom line is when you have an individualized learning plan combined with one on one teaching, you can get a lot of learning done in a fraction of the time it would take in a large group situation. The student teacher ratio in most homeschools is pretty good.

My DD can volunteer and work at local animal parks because that is an area she loves and she wants a career working with animals. She already has many volunteer hours logged and helps with kids camps and works local fairs demonstrating and educating the public about animals. Does she love homeshooling? Yes! There is no way she could pursue all her interests
if she was in a school building 8 hours a day. She will have at least one years worth of college classes done at the local community college before finishing high school. She gets annoyed by all the social drama that some of her regular schooled freinds waste so much time on.

My teenage kids like to be with family. My kids have several good friends in public school. Not all of them like having their parents around and they seem to be bored a lot of the time. I have the opposite problem. My kids complain if I don't join in or make it to enough things. Being together forces you to work things out and get along and hopefully enjoy each other.

I used to do hiring for a high tech company and sadly we didn't hire many public schooled kids. The critical thinking and higher level math skills were lacking in many. Some had it but the private and homeshool kids had a real edge. This was a factor in my decision to homeshool.

I could go on and on but the bottom line is it was a great choice for us. It is a lifesytle change. There are times when it is tough. Life happens and sometimes its hard to stay focused and disciplined. In some ways this is the hardest job I've had because my children's education is very important. I have a masters degree and my husband graduated at the top of his class in college so rest assured we wouldn't homeschool if we didn't believe it was the best educational option for our family.

Academics aside, the memories we've created together and the relationships we are building are among my favorite things about homeshooling.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Because I LOVE.TO.BE.WITH.MY.CHILDREN.

Ok, that's the simplified version, but I had them so I could raise them, not a broken system. Yes, I think the public school system is broken, no, I don't want to debate about it, it's just an opinion. I think it breaks their spirits and kills their interest in learning just about anything.

Instead of being carted off to a room with children the same age, all day long, they are surrounded by the real world! We have very rich lives, a great homeschool group and they are happy. I value that more than whether they are middle-class or not as adults, for the poster who commented on this. I believe how they are learning will not only allow them to excel in the future but BE HAPPY too, which I find many adults who are "successful" financially, are not.

Well, THAT was a big soapbox! Sorry!

I really just love teaching my kids and being with them. We have all learned so much from our experience, and I don't regret it for a moment (ok, when I can't even get a moment to myself to pee, I might regret just for a sec!)

 

[Leajess99]

I noticed there are a lot of parents that do this on this board. So I just wondered why. My kids are not school age yet so this isn't an issue for me yet

I am planning on doing it this fall to keep my daughter healthy. Her school is a danger to her health with a mold problem and she suffers from allergies and asthma. I refuse to return my child to that school where her teacher and assistant teacher would not even give her her inhaler when needed. There are many reasons parents choose to homeschool. I have friends who homeschool so I know i will be getting some awesome help in getting started.

 

[CLR4321]

We home school for a few reasons.

First, my ds was getting in trouble all the time. He was getting board and acting up. The school refused to give him harder or extra work to keep him busy. He is also ADHD and has trouble just sitting the way the expected him to when finished with his work.

Second, my odd was falling further and further behind her class. The school refused to have her tested for learning disabilities. I had her tested out side of school and she is dyslexic and ADHD. Oh, without any testing the school also tried to tell my she is Autistic, but she isn't.

Third, dh had an argument with the Principal. The Principal claimed that by enrolling a child in public school you give up any right to make decisions about the child.

WOW! How horrible! I honestly would have looked into a lawsuit right then and there for that one. What a horrible principal! Shame on him! It's good that you have the ability to home school!

 

[AuroraBeauty]

I homeschool because I can! I have been teaching my daughter since she was very young and now she'd be bored out of her mind sitting in a classroom. We tried a private school -- b/c MIL kept telling DD that she would learn XYZ 'when she went to school', but the lack of respect by the other students, the teachers and administrators changed our decision about that.

Homeschooling is NOT easy by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, we can get up at 9am and do a few hours of schoolwork and take a break then do some activities. But, don't underestimate the amount of preparation that went in to those 'few hours of schoolwork'. However, we school year-round because it works for us. DD has finished 3 grade levels of French in 18 months, because of the one-on-one attention.

For every family you will have different reasons for homeschooling. For some it's religious, others it's due to health/medical concerns, still others decide that they must stop the bullying at school since the school won't. Many do it for convenience, some do it so they can have input into what their kid learns. You name it, it's a reason to do it.

In the end, homeschooling is a choice -- just like public school, private, charter school, religious school, magnet school, vo-tech or whatever else you can choose. It's not set in stone, so if it doesn't work you're not stuck.

With Joy, anything is possible!

 

[lacrossemom]

What about sports games, like soccer, football, lacrosse, etc... (kids love their high school games). Their social experience, I have noticed several homeschool children not have the same social skills as public school children. Being in the high school band (the spring band trip, football games, competitions, etc...) a wonderful experience for kids. The about activites are just as important as school work is.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

There are sports outside of school. My kids actually have better social skills than they did in school as they are accustomed to speaking with all ages, adults, little kids, kids their age...

We have a huge homeschool group that meets once a week, a co-op with classes that meets once a week, playdates, holiday parties, music lessons, field trips and more. They actually have more opportunities to socialize than kids in school do b/c they aren't bound to a desk and not allowed to interact with each other. I was worried about the social aspect before I started homeschooling and found that it was the least of our issues, totally unfounded worry!

 

[Myhappythought5]

What about sports games, like soccer, football, lacrosse, etc... (kids love their high school games). Their social experience, I have noticed several homeschool children not have the same social skills as public school children. Being in the high school band (the spring band trip, football games, competitions, etc...) a wonderful experience for kids. The about activites are just as important as school work is.

This isn't even an option for our school district any more. They have cut all extra curricular activities. Even the pay to play.

 

[livndisney]

What about sports games, like soccer, football, lacrosse, etc... (kids love their high school games). Their social experience, I have noticed several homeschool children not have the same social skills as public school children. Being in the high school band (the spring band trip, football games, competitions, etc...) a wonderful experience for kids. The about activites are just as important as school work is.

What about them? Homeschooled children in my state are allowed to participate in those same programs offered at the public schools. Plus we have a local Home School soccer team, twice weekly PE class, band, lego builders and about 9 others just off the top of my head.

 

[quasar4legs]

What about sports games, like soccer, football, lacrosse, etc... (kids love their high school games). Their social experience, I have noticed several homeschool children not have the same social skills as public school children. Being in the high school band (the spring band trip, football games, competitions, etc...) a wonderful experience for kids. The about activites are just as important as school work is.

I totally agree that social experiences are just as important as 'school work' and I think that homeschooling gave my son the opportunity to mix with a wide range of children and adults.
I think many people have the idea that homeschooling means that children are isolated within the home, whereas it was the opposite for our family.
During the years we homeschooled my son participated in basketball, body boarding classes, basketball, golf, art lessons, science classes, picnics, sleepovers, archery, camps, drama, electronics and probably a few more activities that I can't remember.
DS was also the member of a community brass band, a roller hockey team, had horse riding lessons, trumpet and trombone lessons and attended french and latin classes. Together, we both attended adult education classes at a local university and did some wonderful and varied topics including the crusades, astonomy, medieval literature and the architecture of French castles.
The nice thing about homeschooling is that we had total control over what we did and it enabled DS to pursue his academic interests as well as developing a strong social network.
DS was in a private school from Kindergarten to Yr 4 and then at his request we tried another private school for gifted students during YR 5. Although Ds was happy socially at both schools he found classroom life tedious, so homeschooling became a great option for our family.
DS started uni at 15 and now at 18 is very happy with his life both academically and socially.
Homeschooling is not going to work for everyone but we had a BALL

Cheers
Trish

 

[RahRah573]

Before DS was born, DH and I talked about possibly homeschooling - we were open to it, but not committed to it at that point....seeing pros and cons for both homeschooling and going off to school each day. Now, I am homeschooling by default for two main reasons...

First is that DS4 (to be 5 in mid-August) started to rapidly grasp phonics & reading along with arithmetic in the last six months....with very little structure still at this point, he's started basic reading and sounding out words, adding and subtracting and is well past much of the kindergarten "standards of learning" from what I've been able to find online for our state. Overall, he's a very curious and motivated kid - asks lots of questions about everything and understands even abstract concepts quickly.....so we keep moving pace with his interests and questions and now worry he'll be extremely bored if we enroll him into kindergarten.

But our state has actually made the decision for us very easy - no school in our area, public or private, will even enroll him in kindergarten since he will not turn five by August 1.....we couldn't have him waived in even if we wanted to, nor can we have him tested in.....the date cut-off is fixed and static here and no way around it......and there is no way I'm wasting a year of his time waiting for him to be the "right" age to go to kindergarten! Good grief, I can't believe they're red shirting every kid now.....before he was born, it was an option if a parent or the school felt a child would do better waiting a year - now that's just the way it is!

So, now I'm committed to homeschooling him and we'll see how things are progressing - given his current pace, I think I'll be homeschooling him for quite some time because, unless he radically slows down for some reason, he's going to be ahead of whatever grade his age says he should be in.....so that's our reasons!

 

[RahRah573]

DS was also the member of a community brass band, a roller hockey team, had horse riding lessons, trumpet and trombone lessons and attended french and latin classes. Together, we both attended adult education classes at a local university and did some wonderful and varied topics including the crusades, astonomy, medieval literature and the architecture of French castles.

The nice thing about homeschooling is that we had total control over what we did and it enabled DS to pursue his academic interests as well as developing a strong social network.

This is something I see as a huge benefit of homeschooling - as it is right now, I'm able to tailor things we do based on where DS is for any given subject or topic.

As an example - we recently took a road trip and along the way he observed many different bridges and the St. Louis Arch.....curious, he wanted to know how bridges didn't fall in the water and why the arch didn't fall down. I'm thinking, geez louise, how do you explain this to a 4-year old?

I realized you can't explain it - this was something, that without more background with physics, he needed to see......so when we arrived home, I gathered a bunch of stuff so he could see the basic physics behind weight distribution and physical support provided by different shapes, when arches or triangles are brought together....he loved it......and then wanted to see more bridges and arches, so I pulled up information about our area and found a bunch we could go look at --- stuff like this is what I'm sure he'd never get in school, at least not at this age.

So far as socializing - that hasn't been a problem, nor do I see it as one in the future - he's very athletic and is in a number of activities with kids his age....and since I'm aware most of those kids are going to be off to school, I've started looking at the various homeschool groups in our area so we can network and get together with them, and have looked at various "after-school" activities in our area so he can continue to have time engaging with his peers in a social setting.

 

[blondemom]

I don't home school. I really never even thought about it. But, a friend of mine does it because she has 6 children all pretty close in age. She said it is much easier to home school them than to coordinate getting one to half day school, the other to middle school, and the others to high school. She spent all morning driving. Plus, her husband is a professor who travels a lot giving lectures. They all go with him.

FYI, her kids are absolutely wonderful athletes. The take part of the public sports offerings in her town. They take private instrument lessons, ice skating, etc. They have a lot of friends who are in public schools.

I am in awe of this woman (who also works as a nurse part time).

 

[Eeyore's Wife]

I was open to homeschooling because....I was homeschooled for part of my education. My parents lived overseas in a very rural environment (no electricity, running water, or roads) and so school was around our dining room table.

My mother had us do academics each day for about five hours. When we returned to the states all of us were years ahead of our peers in terms of academics. I graduated from a public school when I was only 15. I really enjoyed homeschool and am thankful for the special bond I created with my mother, the best teacher I have ever had.

I became a teacher, in public schools, and found deep satisfaction in teaching and guiding young people. When I became a mother we always tried to have the kids in the best available school in our area. Since we move often with my husband's job, we have lived in many places. In some locations the public schools were stellar, and we were happy to have our kids there. In other locations, we sent our kids to private school, as we felt it was the best fit for our kids.

The move to home school came as a combination of forces. My husband was promoted which allowed us the financial freedom to be a one income family. The new job led us to move to a town with poor public and private school choices.

So, homeschool seemed a logical solution for our family. It has been a wonderful addition for us with several benefits which were quite unexpected. Our kids are doing wonderfully and are advancing academically at their own accelerated pace. They are also able to delve more deeply into subjects than public school can accomodate.

We can fit our school schedule around my husband's work schedule, as a result we have more time together as a family. We can also travel with my husband as he works, which has been amazing. When a trip is planned, we add unit work to prepare for the location and then when we travel, we get to see what we studied about in local living color. My kids did volcanology before a trip to Hawaii. Book smarts and actual personal experience combine to make a wonderfully well rounded intellect.

On the socialization front, I think my kids are more well rounded now. Before, they were at school for so many hours each day only to come home and sit down for several more hours of homework, most of which I deemed busy work. It is now rare for academics to extend past 3 p.m. so their evenings are theirs to use as they see fit. Between scouts, martial arts, civil air patrol, swimming, golf, church, and a lot of goofing off and hangning out with herds of teens who eat us out of house and home they are thriving socially and emotionally.

We homeschool because it allows our family to follow our natural biological clocks. We are EARLY risers. My hubby and I roll out of bed each day at 5 a.m. It is not uncommmon to find our kids around the table by 5:30 or 6 in the morning. They are at their most alert and productive during this time, so we harnass their natural ability.

When the kids hit the books early, we have almost zero errors in computation for math and they produce their most lively writing in the a.m. My kids are regularly done with school by noon. They love having down time in the early afternoon to read, garden, play with the dogs, shoot hoops, and decompress. In the afternoon, during regular "after school time" the extra curriculars fire up, but I think the kids have really benefitted from their early afternoon down time. My kids are less "busy" and getting more done .

We don't waste hours each day on school buses getting to and from school, if the kids are sick, we don't have to scramble to make up work when they recover, school waits for them.

Lastly, we can take family vacation time when my husband can get away from his very demanding job, which almost never matches up with local school vacation times. It is wonderful to take vacations for less money during better times with happier kids.

So, my kids have off June this year, but after the July 4th weekend they are hitting the books again. We will have school in July, August, and the first three weeks of September. Summer-mester will come to an end with finals and then we will head to Disney for a week of Food and Wine Festival and Free Dining. The cost savings alone for that week, compared to the middle of July when we would have had to take it this year to accomodate school and work, more than pays for all the textbooks, lab supplies, field trips, and community college classes for the entire year of school.

Every family is unique and the best solution for each family may be very different than what works best for our situation, but we have LOVED homeschool.

 

[lanasboys]

What about sports games, like soccer, football, lacrosse, etc... (kids love their high school games). Their social experience, I have noticed several homeschool children not have the same social skills as public school children. Being in the high school band (the spring band trip, football games, competitions, etc...) a wonderful experience for kids. The about activites are just as important as school work is.

High school was not a "wonderful" experience for me. I grew up in a very small town. Everybody knew everybody. I remember being teased relentlessly by the "popular" crowd because I didn't "party" the way they did, not just with the high school boys, but with grown men in our community (supposedly respected members of the community who provided alcohol and party spots for the teenagers). Girls sat in class and bragged about their sexual experiences (you wouldn't believe the stories), and the boys (and girls, for that matter) drank themselves into a stupor most weekends. The majority of the teachers (I didn't say all) knew exactly what was happening and considered those few of us who didn't join in to be awkward and antisocial (because most of them had grown up in the same area in the same party environment). I'm not saying this is everyone's experience; I'm simply saying that generalizations are dangerous, and this romanticized idea of the innocent rites of passage linked to school activities is many times not all it's cracked up to be and certainly not innocent. As to social skills, my children (DS13 and DS6) are homeschooled. They play soccer and baseball with the local parks and rec league. DS13 is working on his brown belt in karate and about to start his Eagle project for Boy Scouts. They are very active in the youth group at church, they have tons of activities and plenty of friends. And I don't think that social/extracurricular activities at school are anywhere near as important as academics. School is for education. Social skills are to be learned elsewhere. Sorry - off soapbox.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm simply saying that generalizations are dangerous, and this romanticized idea of the innocent rites of passage linked to school activities is many times not all it's cracked up to be and certainly not innocent.

I agree. I once had someone ask me "But what about PROM?!?!?" I about fell over. Yes, I'm going to base my child's whole education and teenage social experience on ONE NIGHT where you get drunk and lose your virginity. There are many many ways to experience your teen social years and it doesn't have to be as the captain of the football team or prom queen. (not saying that anyone here suggested that, just an idea I've encountered a couple times)

 

[DawnM]

We have a homeschool prom! You can go with friends or a date and it is a very nice dinner and dancing. Noone is crowned prom king or queen.

Dawn

I agree. I once had someone ask me "But what about PROM?!?!?" I about fell over. Yes, I'm going to base my child's whole education and teenage social experience on ONE NIGHT where you get drunk and lose your virginity. There are many many ways to experience your teen social years and it doesn't have to be as the captain of the football team or prom queen. (not saying that anyone here suggested that, just an idea I've encountered a couple times)

 

[DawnM]

This is actually one reason we homeschool.

It kills me to see high school students in some of our best high schools who still can't write a coherent paragraph.

I am a former high school/public school teacher. I have already told my kids that they will not be going to our local high school (it even has an IB program and is top scoring in the standarized testing.) We have some awesome specialized high schools here that provide a much better academic program without all the high school crap. They are far more focused on academics.

Dawn

i believe that parents have the right and responsibility to do what they think is best. i will say that it makes me cringe to read things like , the kids get more time outside , we can schedule vacations whenever we want , it provides us with a more laid back lifestyle. imo, those are all the wrong reasons. the decision to homeschool is what is in the kids best interest. the kid is going to be competing for jobs in a tough global market. those foreign kids aren't slacking right now. they are working long hours to prepare for their future. our kids need to be working just as hard to be prepared to have jobs and a comfortable lifestyle. the middle class is really shrinking / going away. if our kids don't work hard now / they will end up in the bottom class. i think many kids are being shortchanged in this system.

 

[DawnM]

And what about those kids who aren't in any of those things? There are plenty who are NOT even within the ps system.

How many homeschool kids do you know?

My kids golf, and they can do that with Dad and friends, but I have many homeschool friends who play in leagues AND some even play for the local high school!

Believe me, as a former high school teacher and counselor, there are many "social skills" I am thankful homeschool kids don't have!

Dawn

What about sports games, like soccer, football, lacrosse, etc... (kids love their high school games). Their social experience, I have noticed several homeschool children not have the same social skills as public school children. Being in the high school band (the spring band trip, football games, competitions, etc...) a wonderful experience for kids. The about activites are just as important as school work is.