Just curious...

[vim876]

What are the top 3 reasons you homeschool?

[AllyCat]

1. I can give the reasons I want to homeschool, but husband not yet convinced

1. I miss my son
2. I think NCLB is hurting our education system...teaching kids to take tests, not use critical thinking
3. My son likes to study his interests and learns the most that way.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. What grade level is your son?

I had my older son in public school from K-3, then homeschooled him. He wanted to go back in HS, and things went downhill. The school was pretty rough, and survival skills were necessary. He became involved with a group of kids who weren't the worst, but they were a long way from the best.

His teachers loved him. They all wanted to know what homeschool program we'd used, and were especially impressed with his math and writing skills. A couple of them even said they were thinking of homeschooling their own kids, which kind of gives you an idea what sort of school system we've got.

After a great deal of drama which I won't go into, my son ended up dropping out of high school after 2 years, and working for a property management company for $11/hr. They didn't treat him very well, but he learned so many different skills by being their gofer that it helped him in the long run. 2 years ago, after being away from school for 4 years, he decided to take the GED test, just to see what areas he'd need to work on to pass the test. He passed it on the first try, getting scores in the upper 90s in most subjects. Then, last May, he decided to interview for a job opening in another property management company. They practically hired him on the spot. He just got a promotion as assistant to the president of the company.

The prospect exists for him to earn a good deal more than my husband and I earn; and I can't help thinking that homeschooling him had a good deal to do with that.

[AllyCat]

5. Kindergarten right now

But from talking to the parents of the older kids at the bus stop, it sounds like 3rd grade is when it really seems to go downhill. They start all those blasted tests, no one ever has time to go over all the questions on even the classroom tests, kids are just shuffled along as quickly as possible because "they have too much material to cover" to get to the next test (per the 3rd grader's father after conferences with the teacher). Right now, my son loves school, but he says he would rather be home with me for school. First "report card" came home yesterday and he is proficient in everything. I know it's only kindergarten, but shouldn't there be SOMETHING he needs to work on? We just encourage him with everything right now that interests him. He wants to write stories so we work on one page, 1-3 sentence long descriptions of whatever is on his mind. He can already read and he loves math games. We'll just do what we can now before all the homework starts next year. jeez, I didn't have homework until 6th grade. Now they all have to carry backpacks...half of that space is for all the fundraiser stuff that comes home since Walker is cutting their budgets so badly.

That's great your son has done so well. Sorry about the rocky part. Did you use a program or unschooling or some other system? I don't know what we would use. Seems that homeschooling really did help since that was most of his schooling. Even the rocky part probably helped eventually. Thanks for responding.

[onpatrol98]

2. We've considered...

We've considered for a number of reasons...

1) We want our youngest child to be able to go deeper into individual subject areas instead of being forced to move on to the next topic because of an arbitrary calendar date.

2) We want more freedom over the curriculum. Being from a small area, there are many limitations in terms of offerings.

3) In some high schools, teachers seem to spend more time fighting fires (problem students, limited time, etc) instead of teaching because of lack of community, parental, and community support.

My preference would be simply to find a great public high school. They exist in many places EXCEPT in my own area. We have tried private school, and at the elementary school level, it has been great. But, we simply want more options.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. Sorry to answer so late...

1) Homeschooling suits my son's shy temperment better than the public schools would.
2) The program we use offers a better academic education than our county public schools. Our emphasis is on learning the material and understanding how to apply it.
3) Our work schedules are often such that, were our son enrolled in public school, we would see him for about 2 hours each day.

[AllyCat]

6. GOG that is my issue too.

When he has school, I don't see him except for about 30 minutes in the morning trying to get dressed and to the bus. I'd like him to have time to focus on the things that interest him instead of moving from one subject to the next in 10 minutes. That's how much time they get on each math station: TEN minutes. They get 20 minutes for lunch. When at home, lunch takes him a leisurely 45 minutes easily. What program do you use?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. We use Calvert School

and have been really happy with it. We modify it here and there, because once he understands and can implement the work, we don't see the point in making him do what amounts to busy work. And sometimes we supplement material with field trips, movies, TV, computer programs, and books that aren't part of the regular curriculum. Sometimes I'll change his composition assignment to something more interesting to him, something he can relate to better, or something that directly applies to his current issues.

[The Straight Story]

7. Mine are:

1. The local schools suck
2. My daughter can move ahead, or lag behind if need be - she learns at her own pace
3. Easier for life situation - her mom (my x) is sick a lot, so no need to walk to a bus stop, pack a lunch, have to go pick her up if she is sick, etc and so on

Obviously, the main reason is she is getting a much better education

[Maat]

8. Being in a conventional classroom just doesn't work for my teen artist.

1. This way we can create her own high school - centered around what she finds to be important.

2. Being that generally either her dad, her mom (me) or her art teacher (private tutor) has to guide her in a topic for key confidence reasons, we'd rather do that when we are not exhausted - during the day - and not after an exhausting day at work (Art Teacher and I are retired, and Dad works out of the house running a computer-related business). She's well-rested, we're well-rested (her instructors) - and that's a win all the way around.

3. What's going on in schools now is ridiculous - a local kid was killed when other students knocked her to the pavement - this at around the same time another student was kicked out for bringing a plastic knife. We're just not going to be a part of that nonsense.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. Was girl who was killed being bullied?

What an awful thing!

[onpatrol98]

11. good point...

I don't know of any school public or private that has a handle on bullying yet. You almost don't want to subject your child to what some school environments have digressed into. To be retired and able to focus on your child has to be a great feeling.

[exboyfil]

12. Because I know better about my child

than the school system, and I have her best interests in mind.

I am reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" along with my older daughter who is reading it for English in school. The scene in which Scout is disciplined by her teacher because she can already read is spot on with our local school system (not really that bad).



1. Homeschooling allows you to advance and focus your child's education towards their aspirations and career goals. Seriously you have to start planning in middle school especially if you want to be a doctor.
2. Homeschooling allows flexibility in schedule. My oldest wants to take three electives next year (two Journalism classes and an Engineering class). When you remember you always have to the big five (English, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Foreign Language), three electives just will not work. My oldest is Homeschooling in Social Studies to open a free period.
3. Homeschooling is the ultimate safety valve to avoid bad schools. These bad schools could range from individual classes and teachers (like our school system) to outright dangerous schools. I consider Homeschooling an absolute right for parents, and just because as few abuse that right, the option should not be taken away from the rest of us.

[LeftyMom]

13. I look at the issue the other way around:

I would need reasons to educate my son out of the home, and I don't have any.