Does any one here home school because it "convenient"?

Question

We see some posts by anti home schoolers that it is inconvenient to home school. Well duh. We chose to home school for several reasons. None might I point out are convenience. Yes its nice not to have to be up to get kids ready for the bus but we have to bring them along on every little errand we do until they get old enough to stay at home.

Just wondering if any home schoolers do it because it's just more convenient?

Answer 1

Convience had nothing to do with my decision to homeschool.. it is just an added bunus that we get to stay in out PJ's and not have to go out in the cold and snow first thing in the morning.

I think that convience is someones child going to public school and the parent not having an active roll in their child's day for 6+ hours... Now wouldn't it be convienent to be able to go the grocery store and get milk and just pay and get out...LOL... instead it is a fight over wanting, oh I'm sorry, my children "needing" Oreo's.... :)

Answer 2

Well, yes and no.

   I could make several points either way. I mean, I don't have to drive her to school, but the school is just blocks away and the bus will pick her up right by our house. It is nice, but it hardly influenced my decision to homeschool.

  It is a little inconvenient that I can't have a full time job, or go to school and do this. (Maybe other people can, but I know my own limitations. I am not that mom.) But, I ran around between meetings, volunteer work, home, the gym, school and my job long enough for me to feel a little burnt out. I'm happy to be home full time. There is still stress, but it is a different kind of stress and there is less of it.

   We really did not homeschool based on any other factor but that SOMETHING had to be done. We had tried everything else available. Our daughter was not learning. The school was not working with us and my kid was miserable. We jumped in and let the chips fall where they might. All I can say is, it is working. I do it because it works for us. I wish we'd have homeschooled from the start. I do not think my child will ever go back to a public school. I don't care how inconvenient this gets.

Answer 3

Only in that it is 'convenient' for us to stay at home and be home educated because of where we live in relation to any schools - we live a 4 hour drive from the closest primary school and 16 hours away from the closest high school.

So, yep, going to school would be pretty inconvenient for us. Hence it's heaps more convenient for us to be educated at home.

That 'convenience' is far from the only reason our parents chose to home educate us though.

Answer 4

Certainly not! It isn't even convenient for the students! We have the opportunity to take on such greater academic challenges. We choose to do this, but it does mean having to work harder. And in the upper levels it means taking on a lot more responsibility and being much more self-motivated and independent. No guidance councilors to handle all your academic affairs like meeting college requirements, registering for tests, arranging interviews, campus visits, and actually getting on the ball and filling out applications. That's all on you. And you know what? It may be "inconvenient", but ti's better that way. In the real world you aren't going to have a councilor or a teacher or a school administrator holding your hand and walking you through everything you do. I think the "inconveniences" of homeschooling, not to mention the extra push to do and provide for myself whenever possible from my mom, has given me ample preparation for adult life that I wouldn't have gotten if I stayed in public school.

Answer 5

No.  There is nothing really convenient about having children.  (smile)  I think if we have them, we ought to raise them the best way possible and for us, that means homeschooling.

It took me awhile to 'get it' and even longer for my husband to understand that we have a small window of opportunity to prepare our off springs for their future.  We are interested in our child's success.  The teachers in school are interested in the school's success as reflected in the grades of the students.  These grades only show how well a test was taught, not how well each individual student has learned the material and how prepared the individual student is to continue to the next grade level.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with your question but just added for further clarification that homeschool is not a thing that we do for the 'fun of it'.  It is rewarding, but in no way is it something that we do because it is easy.

Answer 6

Well I guess if you mean -- is it more convenient for my children not to switch schools every two years when we move then yes we do.

Answer 7

ROFLOL.     Convenient ????    Send those folks to a homeschoolers home for a week and see what they think then !  That is one word I would not use to characterise homeschool.  

Wonderful, exciting, comfortable, warm, feels right, an honor and a blessing would work better .... but not convenient.

Answer 8

No way...I might be wrong, but if it ever gets really "convenient" you might be doing something wrong.

Answer 9

No. I can't say convenience fits ANYwhere on my list of reasons we homeschool. But you know what? Having children isn't "convenient" either. Having to make supper isn't "convenient". Having to clean the house, pay bills, fill up on gas, work, etc., aren't "convenient". Those who are avoiding homeschooling because it isn't convenient had better have a good hard look at how far they're going in life if they only want to do what is convenient!

Answer 10

Hi,

I hope I can word this so that it makes sense...

Although convenience was not on my list of positives, avoiding inconvenient things was.

- getting a baby, 3 year old and 5 year old ready and dragging them out early every morning.

-  I am the type of person that if my children were in school I would probably still do "after-schooling" (Schools teach a topic then move on regardless of whether or not your child has mastered the concept) which would end up taking up a majority of our evenings.

- SCHEDULING  When my dd went to school she needed to be in bed by 7:30 in order to be up at 7 and function for the day, this meant giving up a lot of evening activities, both for me and the kids.  Also, my dh works a rotating schedule and we would only have 2 days as a family out of every 6 weeks.

HTH  :-)

Answer 11

Convenience? Hardly. I have been at this since 1987. I would think that the convenience of this would have worn from thin to nonexistent a LONG time ago, had that been the case.

This also applies to inconvenient...20 years of it? Please. If I didn't truly believe that what I had chosen to do was in my children's best interest...

God bless you. †

Answer 12

I know some people who homeschool partly because it is more convenient for their schedules (they are night owls, and the parents have a hard time getting up early for school, much less the kids).  I have also seen posts on various eloops about homeschooling being "easier" because it only takes an hour or two a day, don'tcha know, and then they get the rest of the day off.  (Those are the people who make me want to walk up and ask them not to let anyone know they homeschool, lol.)

Our homeschool group (about 150-200 families) had to "lay down the law" last year and add a bit into the bylaws that states that each family who joins agrees to at least abide by the state minimums as far as days and hours.  Considering we live in what is probably the most homeschool-friendly state in the US (OK - homeschooling is constitutionally protected and there are almost no regs), it's a little scary that we would even have to do something like that.  Who can't manage 180 days of school per year?

Since homeschooling is becoming more "mainstream" and cyber-schools are becoming all the rage, more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon.  Unfortunately, some are taking "the easy way out" and just considering the computer as a surrogate parent and babysitter for their kids.  The majority of us homeschool our kids because we truly want them to have the best; however, yes, there are those out there who "homeschool" because it's just plain more convenient than dealing with the school and discipline.

Sad, but true.