Hi everyone! I am considering homeschooling my 2 boys. It's all I've been able to think about for the past few weeks. I'm not sure if it's the Lord leading me in this direction or what but I have been eating, sleeping, breathing homeschool thoughts. I have been praying for wisdom & guidance. I wouldn't be so scared to do it if I didn't know me so well. I am unorganized, distracted easily & frankly, sometimes my boys drive me crazy! My oldest son is in Kindergarten at public school. We love his school. It's in a very small town, only 140 students total in K-5. However, when they leave this school, they combine 3 schools to form a middle & high school. This is where I went to school & I am a nervous wreck about sending them there. While I do love our school now, I know if I let my boys go to 5th grade, they will not want to homeschool at that point. Also, my 4 year old son has been showing signs of ADD & major temper problems. This is something I feel may become a problem in public school if a teacher doesn't know how to deal with him. I was diagnosed with ADD as a child & I really struggled in school. I didn't have as much of a temper problem but a concentration problem. I would love to hear the top reasons that made you realize homeschooling was the right decision for you. I have done so much research on homeschooling that my head is spinning. I would just love to hear from other moms why you love homeschooling. Also, are there any moms out there that discovered it wasn't for them? Any experiences would be greatly appreciated! -Heather
My main reasons are these: Not a fan of government telling me what and how my child should learn. I want a Christian perspective. We live in a state that is at the bottom of the nation as far as education goes. My child is very active, needs frequent breaks, and learns in a more hands on way than schools typically use. Frankly, he is too smart to spend 8 hours a day to do his work. We get it done in less than half that and then have the freedom to do lots of field trips, activities, etc. The one difficulty I am finding is that I have not found many other homeschoolers in this very rural area so we are feeling pretty isolated and alone. Just found out yesterday that a co-op may be starting in a nearby town next school year though, so YEAH!! I'm excited about that!
A personalized high quality education I like what it does for our family (i.e. bonding) Teach our perspectives and values
All of the above! My kids are able to work at their own level, without spending countless hours in a classroom bored to death, they're able to have Christian instruction, they're able to learn from real life rather than simulated situations, they're better able to bond with us and others, and I'm able to give them an individualized education model that meets their special needs. Honestly, I could go on and on about our reasons. It just suits us. Are there days when we get disorganized and everything goes wrong? Absolutely, but they'd get that in a classroom, too. Life happens... at least when things go wrong at home, you can teach THEM how to deal with time management issues as well.
Hi! I'm in a tiny little community west of Tuscaloosa. Wish I was closer to B'ham! I see so many homeschool groups and co-ops there....it's kinda lonely way out here in the boonies!
Oh, and I meant to tell you when you were describing yourself, you could have been describing me! I'm very unorganized, distracted easily and yes, my kid drives me nuts sometimes!! But it still works for us. As my child gets older I will probably use some type of record keeping service because of my disorganization. The distractions...well, they can be educational too. And if my kid is really driving me nuts on any given day, we can adjust and go on a nature hunt or play a game or if its really bad we just skip schooling that day. The beauty of homeschooling is that you don't have to have that rigid schedule they impose in schools. We took a trip in February this year. We took along some math and phonics work but that was all. We were in St. Augustine which is a fascinating, old historic town. We visited a fort and toured the area. It wasn't formal school but he was learning all kinds of things in a fun way! If its on your heart to homeschool, do it! If you discover that it's not for you, you can always send your children back to school later. Just don't give up too quickly. It's hard some days but oh so rewarding too!
My reasons: 1. I found school frustrating. Just way too much busy work. I could be out of school for 3 days and when I returned, be told I didn't miss anything. My husband also had a lot of issues with public school. 2. My oldest was a very active child. Sitting at a desk all day, just didn't cut it for her. 3. My kids are smart, but have never been in a hurry to grow up. With life expectancy being what it is today, why should kids be pushed to grow up so quickly. As long as there is forward progress, I'm fine with a snails pace. 4. Even though my dd and I had a lot a clashes when she was small, she was my child and I wanted to be the one to raise her. I wanted her home more during her awake hours than she was gone. 5. Although I knew I couldn't be as good as great teacher, I could do a better job than a bad teacher. It can take several great teacher to heal the damage of a teacher who crushes a child's spirit. 6. We didn't want our family's schedule dictated by the school. We have the freedom to take a day off when we want and to go on vacation when we want. (This is a a big one for my husband.) If starting school at 10 am works better for us, then we have that freedom. As you can see, we don't have just one reason. I could keep listing more.
Initially we started homeschooling because our oldest child did NOT fit into the public school mold. While his teachers were great, caring people. Overall it was a miserable experience for him and us. Tears, frustration, fighting, whining and it made him hate reading so much just attending prek and k, that it took almost his whole entire 1st grade year before he even wanted me to read a book TO him! secondly, I was NOT okay with my 5-6 year old getting up at the crack of dawn, going to school all day then coming home with 1-2 hours of homework! In Kindergarten! Not okay! He had no time to play, explore the world and be a kid! Yesterday my kids were outside, just laying on the trampoline, looking at a rainbow and finding shapes in the clouds. We put shaving cream in the wagon and had a 'car wash' with their matchbox cars, they added water, then added clovers to make swamps then we repotted some herbs, planted flowers, took a trip to home depot and tractor supply, they hung out and played with hubby's 19 year old friend...we just lived, and played, and despite the fact that we did follow any curriculum, my kids learned things yesterday. Through living and conversation with adults. Those days count too. Plus, his PE coach was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography. The man had been a teacher for years, ran a Christian non-profit putting on skits for children's groups for years, and had a clean criminal background. And he was in charge of my child, for an hour, once a week, for almost 9 months....scary. I agree, try it. You can always send them back to PS if it doesn't work. But if you don't try, you'll never know. I'm a very scatterbrained person. I have to make charts and lists for everything! LOL And oh my goodness do we have bad days, but we have the greatest days too! Days we wouldn't have if they were in PS. We chase rabbit trails, and don't finish lessons, and all sorts of other things go 'wrong' but let me tell you, my son learned more in our first year of homeschooling/unschooling than he did in 2 years of PS and his attitude was much better!
Well, I have a whole long list of reasons, but I'll go over a couple of them. I unschooled both my boys when they were younger. My oldest LOVED to learn, and studied things waaaay beyond his age when he was 4/5 years old. There was no line drawn in the sand between learning and fun. I remember him bringing a college Atlas of Anatomy book to me every morning in bed so that we could go over all the body parts and the names of muscles and bones. Then he went to public K and I watched his love of learning die a little bit each day. He would come home from school and collapse on the couch to watch TV. The line had been drawn, so that learning was work, and work was not fun. And public schools make 5 year olds do way too much work! I've never been able to really get back to that place, because now he sees school in a different light, even though we've been HS'ing for years now. Schools can not meet the educational needs of all children, even with good schools and wonderful teachers. Both my kids would probably be pressed to be medicated by the schools. My oldest's teacher mentioned having him tested for "Attention Disorders" but never mentioned anything about his dyslexia. I'm 99.9% sure that my oldest would qualify for ADHD. He never stops moving, even in his sleep. lol He's like a little, stubborn ping pong ball. At one point I decided to enroll both my kids in a Christian school. During the tour, they showed me the K class, which was rows of desks with kids sitting there working on something. I knew it would be nothing but a torture chamber for my younger son AND for the teachers. At home he sits on his exercise ball, or upside down on the couch, you know. But I believe strongly that many, if not most children that are considered ADD, Dyslexic, and the like should not be considered as having disorders, but rather as having a different kind of intelligence, that is not being served by our current educational system. These children are smart and often don't need to be sitting in a classroom all day to learn what they need to know. Homeschool can revolve around what interests your children. My younger son spends hours upon hours upon hours taking things apart with his father. People that know us, now give us their old or broken things like small engines, sewing machines, and such for my kids to take apart. Even if he never goes to college or learns to write a perfect 10 page essay, I know he will have amazing mechanical skills. Also, ADD seems to run heavily in my family. My brother was diagnosed with ADHD, and I have all the classic symptoms of ADD. I would literally forget my head if it wasn't attached! You know, it makes things difficult, but we get through. I forget where things are, what we are doing, what we are supposed to be doing, but somehow they still learn things and surprise me all the time. I have definitely gone through some times where I thought I should not be homeschooling at all, but I am so thankful that I stuck it out!! You have good days and bad days, tough years and easy years, but it usually works out in the long run. You can do it!
I decided to homeschool because my oldest son did everything early. He learned to read at 3 years old. He was also a math whiz kid. He would have been bored to death at school. We started homeschooling and never looked back. It became a lifestyle for our family. In the early years we homeschooled all year long. Our school days were short, probably 2 - 4 hours per day. That left plenty of time for play and exploration. We also loved the fact that we could decide to take a vacation to Disney on a whim. All these years later, I'm thankful that God led us to homeschool. It has been a blessing for my family!
You know, I was reading your post and I was like YES! That! I've planned curriculum all out for this year, having to spend more time taking care of my parents' needs...I was trying to plan out things that are just 'move on to the next lesson' and it just hasn't been sitting well with me...We unschooled doing unit studies based on interests the first 2 years. LAst year we sort of naturally progressed to a more CM type schooling, but still based on interest...and it worked for my kids so well. I think maybe I might have to rethink next years plans. I find it funny that anatomy is considered, in most school and curriculum, a subject for older students. But my oldest used to drag out my college anatomy book every day at around the same age. And my youngest recently went through an anatomy phase where he carried my college anatomy cheat sheet around with him and studied it every day. I think that age, they are naturally interested in learning about their bodies. It's a normal part of child development, they are learning and struggling with their independence and trying to figure out how the world works, how their body works, etc. But schools only teach dumbed down info and think all a 4-5 year old needs to learn about their bodies/anatomy is the 5 senses! Also, a great thing about homeschool is the ADHD issues. My oldest is ADHD but our biggest issue with him is his SPD. He is mostly a sensory seeker. When walking he likes to bump into things, spin around, touch everything and make sound effects. He also has avoidance issues with clothing/shoes. He wears crocs and nothing else. This winter he did manage to find a pair of cowboy boots he wore for a few months. But PS PE requires tennis shoes. My SPD kid does NOT do tennis shoes! It's like pulling teeth to get the kids to change clothes some days, because he is comfortable in what he is wearing and he knows by changing he's going to have to adjust to the way the new outfit feels. It's so bad, last week he opted to stay home rather than go on a field trip! I have no doubt PS would demand he be put on ritalin or something. And sorry, but no. Instead we use essential oils and do therapy at home. (therapy at home because we're actually trying to avoid a full formal diagnosis. We started the process of diagnosing him, but then decided we wanted to avoid the label in his medical records considering we won't do drugs and much therapy can be done at home) My oldest is a science junkie. For first grade he did Apologia's Flying Creatures in like 5 months. That book can serve as a years worth of science for a 6th grader. First grade science in PS is living vs non-living things....yeah...that didn't fit my kid at all! LOL It's things like this that keep reaffirming our decision to homeschool each year.
Well the reason I initially thought about homeschooling was because I am not a morning person and I knew that my kids would NEVER make it to school on time in the mornings. I know, it's lame, but I can admit my weaknesses. I love teaching my kids. We do use structured math and language arts curriculum but the past two years have been interest led in all other subjects and it's been so fun for both him and me. I think that my oldest would do ok in public school but I know that my second son would be considered a problem student. He really struggles with focus in a lot of areas and if *I* find myself feeling frustrated I can only imagine what a teacher who doesn't love him with their whole heart would feel. I think generally speaking that public schools are a huge waste of time for children, my oldest generally does his work in 2-3hrs a day and when we have issues with his willingness I remind him that at a public school he'd be at a desk for nearly 8hrs and still have to bring home more work to do in the afternoons. The reminder is usually all it takes. And specifically for our family the fact that we homeschool was a HUGE blessing a few weeks ago when my husband had a heart attack and the kids were being cared for by friends and relatives while I was at the hospital an hour away with him. After the fact it occurred to me how much more of a nightmare it would have been coordinating care if I'd had to coordinate getting my older two boys to school and picked up in the afternoon - our local school recently went to a system where they wouldn't even be attending the same building. What a headache! They also didn't have to struggle to focus on school work while their parents were gone for four days in a row. Similarly finding help with them when we go have our fifth baby in Sept will again be made easier by the fact that nobody has to stress getting them to or from school. So basically I'm a rebel who can't deal with other people telling me where I have to be and when. :lol: But there are a million reasons we homeschool at the end of day. I see how close my kids are and how much they love each other, how much free time they have to use their imaginations for play, how they don't even think twice about asking questions that naturally come to their curious brains and instigate their own learning. They don't view school as a horrible thing and they love learning new stuff. And while there are days I wish for a break it's generally the toddler I'd like a break from and really public school wouldn't help me there. :lol:
There are many reasons we chose this path. Some of the same reasons as you all wrote above. I have one graduating next year and I can't believe it. I just keep thinking of how proud I am of her. And me. We did it. It worked. I will cherish the times we had together. Seeing her read her first book, see the light come on when she finally 'got it'. I would not have changed our adventure for the world. Thank God I still have 2 more to get to graduation or else I would be a basketcase next year! Hooked On Homeschooling!
You know, Josie, I'm really trying to think hard about what we are doing as well. I thought this year was going better than ever, but then my oldest started referring to the kitchen table as "jail" and I did one of those "I did it again" sighs. My heart knows what has worked in the past, but my head keeps falling into the same old trap, telling me that we need to do this or that. We've gone through a lot of hard things over the past years, so I often fall back on the boring workbooks style learning, which is the easiest thing for me to use, when feeling inadequate or stressed. I need to just trust the process, trust my chilren's God given desire to learn, and trust my leading abilities instead of teaching abilities more. My son is a lot like that too, even some of the sensory things. He's always bumping into things and people, wobbling around, and such. When he was younger I nick named him Bobbers, because that's what he did. He didn't walk, he bounced. lol I'm sure he'd be getting in trouble for that all the time, not to mention invading people's space.
I like knowing what goes in/out my child's mind. I don't want a stranger teaching my child. Also we like to travel. If I want to pick up and go somewhere for a month I can.
I chose to homeschool my DS-grade 2 because he missed so much school due to illness. His teacher started punishing him for missing school which was giving him anxiety attacks. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I do not currently homeschool my other kids (DD-grade 10 and DD grade kindy) but I have thought about it. My grade 10 daughter has asked me to homeschool her but my kindy girl said she never wants to be homeschooled.
1. More family time together. 2. Very little boredom and wasted time at home as compared to school. 3. More individualized instruction. 4. SO much more FUN!!! I am also not organized and easily distracted.
