What are your reasons for homeschooling? - Page 2

[ChicoYaYa]

Why I started homeschooling: I didn't like the idea of my child being raised by the state institution. AND, It took me out of the home too much working (or stressed out by babysitting a houseful of kids) to be able to afford the tuition to send her to the local church school (which was almost as bad as the public school, in retrospect. Oh! The damage we had to undo!)

Why I kept at it for 8 years:

1. I/we loved the flexibility.
2. We loved the reading in front of the wood stove in our sweats in the wintertime, in the tree house in the summer time,
3. doing math in the bathroom if the mood struck,
4. having a blast "socializing" in our HS co-op which covered such things as art, crafts, PE, field trips, cooking, flower arranging, music, drama, etc.
5. saving "tuition" money to spend on piano, karate, and swim lessons, trips to museums, parks and zoos, etc.
6. having control over what subjects were covered, to what degree, and the ability to move to something else if we decided it was not the right time,
7. having the time and energy for extracurricular activities such as 4H, without worrying about staying up late to finish homework or study for a test the next day
8. the amazing time I had pouring into my children, talking about life when it happened, and having jr. highers who actually talked to and enjoyed being with their parents (!!!)
9. CHOICES!!

Why I eventually went back to work and put them into a traditional school setting: We were in a situation where two incomes became necessary, and the girls wanted to "try" school so they would feel like they fit in more with their peers at youth group (very hard adjustment the first few months. They did not know how to handle the noise and the rudeness!)

Would I do it again? YES, in a heartbeat, and I have! I was able to homeschool my oldest granddaughter for her Kindergarten year. My children not only survived, they excelled academically in the conventional system when they finally entered at grades 12 and 8. (The oldest had done the private school thing K-3, which was dismal, in comparison.)

As a side note, the youngest just finished putting herself through college by going to school while working full time, obtaining her Master's degree.

[MrsJewelsRae]

We have many reasons we homeschool.  It was a choice we considered in the first place because I had been exposed to it.  My parents pulled my younger sister from school in 3rd grade shortly after they converted to Christianity (born again) and hs'd her till gr 12.  I wish they had pulled me too but my Mom was too uncertain about homeschooling older children and didn't think we'd go for it.  I loved learning and reading and could have really excelled in the areas I was interested in- homemaking and language, instead of wasting hours every day doing subjects that I either couldn't grasp or couldn't go at my pace or knew I would have no need for in my future (talking higher high school grades).  Plus I was constantly stressed from the incredible load of homework, I felt a knot in my stomach my entire time in high school.  Then I met my SIL, who was the oldest of 7 and her awesome family all hs'd k-12, and I was even more taken with the idea of hs.  My dh wasn't nearly as open to it as he'd only known one hs family who apparently did a poor job, and his parents were very critical of hs'ing (FIL was a teacher). 

Anyhow, as my eldest approached school age I just couldn't imagine being separated from him- and him being with total strangers in a place where I couldn't make sure he was safe.  I knew I couldn't do it, and I was also feeling a growing conviction that I should teach my own at home.  As a Christian I believe in sheltering my young children from the world's influences at such a tender age.  Thankfully, dh was quite agreeable to the idea.  I love having my children home with me every day, it's just a natural extension from being a SAHM.  I LOVED teaching my children to read, to this day it is still one of my most proud accomplishments, even though it was much easier than I thought and children are amazing learners, it still seemed like such a big deal.  My kids love being home, there is no peer pressure, no fear of bullies, no fear of my kids getting in with the wrong crowd, etc. They love not missing a thing with seeing their baby brother grow up.  They also have a lot of friends through our church- which includes another family who homeschools and we are active in our local Christian hs group.  We live in a small city of 45,000 people and have over 40 families in our Christian hs group.  We also do not vaccinate, although this did not play into our decision, it is nice not to have to deal with that hassle.  Plus there is no homework!!  I hate hearing of my friends' kids who have homework in KINDERGARTEN!!!  It drives me nuts!  My best friend's dd is HATING grade 3 because there is so much homework and tests every week, she is emotional from the pressure it puts on her- she is too young to be worrying about that imo.  It is wonderful to follow my children's gifts and interests wherever they need to go, whenever.  History is alive and exciting!  They can spend hours reading and exploring nature- we don't have video games or cable.  We can have a flexible schedule, I don't have to worry about them missing too much school if they get sick, so many kids go back to school still under the weather because they can't afford to miss any more school.  There's more to all this, but added to it, my youngest has a severe anaephylactic allergy to peanuts and there is just no way I could entrust his safety to another. 

[Lisa1970]

In the beginning, it was the bullying. But, once we got going with the home schooling, I started to really realize how inferior the academics were at the schools. I had been a teacher previously and found that most of the other teachers were, well, not people I would want influencing my children. But, it had been a long time and I guess I had forgotten that.  I started to realize also, how much the schools manipulate and basically castrate the parents as parents. Parents who have their children in public school are generally trained to believe that they are not capable of making decisions for their children by the time their children are done with grade school. When I attempted to return my children, it was all around us. I could see the little remarks and things that led parents to believe they were not competent. By middle school, parents did not even seem to try to parent their children at all. If you look at the way parents are trained by the grade schools, you could see why. 

In the end, I realized if I wanted my children to get a real education and not have to worry about the horrible values they were being taught at the government schools (even things along the lines where they label kids..the smart one, the dumb one, the rowdy one, the popular one, etc), I needed to do it myself. 

[Vermillion]

This. Pretty much sums it all up for me!

 

Originally Posted by cappuccinosmom 

My children's unique needs being served and not squashed in order to fit the classroom model.

[AllyRae]

-Our public school in the area is not a good one, is constantly threatening to cut basics (like foreign language) due to budgets, and is trending downwards.

-Our area has no free charter schools and only one decent private school.

-Said decent private school is $14k a year.  DS goes there, but only because the state pays for it due to his autism.  We can't afford to send our girls there.

-We believe in the Montessori method and the only school in the area that uses it is the above mentioned school.

-Both of our girls have special needs that would make homeschooling a better choice (one is immune deficient, and one has attachment issues, auditory processing issues, and selective mutism)

Once/if our son loses his diagnosis, he will be homeschooled as well.

We didn't choose to homeschool because we were afraid of the schools raising our kids (our DS is in private school full time and I'm raising him thankyouverymuch.)  We didn't do it because of bad influences or wanting to control our child's education.  Point blank, we did it because the other options stunk for our particular kids...we *only* have a public school in our town, and it's bordering on failing...their special needs program is abysmal.  Our children would not function well there (we even have a very pro-public-school psychologist that treats 2 of our kids who agrees with me in that).  If/when an option comes along that would be as good or better than homeschooling, we are very willing to consider it.  But for now, homeschooling our girls works.