Why do we homeschool? Big picture question

I had never heard of anyone being homeschooled until a friend of mine decided to homeschool her kids. Even then I thought it was kinda kooky. lol. Then another friend homeschooled her child. So, that made me look more into homeschooling as an option. Until that point I thought my only two viable options were private school or public school.

When my first dd, hit kindergarden age, my dh and I decided that we wanted to try homeschooling. It was a fairly casual decision to be honest. We felt that we could be a vital part of our child's education even if we decided on public or private schools. However, we felt that we knew our child better and could provide better individual attention. So, we decided to try it out for a year and see how it went. Well my dd is going into 5th grade and my ds into 3rd grade and we are still homeschooling. My kids have never been to school. I am not anti-school. I just feel that I can provide a more tailor made and focused education at home. Especially being Christian, we feel that for our kids we are doing the right thing. We have not been failed by the school system. I do see the problems in the school system and that does encourage me to continue to homeschool.

 

Interesting question and everyone will give you a different reason.... which is why I think it's a wonderful opportunity (and I can't believe I said that after the awful day #1 we had today after a 2 week break!)

In VA we have SOL's and for 4 years I saw my son deteriorate in school - coming home saying he was stupid and such, more so in the 3-4 grades.

My daughter repeated 1st grade and they still had her behind. For her - she felt she NEEDED a boyfriend!! Ugh...

It was only supposed to be a year to get them "caught-up" but I feel more and more like it will go on longer.

 

Hi
There are alot of reasons why I homeschool, religion being one of the major ones.

However, my kiddos have never seen a ps mainly because my hubby and I are both apart of a failed ps. We were both pulled out of school not long after it became legal in our state (me 3rd, him 6th) and we were both homeschooled through high school. I still live in the same town I grew up in and see nothing good coming from our ps, so my kiddos will never go to it.

 

Hi
We homeschool because we feel it is in the best interest of our son at this time. He attended public school kindergarten last year. We had disagreements with the school and school district and they had issues with our son. It wasn't a good match. My son is a quiet, sensitive and bright child. His fine motor skills aren't the greatest. He also struggles with perfectionism, which causes him to either not try things or cry in frustration.

First off, we didn't send our son to preschool, so that was seen as a odd. We were told at kindergarten registration that kindergarten starts with the teaching the alphabet, so kids didn't really need to know anything before they entered. We thought that our son would be ahead if that was the case. He was already reading 25 or so sight words and counting way above 100. In reality though the kindergarten teachers did expect that the kids came in knowing many things. The teachers especially wanted kids to already know how a classroom is run, how to do work/projects independently, how to draw a house and tractor, how to color things with the "right" colors and how to play games with their classmates. We were told by the principal that "Kindergarten is the new first grade". Another thing was that my husband and I chose a 1/2 day kindergarten option for our son (the parents' "choice" in our district). Apparently, that was the wrong choice, so our son's teacher disliked us and him from the start. Just about every day that I picked up our son at lunch time I was asked when he was coming the whole day.

There were bullying incidents that my son was the victim of at school as well. It really bothered him. He would beg and cry not to go to school. He would say that he had headaches and stomaches etc.

By December of the kindergarten year the teacher invited my husband and I to early intervention/child study team meetings, where we had to talk about how our son behaved at home versus school. We had meetings with 15 professionals around a large table. The school said that our son cried too much, could not follow multi step oral directions, was unaware of his surroundings and had problems with fine motor skills. A consultant for the state's educational system heard what I had to say and said that it sounded like my son was a divergent thinker. He said that my son's frustrations sounded like his brain was working faster than what his hands could keep up with, so he would cry. I agreed with that.

In another smaller meeting with a few staff members (minus consultant guy) told my husband and I that our son should attend the full day kindergarten or he would be retained! They said that our son needed social skills class. Also, they suggested that we have our son tested for an autism spectrum disorder. My hubby and I did let our son attend the full day kindergarten. In our eyes our son's behavior wasn't getting much better. He still cried and begged not to go to school. There was also the new issue of lunch time. One of the reasons the staff wanted our son to go a full day was so that he could get used to eating in the cafeteria and enjoy more social time with peers. Oddly enough the lunch period was only 20 minutes long with a mandatory "no talking" time the last 10 minutes. Our son felt so rushed and was so scared to say a word that he ended up not really liking lunch at all. He would come home saying that his food got stuck in his chest. He begged to be back at home to eat a calming lunch. My hubby went to the school board to speak on behalf of the parents and teachers who disliked the short lunch period. The response we got back was that is just the way it is and it won't change in the near future. The only fix the superintendent said was if she extended the school day. I thought 8:30-3:30 for little kindergartners was long enough!

At the final child study team meeting last year the big group of 15 professionals got together and realized that our son was doing great now that he attended the full day of K. It was really strange. The teacher claimed that all of our son's problems disappeared in just a few short weeks of attending a full day of kindergarten. The staff also finally believed me about my son teaching himself how to tell time. My son had become his teacher's clock watcher. He would say, "Mrs. P, it's 9:03 and we still aren't in music class! We are late!". I think that annoyed his teacher though.

My child, my husband and I were unhappy with the local public school, so we thought homeschooling would be ideal this year. It's been difficult, but very rewarding!

 

My older two went to and graduated from public school. We knew when our last was born that she was going to be homeschooled. After what we went through with our middle daughter and the system, forget it! For reasons of faith to academics, or lack of, in the public school, we know we made the correct choice.

 

Amazing isn't it our children can't do anything right when we do what we feel is best but when we give in to the professionals suddenly our child is perfect.....yet nothing has changed except that we now keep quiet and let the "professional" decide what is right. I'm so sorry for you and your son's experience and I'm glad that homeschooling is working for you.

 

I think this is why so many parents are homeschooling and it is growing so fast. We are tired of the system thinking they know what is best for OUR children. Parents want to claim what is theirs. I think people are realizing that the public school is so much more than just an education. There is a huge influence and it isn't always positive.

 

Homeschooling since birth for my kiddos!

 

We decided to homeschool before our daughter was born. First reason being, that we wanted her to have a Christian education. Second reason was the school system here. We live in a small farming town, and only have one elementary school here, and it's a terrible school. The teachers don't want to deal with the kids, they just want a pay check. 60% of the students in the elementary school here are on Ritalin, because the teachers complain that the children talk, or get up during class. With some of the students, they went so far as to turn the cases over to the state, and demand that they put the kids on Ritalin, or they would remove the children from their homes, and place them in foster care. True story, people. Awful, isn't it? My cousin was the mother of one of these kids. The boy was pretty active, but not enough to be on Ritalin. The teachers here don't want to teach children, they want zombies. Not saying that ADD children are monsters, or anything like that, I was a Ritalin kid, back in the mid-late 70's parents didn't know the side effects, thank God , I didn't have any. Also, we had been hearing of complaints of many parents, saying that their children were , and still are beig mistreated by the teachers. Nothing seems to be done about it. Iv'e seen small children in first and second grade get off of the school bus , using the most foul vocabulary, words you would expect to hear in a bar. Little girls are dressed in street walker chic. I'm not a religious fanatic, but with all of that, there is no way we would send our daughter there. My little girl LOVES to talk, and nobody is going to force me to put her on Ritalin, just to keep her quiet. She's five, and in first grade, just about to finish. She gets excellent report cards, all A's and B's. Had I waited for public school, we would have to wait til next year to put her in. , because of her birth date. There are no programs available for advanced students here, Yvonne would be bored ot of her mind. The reasons for homeschooling with us are endless. I have no regrets that she never went to school, she never went to preschool either. My sister in law , who is a public school teacher, thought I wasn't able to teach her properly without a degree, she came to test her while she was in Kinder. Just to prove her point. She was astonished, Yvonne was at their public schools second grade level, at four years old. Just last week, she heard her reading , and said she reads better than most of her fourth grade students. Since then, she has never made another stupid remark about us homeschooling. Sorry for my rambling, I know I went a little off topic. I needed to vent a bit. Iv'e been getting alot of people making those remarks, and I have to just grit my teeth, and shut up. :x Too late to make a long story short, but those are some of the reasons we chose to homeschool, best of all, Yvonne loves it, and I love the opportunity to be with her, and watch her learn. She has freedom to go outside and explore, we go on nature walks, library trips, etc. When we please. Can't do that in public school. Every trip becomes a field trip. It's fun, and she gets one on one attention. No public school teacher can love her like her mom and dad, and teach from the heart, going out of their way to ensure they get the best education, and most information possible. The list goes on, and on, so I will stop here. Hope that explains it a bit.

Blessings,
Dianna

 

DD8 did PS until halfway thru 1st. I didn't and still don't like the principle. I hope when they finally decided to combine the elementry schools, he's out of the job. Anyhoo being a military family and havng a crazy schedule for the next couple years to come, homeschooling fits our lifestyle. I just can't see pulling a child out of school with 3 months to go, go into a new school for a month and a half, then summer, go back to school for 3-4 months and then a new school for another 3 months and then move to another new school for the remainder of the year and the move again during that summer. Did you follow that? It's nice having their education is somewhat steady. I don't have nothing against schools if we stayed in one place and I can get involved. So unless hubby stays in one spot for the next 12 years and we are in an awsome school zone, we will be a military homeschooling family.

 

Our kids have only been in a Dept of Defense school (technically public but not really...still some sheltered-ness there...PTL).

Anyway, with every military move since our oldest was born, I contemplated HSing but when it was time for her to start K, Daddy was in Iraq and I had 2 youngers ones....so off to the DoD school and it is and was a great school for them. I was active in their classrooms and on PTO. But Daddy is home after several tours to the "sandbox" and when we moved to VA, I researched HSing a lot more thoroughly than ever before. Surprisingly, I didn't have to convince hubby (much). I did have to convince him (after talking to the DoD Principal) that we didn't have to have transcript from Abeka, etc (although not a bad thing but unnecessary with our youngings ages).....plus, since Daddy had been gone 3 of 4 years, I did NOT want to have to live and die by the VA SOLs and their attendance policies. Add to that, we bought a nice house but in a terrible school district (some good schools but not many).....so we're not schooling for religious reasons although I definitely think God put it on my heart before this move to research it more.

 

I live in VA too and the SOL's caused so many problems! People don't realize that they threw out the Stanford 9's the official achievement test and that grades on report cards do NOT matter for advancement.

In other words, the SOL's are the ONLY thing that passes or retains a child. So what, right? It's a test.

They should be held back if they can't pass it. Well, the problem is many of the answers on the test are subjective. The questioning is muddled (think Everyday Mathematics muddled), so it is VERY easy to not comprehend neither the question or answer.

So, you have straight A students on their report card doing summer school or being retained based on SOL's. Why don't the schools just throw them out? Aren't the local districts in charge of their own schools? Nope. They are not and they must make a certain score on the test to receive state funding.

All about the money, and it was a MAJOR reason for us choosing to homeschooling.

Blessings,
Trishy

 

I didn't read through all the replies.. so forgive me if I missed a follow-up question in there somewhere.

I'll just give you our situation in a nutshell --- but questions are welcome if anyone's curious about anything:

My kids have never attended public school. My oldest in nearly 10.

I chose to homeschool simply because I don't like the schools in this area for various reasons, & I think the 'no child left behind' thing is screwing everyone over.

Religion has played no role in my choice to homeschool. If anything, it is one of the few reasons the thoughts of placing my kids in public school occasionally and briefly cross my mind. Being non-Christian in rural Texas.... it's a little difficult to find "support groups" that are supportive of us.

 

"& I think the 'no child left behind' thing is screwing everyone over."

I also think that NCLB is not helping the public school systems or the children!

 

Thanks everybody for your comments. It's really interesting to read all these stories. I was just doing some reading on this idea of "Accidental Homeschooling", people who started with their kids in school but then, thru disappointment switched to homeschooling. It rang very true to me. Especially the part that although many parents seem to start homeschooling by a series of accidents and in an emotionally conflicted way, they tend to get totally coopted by the life style and benefits and be big homeschooling advocates after awhile.

 

I homeschool because it's a choice I made for them when I was in High School (because I hated it so much and my hs'ed cousins and friend were doing so well). It wasn't until about 7 years after high school that I actually had a kid, but I had already decided to plan on it that far in advance. Right after we got married, I started talking my husband into it before we had kids. Took about 1.5 to 2 years to convince him that it would be ok! Over time he's become just a gung-ho about it as I am.

I did, however, end up sending my oldest to ps Kinder last year because I was about to have a baby, and kind of freaked out a little bit and thought maybe I wouldn't have the time for her and her school as much as I should. It was a BIG MISTAKE. Wish I hadn't done it. At least she's home now, nothing majorly traumatic happened to her while there, and she's NEVER going back. I say it's a big mistake though b/c the stuff she learned there was stuff I had already taught her, so she was really bored there. She could have sat at home and learned nothing this past year, and still be where she was at at the end of the year. . . . .:roll: Even if I had done a little something with her while having the baby, it still would have been more than the school gave her. And she went to the "good school" in our area. . . . .:shock:

We ended up taking her out 3 weeks before the end of the year because I was just too fed up to wait out the whole year THEN take her out. We figured, "we're taking her out after this year anyway, and we're sick of 5 year old child leaving at 8:30 am returning at 4:30 pm, have STUPID homework, have cranky child on my hands each evening b/c it's a long, boring day. . . . ." Why send her and put ourselves through that when she's learning nothing? She learned more those last three weeks after we took her out than she did the whole time she went to school!

 

Our son has never been to ps, and God willing, he never will be. This decision was based on many things, including the state of our PS here, the general policies/attitudes of the school system in this country, the lack of any moral compass of many of those that attend and work in said PS, and just the fact that we enjoy it and can do it.
So unless our situation changes dramatically, we will continue to HS DS and our soon-to-be-born until God directs us differently.

 

Both hubby and I had a horrible time in ps. DH has ADHD and our son is the same, so though we HAVE to have him in ps here in Norway, this is the last of it. As soon as we move to the US he will be hs, hopefully through high school. PS has been horrible, with teachers more intent on "disciplining" the parents than the kids...

 

I did not read all the answers but I will answers the questions asked in the orginial post.

My kids have never been in school. Did the ps system play a part in that? A little. However, even with an awesome ps about 3 minutes from me, I still homeschool. For us it is a conviction both from a spiritual point of view and an educational point of view. After homeschooling for years now, I am very happy this is the choice we made.

So, no, I have never had the ps fail me. Wasn't waiting around for that and wasn't interested if that would actually happen. I am not anti-school...but I perfer my children learning from a method that is not taught in the ps system.

 

I want to answer too

When my oldest was an infant I started reading up on homeschooling.. I knew that is what I wanted for my child. He was "homeschooled" for preschool.. through lots of play and reading tons of books. We enrolled him into K, with the intentions of me returning to work part time when he started school... instead, I got pregnant again... so I knew I was going to be staying home. All the time we spent playing and learning had put him well advanced compared to his peers. For 2 years we put up with constant calls from teachers that he was acting up.. silly boredom things. We begged for him to be moved up a level grade wise, we begged for gifted classes, we begged for him to be given extra work or to be allowed to read a book after he finished the task at hand. We were not so politely told "We simply can not do that, see there is this law called 'No Child Left Behind', and we can not allow your son to move ahead of his peers because of that"... yes we were told that.. scarey huh? We felt that the whole NCLB law did nothing more than slow the faster learning students down, and hold them back from their true potential.

We pulled him out after 1st grade... and have never looked back. I now have 2 younger kiddos who will never be sent to school.