What made you choose..

[kissum]

Homeschooling? And have your reasons behind it stood up to the test of time? I have a 4 month old, and am just trying to consider my options for when she gets bigger.

[Fieryfly]

I discovered the whole idea when my oldest was 4yo. The more I read about it, the more I realized that it sounded like something our family would love. It was an extension of our whole parenting and lifestyle philosophy. We are going into our 6th year of "formal" homeschooling, I can see all those benefits adding up.

My DS went to public school this past year, and that experience(although not overall bad) cemented our commitment to homeschooling.

[Butter]

I was homeschooled. And I want nothing less for my kids.

[warriorprincess]

Really, because I can't bear to be apart from my kids all day.

[moominmamma]

We began because my eldest was academically ready for third grade but emotionally not really ready for Kindergarten quite. She was thriving at home and I figured "why change?"

We continue homeschooling because of the flexibility, richness and open-endedness of the academic learning the kids engage in, because their motivation to learn has been easy to preserve and nurture in this environment, and because of the flexibility and richness that homeschooling affords our family life.

Miranda

[UnschoolnMa]

Lots of reasons really. But in a nutshell we chose to unschool because:

1. I like to be around my kids, and they like to be around me. Several hours a day several days a week for several months of the year spent somewhere else was just not cutting it.

2. Freedom. I do not care for forced curriculum. I want them to be able to decide what to do for themselves.

[LeBoof]

Our reasons for choosing homeschooling are:

1) my son has a heart condition and I know there are going to be times when he would be "out of school" if he were going to a ps.

2) the school system where we are is known as being a bad one

3) we live "beyond the sticks of beyond" as one friend described it and my son would be waiting for a schoolbus at the end of our drive before sunup and coming home about 5 pm (most of the kids on our road are hs)

4) my son has an odd way of learning. He skips some of the stuff ps considers basic so that he can learn more advanced stuff and then goes back to the basics later. I do the same thing so I know he'll get it, but will do it in his own time. According to ps I should have known how to do basic addition before understanding subtraction or anything more difficult. I learned division before I learned any other type of math (I was about 6 or 7).

5) my son has grown up with 2 languages and most of the local schools don't deal with the other home language (irish). I've already had our family dr. tell me that our son should know his colors in english better than in irish since schools only teach english.lol! Our son is barely starting kindergarten and they're worried about that? At least he knows them all. He also knows some basic addition and subtraction and how to read some basic words.

6) the best reason of all is that I enjoy being around my son (and hopefully any others we have)

LeBoof

[oceanbaby]

[QUOTE=Fieryfly]I discovered the whole idea when my oldest was 4yo. The more I read about it, the more I realized that it sounded like something our family would love. It was an extension of our whole parenting and lifestyle philosophy. QUOTE]

:

I never thought of it until I started researching kindergarten, and the more I read the more sense it made, until now the idea of institutional school sounds downright crazy to me! Some of the bad behavior and stress we've seen him pick up from preschool has cemented it for us. And this was from the most loving, free, playbased preschool you could hope to find. And then just experiencing how much it sucks to have to get out of the house in the morning and arrange our day around the school days/times - it's just not for us.

[haleyelianasmom]

Originally Posted by kissum

Homeschooling? And have your reasons behind it stood up to the test of time? I have a 4 month old, and am just trying to consider my options for when she gets bigger.

DD is 9 months old and I'm doing lots of reading right now. I just read through Jan Hunt's book (I think it's called "The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart") and now I'm getting into some of John Holt's books.

I don't like grades, stars and smiley faces (or sad faces), I don't like detentions, early school hours, standardized tests, hours of sitting in desks reading textbooks aloud, labels like "learning disabled" and "gifted". I don't think all children should be forced to learn the same things at the same pace and be tested on a subject dc has no interest in at the moment. Not to mention the homework and pressure causing way too much stress.

I have a lot of issues with most schools, but we still haven't decided 100% on homeschooling. We're worried about how it would work financially if I was not working for years and years. There's also a slight pressure because both my mother and MIL are teachers in public schools and even though they complain about policies and problems, they aren't fond of homeschooling. However, we only need to do what's best for our family, not them

[USAmma]

So many reasons:

1) Socialization: meaning, the kind I want my kids to avoid in school until they are much older (if at all)

2) Flexibility: my dd learns different subjects at different paces.

3) Laziness: I don't feel like rushing them out the door each day, and the only time I would have with them is after school, when I would have to sit and help them with homework. I like to be slower-paced.

4) Necessity: My dd is an early learner and I think she would be bored with many subjects right now. She is due to start K in the fall but has been homeschooled for 2 years already and is at 1-2nd grade level in most subjects in spite of only doing one hour a day of lessons at the very most (and that's 3-4 days a week).

5) Peace of Mind: Knowing they are safe, bully-free, in a nurturing environment.

6) Quality of Eduation: my child has a private tutor and a customized education. How can you beat that?

My plans for homeschooling may change in the years to come but right now it feels right and I've learned to follow my gut feeling when it comes to parenting. If it starts to feel wrong for me or my children we can re-evaluate at that time.