Homeschoolers Lazy?!?!?

Question

I am home-schooled. I am supposed to be in 8th grade but I skipped and am in 9th. I am also taking classes at the local community college.

My problem is, all my friends think I am lazy. They think I sleep in till 9 (which is true, but I have insomnia and go to sleep at 1 AM), lay around in my pjs and watch lifetime. How do I get rid of this annoying stereotype?

Everyone is always saying I wish I were home-schooled because I hate getting up so early. Or the famous I wish I were home-schooled because school is so hard or I have so much homework. Most people don't get I am all by myself.

Answer 1

Who cares what they think, If they were your real friends they wouldn't judge you though.

How to get rid of annoying stereotype:

Laugh(for real) : ()

Try not to limit who you let be your friends, like adults or kids. If you took a look you might see something you weren't expecting.

(lol I go to sleep at 4am and wake at 11am)

Answer 2

Yeah a lot of people think that homeschoolers are lazy, but if they were to spend one day in our shoes they would change their minds. Although there are some people out there that are homeschoolers and aren't very serious about school. I personally get up at 6:00am every morning and start school around 8;00am. I take a break around 12:00pm to eat and do chores. Then I get back to school at 1:00pm and I don't normally end school until around 4:00pm or 6:00pm, sometimes I do school work until 8:00pm or 10:00pm!! On average homeschool text books and curriculum are a lot harder and deeper than public school's even if it says it's the same grade.

Answer 3

They are really all jealous of you. They are jealous of you for things that aren't true though. No, you're probably not lazy, especially if you're taking classes at the community college.

What you have that they don't have and they wish they had is FREEDOM. You are not under the thumb of an over-bearing school. School is like a prison. I mean, you have to have a pass just to go down the hall to the bathroom. Think about that! They EVNY your freedom. Yes, you are free to sleep in in the morning. When I was in college, I never took a class before noon, because it did my best studying at night and would stay up till atleast midnight or 1, every night, if not later. Did that make me lazy? Nah. Not having to go to school until noon was awesome, but it meant I was there until 9pm 2 days per week.

Anyway, you're fortunate to homeschool and to not have to deal with the c**p they have to deal with in their fish-bowl school.

Answer 4

This is a true case of "the grass is greener" syndrome.

People always think that someone else has it better, bigger or faster then they do.  

Why do you want your friends to think that you are having a hard time?  You would be all by yourself doing homework afterschool anyway, so it's not really that different.  You said "all my friends", so you have a bunch of friends, it's not like you are socially deprived!  

Sounds like your friends are complaining about school and you want to be a part of it, something in common to talk about.  Don't feel left out, just relate to them about your college classes.  

You might also ask if they would like to come over and do their homework at your house.  That way they can see that you have similiar presures and concerns.

Answer 5

I was homeschooled too and I agree it was hard. Even when I was in school, I often homeschooled on the side. I found home schooling to be interesting because of the creativity but it surely was a lot of work especially when I did it on a FT basis and I taught myself in 8th grade. That was very difficult. I sympathize with you. I look back at that 10 years ago and I am very happy I did it since it was an extremely rewarding time in my life. Don't get me wrong; it was also the hardest time in my life as well. It still transformed me into the person that I am in today and that I am extremely grateful.

I was also a morning person; my productivity was 30% higher if I started by 7am than if I started at 8am. I will need the same tenacity studying for some professional exams that I have to take in 1-2 years. It's very difficult.

You are learning a great lesson; there's no point to trying to keep up with the Joanses. It only will bring out failure in you. I mean people will spend money for any little item just so they can appear wealthier. Their neighbor may very well not be doing well, but instead getting into all these reams of credit card debt. So, instead of ruining your financial future, you may take a step back and say, well maybe I need a more modest neighborhood to live in. Maybe I need to live in a more diverse community where family values are important. It might be a 1950s town or a small city, but living modestly is a real way to wealth generation. I think your homeschooling experience and what you must deal with is a great lesson in life that you will always need to face. But what truly dictates success is not what your appearance is; it is instead what you allow success to mean. I mean you can have one heck of a bank account by investing money properly and being frugal even on a tiny salary (i.e. $45,000 MFJ saving 20% of income). To do so would require living on $30,000; it is a feat that not many people can accomplish. The reason why it's $9K and not $15K is because of taxes. Living on 2/3 of income will generate so much wealth in retirement, that you won't know what to do with the excess. It means that instead of toning down your lifestyle, you may be able to increase it (and that means drawing on 2.5% to 4% of your assets each year).

Why do I mention wealth in homeschooling? Well, what you deal with in the stigma of laziness is what you may deal with in looking like a modest family that lives paycheck to paycheck when in fact you are saving $9K per year and investing it in a great quality slew of index funds (domestic, international, and emerging market besides large and small cap stocks) returning an average of 6-10% per year with a long-term investment horizon (30-45 years). Read books on value investing and learn about irrationally exuberant markets and you should do extremely well in your life.

Take care.

Answer 6

My sons have all been homeschooled. The older two are full time college students, who started part time while in high school. The youngest is now a high school sophomore and is also homeschooled; he will start classes part time at the college in the fall.

He does get some of the comments you get about being lazy. He never gets up before 9:30am, unless we have somewhere to be. He does his school work between 10:30am and 2:30pm - four hours after his friends get on the school bus in the morning and nearly two hours before they get home in the afternoon!

When kids tell him he is lazy, he will ask them why. When they respond that it is because he sleeps so late, he just shrugs and says that homeschooling gives him more time, freedom and flexibility. He and his brothers usually go to bed between 12am and 1am every night and then sleep for about 8 hours. That is NOT lazy, it's just a different schedule.

On being by yourself - do you know other homeschoolers? Maybe there are some other homeschooled kids in your area that you could meet  with so you are not by yourself so much.

Answer 7

why so alone? almost every community has some kind of home school support group with regular meetings where you can get together with others like yourself and compare and share ideas, organize trips and camps, etc.. these same bozos will still be complaining when you pull up to their drive through window later in life. pay them no mind.

Answer 8

Many stereotypes persist even when there is a plethora of evidence to show how ridiculous they are. You just ignore the ignorant and the jealous. Keep living an active life and hitting the books as hard as you can. I do have to ask why you are by yourself? Where are your folks?

Answer 9

Im home schooled also and my friend always makes remarks about waking up all this c**p.

But what she doesn't understand is how much pressure and work you have since your in home school.

people say hey theirs no reason you shouldn't be completing your work...But i get tons i just started i have at least 3 or two weeks work i have to do in 6 days.

IM lonely as h**l to.

Lmao i usually just read and try to get out as much as i can.

Also one of my friends mom mentioned "Homeschooling is an easy way out" i swear i wanted to slap her...i do not believe for one second that its the easy way out....and even if it was why wouldn't you take the easier way...WHAT MANY PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND IS not all of us go to homeschooling just for the heck of it some of us need it some of us do hella better in it. your friends just don't understandd.

i also sleep around till 11 am i go to sleep around 6-8 am.

it desnt matter though you should be happy with your choice.

Answer 10

My husband used to work weird shifts at an industrial bakery.  Everyone thought he slept all the time.   He didn't.    He worked 12 hour shifts for 5 days a week.  

So, how did we answer people who made statements like "He sleeps all the time!"?   We gave the explanation once or twice then just started saying "Yea, he does".   People don't listen.

If you notice that here on Y!A, no matter how many times we present the facts about homeschooling, people still believe that we are a bunch of lazy, unsocial, hyper-religious fruit-cakes.

Don't worry about it.  Keep on learning.

Answer 11

I can relate to this situation because I homeschool.  All my friends think I'm totally lucky: that I can sleep in, stay in my pajamas, and take off lots of days of school.  

You're obviously quite intelligent to have skipped a grade, so you probably spend a lot of time on your studying. That's definitely not lazy! =)

Homeschoolers are just like kids in regular school.. we have the same amount of schoolwork, but we plan the school and do the school on a different scedule.

If your friends think you're lazy, they should try homeschooling. xD It's not as easy as it seems.

Best of luck! (:

Answer 12

you cant get rid of stereotypes.  Just know that you are a hard worker, and your friends are a little jealous.

Answer 13

Embrace the fact that while they are getting up before their brains are fully functioning you get to keep on sleeping until you are ready to wake up and do your schoolwork when you can actually think.

Some of the people who go to school have insomnia too, mind you.

I'm homeschooled btw, and I find doing schoolwork in my pjs sans makeup in bed to be quite relaxing. It's not being lazy.

If you feel like you are all by yourself then join homeschooling groups. Art groups. A band. A circus. Whatever. Get out, have fun, come home, do school work, then have a late night date with a movie and your insomnia. There can even be pop corn if you plan ahead.

Cheers. Goodluck. And (as a small kick *** statement) if homeschoolers actually DID sit around all day watching lifetime in their PJs and still manage to learn to read, write, and everything else needed to get awesome grades and into good colleges then I guess they must be awfully smart right?

Answer 14

They're just jealous.  Don't even worry about it.

Answer 15

Remember this little fact about public school. They HAVE to be there by 7:30 because school is starting. That means they HAVE to be up by 6:00 to get on the bus for 7:00. If they aren't a girl that has to make sure every hair is in place and make up is perfect.

Also remember that even with your community college classes you are probably spending less time on your education (and actually getting one) than your friends that are getting a glimpse of an education in 8 hours. If they think your lazy they just don't know what a home schoolers day is truly like. They see you getting up at 9 and being done with school long before they were lucky enough to finish the day.

They think it's easy and you don't have to do any thing but home school can be harder than public school simply because of the motivation it takes to get your self through the day.

Don't worry so much about what you friends think! worry more about those college courses and make a great life for yourself! Good Luck!

Answer 16

Don't be concerned about what they say or think. Pay no attention about this nonsense about what time you wake up or go to sleep, it is what you do with your time is the most important. Why aren't they considered lazy cause they go to sleep so early while you stay up to 1 AM? See, it is all a matter of how you look at this.

Answer 17

That bugged me for a while. Here's what I realized:

If your friends are so insecure that they have to put down what you do, that's their problem, not yours.

If they're so insecure that they need to artificially put themselves on higher ground, that's not your problem.

If you feel like you have to prove yourself to these people, they're not your friends.

If you want to point out that you're doing something, bring around one of your college textbooks and some homework. Find a way to subtly work it in.

What I've noticed from my friends in school is that their homework usually isn't especially difficult. It's time-consuming, and there's a lot of it, but the assignments themselves aren't very hard.

I may only spend 40 minutes a day on history, but I'm listening to college lectures. I don't usually write essays or anything, but I do talk about what I've learned and work it in to everything else.

In contrast, my friends in school will probably spend closer to 90-100 minutes on history. But, what are they doing? They had a class that probably kept reinforcing two main concepts, then they have to go home and do a lot of condescendingly written homework. While they are spending more time on their work, they aren't learning as much.

It's not a flaw with them, it's a flaw with the system. I'm not any smarter or better than my friends in school -a few of them are considerably smarter than me- but my system is much more efficient.

Answer 18

You have no real control over what other people believe. You can try to inform them, but beyond that, it's really up to them to be open enough to see something other than what they believe.

Some ideas to inform them better: keep track of what you do for a day--or a week. What subject you worked on, where you went, when you read, when you got dressed, when you did things with other people (could even be colour-coded--when you're by yourself is one colour, everything else a different colour), everything. Including TV watching. ;) I'd even write down how much got accomplished that day--how many pages were read, for example. You could invite them to do the same to compare, or you could just show them.

Or have them spend a day with you sometime--the catch is they have to work whenever you are working. They'd essentially not be there. They can't talk to you or anything because then it wouldn't be like a normal day.

You might also say to them something along the lines of, "You know, I really don't feel very respected hearing that you think I'm lazy and that I'm wasting my time away when I'm not. I expect my friends to believe me, not treat me as though I'm a lazy liar. How would you feel if I thought something about you that wasn't true and I wouldn't listen to you?" These are supposed to be your friends, after all. You might also try finding some new ones.

Answer 19

I know, lots of my friends at church are home-schooled and get so lonely.  I feel bad for them, and some of them get kind of clingy.  Just remind your friends that you are taking advanced classes.  If they were good friends to keep, they would realize how smart and not-lazy you are.  Also, when you take your PSAT you can brag about your scores.

Answer 20

Jealousy.

Let them be like that

you should show them how much work you have

Answer 21

They are just jealous. They wish they could sleep in and have the freedom to sit around in their pjs while doing their schoolwork. Instead they have to get up early and go to school in "real" clothes and do whatever a teacher says for them to do. You have the freedom to do what you want when you want and not have a teacher sitting with you all day saying ok it's time for everyone to be quiet so we can learn.

Answer 22

Well ther wrong and you just have to accept that. My neighbors think the same thing about me. My mom makes me make up and work later if  I sleep in. Usaully I don't. Usaully I start at the high school time and end at the middle school time. When I do my school work I in my pajamas but it helps me relax and focus. I wish I could go back to school sometimes because it's easier there. Homeschooling you actually learn thing and regular schools all they do is study for the fcat. Just ignore what they say because they are wrong.