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I do not homeschool my children, they are in a private school, but I find it fascinating that the trend has grown so much. I'm curious, why did you select this route?
Top reason: It sounded like a fascinating hobby and there were so many things I wanted to teach them.
Reason #2: My older daughter was going into second grade at school and there were three teachers teaching it. Two of the teachers were known to be poor teachers, and one of those two was known to be downright evil. The odds weren't good. I've suffered an evil teacher in my life and was not going to let my kids go thru that. As it turned out, my daughter was assigned to the best of the three, but we'd talked about HS all summer so decided to go ahead with it.
My son was in a K-3 private school. He went through their entire curriculum by the end of his second year. There are no non-religious private schools with openings in the area that go above 3rd grade, and the public schools just aren't equipped to deal with a 6-year old doing 3rd-4th grade work. Our choices were to let his education stagnate or to homeschool.
We started looking into homeschooling when my son was an infant. I saw a news special on TV about homeschooling, and was intrigued. I spent several years talking to people, reading anything I could get my hands on regarding homeschooling, and hanging out with homeschoolers. It was natural for me not to send him to kindergarten when the time came... all of the reasons I'd read about homeschooling made sense, and my firsthand knowledge of real-life homeschoolers brought me to the conclusion that school was not the right choice for my family. Neither of my children has ever been to school.
Now, I wouldn't have it any other way. Every day I see more reasons to continue homeschooling. The joy it brings me to see them learning to read, exploring mathematical concepts (many of them waay beyond the scope and sequence of a kindergarten or second grade curriculum), and delighting in learning without having it subdued out of them with legalities and rules and tests... it's indescribable. Seeing a group of homeschooled kids from age 2 to 15 playing well together, integrating even the littlest children in their play, taking everyone's ideas into consideration... that warms my heart. Knowing that they are having the very best that I can provide for them is priceless. Sending them away for 8 hours per day is unimaginable to me... I would not want to not be with my small children for 40 hours per week.
In addition to reasons already posted by others, I didn't want my kids to lose their love of learning. I want them to be able to focus on things that interest them instead of meaningless facts that they need to regurgitate on a test to make a teacher look good. I want them to grow up to be free thinkers, not just blindly follow the crowds and become brainwashed little cogs who have no opinions of their own.
I also joined hs groups, read as much information as possible and talked with other homeschoolers before we made this decision. Hubby is a cop, and what he sees coming out of the public schools is disgusting. When we did all of our research on homeschooling (7 years ago when our oldest was just 3) we realized that this was the ONLY way for our family.
I just decided to do it as we moved from one state to another and it seems Education isn't univeral. I as well felt that the love of learning would crushed as the amount of home work was silly. I also was told that my daughter needed to go back a grade and her age was a big issue. They said she was more than a half year behind but passed kindergarten last year from a high academic school. I didn't agree. I felt that my children because they do have concepts they struggle with could work on them plus move forward as well. For my son because my kids are both first graders can't sit for long time frames and gets frustrated he has sensory issues. I started just in the 4 weeks to see that this was going to be too much. WE started today and because I have a 21 month old as well we break up the day and even work in the evening and Dad is there too. I have a teacher from the state we moved from that I worked with because I was a para pro that is going to guide me to make sure on hit the goals of first grade. The funny thing is that this school is using A Beka which is home school teaching for Langauge Arts and Math and this is a public school. I feel that schools are teaching for standard test to much. I also think that education has forgot that all children are different and learn different. Classes are to large and children get lost. My kids learn at this point one on one very well. I feel they will learn faster as they won't need to compete with 25 other kids. They are very happy being home and they went to preschool and Kindergarten. We found a chruch we are visiting that have a children's group on Wednesday so they can get out with other kids.
Some of my observation regarding people who homeschool kids are:
a) Their kids are VERY smart and they can nurture their intelligence rather than depending upon a state or a private school to waste it.
b) Some parents have teaching experience or the motivation and believe that they can do a a great job with their own kids.
c) Financially works out great as if you have 2 or 3 kids then it is a cheaper option than sending them to a private school.
c) Financially works out great as if you have 2 or 3 kids then it is a cheaper option than sending them to a private school.
I don't see it this way. One parent would have to be a full-time stay at home mom or dad. I guess that it is possible that this parent can also work from home or maybe work a part time job on the weekends or what have you. Raising kids costs money and it is hard enough for many couples who do not have kids to make ends meet when one of them is not working.
Interesting responses so far as I have always assumed that people home schooled because of religious or political reasons.
We started homeschooling after my daughter started school in one of those top notch school districts, but there were 30 children in her kindergarten class. She was a quiet kid and although her teacher was trying very hard and very dedicated, the quiet kid is the one who gets no attention.
My daughter would hold it together in class, but then come home in tears. She had story after story of sitting during "writing time" for nearly the whole time with her hand up needing help, but all the other shouting kids got the attention of the teacher. I spent many hours in the class trying to help and even the teacher was frustrated with the situation.
At the end of the year, I lobbied to get another section added to 1st grade so the class size would be lowered. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I was told there would be no section added (so another year of 30 in the class), but this principal was running his fifth grade at 21 children per class.... He could have made the decision to have fifth grade at 29/class and then 1st grade at 20/class. Even the teachers were amazed.
I have homeschooled until this year (5 years). We have moved and are no longer in that district, but we did send our children back to public school this year. They are happy and enjoying it - Mom and Dad are on the fence. The biggest difference I see, is how little is accomplished during the school day. We accomplished so much more while homeschooling. On the other side, my girls love doing projects at school that you can't accomplish just the three of us.
So there will always be positives and negatives to all types of education.
I don't see it this way. One parent would have to be a full-time stay at home mom or dad. I guess that it is possible that this parent can also work from home or maybe work a part time job on the weekends or what have you. Raising kids costs money and it is hard enough for many couples who do not have kids to make ends meet when one of them is not working.
Interesting responses so far as I have always assumed that people home schooled because of religious or political reasons.
Our local private schools cost upwards of 10k a year, and I have 4 children. Short of taking out student loans, there is no way that we could afford that!
Yes, one parent usually has to stay home. Some families make it work by working opposite shifts or working on SO's days off. I can't stand when people use the 2-income excuse for everything. MANY families make it work on one meager income-- not just homeschooling, but life in general. It is all about sacrafice and what YOU think is important in your life and your children's lives.
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