Why do some parents insist they children get home schooled instead of attending a regular school?

Question

Until what grade can a child be home schooled? What is a typical day like in the life of a student that's being home schooled? Is their parent their primary teacher? Also, what are the pros and cons of home schooling?

Answer 1

We can also ask, "why do some parents insist it is the school systems job to educate their children, and make their children attend a conventional school"?

Answer; personal choice.

A parent has the right to choose how their children are to be educated, and where.

This can be in a conventional school, charter, virtual, or home school.

We home school our children until they are ready to go to college, so I guess you could say from K through 12, but ours are often done one to two years earlier, and start attending community colleges while going to work.

Yes, the parent is their primary teacher/instructor who's role changes to being simply a  guide when the children reach the level of being independent students; for ours that is around high school age.

A typical day? That is hard to describe.

I would assume it is not much different from most other families.

A daily routine, chores, studies, and activities.

One on one studies take about an hour each day per child, then they complete their work together, or on their own.

We learn through out the day, just not in a traditional/conventional way; we unschool in all subjects with exception of math, and language arts.

If we have lots of things to do, or just feel like going swimming in the afternoon, we can move our "schooling" to the evening hours.

We read a lot, the children are involved in Civil Air Patrol, sports, 4H although not every year, speech, and debate, Church, youth group, and several other things.

We see no cons for our family; the pros are a close family relationship, receiving an individualized education, studying at their own pace, work when they choose too, graduating early, and being able to pursue their interests, as well as having their studies focused on these.

Answer 2

My son went to public school until the first part of the 8th grade.  He learned very little while in class.  The teachers said he did well in small groups or when they tutored him.  

We decided home school made more sense than paying Sylvan to tutor him after school.   It is the same principle.  The same things that make Sylvan work are the things that make home school work.

We will home school through the 12th grade, and possibly take dual enrollment classes at the local community college.  The local community colleges actively recruit home schoolers for their programs.  

Our typical day is 2 hours of 'teaching' by me, online video, or library dvd/video. (There are many free resources online and at library.)

Then I leave 2-3 hours of book work and reading while I work at the local public high school.

Home school works for us.   He has many friends both from public school, private school and home school.  Approximately 5 hours of work are more efficiently used than if he were put on bus at 7:00 AM and returning home at 3:00 PM with backpack full of books and hours of homework.

Answer 3

Well I can say that if ever I had a child they would be home schooled as the schools have become a dangerous place sad to say.My God its to the extremes that they are making bullet proof pack sacks and now bullet proof clothes is this any way for a child to live?

And yes it can happen out of school and I am sure down the road we all will be wearing the combat.

Something has to change with all Governments SOON.

Answer 4

I didn't insist that my kids be homeschooled. I chose to homeschool my kids.  There is a difference.  Insist means you expect someone to do the work for you.  Choosing means you are ready to take on the responsibilities of doing it yourself.  The typical day is whatever works for the kid. My kids sat around bored all day at school running as helpers for their teachers then came home with all the work from the day piled on their back.  The school system was denying them the right to be kids because they had so much work to do. My kids get to work at their own pace. They get to choose what they want to do when they want to do it.  My only con is lack of support for the parent.  I haven't found a group in the area to join, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Answer 5

because I "insist" that he get a quality education.

because I "insist" that his love of, and respect for, learning be preserved.

because I "insist" that he be functionally literate, unlike what appears to be a majority of the recent products of public education.

because I "insist" that the solution for a restless boy is a break outside to run around, not to be medicated into a zombie state and stuffed into a desk all day.

because I "insist" in a wide range of real-world socialization, not an artificial environment.

because I "insist" that my kids work at their own pace, rather than being bored by mindless busywork while waiting for others to catch up, or being pushed forward to be kept up with a group before they've had the opportunity to master the task or concept at hand.

If my answers sound snippy, please note that they were worded in accordance with the question.

Answer 6

Public schools may have been perceived as not able to teach kids well enough.

Private schools, although perceived as doing better, are too expensive.

Some parents may be too bigoted to enroll their kids in church-run schools run by a church that is not of their faith.

Some parents may have jobs that require constant mobility throughout the year such as entertainers.

Answer 7

Children can be homeschooled from preschool through high school.

There are as many ways to homeschool as there are homeschool families, but usually the parent is the primary teacher.

The only con I can think of with homeschooling is that it takes a lot of time and energy on the part of the parent and usually means that the family must live on one income.

Socialization is not a problem with homeschooling unless the parents let it be, there are tons of opportunities out there for homeschooled kids to get together with other kids.  

Here are the reasons I homeschool:

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 8

There are too many ways to get an education outside the school system to make a pros and cons list.

Kids can be homeschooled for as long as they can be registered as students.

There's no way to say what a typical day is. It varies completely among my friends. I have some Mormon fundamentalist friends who wake up at 5:00 to get to a 6 AM religion class. Their bedtime, for all of them -9 to 16- is 8:30. Their mom and dad give lessons, assign them homework, and then they go on out and do stuff like theater groups and general hanging out.

I go to bed at around 11:30, wake up at around 7:30. I have some online classes I do about an hour of homework for, then I do some Rosetta Stone (German) which takes about 20 minutes. Piano practice is just something I do for fun every day. Everything is completely my choosing, my parents have imposed nothing on me. I have a math class once a week with 4 other kids in it, but I usually get all my math homework done right after the class. I'm just a nerd like that. I read all the time.

For the rest of the day I can do whatever I want. My family is not religious.

Then I know some other kids who use this weird French curriculum and are homeschooled because they travel all the time. Recently, they went to Egypt for a month.

The only con to homeschooling that I think is universal, is constantly explaining and defending and dealing with people who will give you c**p for a simple, really irrelevant choice.

Answer 9

There been a lot of child like that and thats so lucky because they can be more responsible someday.

Answer 10

"Why do some parents insist they children get home schooled instead of attending a regular school?"

I "insist" that my children do not attend a "regular" school because, with all due respect, I would like them to be able to ask a gramatically correct question when the need presents itself.

Answer 11

My husband and his two siblings were home schooled.  He went through 5th grade before that happened.  His siblings were homeschooled from the beginning.  The other two cannot seem to function on a social level what-so-ever.  They were only put into a social arrangement that their mother thought was acceptable.  Well if life were like that than the world would have peace.  If you are going to home school then you better be prepared to introduce your children to all walks of like so it isn't a big surprise once they get there.

Answer 12

There are tons of websites about this that can answer all of your questions.  

Generally, parents choose this for their children for two primary reasons that I've seen: religious and quality of education.  I won't address the religious side because I don't know much about what they are up to, but on the quality side, some parents think they can do it better than the school system.  They have every right to do this and it takes several forms, depending on what you want to do: you can do it yourself, get together with other parents and do a co-op, or have a small private school environment for the kids with a real teacher.

Typically, there is some book learning, but many home schoolers do lots more interesting stuff that you don't do in regular school, like more field trips and hands on learning.  I don't believe book learning is stressed as much, but that could just depend on who is doing it and what their philosophy is.

It has its advantages - you always hear on TV how home schoolers are smarter.  This is probably due in large part to the individual attention they get instead of being 1 kid among 20 others.  So they get a lesson that is specific to them and they are challenged more, which means its more suitable for advanced kids, in general.

But down sides include lack of socializing with other kids, unless you have other avenues for that.  And it is a huge investment by the parent...its like a job you do every day and you need to keep a schedule.

Overall, I say a good mix of regular school, along with lots of parental attention at home is right for child development.

Answer 13

I can't speak for anyone else, but I choose to homeschool my child because the schools *near me* aren't able to meet his needs, academically or physically.  It is my responsibility, as his mother, to make sure that he receives the education he deserves - whether it be at school or at home.  Our local schools aren't able to deliver, I am...simple as that.

Kids can be homeschooled from birth through high school; there really is no "typical" day, as homeschooling tailors the curriculum to the child's needs.  Kids are not cookie-cutter little robots, they're kids...they're people.  Just like there is no typical day for adults (we all have different schedules and interests), there is no typical day for homeschool kids.

My son's typical day, if there is such a beast, looks like:

Get up, get showered/dressed/brushed, etc, eat, do chores.

Start independent work - this consists of math, language arts, spelling, AWANA/scripture memorization, Greek, Spanish, and geography.  I am available if he has any questions, but he's pretty independent on these.  This goes for about an hour.

20 minute break, activity depends on the weather.

Continue independent work, above - this goes for about 45 minutes - an hour.

Read from a classic or work on a unit study that has caught his interest or a Scout badge - 45 minutes or so.

Lunch - he makes his, I make mine, we discuss a topic of interest.

Walk the dog, go jogging.

History - this will include reading, discussion, documentaries, mapwork, notebooking, lapbooking, timeline studies, and/or making projects.  This generally goes about an hour.

Science - this includes reading, notebooking, lapbooking, experiments with lab sheets, and/or projects.  This generally goes about an hour.

Writing - depending on what day it is, this will include researching a topic and picking sources, outlining, giving a speech based on the outline, writing the first/second/third draft, editing, formatting the final draft, and/or presenting it to Dad.  This takes about 30-40 minutes per day.

Reading - he mixes in 30-60 minutes of free reading per day.  He's currently working through the Redwall series by Brian Jacques.

I am his primary teacher, but he also has other teachers; he's in Spanish class right now at co op (I came home to grab something real quick), his Spanish teacher is a native speaker and college Spanish professor.  He just got out of writing class, his teacher is a former middle and high school English teacher.  I studied to be a linguist and translator, and I am a language teacher, so I handle that.  And the list goes on.

Pros...too many to list.

Cons...it is time consuming (but worth it).  Other than that, I really haven't found any.

Hope that helps!

Answer 14

There are many reasons why parents prefer home education to 'regular school'. My siblings and I are homeschooled in part because we live in a remote area and there are no 'regular schools' where we live...and in part because of my parents' own philosophy.

My parents would pretty much agree with the following list of problems associated with going to a regular school:

*The school organisation artificially breaks up the day into learning time and play time; starting and stopping learning (or shifting topics) according to an externally-imposed schedule.

*Schools telling students what they should care about.

*Schools telling students when they should care about it.

*Schools telling students what is good enough.

*The complex hierarchy which exists in schools with the student at the bottom.

*The de-humanizing aspects of many schools including:

Kids having to ask permission for basic human needs.

Kids having to supply "acceptable" excuses for absence or lateness.

Schools' routine abridgment of students' human rights.

Schools expecting kids to stand in lines waiting for everything: food, water, attention of the teacher, time on the computer etc.

Their use of group rewards and punishments.

Their neglect of individual gifts and problems.

Moving at the sound of a bell (?Pavlov's dogs).

Students coming to view themselves as products, moving down a 12-year assembly line, with bits of knowledge poured in or bolted on by others as the belt moves along.

Students seeing the primary responsibility for their education as being in the hands of others.

*Isolation from the Real World:

Segregation by chronological age.

Separation from family.

Isolation from the working world.

Isolation from the effects of age and disease.

Subject matter is divorced from context.

*Schedule Rigidity:

Having to be in school at certain times means you can't see the World Cup or a solar eclipse if it happens during the school day, and you can't see the late show or a lunar eclipse if you have to get up in the morning.

Having to be in school limits your ability to travel.

Having to be in school limits your ability to do any time-consuming worthwhile activity.

Legally a child can be home schooled right the way through from Kindie to the end of year 13.

Personally, I come from a family of unschoolers so no two days are alike in our house; no, our parents don't teach us - Real Life is our teacher; there are numerous research papers that discuss the pros and cons of homeschooling if you're interested in them. For me, homeschooling is the only option and the only one that can adequately prepare me for my future and the roles that will be expected of me round here once I become an adult.

Answer 15

Why must some parents insist the only educational option is that of the public school?

In the state you can homeschool for all the years a child is to attend school. The parent is generally the primary teacher, however in some states you can hire a teacher or have someone else do it for free.

The typical day is as different as families are. It all really depends on how each family wants to run their homeschool. In some states there are certain laws that you have to abide by which might dictate your day a little more.

Answer 16

Why do some parents insist on sending their children to a 'regular' school instead of homeschooling?

My husband and I chose homeschooling for our kids due to our experiences as teachers in public schools. We don't like the social development we see and are certain the environment we can provide for them is much healthier and reasonable; we know that being able to reach each student at their level is the best sort of education and that it can't always be done in a classroom; we like the family aspect of the kids being together and me being their primary caregiver during the day; we like that our kids still get to be kids and aren't spending their days in a cement building filled with fluroescent lights sitting at a desk most of the day to come home, have supper, do homework and go off to bed.

Children can be homeschooled for all grades.

There's no such thing as a typical day for homeschooled students as each family is different and even within one family, there isn't necessarily a typical day.

For most homeschooling families, one of the parents is usually the primary teacher.

Potential pros of homeschooling (homeschooling's success is always dependent upon how a parent goes about it):

*Better social environment, enable better attitudes, thinking, values, interaction with different ages, maturity. This is attained through being in a more natural social setting--within a family and the community. (Being isolated with 20-30 kids the same age as you is not natural by any stretch of the imagination.)

*Better academics since the child can go his pace and get the individual attention that can provide a superior education.

*Better sense of family. I hear from many families who have pulled their kids out of school how homeschooling has allowed the siblings to be closer and get along better. I have also heard from other people how amazed they are at how well my two kids (9yog and 6yob) get along.

*Kids have more time just to be kids or to follow interests since they are stuck in school all day. This means that a child who is a talented artist can get all his school work done and then have lots of time to draw; a child who loves writing stories can spend hours writing stories; etc.

*Many more.

CONS:

*Primary con is those who don't know anything about homeschooling and having to deal with their ignorance.