Has anyone ever switched from public schools to homeschooling??

Question

If so, what are the pros and cons?? I am afraid of missing out on dances, field day, and pep rallies, etc.... Help!

Answer 1

Yes, I began home schooling my daughter just last year, for 8th grade.  She had a very hard time in public school in the 6th and 7th grades socially.  Social limits are one of the most scrutinized aspects of homeschooling, but for us the social aspect of public school was worse.  There are better ways to arrange for a child to socialize if they are having a hard time with it in public school.

She does get lonely at times, and does get "cabin fever" from being home so much, but we also take more field trips and get her involved in things in other ways.  You just have to find other ways to be with your friends and can arrange your own field day, dances, or whatever you can get your parents to agree to.

Answer 2

Hi, My son started homeschool in 10th grade and he loves it.

he still sees his friends after school, and he still goes to the

school dances. The only thing that he is not happy about

he can't play sports in Wisconsin when your homeschooled.

Answer 3

We did but my daughter was in 2nd grade at the time. Not much chance for all the social events of high school at that level.

Answer 4

I am home schooled and i like it much better than regular school. I didn't miss the field days, etc. I home school off of k12.com, U should check it out!

Answer 5

My son (now a 9th grader) went from private to public to homeschooling.

For us there are no negatives (cons) - it has worked out great.

My son has more to do now than he ever had via public school. We have 2 dances per year, community service opportunities, go on field trips frequently (and we decide where to go, what to do, how long to take), belongs to clubs, etc.

Pep rallies: we don't have any of those but could if we wanted to badly enough.

Answer 6

We did this with my daughter but she's much younger than you - only 8. Even so, she was worried about missing out on some of the exciting school stuff.

Well, yes, there is stuff she's missed, but it's been replaced with tons of other exciting stuff. We ask every term (semester for USA people?) whether she wants to go back and she always says no. She's made lots of friends (more than she had in school)and they do lots of cool stuff like ice skating together -stuff she wouldn't get to do so much in school. Also, all the popular places to go are much quieter for them and they get more out of it.

I think there will definitely be stuff you miss, but if you get to know other home schoolers - there are plenty - you may find the things you gain are better. Only you can really know that -and maybe only by trying it. Could you go back into school if it didn't work out?

Good luck, whatever you choose.

Answer 7

We switched. My 9 yr dd was in public from K-2nd. She had learning problems the whole time and I fought with them all that time for them to help her with special ed.

THey violated their own laws, state laws, federal laws, was very intimidating and hostile to me.

I finally got fed up with them and when I took her out her teacher said 'I'm so sorry, the administrators just wouldn't let me help your child'.

So now she is doing great!  She can learn the way that's the best for her. She can take her time and actually LEARN instead of the school just passing her on thru with grades of  25-30 on EVERYTHING and passing her anyway.

With the NCLB law, public schools are bad for EVERYONE. Kids do not LEARN anymore. TEachers do not TEACH anymore.

THe gov't tells the teachers what to feed into the kids like robots so they can memorize this stuff, which is the answers to the state tests so they can get good scores.

The bottom line --  the better the score, the more money the school gets.

Schools could care less if kids learn anything or not, just as long as they get that money.

As for missing things, hyou don't. Search for local homeschool groups in your area and look on their website. Homeschoolers do WAY MORE than public schoolers.

Here's the website for my group, to give you an idea-

http://www.sachweb.org/

Keep scrolling down the page, there's about 75 to 100 activities and other things.

HOmeschoolers have dances, trips, science fairs, graduation, prom, and on and on.

AND, you don't have to worry about drugs, bullying, killing.

Answer 8

Yessum. i left public school my 9th grade year  did this online school so i could still talk to other people there. we had daily chats and stuff. it was fun until people stopped doing their work. so they got rid of that , and the email, and you couldnt talk to anyone. and the teachers stop grading the work and i could never finish so i was going to go Back to public school but the principal told me to finish everything.s o i worked day and night for about 6 months and finished up everything. but then when i went to go back to school... Homeschool credits dont count. so i had to start all over again back at public school. so honestly its just better to stay at public school and graduate on time and dont s***w up like i did homeschooling . but its your choice. good luck!

oh yeah . you'll miss doing all the fun stuff as you listed above.My online school planned a dance one time but we never got to do it. I just ended up getting bored and lazy and fat . doing homeschooling . heh

Answer 9

yes i am 13 and I'm in year nine. I left my public school after six months because of bullying and now i have home education.

Answer 10

I did in 7th grade and the cons were not seeing my friends all the time but the pros were well just having more time

Answer 11

Here are some of the pros and cons:

http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/...

I really think homeschooling will be what you make of it.  You will miss out on public school dances, pep rallies, etc., but you can have other equally enjoyable experiences if you make an effort to do so.  If you are a friendly, outgoing person, you should have no problem finding fun and interesting activities.

Answer 12

Yup...it is possible. My friend homeschooled for a little while but then her parents put her back in school.

I've been homeschooled and I think it really has to do with the kind of person you are. But I'll tell you right now, if ALL your extracurriculars, dances, etc. are in your school and you stop doing those. You can become very very lonely. I'm kind of a social person...so I couldn't stand being homeschooled because it really hard to find things to do for fun after school when you are homeschooled.

Pros:

-You sometimes get to sleep in a little longer

-You have more time to study

-It gives you more freedom in a lot of areas

-You usually have more time to do the things you like

-Much less stressful(depending on how hard you push yourself)

Cons:

-It might be harder for some people to focus

-Harder to see your friends and find social things to do(for some people)

-If you're in high school, you and/or your parent is having to teach/learn many subjects. If your parent who is teaching or if you are teaching yourself, it's a good idea to find a friend or tutor to help you in subjects that are hardest for you.

Really it depends on you...if you really want to get ahead in your schoolwork or just keep up and you feel like school is like a jail for you...maybe homescooling is better.

But if you feel like your home is a jail, maybe you should stay in school.

If you really want to know the right way to go...you should probably try both out and decide yourself. ;)

Answer 13

I did it, my school still allows me to go to dances and basketball games and field trips and all the fun stuff! my school is amazing and very caring though. not all schools will be this generous but here are some pros and cons

Pros:

1) I'm at home =]

2)helps my problem (i have anxiety and depression and being at home doesn't have me as nervous)

3)i can still do school related things

4)more quiet time and you can do homework on your own time. in your own place.

5)you don't only have 50minute classes so you can work on one thing longer than the other.

Cons:

1)not being with friends as much (you still have after school)

2)feeling a little different from others.

3)maybe be asked about whats going on in your life more often.

Answer 14

Well, if you leave school, you won't have the school's social events.

But, you will have others. I've been homeschooled since third grade.

My track team was part of New York Road Runners, so we went to a major event -I didn't really care actually, but it was filled with thousands of kids from schools all around the city- and got plenty of attention from our homeschooled crowd. My homeschooling group organizes a prom every year. I'm not that interested, but I could go if I wanted to. I'm in an extremely active theater group. Rehearsals, performances, hanging out afterwards...it's awesome.

When you're homeschooled, you have to go out and meet people. People who have been in school aren't used to that -you have to go to school, and there are a lot of people there- so often newbies end up feeling lonely. If you get off your couch and join some classes, you'll make some friends. Friends lead to hanging out.