Why homeschool?

[Lovumms333238]

I am 7 months pregnant and exploring all education options. I am very interested in homeschooling and wondering what everyones reasons are and their experiences.
Please discuss!!!

[Fujiko]

Why homeschooling is so appealing to me:
1. We can go on vacation during the "off" season.
2. If my kids are sick I don't have to worry about "should they go, shouldn't they go", or have to worry about makeup work.
3. There is no time wasted traveling to and from school, roll call, line-up times, waiting for slower kids, etc. Childhood is fleeting and shouldn't be wasted.
4. Impromptu lessons are often the most pertinent and memberable.
5. Kids are more free from peer pressure and are also less likely to pick up bad habits from their peers.
6. Because there is no separation from family, kids have stronger relationships within their family.
7. Kids can learn at their own pace and not rushed along/reined in.
8. You can always (re)enroll in traditional school if it doesn't work out. It's not a permanent decision.
9. Trips to the zoo, museums, library, mall, etc. can be done during slow times during the weekdays.
10. Kids can pursue subjects that interest them as part of their curriculum. They won't feel too overworked by 6+ hours of school to do this.
11. Community service can easily be worked into their education.
12. Kids learn to socialize equally with all kinds of different people and not just those of their own age group.
13. Kids can sleep in and self-regulate their own sleep needs, never chronically sleep deprived.
14. Kids can use the bathroom whenever they need to.
15. More hands-on/experience-based learning is possible than in a classroom.
16. They are less likely to experience hate/rudeness/aggression in their early impressionable years.
17. We can take the time to eat healthy meals at every meal, and not something quick and thrown together.
18. No "homework" on top of school time, which is common in traditional school (i.e. 6+ hours of school PLUS homework). This means...
19. More time for family time.
20. Kids are less likely to pick up annoying words like "like" and "whatever", and are more likely to pick up better speaking habits.

[zjande]

Oh geez, I bet most of us here could practically write a book to answer that question!

We've homeschooled 9 yrs now. I personally would never consider sending my kids to public school. There are a zillion reasons why I chose to homeschool, but, since my kids are waiting my reading their bedtime stories , I'll sum it up by saying that I have no reason to want or expect or trust the government to educate my kids. I believe they will be better humans having been educated at home & not as one of the masses in a government institution.

[pigpokey]

I am able to be very efficient with their lessons so that we are not wasting time and they can pursue outside activities with gusto, have time to play and very rarely have to be woken in the morning.

For example in these younger grades I am working with (5 and 6 year olds) I do not have to schedule 2 days off between math and reading lessons. Yet classroom teachers routinely have to deal with 3 day weekends. My kids don't learn as efficiently with 48-72 hours off task.

Also, while there was never a period of forced 30-35 hours a week of separation from sibling and mother, my kids do separate for me for classes, sports practices and competitions, playdates, sleepovers, etc. In fact they have an extremely high level of independence in these matters.

[kgianforti]

When I became a Christian, the Lord clearly (and quickly) put home schooling on my heart. I didn't know what it was nor was I even CLOSE to getting married and having children!

[SagMom]

A big reason, for us, is that the kids are free to pursue their own interests, can develop at their own pace and that they have time to invest in their passions.

Homeschooling also helped us maintain close bonds with each other.

They are in control of their lives. They choose who to associate with, what to devote their time and energy to. When they were small, that meant they had time to play, be active and be kids. To my older kids, it means weeding out what's irrelevant to their lives, figuring out who they are, what matters most to them, and putting together a life that reflects that.

Not being part of a school system really afforded them time and opened up opportunities that they wouldn't have otherwise had.

[ambersrose]

I want to raise free thinkers who love learning and exploring life. We tried public school and no one was happy.

[elizawill]

my kids have never been to school. for us, it was just a natural extension of our lifestyle already. i didn't even weigh the pros and cons honestly, as public school just never felt like a real option to begin with. i am open to re-evaluating our situation should my children become unhappy, but right now the question for me is "why not homeschool?" ykwim?

[kittie313]

Because our local public school completely failed my oldest dd last school year, they just ignored her learning challenges and passed her to first grade without even trying to really work with her. That and our district has horrible statistics (dropout rate near 40%, some of the lowest test scores in the state, VERY high pregnancy and drug abuse rates) and we knew that even if we sent the kids there that they'd be back home when they each hit 6th grade (that's where the schools start going downhill because 11 elementary schools feed into 3 middle schools, which feed into 1 high school)

[kathymuggle]

double post

[kathymuggle]

The short answer is I want to raise children who feel empowered, expect respect and have strong critical thinking skills. I think homeschooling is the best place to achieve this.

[Callimom]

Here's a little story about why we homeschool:

We attend a great UU church and yesterday's speaker was the teacher of an innovative high school program who was talking about what the program does.

This program is designed to develop community leadership, environmental awareness and a connection to nature. The kids spend a semester together at a nearby outdoor ed camp, and earn 4 credits in English, civics, outdoor ed and interdisciplinary studies. The learn by doing within their community. For example for civics they bike around the city to various services (water, recycling, transit, museum, library) and talk to service providers, they meet with the mayor and civic groups, they write letters to the editors on local issues, listen to speakers, watch videos like FLOW etc.

For outdoor ed they go camping, or canoeing, make their own mukluks for winter snowshoeing.

The cook local food every friday and eat together, and then donate some of it to a soup kitchen.

They run a program for grade 5 outdoor ed and do presentations to the community about what they are learning environmentally and civically.
They keep journals and write position papers on topics they are learning about and they read books like Heart of Darkness and discuss the Heros journey as it relates to their learning in the program.

Their evaluation is based on self anaylsis of what they are learning in addition to meetings with advisors. While they are guided by a teacher, the kids take on more and more responsibility for developing their learning over time.

The program sounds fabulous and there were quite a few graduates of the program who came to hear and participate in the discussion afterward. There were lots of comments about how exciting this type of integrated small group learning is, how transformative it was for these kids to learn in a community, to be so engaged in their learning, to make real connections between the information they were exposed to and its impact on the world and on themselves. A few of the grads were talking about how they loved that they grew academically, spiritually, socially, physically and in community and that the learning was completely integrated, and based on their own initiative.

My son (who is almost 12) looked at me and said - Mum they are describing homeschooling. That's how we learn about everything all the time.

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by Karenwith4

My son (who is almost 12) looked at me and said - Mum they are describing homeschooling. That's how we learn about everything all the time.

I love it! What a twist on "school at home" versus "real life learning at school."

[zeldamomma]

We homeschool because we can, and because so much of elementary school is about learning to tolerate boredom and give the teacher the answer she wants. I want my kids to be enthusiastic and empowered learners, and not bored and obedient ones.

[justthinkn]

Why I want to continue letting my daughter learn at home...

- So she can learn at her own pace, in a way tailored to her, & have more time & freedom (executive control) to pursue her own interests, including pure, simple play in childhood & eventually exploring & developing a sense of vocation/calling

- So she has more support (& less exposure), esp. early on, when it comes to dealing with challenges like bullies or poor peer modeling, & she's not stuck in those situations 40 hrs/wk

- In hopes that she won't "dumb herself down" like so many bright young girls do to fit into school situations, but will really develop & contribute her own voice to the world

- B/c it sounds like a beautiful way to be a family & live in a community, with more time for parents, siblings & friends of all ages to play and work together

[maxwill129]

I was coming here to post the same question! My DH doesn't want to homeschool and I do, so right now we're sending our kids to public school, but out of district (one that I got to pick).

Can you guys keep posting answers to this question please? I'm making a list for DH...

[Momma Aimee]

our personal mission statment:

Packard Homeschooling Statement
Mission and purpose

We the parents have the moral and legal obligation to craft, mold, and guide our children into adulthood as functional, ethical, moral and productive people ready and willing to serve God’s Glory and to be productive members of their community and good men / fathers and husbands. Trustworthy, successful, and competent. We can, and should, use all resources available to us, such as the state school system, but the end result the responsibility is ours alone. The education of our children is our mandate from God who blessed us with the children, and to Him alone are we ultimately accountable, and to our grandchildren. This not a burden we can, or would choose to, hand off to any other individual or orgazation.

While we are teaching our children to study, research, and write, we need to remember that they are establishing and perfecting tools that they will one day use to God’s glory.


Socialization:
•Young children are impressionable; we the parents are morally obligated to ensure that the models the children are impressed upon by are worthy.
•Children should not be expected to exercise sound judgment regarding actions and associations independently until they are of an age to be able to make such moral decisions.
•The family must be the most important circle for children till they reach the age of accountability and can be a motivational force within their peer group.

Goals of Education:
•Generally:
To facilitate an education developing the ability to locate, understand and utilize needed information. To be a fully functional productive member of society that is able to think for ones self and make sound choices.
•Specifically
•To read well, critically, for comprehension and for joy. To be able to find and expertly use reading to gather needed information on any topic
•To learn to research and gather information and data confidently and quickly. While evaluate the gathered information for validity and relevance and “trustable”.
•To be a critical consumer of pop culture and the media. To evaluate bias and its effects data offered..
•Confidently express self well orally and in writing, present information clearly and persuasively when necessary
•Be able to successful use a variety of math skills in daily life and for complex reasoning.
•To be able to engage in complex reasoning and use advanced logic in life and professional / academic endeavors
•Enjoy Art and Music and Lit for its intrinsic beauty as well as understanding how it fits into history and expresses and reflects the time period of its creation, as well as how it makes God visible in our daily lives. To recognize and appreciate universal truths.
•Understand history and politics so as to be able to make critical choices and make sense of current events with the end of being a fully participatory member of the electorate and the body politic personally if necessary.
•To understand the scope of science to an extent that allows for an understanding of current event and the working of the world around us. Also to allow for recognition of and respect for God’s inherent design in all.
•To understand the human body, its form and functions and care. To make wise personal choices in lifestyle and personal behavior. To be an educated and wise consume of health care.
•To build a solid foundation in faith and the Word of God. Both as it speaks to our lives in matters of personal choice and faith, and also as Lit and History.
•To be aware of other world religions / schools of thought / faiths. To compare and contrast them with our faith, and with each other. With an eye towards being able to understand others, live tolerantly and to understand world history and politics and current events more completely.

Other:
•No fear of bullies on the playground or being disgraced in front of our social group (class) when you struggle with a subject
•No opportunity to fly under the radar and get by with out truly accomplishing a task or learning information or skill
•Expectations
Age / dev app – not sitting quiet all day at age 5
Achievement – higher personal goals, not dictated by the average of a class of 30 (or even 20)


Also -- We are the parents and refuse to hand over parenting to anyone else. so much of school in the first 3 or 4 years -- is basically parenting. social skills, behavior and so on ... i don't want anyone else teaching my children what to do, how to handle themselves, how to relate to others or how to view the world.

[jessicaSAR]

What public schools, even the good ones, do not teach/teach well every year (k-12):

math
grammar
writing
Latin
classic literature
history
science
art


It's a quality issue for me. I can do better

[lach]

My answer is close to JessicaSAR's.

Basically, the current educational philosophy popular in public schools and many private schools is that if you teach kids to "love learning," then you don't have to teach them any facts and they'll search out that learning on their own. I think just answers to surveys about how many books Americans read for fun every year proves how well that theory (which started picking up steam in the 1920's) has worked out. Affluent, educated parents pick up the slack and make sure their kids have the actual knowledge they need, in a profoundly unfair system that ensures that the US has less social mobility than any country in Europe (there are several studies about this that you can Google for, or check out The Schools We Need).

So my opinion is that if I need to be responsible for teaching my children math (my district uses Everyday Math), handwriting (everyone types, so there's no need), spelling (spellchecker means no one needs to learn spelling!), grammar (they supposedly learn it by reading), foreign languages (even though EVERYONE knows it's easier to learn a language the younger you are, our district doesn't start until 7th grade), geography (unknown in the US), history (don't even get me started on this one...), science (if the teacher gets around to it, from a textbook that Texas insisted creationism be mentioned in), art and music (budget cuts)... why would I waste their time making them go to school?

So that's my answer, in a nutshell.

[jessicaSAR]

Originally Posted by lach

Basically, the current educational philosophy popular in public schools and many private schools is that if you teach kids to "love learning," then you don't have to teach them any facts and they'll search out that learning on their own. I think just answers to surveys about how many books Americans read for fun every year proves how well that theory (which started picking up steam in the 1920's) has worked out. Affluent, educated parents pick up the slack and make sure their kids have the actual knowledge they need, in a profoundly unfair system that ensures that the US has less social mobility than any country in Europe (there are several studies about this that you can Google for, or check out The Schools We Need).

Thanks for saying what I did not have time to write!

Oh, and thanks for adding spelling and geography - I forgot those, lol.