Why do you choose home schooling over traditional schooling?

Question

Public schools and private schools also have things to offer. So why did you choose home schooling?

I'm not trying to be rude. I hope to homeschool my kids when I have them (which is a long way off, since I'm only 13). I was just wondering why others choose to do so.

Answer 1

i was depressed in the normal school so juust left and went home schooled

Answer 2

For me, it's got little to do with what schools and private schools can offer in terms of academics and activities, but the very structure of schools. It's not normal to be growing up in a "family" of 30 kids the same age, switching parents all the time, which is essentially what's going on at school. I think the bulk of school socialization is detrimental to people and society.

Answer 3

Great question, and you write very well!

We too chose it because of freedom.  I do not like being told what I have to do, what things my kids have to learn - if it is against our religious beliefs, moral beliefs or family values.   We wanted to be in control of what our kids learned.   I also like that I get to know who their friends are because we are involved in all their activities.  We know the other families not just the kids.  

As someone else said - it becomes a way of life.   People that have never homeschooled can't understand that.  It's all in the way you approach everything.  

It's not for everyone.   I do reviews for homeschoolers in my state.  The vast majority do an excellent job - but there are a scarce few that really do not have what it takes to homeschool and are doing a dis-service to their kids.  

It is something that you and your husband will have to discuss when the time comes and see where you stand at that time.

Answer 4

We didn't send our daughter to public school because I didn't like the way school approaches learning. There are some excellent private schools around us but we were a low income family and simply couln't afford it. Heck, public school would have been a financial burden for us at that point.

Answer 5

I think if I had to choose just one word to say why I homeschool it would have to be Freedom. I am sure most people who homeschool also homeschool for this reason. There is a real lack of freedoms when it comes to both public and the private schools.

Answer 6

We tried public school. There we were strong armed into putting our child on unnecessary medications. It was a nightmare, so we switched to homeschooling.

Answer 7

We like it, pure and simple. You don't have to hate schools to decide not to send your kids-- schools are fine and I'm sure if my kids went they would be fine, but we just like homeschooling.

Answer 8

Home schooling severely impares a child's ability to socialize in the "real world".  Kids need to be with other kids to learn what to do and what not to do in specific social situations.

Your family is your family and they will always be the primary educator by teaching what they believe and their values.  But kids need the socialization that can only be gained by going to school with others their own age and interacting with many types of adults and authority figures.

Answer 9

I've been home schooled ever since kindergarden, and I'm now in hs.  My parents chose it for several reasons.  

1) Religious reasons:  We're Christians, and my parents felt that they wanted to give me a solid Christian foundations.

2) Scholastic Reasons:  By homeschooling, we could push ahead, but also, when needed, stay on a certain subject longer, to make sure that I really "got it".

For example:  I first took Algebra in 7th grade.  While I understood it, my mom decided to teach it to me again for another year, using a different curriculum so that it would really be cemented in my head.

Now, as a sophomore, I am taking most of my classes with private teachers who teach classes of home schoolers.  I also play soccer on our public school team.  My advice if you want to home school, is make sure that your public schools allow home schoolers to take classes, etc, cause I know like in California, they don't allow that.  Next year, though, cause I want to go into pre-med in college, I am going to go full time to our public hs to take AP classes, etc.

My one most important piece of advise is: still get a teaching degree from college, or have a really deep yearn to learn along with your kids.  The learning experience will be JUST BEGINING.  I know of mothers who just leave their education to TV school, etc, and their kids end up like junk.

Even though I am soooo glad taht my mom chose to home school, I don't think that  I could do it.  I don't know if I would have the patience, etc.  But I commend you for wanting to do taht!

so that's about it!   best of luck!

Answer 10

I think every kid should go to normal school. That way they can have friends and develope their people skills.  If they are home all day and play their Nintendo or something, when they grow up they become way to shy and uncomfortable around other people.

Answer 11

Here's a comparison:

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

Answer 12

Many reasons:  God says to train up a child in the way they should go.  I believe he was giving parents that commandment.  My oldest went to public school, now I have the younger three I am homeschooling.  

My oldest went through being bullied, and hit by others.  His importance in life was pleasing his friends.  The teachers shoved evolution down his throat.  They told him the Bible was not true.  He brought books home from the library that were fictional p**n.  I lost him.  He was gone 8-10 hours of the day and was being raised by strangers, who had him doing new-age meditation in English class, and led him to believe that God was not real.  He got into drugs, alcohol and trouble with the law with the kids he hung around at in school.  It's hard for a parent to instill values in their child, when they have that child 2-3 hours of the day, and the government has them the rest.

I can see the difference in my younger three's attitudes, compared to their older brother at the same age.  Not only that, but we have so much more time for activities and time together as a family.  They will be gone and grown soon enough, I want to enjoy them now while I can.

Answer 13

You are right conventional schools do have many things to offer, and they should be an option for parents to choose from when considering what type of, or quality of education they want for their child.



We believe in all forms of school choice, home schooling, private, private religious, boarding, charter, on-line, independent study, or public.



For us, what conventional schools had/have to offer was/is not what we were/are looking for when we were/are considering our children's education, or the environment that we wanted them to spend their time in.

It did/does not fit into our life style, or for that matter our belief system.



The conventional schools have for a large part abandoned basic education, and replaced it with to many courses that have little or nothing to do with true academics, therefore we find most of it a monumental waste of time.

Having had previous experience in both public, and private schools, we knew, and based on that knowledge made the decision that that was not the direction we wanted to go.

Our children will not attend any traditional educational institution other than a trade school, college, or University; that is, if that is their choice.



Home schooling is much more than simply doing school @ home, it is a life style; it's about family.

We; home school parents; have chosen to take back the privilege, and responsibility for the upbringing, as well as the education of our children; we do not want to abdicate this most important part of a child's life to someone else.

We have the freedom to choose the time, place, method, and materials we use, we can allow the children to learn at their own pace, follow their interests, as well as tailor their education to fit their individual needs, may they be special needs, average, or gifted.



None of these can be truly duplicated in any conventional school setting no matter how much they may have to offer, or how well the teachers are "trained".



Any extra curricular activity, club, or community involvement offered through a school can be experienced in a different setting, and if it is not available, we can always organize it.



If you are considering home schooling your children, and you are thinking this far ahead, you must have your reasons for thinking that the schools will not be able to do an adequate job for your future children.

If this is so, do you feel they are they doing an adequate job for you right now??

Addition:

Jazzy, nice web site -- thank you.

Veggie, I think you are very lucky to have parents with whom you have open communication, who listen, and help you when needed.

We believe that an open line of communication, and direct parental involvement are some of the most important components contributing to a young persons success, and well being.

Take care.

Answer 14

At its simplest and most obvious (but not the only reason): My parents chose to home-educate me and my siblings because the closest school is a 16 hour drive away from where we live.

PS In terms of longevity, home-education *is* the traditional option. It may have only come back into vogue in North America, Europe etc in the 1980s but really home educators are simply continuing to do the same as parents have done for their offspring for the last 200,000 years. Meanwhile conventional (bricks and mortar) schools have only existed (in their current form) for the last 200 years or so (since the Industrial Revolution).

PPS It always makes me smile when people claim kids need to go to school to learn how to relate to their peers so that they'll be able to function as adults, lol! Is it only me who can see one fatal flaw in that argument?? Whilst other 6 - 15 year olds are going to school every day and learning how to get on with other 6 - 15 year olds, home-educated kids are going out and about in the real world and, all the time, learning how to relate to and get on with adults.

Now...which child has the better skills for the future: the one who goes out into the world fully versed in how to get on with 'other kids their age' (despite themselves not being a kid anymore!) or the home-educated one who goes out in the world already fully versed in how to relate to and get on with adults?!

It reminds me of one of the SOTA teachers up here who once told a mate of mine that it didn't matter if she could only relate to adults and not to 'other kids her own age' because "by the time you grow up, leave home and get a job, you and they will all be adults anyway and, by then, they will have hopefully grown up enough that you will be able to relate to them as adults and not as 'other kids your own age'!!"

Answer 15

you are 13 and asking this question!! your kids will be very lucky to have such a considerate mother, dear.

here are some reasons:

the world outside is dangerous.

schools make the kids uniform.

every child is so special that s-he needs special care and education.

but, to homeschool your kids, you first have to have a really good education. so, good luck!

Answer 16

Good question, and asked respectfully.  Thank you!

We homeschool for a few reasons...the first of which would be that public and private schools just plain aren't able to offer what my son needs.  They are good in many cases, and they do have things to offer - but they aren't a "one size fits all" sort of thing.  

There are kids that work really well in a classroom situation, who thrive and learn to their potential in that atmosphere.  My son just isn't one of them :-)  He's several years above grade level in a lot of subjects, yet he's also dyslexic, so he's right about at grade level in some areas of language arts.  That's a huge range to handle in a classroom with a couple dozen other kids!

There are learning styles that don't fit well in a classroom either, which he happens to have.  Most classrooms are set up to teach to visual-auditory learners - kids who learn by reading and filling out worksheets and taking notes off a board.  My son, on the other hand, is very kinesthetic and auditory - he actually needs to move around in order to process information, and he needs to build or manipulate things in order to learn (much of the time).  He also needs to have a lot of the information presented in a way that allows him to hear it - such as audiobooks - in order to fully learn it.  Again, these just aren't things that fit well into a classroom.  Can you imagine one kid in a classroom walking around during the lesson, talking to himself while he's completing his work?  It would be really distracting.  Quite frankly, it would land him on Ritalin and/or in the principal's office - just for the fact that this is how he learns.

These tendencies are lessening as he gets older (he's 10), but I had a choice to make - do I want him to really learn, and to love learning, or do I want him to fit into a classroom structure, no matter what?  In many subjects, he's almost working on a high school level - he tests as highly gifted - so it's not a focus problem.  It's just how he's wired.  He does know how to work in a group (he's in Scouts, church group activities, competitive sports, and theatre), but having to sit still and quiet for long periods of time is really wearing on him.  He can do it for a couple of hours, a few times a week, but 6-8 hours a day, 5 days a week would do him in.  (It would also probably drive his teacher to drink, lol!)

There's also the fact that he's been a lot healthier during the years that he's homeschooled.  Schools have good things to offer, but they also have a lot of illnesses that get passed around.  Some even have issues like black mold that can seriously affect some children.  My son has an immune system deficiency that resulted from a bout with SARS several years back, and he can't fight off all of the illnesses that he'd be exposed to.  In the four years that we've been homeschooling though, even through all of the activities that we've been involved in (co op, field trips, playdates and park days, monthly game nights, Scouts, plays, sports - rec and competive, and church activities), he's had very few trips to the doctor for anything other than routine checkups over the past 4 years.  That's worth it to me, in and of itself, just to have a healthy child.  (The 6 years prior to homeschooling were filled with several doctor visits each month.)

Next, I've seen a huge improvement in his maturity, responsibility, communication skills, and independence that has come from homeschooling.  He likes to play and goof off just as much as any other kid, but I know I can trust him to do whatever he's asked or assigned to do.  He willingly helps others of any age or background, and he's not afraid to do things like being interviewed by a newspaper or on TV (he's done both), give a presentation to a business, or teach a skill to someone.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but these are some of the reasons - and the results - that we have (or have seen) from homeschooling.  Hope that helps!

Answer 17

Another writer posted this answer and I would like to use it as a springboard for answering your question (spelling errors are that posters, not mine!):

<<"Home schooling severely impares a child's ability to socialize in the "real world". Kids need to be with other kids to learn what to do and what not to do in specific social situations.">>

Children do not become socially impaired by homeschooling. Children learn what to do by seeing other people model that behavior. I would not expect a roomful of 20+ five year old kids to be able to teach my five year old how to behave! I would expect that older children and adults would be able to do that. This is a bonus with homeschooling: children have the opportunity to learn (both educationally and socially) from a wide age range - other children of various ages and adults.

<<"Your family is your family and they will always be the primary educator by teaching what they believe and their values. But kids need the socialization that can only be gained by going to school with others their own age and interacting with many types of adults and authority figures.">>

I actually agree with the first part of this, that parents are the primary educators for their children. The author is completely off base by stating that children need the "socialization" that can only be gained by going to school and being with like-aged peers all day and other adults and authority figures.

Too often, I meet traditionally educated young adults who have no clue how to deal with people of ALL ages and abilities.  I do not believe our schools foster those kinds of relationships. By logistics, they cannot. The schools are set up to serve large groups of similarly aged children.

Homeschooling gives children many opportunities to be out in the real world on a regular basis. Most of the homeschooled kids I work with in local cooperatives are quite confident in their abilities to speak to ALL people, not just those that are the same age. They also seem to be more inclusive of others, regardless of what grade they are in or what trendy garment they are wearing.

In school, kids learn how to socialize within that little world; there isn't a whole lot of time for them to be out in the world. Many also have very little abilities with basic life skills, such as balancing a checkbook, budgeting, doing laundry, keeping a  house clean, changing the oil on a car, etc.

Our family chose to homeschool initially for academic reasons. Our local schools did a great job educating the middle and lower end students. Those who were more advanced were left out in the cold. I have found that our kids have had more educational opportunities by taking classes at home, participating in local cooperatives, taking classes for dual credit at the local college, creating internships and apprenticeships with local businesses, ongoing learning of basic life skills and by also having far more time to explore their own interests.