Anyone homeschool for non religious reasons?

I'm just curious. I've noticed most of the homeschoolers I've met thusfar do it for religious reasons. We are Christians but do not homeschool because of our faith and lack of Christianinty in the public school system. Private christian schools are an option but we'd rather save our money.
We removed out dd from public school because of the lack of education more or less lol. No challenge whatsoever- considering the Kindergarten class she was in was doing things she was doing in 3yo preschool, we just felt it was time to pull her out..
Anyhow, I was just curious.

 

I don't homeschool for religious reason. Where we live, the system is laid back. When it's time to move, my children will be behind in other schools. Plus I just didn't feel right sending my daughter to school.
My husband is military and we move every few years. I want my children to have the same way of learning. It is hard enough moving all the time and having friends move too. My DD has lost 6 friends since living here.
I also like that we can go by my husband's schedule instead of a school system.
I feel like an odd ball because I don't do it for religious reasons. I do include it though. Sunday school once a week just isn't cutting it. She has questions during the week and I got tired of telling her to wait until Sunday. Plus I do read the bible at least twice a week for my bible study.

 

I have a mixture of reasons I homeschool. I do like that I can do what I want as far as religion but that wasn't my top reason.

Lorna

 

When we started hsing, it was because of the schools in our area are inter-city. My dh said no way are we sending dgs into this school. They would have eaten him up and spit him out. We moved to this area when we were kidless. Now we are raising 2 of our grandchildren. After reading what is happening in the schools today, we have MANY reasons, and one being religion

 

My husband is in the military also and I never considered that fact till another military mom here brought it up. But I do feel like an oddball since we aren't doing it for religious reasons. Most of the people I've talked to around here have said they're doing it to keep their kids sheltered from all the worldly things that are showing up in public schools at a younger grade level, and because God has lead them to do so.
I will say that we didn't pull dd out before Christmas without a lot of prayer and thought first.

 

I don't homeschool for religious reasons.

I am a christian and my dd studies the Bible everyday but religion isn't why I pulled her out of ps.

I just think the public school system as a whole has gone to crap. It is a broken system in my opinion and I can do a lot better at teaching my child. That is why I began to homeschool.

However I have a ton of reasons why I keep homeshcooling.

 

We homeschool because my two dd's were thriving when I was preparing them for pre- kindergarten. We were given a list of things that the children were expected to have learned BEFORE going to school.I looked over the list and my dh and I said "they already know this!" So we figured we were already doing a great job so why put them in public/private school.
We already discussed homeschooling our children before they were even born , but we fell victim to peer pressure and started looking at schools. Well that is when we got the list from area schools and said no way , we are already doing great!
Another reason ,for us personally, is we have 4 sets of parents between my dh and I ( everyone is divorced and remarried) and homeschooling grants us the time to have the girls visit their grandparents anytime the grandparents schedule allows.
Plus being on one income, when it comes time for family vacations ( 2 major ones a year) we can go when regular schools are in session and the prices are cheaper.
We also will be moving every 3 years or so and homeschooling allows us at least some sense of "sameness" and makes moving less stressful because we can move anytime of year.

 

I tried to make it work in the public school. I was a thorn in the principle's shoe. I got a sidewalk put in so children wouldn't get hit by buses or cars bring other children in. I tried for other stuff but the sidewalk was the major thing I did. I tried hard to get other parents to care about what was going on. They were good at complaining but not at actions. They didn't want to get involved. I couldn't keep doing it myself. So after telling the principle what I thought of him, DD was taking out school. We had discussed HS next year because we would be moving. HS just came 11 months sooner.

 

I honestly didn't start homeschooling for any one reason except the feeling that my daughters were slipping away from us. We watched the older one start becoming sneaky and moody. She was hanging out with kids we didn't approve of and she was not doing well in her classes. The younger one was becoming more and more withdrawn and never really fit in with the kids at school because she is shy and won't do anything to stand up for herself. I watched her change and I didn't like it. The school gave her good grades because she never caused a problem. She wasn't getting stuff but wouldn't tell the teacher because that would upset the teacher. Sigh. I love having a class everyday with the girls on religion but that is just icing on the cake for us. I could do that before homeschooling but just never was consistent in it. Now we start the day that way. There is no main reason we homeschool except to reclaim our daughters and everyday brings a renewed commitment to homeschooling. If we ever have a bad day I just remind myself we get to start over the next day and unlike some teachers, I am not going to carry my feelings over to the next day because my students are my daughters and I adore them.

 

Well my friend just called from the car line at the public elementary school and she was so upset. She was in the back of the car line and one of the bus drivers came up and started very rudely telling her she was parked in the wrong place. Her car was not blocking the buses at all but the bus driver wanted to park her personal car closer to her bus spot. The bus driver, who is a woman and tends to be very pushy and overbearing, told her she needed to either get there earlier or park in the big parking lot. This lady is just a bus driver and doesn't have the authority to be telling parents where to park. The big parking lot is dangerous for little kids like my friends to be in, and getting there earlier means loading her two smaller kids and sitting at the school for 45 minutes until the bell rings. I am sorry for my friend but I am so glad I am not a part of that mess any more.

 

If she was parked in such a way as to block the buses, then the driver did have the authority to say something to her. However, that doesn't excuse the driver from being rude. I'm sure the situation could have been explained without being obnoxious about it!

 

Oh good, I wasn't the only one who was a thorn in the principals side!
I literally tried with all my might to get dd more challenging work. I even offered to send in extra work for her. The teacher who has been teaching for 31 years would not do a thing. Ignored my emails, and when I started sending in the work we were doing at home she FINALLY scheduled a meeting with us and the principal. Not that we got very far there.
Our dd was so bored that her behavior was being targeted big time. She wasn't even bad. But we were getting notes home every day about "talking during reading circle" or "tapping pencil during math lesson" , "chewing on shirt sleeve" ect. Rediculous petty stuff.
No matter how much we pushed and even with letters from her psych and pediatrician saying this child is gifted and above grade level, make sure she is challenged and put in a position where she can lead and work above the average level.
Well they finally ordered testing and assessments beginning of Dec. All came back saying above grade level. 2nd grade for reading and end of 1st grade for math. I had to call myself to get the results. And still nothing was done.
So that was that. Pulled her out, she was unhappy, bored out of her mind and tired of doing the boring stuff at school and coming home and doing more school with us even thought it was more challenging.
We'd thought of going private, but after working with her at home and knowing her learning style and seeing how far she has come just since Christmas, I think we will just continue on this road.
And to think I was worried that she wouldn't be where she needed to be for private school. Now she's beyond that!

Our schools aren't bad as far as where we live, but their expectations are so low. I look at other states and they are learning about money and doing simple addition and subtraction right now, which her school hasn't even touched yet in Kindergarten.

 

We began homeschooling before we even knew it. lol

We started realizing that most kids weren't on the same academic level as ours. Once I started looking into homeschool I realize that it was the right thing to do.

Had we not...I would have had a K level kid who could read better than most 2nd graders. ho hummmmm

Of course after homeschooling almost 4 years officially and the 4 that we didn't know about I have no regrets. It allows us to move at our speed on concepts and add in where we need to or want to.

I mean really...next year we will be doing Latin - how many kids in 3rd grade ps can say that?

Of course the horror stories of kids cursing and kicking teachers at the age of 5 didn't give me any reason not to homeschool.

Sometimes things are placed on your heart and when they are there....you can never go wrong. Sometimes people come to me and say we are thinking about it. Well....how much are you thinking about it? Is it consuming every moment and in your dreams? Then you should if not then you need to really look at it.

I just read in the paper today about that little boy that the bus driver ran over. Hopefully, she wasn't as uptight as the one at your friends school.

 

I didn't originally start homeschooling for religious purposes 8 years ago but now I feel that is the main reason we continue to do so. Our curriculum is Christ centered and my children absolutely love it. I feel that this is the direction God has directed our family. I did original start because we had wanted to start travelling and this would give us the ability to do so. We are still travelling and loving every minute of it!:angel:

 

Religious reasons are big for us...but NOT our only reason.

Most of what's been measure in, factors in to large degress....freedom, quality of education, lack of faith in the public school system, etc.

We may have ORIGINALLY discussed it b/c of religious reasons, but when you get down to the nitty gritty, it's only 1 of MANY reasons we chose it.

 

I homeschool for non-religious reasons, HSing works best with our schedule. I work nights 3 days a week and realized that if she went to ps I would never see her plus I enjoy spending time with Madison(on most days lol). Im a single mom and this works best for us, besides I dont like the way the ps is quick to label. Madison would never be able to sit still for 4-6hrs a day in a "normal" classroom, she has different learning styles and I like exploring them with her.

 

I didn't start out homeschooling for religious reasons. However, as time went on we feel led to homeschool and are centered on Christ. I want to in no way shelter my children from life. I just want to make sure they have a strong foundation in Christ, develop a love for learning and become critical thinkers. I want them to see the world through the lens of our faith and not the state. So, religious reasons are up there in the top ten now...but not the main reason. I love homeschooling. However, I am not anti-school. If I felt my kids would do better or be offered more in a school, I would send them. Every year, I think will be my last...lol...I always look at private schools or public schools. Not because I don't want to homeschool..there are financial reasons for this. Anyway, every year God makes it possible for us to continue homeschooling. So, the driving force is led by the Lord, yes. However, the decision in the beginning was much broader. So, although that just sounded like I contridicted that religion was not the main purpose...I am not. lol...I don't think so...we allow the Lord to lead. However, we have a bunch of reasons.

 

We are christians too, but religion was not our primary reason. ds was in 3rd class at a very good school, but he still couldn't read at all, and his behaviour was out of control. we had already tried private Christian school, public school and were now at Steiner school, which was by far the best. Anyway, we could see it just wasn't working, and the future was bleak for ds if we didn't do something. So this was really our only option. dd joined in the following year, mostly becuase she wanted to, and i figured, hey I'm already heavily invested in this, why not? We all love it, and they are both learning and happy. I guess like most others here, I love the freedom we have to follow our faith, and that they are not exposed to all the nasty stuff - although I think it's probably not as bad here.
Hey Melissa, what sort of work do you do? I work 4 nights a week as a midwife - thursday to sunday usually. I haven't met anyone else who combines hs and night work.

 

I home school for many many reasons. Some are religious, and others not. All fit in with my Christian world view, however ,I think that I would homeschool even if I was not considering "religious" reasons.

The public schools in my area have less than 50% success rate. I start there.:lol:

 

we don't hs for religion reason. There was alot of other reason at the time.