Anyone homeschool their children? If so, how's that working for you?

Question

Thinking of starting this adventure :o) but wanted some input from real people that do this. Are graduates treated the same by colleges and/or the work force? or are they looked at as being less educated than graduating from a traditional type of school?

Answer 1

 I started homeschooling in the middle of my sons 7th grade year and the following year I also started my other children on a homeschool curriculum. I found it was much easier to do my younger children on a worksheet packet and Intrest exploitation path rather than a scheduled HS (Home School) curriculum. They found it so much easier to focus and express themselves. The schools are so unsafe now a days. With all the violence and abuse going on it just seems we put to much faith in our educational systems. I mean we would never let our children leave with a stranger just be they say they are going to go do a science project, yet we send them into these schools that are full of ppl we don't know.  

Answer 2

I have been homeschooling my whole life. I have never set foot in a "real" school. It has worked great for me! I am going to go to a homeschool tutorial next year. My brother (who has also been homeschool since kindergarden) is about to begin applying to college. He got into one already.

Answer 3

The only regret that I have about homeschooling is that we did not start earlier!

I'm a little embarrased to admit that when we first began to seriously consider homeschooling as an option, I had the same questions and concerns commonly asked...

What about college admissions?

We've talked directly to college admissions folks - including 1 Ivy League school.  Homeschooling is no longer an issue with college admissions (thank you all homeschool pioneers).

Entrance exam scores, Merit Scholarship winners, performance of homeschooled students on campus, etc. have demonstrated the effectiveness of homeschooling.

What about socialization?

As much as I rail against the socialization myth, I really hate to admit that I had the same concerns before starting homeschooling (although I never put any homeschoolers down).  

I did a bunch of research of scholarly studies and found that it really is a myth.  All the serious research shows that homeschooled children tend to be better adjusted, more confident, etc.

I contacted a couple of local support groups and started asking questions.  I met with some homeschooling families.

Bottom line on "socialization" from my experience:  You will have more opportunities and of much higher quality as a homeschool student / family.  The problem will be choosing from among so many great things to do.

You will be blown away by homeschool students!  True, they might be the type typically made fun of in public school but if you think of most highly successful adults, you'll probably conclude that they too would / would have been counted, in public school setting, among the "nerds" or "geeks" or whatever.  You will be so pleased by their manners, ability to interact with people of all ages, wide range of interests, etc.

Allow me to give an example.  I know one middle homeschool student who has (with permission) dug several ponds in his backyard and stocked the ponds with a variety of fish and amphibians.  This kid keeps detailed notebooks about his self-created ecosystems.  For science class? For any particular course?  No - just because it satisfies his curiousity and interest.  

Now, in public school this would be seen as so incredibly odd!  In the homeschool community it is seen as very cool. When I first heard about this, I thought of other famous scientists who kept notebooks on their ideas and observations and such... Darwin, Da Vinci, Franklin, etc.

My son has a goal of attending an Ivy League and he will definitely be going to college (I prefer that he attend a small private Christian college but ultimately not my choice) .  

Anyway, there is no way that I would do anything that would jeopardize his chances of getting into the school of his choice. I have become convinced that our homeschooling and all the flexibility and opportunities to pursue passions in depth will help - a lot rather than hinder.

Plus... and this is, for me, very important.  I have a much happier and much more productive child because of homeschooling.

I should add (like Steve K), I too am a former public school teacher (and private).  My first serious inquiries about homeschooling were with another public school teacher co-worker whose wife homeschooled all their children!

I witnessed and experienced some things as a public school teacher that you might not believe!

Answer 4

Well I haven't personally sent any of my kids off to college yet, but several of my homeschooling friends have.  Their kids all got into good colleges.  Several have received scholarship, one was a national Merit scholarship winner.  Just like with Public School, there isn't an iron clad guarantee that you will get accepted into your first choice college, but any student who is willing to study hard should have no trouble getting into a good college.

Now as to other aspects of homeschooling, all I can say is its great.  If you visit some of the blogs at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com you can get a peek into the lives of a lot of real homeschool families.

My own blog is there too, at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PathofL...

Answer 5

We homeschooled our 3 children for 5 years and simply loved it.  Now we have 4.  The funny thing about it was that I was a teacher in a public school district and we weren't comfortable in sending our kids into this decent district because we felt that they would get more negative than positive from the system.  My kids eventually had to start in a private school and struggled with the concept of different classes, teachers, amount of homework, but they are great kids and we believe they are better prepared for the most important aspects of their future because they were nurtured in a protective environment with a loving mother as their main teacher.  Character is caught not taught.  So we are pleased with the overall effect even though they have struggled to keep up with the sheer amount of work now assigned.  They will get the hang of it after some practice.

Answer 6

My son has not graduated yet.  He is learning more at home than he learned at school.  It is a more efficient use of time and energy in our situation.

We have 3 homeschool graduates who are close friends with our family.  One is 21 and worked several retail jobs while in high school.  She now has a job at a bank and enjoys her work and makes a decent salary.  The second, her sister, graduated from home school at 17.  She went 2 years of community college and now is a junior at a state university. She wants to work with children, possibly as a librarian. The 3rd graduate that I know, enrolled immediately in a photography class at community college. He changed his course of study and is now studying graphic arts.  He is doing an internship now and should graduate at end of this semester.

Now, I can also give you examples of public school kids  who have graduated and cannot fill out an application nor pass a placement test for community college.  

It is all in what you put into an education.

Answer 7

There's no rule that will apply to all situations, but one could say that homeschool graduates are being more and more accepted. Will they get negative reactions from people? From some. But it's nothing that is really going to hamper their plans in life.

Answer 8

My kids haven't graduated yet but I have friends who's children are in university and in the job force.  They are all doing fine.

We've been homeschooling for over 4 years now and have no plans to change.

Answer 9

i was homeschooled and i regretted it.i missed out on so much not going to public school.that would be something that should be really considered when you are thinking about doing it

Answer 10

working great for us, changed our lives for the better.

High school graduates are treated the same, once they get passed admissions no one even knows unless the kid tells them. Admissions for most major universities are the same, look at your alma mater's website and you'll see that more than likely the admissions page will have a reference to homeschool admissions.

Answer 11

We just started homeschooling a few months ago and like someone else said, my only regret is that we didn't start sooner.  It took about a month to pull together texts, workbooks, math and science tools, etc. and really get a direction for all the kids but now we are in full swing and loving every minute of it.  The time we have for projects, experiments and all the extra subjects we want to learn about is great.  With our homeschooling group we get to participate in park day, field trips, co-op classes and play dates in the middle of the day even!  

As for colleges, our local group just posted an article about UC Riverside who not only accepts and recruits homeschoolers, they recently changed their acceptance policies for homeschoolers.  They can now present their portfolio of accomplished work and NO transcripts needed.  UC was also contacted by Johns Hopkins announcing their wish to recruit homeschoolers and what their policies were.

Go to the website below to see the article and UC's astounding attitude that homeschoolers may be better educated and prepared for college.

Hope this helps.  Best of luck and go for it!