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Originally Posted by jodieanneanton  If I am being perfectly honest, I think my biggest hang up is that I really LOVED high school. I hated school 4th through 8th grade as I was being raised to not "go with the crowd" (ie no fad toys, no unattended mall visits, no dating, etc.). By the time high school rolled around, I was so over wanting to be a part of the cool crowd and was happy to just be me (for the most part). I was super involved in drama, school plays, became class president, etc. The idea of not having that option available to my kids is what gives me pause.
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I'm not an homeschooling convert but I'll let you know something I realized when I was converting to unschooling: think of all the options that become unavailable to your kids if they ARE in school.
Most hobbies, e.g....
--Art (painting, digital illustration, 3D modeling, animation, sculpting, drawing)
--Writing (articles, short stories, novels, poems)
--Crafting (making jewelry, sewing clothes, etc)
--Performing (ballet, other dance, juggling, etc)
--Animals (training dogs, riding horses, caring for animals on a farm)
--Playing an instrument, composing music
--Martial arts
--Video games (playing them or MAKING them)
--Gardening
--Preserving and cooking
--Any sport the school doesn't have team for
--Reading
--Collecting (butterflies, stamps, etc)
...are theoretically available even if you are attending school, but spending around 40 hours a week attending class, commuting, and doing homework really limits the time you can spend on them--which means you can't have a large number of hobbies OR delve very deeply into anything. Scheduling conflicts may prevent you from taking many classes in subjects your school does not offer (or offers a dumbed-down version of). Personally, I hated high school because my interests were drawing pictures, reading fantasy novels, writing fantasy novels, playing the occasional video game, learning Japanese, and translating the dialog of Japanese video games into English. Trying to fit that in during the little cracks of free time school allowed was NOT enjoyable. My school didn't even offer a Japanese class!
But my feelings toward school did not become what they are today until I read
The Teenager's Liberation Handbook, which has a whole chapter describing the lives of some homeschoolers and unschoolers in addition to examples sprinkled throughout the book. Lots of the examples listed five or more interests the kids engaged in, but there were also things like
--Lots of kids spent a lot of extra time in dance or theater. One kid interned in an outdoor Shakespeare Theater; he ended up doing the work of two interns and made $200 per week.
--Some kids started youth groups.
--Some kids started their own business.
--Several kids who were too young to legally be employed volunteered at a business (e.g. veterinary clinic, radio station) or other organization (e.g. museum, zoo, library) where they wanted to work.
--Several kids became apprentices to tradesmen or assistants to scientists for the fun of it. There's one example of a girl who became a puppeteering apprentice, living in the home of her mentors.
--One girl sometimes spends six to eight hours per day on intensive music study.
--Lots of kids work on farms. One example was a kid who went to live on a farm to work there.
--One kid spent as much time as possible skiing and mountain biking. He participating in ski races and biked 18 miles per day over varying terrain.
--One girl was dog musher who kept 30 dogs. She gave workshops for pack dog sledding and stuff.
--Lots of kids travel, with or without family.
--One 16yo girl, with her 26yo friend, spent the winter in Iceland working in a fish cannery, then spent the spring camping in Scandenavia and went hiking in the Alps.
--One kid got an internship on a farm in Belize, harvesting and processing medicinal plants.
Not to say your homeschooled kid will necessarily do something as... exciting? (not the word I'm looking for, but it's the closest I can get)... as hiking the Alps, harvesting rain forest plants, becoming a dog sledding champion, becoming a respected expert on something by age 12, or riding a mountain bike 18 miles per day, but ... your schooled kid won't necessary join student council either.
Plus, it is more convenient for your family to go to pretty much everything from museums or Disneyland if you don't have to go during a school break.
You could always give your kid a nice homeschool foundation and offer high school when the time comes. Someone who's in high school because she chose to be there is going to be a lot happier than someone there because she has to be.
I'm in a great location to home school and there was so much available to us. Classes, home school park days, field trips. We both made tons of great friends. It was kindy, so I didn't use any curriculum. I wanted to unschool first and find my footing before investing in an expensive curriculum (because I will never be motivated enough to put my own together). I am a much better homeschooling parent than I ever thought I could be. It gave me the confidence to go back to college and study teaching.
There is no place for him in the regular system.
). We'd joked for years that we'd spend plenty of time in the principal's office with kids bucking authority. We both were concerned about our kids not learning to be "sheeple," and staying independent and able to think critically etc.
