What are the reasons why anyone home schools their children?

Question

I know 1 family in my church who home schools their children,but,I don't know why they do it.

What is its main purpose? If I can get answers from parents who home school their children,good!

Answer 1

Each family is going to have different reasons. Not to mention that the reasons for beginning homeschooling may have other reasons added onto them during years of homeschooling.

The first reason my dh and I decided to homeschool our kids was the social aspect of schools. I was teaching elementary and I didn't like things I saw going on, stuff that didn't go on when I was a kid, at least not at that age. Part of me was also hit by how these kids needed more guidance, but being the 'parent' of 20 kids the same age on a part-time basis didn't give me a whole lot of influence or even the ability to really know everything that was going on. There were other things I saw that had me begin to really question if having single-age/grade classrooms was really the best thing.

My dh, without having me bring it up first, saw what was going on socially at the jr. high he was teaching at. It concerned him, and still concerns him, a lot. He does not want our kids in school during the jr. high years. Social stuff like girls dressing so badly that their hallway at school was called "The Red Light Hallway" for a while; kids showing up at school visibly high or hung over, or at the very least, talking quietly about the details of a party they were going to be attending on the weekend (a party with drugs and alcohol), boys spraying Axe deodorant on their arms and lighting it on fire (one boy thought it'd be fun to do it to a girl and ended up lighting her hair on fire), one boy arranged for this teen from another school (who was also involved in a gang) to come in, get a knife from the kid at the school and go after this other kid in the school. All over an iPod. (Fortunately, the to-be-attacked was with others and nobody got hurt, but there was a lockdown, police came, the whole bit.)

And his school is supposed to be a fairly good one in our city. :-|

After we had initially decided to homeschool for social reasons, we realized what a benefit it would be academically for our kids. Our dd started reading and doing basic math at age 3. Our son, otoh, has always had a strange pattern for achieving milestones (with certain things, lags considerably, then one day, boom, he's all caught up or even ahead of the game) and learning things and having to conform to an outside standard would undoubtedly end up with him not doing that well or getting labelled with something. Both children can have an education tailored to them, allowing them to learn at their pace.

We have also realized other reasons to homeschool, like keeping the family together and close (my kids are great friends; I have yet to meet a public schooled 9yog who reguarly and willingly plays with her 6yo brother and not only isn't embarrassed to do so, but actually enjoys it, yet I see it all the time with homeschooled kids).

(Btw, homeschooled kids' social skills don't need to suffer. If parents go about it reasonably, the kids do great.)

Answer 2

There are a variety of reasons not one reason.

Some secular and religious people are doing it because the education in some school systems is grossly inferior (see the 20/20 piece called "Stupid in Amerca" for more details) and some school systems are simply unsafe, breeding grounds for drugs, alchol and indiscriminate s*x at young ages.  

They way these people view it is they can teach just as inferiorly as the schools and provide better food and a safer environment.

Many other religious people do it for religion training and religious views on subjects such as Science, History and English.  In most instances they simply can't afford Parochial school education or there is none in the area.

Their kids still basically get a well rounded education, including a complete look at Dinosaurs, but it's with a religious conceptual motif.  It's not exactly getting back to education as it was taught in 1900, but, for example, they may put forth the notion that God made the Big Bang happen, then they explain Big Bang as it is believed to have occurred.

A few do it because of isolation.  They may have to bus or cart their kids 25 miles to a school on a daily basis in winter snows and simply find this a lousey idea.  Starting a kid off at 6:30 am to be in school by 8:00 and having the kid home by almost 5 pm after school lets out at 3:30 is often wastful, dull for the kid and cuts into homework time.

Finally, there are some children with learning difficulties who are simply doing bad in school and parents feel they can spend more time and personal attention with them in homeschooling.

Most agree that homeschooling biggest advantage is the ability to choose materials and programs and sometimes cherry pick.  You find a math program that actually gets the kid interested and they learn Geometry and Trig.

There is also the learning at your own pace, which takes into consideration some kids are night people and they wake up at 10 or 11 am don't start work until 1 pm and may continue working or break up the day and finish off at midnight.

Some kids work on school work 365/7.

Statistics show the failure rate of homschoolers is roughtly 1/3 that of public schools and the advancement rate is generally 2-3 grade above public schoolers and 1-2 grades above private schoolers.

Many homeschoolers are college ready by 16.

The fact remains if you look at the root mean square of Public Schools 40-50% are not doing well and failing or almost failing while on 10-25% are high achievers.

In homeschooling about 20-30% fail or near fail and 40-50% are high acheivers.

I was, for example, homeschooled in touch typing at the age of 6-7 and I didn't learn that until Middle School 8th grade and my homeschooling got me an A in the course.

Answer 3

Why don't you go to the family in your church and ask them about it.

As a homeschool parent, I LOVE talking about homeschooling, especially with people that really don't understand it at all.

I've found some people are curious in a negative way, some people are curious in a positive way, and some people are just plain curious. I've even seen a few families take on homeschooling after talking one on one with me or other homeschool families either in their church, neighborhood or even at little leauge games.

This family would probably appreciate you talking to them instead of just assuming you know why they homeschool.

There are as many reasons for homeschooling as there are families.

Some homeschool for medical reasons, some for the lack of a good school in their area, but mainly it boils down to the freedom to choose how to educate your children, a desire  for your children to have the best possilbe education, and the absolute luxury of incorporating a multitude of learning situations and environments in to your child's education.

Homeschool children, especially those that are involved in homeschool groups, on average, take a minimum of one educational field trip a month, compared to publicschool children that get one trip to the zoo or park a year.

Homeschooling affords you the opportunity to stick with a difficult task until your child masters it, instead of receiving a failing grade and moving on.

Homeschool children have many more opportunities to socialize than their publicschool counterparts, because we all know that simply being in a room with people all day is not socializing. I'm sure we've all experienced that "being alone in a room full of people" feeling a time or two in life.

Homeschool kids also have the opportunity to participate in more extracurricular activities, the oppportunity to interact with people of different ages, backgrounds and even people that live in completely different areas than they do, instead of just being in a class of people the exact same age that live in the exact same neighborhood in the exact same type of homes.

Like I said, there are many many reasons people homeschool, so the best thing to do is ask the homeschoolers around you.

You might just find it interestingly appealing.

Answer 4

I realize this data is nearly 10 years old, but according to a 1999 report by the Dept. of Ed.:

Parent-NHES:1999 3. Parents were asked to list their reasons for homeschooling and could provide as many reasons as applied. The reasons parents gave were coded into 16 categories and included better education, religious reasons, and poor school environment. Figure 2 shows 10 reasons cited by at least 5 percent of students' parents. Additional reasons are listed in table 4.

I can't copy "figure 2" or "table 4" to post it here, but if you follow the link below and click on "Parent's Reasons for Homeschooling", you'll get there.

According to Dr. Brian Ray Of NHERI (a pro-homeschool research org.):

    * The most common reasons given for homeschooling are the following:

·         teach a particular set of values, beliefs, and worldview,

·         accomplish more academically than in schools,

·         customize or individualize the curriculum and learning environment for each child,

·         use pedagogical approaches other than those typical in institutional schools,

·         enhance family relationships between children and parents and among siblings,

·         provide guided and reasoned social interactions with youthful peers and adults, and

·         provide a safer environment for children and youth, because of physical violence, drugs and alcohol, psychological abuse, and improper and unhealthy sexuality.

Answer 5

10 Reasons to Homeschool

1.   To ensure that the child(ren) involved are exposed to the right values.

2.   Homeschoolers usually receive a better academic education

3.   Parents can control what their kids are exposed to and when.

4.   Homeschoolers generally have better social skills than their traditionally schooled peers (mostly because parents are there to help with social problems as they arise)

5.   Homeschoolers are less likely to exclude others because of  differences; creating a more productive environment for a socially awkward child to build social skills.

6.   Homeschoolers have closer relationships with their parents and siblings.

7.   Homeschoolers are more polite and less likely to have behavioral problems.

8.   The symptoms of many learning and developmental disabilities (such as Asperger's Syndrome and ADHD) become significantly more mild and in some cases disappear altogether when the kids are switched from a classroom setting to homeschool.

9.   Home schooling works around your family's schedule rather than the family having to work their lives around a schools schedule.

10.   Many Universities (including most of the ivy leagues) actively seek out home school graduates and some have offices for which the sole purpose is to meet the needs of home school graduates.

Answer 6

Control over educational materials & content

Accelerated learning in specific subjects

Individulized attention to subjects requiring additional study

Wider choice in elective subjects

Answer 7

To get them away from bad influence.

Answer 8

Firstly, if you want to know why the family at your church have chosen to homeschool...ask them!

I am homeschooled because we live in a remote area;

and because I have some health problems that mean I can't go to boarding school (the only alternative to homeschooling for families up here);

and because my dad reckons he can't see the point in paying a bunch of strangers $25,000 a year to teach me bad habits when he can do it himself for nothing.

Answer 9

There are as many reasons as there are home school families.

I cannot speak for the family in your church, you will have to ask them yourself.

Being part of a group of home school parents who help new home school families get the needed information, and get them started in the home school community I have heard the following reasons mentioned often;

1. Family, wanting a closer relationship with their children.

2. Parents feel that their basic beliefs, and values are not respected, or supported in most conventional school settings.

3. Parents like to have more control over the content of the curriculum's used to teach their children, especially when it comes to the accuracy of information within the textbooks, (according to belief systems), and the quality of education, or the lack thereof that many of these books may, or may not provide.

4. Labeling of children who may only need a bit more time, or are bored; home schooling gives these children the time to learn at their own pace, this is also one of the main reasons given when parents  are considering removing their children from the school system.

5. Quality of education, early graduation, and having them be better prepared for college.

6. Peer pressure, too many non-academic classes, negative social environment, required classes that do not pertain to the young peoples interests, or choice of career, at least at the high school level.

7. Religious convictions.

8. Low academic scores, and the fact that many young people graduate high school without being able to read, or write at the most basic levels.

And I have no doubt there are many more reasons depending on who you ask.

For us personally it is the only choice until they are ready to advance to the college of their choice, since we believe that the upbringing, and education of ones children is a right given too, and the responsibility of the parents.

We believe children learn best in natural environments that give them the opportunity to learn at their own pace, in a "real world" setting.

Conventional schools, public, private, private Christian, charter, and so on have their place, and parents should have the freedom to choose any form of education that they find to be the best for their children.

Home school families simply do not choose to outsource the education of their children to these institutions.

Answer 10

There are as many reasons for home schooling as there are families that homeschool. For us we were in a public school and my son was literally falling apart everyday. He is autistic and there was no program set up at our school to handle autism. The district refused to allow him to transfer to another school that was equipped. My husband and I decided to home school since I had already been working as his second aide at the school for so long  and I was already comfortable to do this. So for the last three years I've been homeschooling both of my children.

It's not that I feel that the public schools are "bad", for us with the autism this was the best choice. My children participate in a bowling league with other homeschoolers and my daughter is involved in cheerleading just to name a few of their activities.

Answer 11

First of all, ask them why they do!! My reason is because my son has severe medical problems that kept him home often.He could not keep up with his peers.This is our second year and he is doing well and we  love it!!

Answer 12

- academic excellence

- preservation of the joy of and respect for learning

- the declining standards of publics schools

- negative socialization of public schools

- greater range of opportunities (subjects to study,                               apprenticeships, hands on learning, field trips, volunteering in the community, travel, running a business)

flexability

- family closeness

- the building of initiatve through self-directed learning

Answer 13

Because public American education sucks; many parents choose to home school.

Answer 14

There are so many reasons.

For academic excellence.  Not to sound like negative, but American Public Schools are lagging far behind the rest of the developed countries, especially in Math and Science.  We spend more on Education (per student)  than most countries and produce worse results.  Homeschooled students are the only GROUP of American students who come close to matching what is routine in other countries.  (Notice I said group, there are individual students even within the Public School system who do well, but on average homeschoolers do better than Public or Private Schoolers.)

Another problem with the Public School system is that they must teach to a target group, while others suffer.  Some schools teach to the "average" student.  Gifted students become bored and lose interest, resulting in a strange situation of the brightest students getting some of the worst grades.  Learning Disabled students, or students who are smart in different ways than "book smart", suffer and fall further behind as they become more confused each day.  Some schools try to remedy this by aiming teaching to the lowest performing sector.  Well this works okay for those kids, but now even the average kids are bored, and the Gifted kids feel like their brains are withering away from lack of use.  This isn't really the fault of teachers, there isn't much you can do about it when 30 or more kids to teach all at once.  Anything that is aimed at the masses will miss the needs of some.  With homeschooling on the other hand, you can teach each child at his or her level.

Technically I did not start homeschooling for religious reasons at all.  I had decided to homeschool before I was converted to Christianity.  However, my Christian faith does play a part in why I choose to continue year after year.  While I don't have a problem with a secular system that doesn't teach religion, much of what goes on in Public School is actually anti-Christianity.  Instead of just leaving some topics alone for parents to teach, and focusing on Academics, the school system spends a lot of time actively teaching kids to disregard their family's morals.  

I also notice that it seems okay to learn about any religion other than Christianity.  Kids in the schools in my area are not even allowed to say "Merry Christmas" and classes can't have a Christmas Tree.  However on Halloween (which has very Pagan roots even though most people don't celebrate it with that intent) they can run around actively celebrating the Holiday.  They can also wish each other Happy Hanuka and Happy Kwanzaa, just not Merry Christmas.  My sister's kids go to Public School and bring home papers on all sorts of religious beliefs of different cultures, that is fine, but they aren't allowed to mention Jesus without being sent to the office (yes, it happened).   I won't even get into the other anti-Christian things that go on.  

Just be aware the school curriculum is not neutral.  Humanism is actually a religion in itself (read the Humanist Manifesto if you don't think so), and it is Humanism that is taught in the Public School.  To me it makes no more sense to send my kids to a Humanist school than to send them to a Muslim Parochial school.  We are Christians, if we were Humanists maybe there would be no problem with it, just as if we were Muslim the Muslim school would be no problem.  If the schools just taught Reading, Writing, Mathematics, History, Economics, Government, and taught Science in a way that didn't teach theory as if were fact, but instead emphasized that by definition a Theory is unproven, then I think people of any faith would be able to use the schools and the teaching of morals and beliefs would take place at home.  That isn't the case in today's schools.

You know honestly every time someone asks why I homeschool my answer is different.  There are probably about 10,000 reasons.  Some have to do with failures and problems in Public school and some have to do with the Joys my family has found in homeschool itself; like being able to tailor the lesson to the child's learning style, spending more time together as a family, not missing all those "Ah-ha!" moments when a child understands something for the first time. Seeing my children thrive. If I had more time I would tell you many more reasons.  Things that happened to me in school that made me first think about homeschooling.  Examples of how my children benefit from homeschooling.  But today is first day back on full academic schedule after the Summer, and have to go and get busy with the actual business of homeschooling.

If you wonder why the family at your church homeschools, you should ask them.  If you approach them politely and let them know you are genuinely interested in their reasons, and if you ask them at a time when they can sit down and talk.  I am sure they will be happy to tell you.  Their reasons may be very different than mine.  Every family homeschools for different reasons.

Answer 15

I've know many home schooled children over the years and most of them have terrible social skills.

As to why parents do it? Well, many have heard stories about bullying and overcrowding.  Some think that they can give their children a better education themselves.

Answer 16

We began homeschooling after a year and a half of public schooling. I would say the number one reason we tried homeschooling was that we felt led to do so. The underlying reasons were more about the fact that our son was not enjoying school. He had entered school very happy and outgoing, and he was becoming unhappy and withdrawn. He was bored and wasn't learning anything new by first grade. Thirty-five hours a week seemed like an enormous amount of time for my six year old child to be sitting up at school not learning. The social pressures were pretty intense for him at that age with one very influential little friend already encouraging him to disobey me and then lie about it. There just seemed to be no value in his school experience. I had always thought that kids went to school mainly for academic reasons, and our son was getting nothing academic out of his thirty-five hour school week. He's always been around other kids a lot, so social development was really not an issue. Contrary to popular belief, you can be well-socialized without being surrounded by 20 other people your exact same age for seven hours a day. As a matter of fact, you will most likely never be in a setting like that again once your 12 years of schooling is over. College is nothing like public school, and the workplace is even less so.

Anyway, once we started homeschooling, we realized what a great fit it was for our family. If my kids learn something, we can move on and learn something else instead of going over it until the whole class has reached a mastery level. I can pick curricula that is best suited to each of my children which makes teaching and learning more effective and fun. We can vacation when everyone else is in school and avoid the crowds. My kids have so much more free time than they would if they were attending school and then coming home with homework, because we can accomplish more in less time. One of my kids is a competitive gymnast which requires her to be in the gym lots of hours per week. Because we homeschool, we're still able to spend most of our days together -- even on gym days. If she were in school, she'd get out at three, have to be at gym from four to eight, get home about 8:30, and somehow fit in dinner, homework, and a shower before bed, then get up early the next morning and do it all again. Lots of kids do it that way, but we wouldn't give her up all day three to five days per week.

Anyway, we're so thankful that we ventured down this road. We'll never have this time with our kids again, and we're enjoying every last minute of it!

Answer 17

There are a myriad of reasons people homeschool.

We do because it is the right fit for our family. My daughter is advanced and does not fit into the cookie cutter school setting or any of the 'gifted' programs.

I love the one on one time with my kids. Being with them is the biggest joy in my life.

Answer 18

Fifteen years ago, I went to a church where the majority of families home schooled.  I did not understand it.  My son started to school in public school and I felt that I was 'looked down' on at church because I did not home school.   Seven years ago, I realized that my son was not getting an education in the public school.  I also realized that the 'looking down' from home schoolers was nothing more than my imagination and a little jealousy on my part.   I seriously started studying home school and joined several online support groups.

I was a supporter of home school 5 years before we actually started home school.  My husband was relunctant and it took him 5 years to 'get it'.   He saw the disrespect and behavior of middle school and high school students when he took a job driving public school bus.   It was a shock and wake up call for him.  

My reason is academic.  My son was not learning and the teachers gave up on him.  They said he was performing at his potential.  Two years of schooling at home have proved them wrong.

Our present church has more public school students than home school students.  I don't 'look down' on them but watch their struggles in public school and wonder why they don't do it the best way.  (smile)

So, the answer is: Varied reasons.

Home schooling is easier today than it would have been 10 years ago.  There are more groups for activities and technology has made it easier to find free and cheap resources.  

Internet has made it easier to learn more about any subject.