Why do you choose to home school?

Question

I can't remember what I watched on television last night, but I remember that it involved a conversation about school shootings. After watching that I had a terrible dream that my sister and I went to school and a friend started shooting a gun and because of that my mother choose to home school us. To say the least after I woke up I was freaked out and I didn't go to sleep for a couple of hours.

I come from a family of eight kids (as of July 25th!). The four oldest kids in my family, myself included, were home schooled until I started fourth grade. I know that the reason my parents called a quits to home schooling wasn’t really because they wanted to, but because my mom had to get a job. Anyway, that dream last night got me thinking about the real reason why my mom decided to home school us, so I’m just wondering why other parents out their choose to home school their kids? I know the obvious reasons such as the one on one environment, safer environment, more family time etc because I’ve seen both sides of the mirror and I can say home schooling was much better. I was a lot happier while being home schooled and I would go back to it in a heart beat. Are there other more specific reasons that maybe most people don’t think about?

Thank you!

Answer 1

i got sick and could not keep up with rigors of school. my mom is very intelligent with a harvard education so rather than putting me on a special 504 placement she decided to homeschool me.

i feel more freedom in learning what i want along with what i must know

Answer 2

The reasons you gave are good, and are part of the reason I continue to homeschool, also my religious beliefs are part of the reason I continue to homeschool, but none of those are why I began homeschooling.  I began homeschooling because the education I obtained through the public school system was lousy.  To sum it up, when I was 18 years old I had 4th grade math skills, only a rudimentary understanding of general science, with no specific courses in any major branch of science.  My reading and writing skill were strong, mainly because I always chose to read on my free time, not because of what happened in school.  Between the ages of 18 and 20 I worked really hard at self study and became proficient in arithmetic, after that I went to a community college and took pre-algebra, and some science classes.  I continued to study on my own, and eventually obtained a fairly complete education for a High School graduate, but it was difficult to do as an adult.  If I had simply gotten that kind of education in the first place, then those years of study would have spent on college level courses instead of High School level courses.

I wanted better for my kids.  I wanted them to actually learn what they needed to know to enter college.  

I also wanted them to grow up in a safe environment where they were treated with respect.  

When I was a kid, I always wished I could just stay home and study, I was always best able to learn when left alone with a book.  So homeschooling seemed the natural step for me.

Answer 3

I actually know a few people who homeschool (I do not have children) and the reasons can be drastically different. One family homeschools because they are the free spirited type of people who love to pack everything up with only a moments notice and drive across country on a whim. They don't want schedules tying them down. If their children were in school, they would have to plan around the kid's schedules.

Another family is very religious. They homeschool because there is no Christian private schools in our area.

I've also heard of people homeschooling b/c public schools don't always teach the "whole truth." For example, they everything the American settlers did was great and okay, but they don't teach about the horrible way the settlers treated the Native Americans.... and on and on throughout history... and these parents want their children to not get a biased view of the world.

Then there are the stereotypical homeschoolers whose parents just want to protect them from anything and everything bad that could possibly happen. They all stay at home all the time and never go out... they even grow and raise all their own food. Of course I'm speaking of the drastic end of the spectrum, but you get my point.

There are tons of reasons that people homeschool.... more than i have listed...  

Answer 4

We home school for a few different reasons. We started because we hated the public school our kids were in. My oldest daughter had to repeat second grade because she couldn't subtract and just wasn't ready for third grade. It was half way through the second year of second grade when we had enough. We were simply plain and tired of her coming home with 4 hours of homework every night. We were tired of the school doing nothing when she got beat up on the bus three times. We were tired of tired children who were miserable in the mornings.

The reason for home schooling our son was different. He was in PreK at the time and had just turned 4 (a week before starting school). He is developmentally delayed by about 6 months and we explained this to his teacher on the first day of school. It was a whole lot more obvious at 4 years old than at 6 years old. With in a month of starting school she had a conference with us and suggested that we get him put on ADHD meds. We spoke with our Dr. and were told we don't even test until they turn 5 and the problems the teacher was having were from the delay and not ADHD. Well we did have him tested last year and no surprise there is no ADHD. The teacher just wanted a little boy sedated. He doesn't need to be in that environment.

Then there are other reasons we home school. Things like we want our kids to get a full education. We want them to learn about creation and evolution. We want them to be able to hold an intelligent conversation and not just be able to regurgitate what the public school indoctrinated them in. Education gives all sides and allows a person to make an informed decision. What the public school does especially in Science and History is to indoctrinate them in secular beliefs. They only give the secular side. That makes it harder for a parent who is trying to instill certain things in a child like Christian morals.  

Answer 5

We began homeschooling when our fourth grade daughter was almost murdered by a classmate who tried to choke her to death.

We keep homeschooling because we have found it to be a superior method of education for our child.

Answer 6

I homeschool for the simple fact, the public schools here SUCK!

See my son is severly dyslexic, & the schools here have told us, that "Dyslexia dosnt exsist! "

Plus, the fact my son is on a feeding pump every 3 hours, the school said they can handle that ONLY if I came up every 3 hours to hook & unhook him! I couldnt do that because I was working at the time, so I thought enoughs enough!

My son went from D's & F's to A's & B's. He's alot happier, & calmer now.

The speical ed teacher here has even gone as far as to call him "stupid" too. I was so pissed off it wasnt funny.

The teacher even admitted she called him that! I made her apologize to my son too, in front of the whole calss too.

What I love about homeschooling too, is I know for a fact that I wont hear on the news about a school shooting with my sons school! I know he's safe at home, & learning what he wasnt in a public school!

I also remember 1 thing when he was in school he todl me he wasnt even doing spelling words, he didnt even know how to spell, so I was giving him new words ever wek to study.

He also didnt have a clue who the presidents were either!

Now, that Im homeschooling him, he's doing spelling, & he's also learning his presidents too.

Answer 7

Originally my parents were going to homeschool me because I was bored in school. They took me out a little earlier than they'd planned because the school misdiagnosed me with a mental disorder and was going to put me in foster care.

I think that generally screwed our homeschooling endeavors -a lot of things that people take for granted as part of homeschooling didn't work out for us- but even with all the frustrations and depressions, it still beats being in school.

As for more family time...well, my dad works late every day; for him, getting home at 9 is early. My sister is out with friends most of the day, and since I -by choice- have a smaller social circle I tend to be either with my boyfriend -two years together now <3- or at my computer. My mom works at home. Honestly I can't remember the last time we had an actual 'family dinner'. Once in a blue moon, we all end up at the same dinner table, but when that happens we've been stuck in a rural area for a while and have nothing to talk about. We all love each other and care for each other, and we do try to spend time together, but we're not a picture-perfect happy homeschooling family. We're more disparate, but there are plenty of hugs for reluctant 16-year olds.

Honestly, I don't know what my parents' homeschooling plans originally were, or if they had more reasons besides bored kids, that were lost in the rush to keep our family together. Like I said, it beats the h**l out of school, but I'm not entirely sure why we did it in the first place.

Answer 8

Our eyes where open to the lacking public school system soon after my daughter went to 6th grade. In a nutshell, my child had come from a very disciplined private school and was having a hard time with the fact that none of the kids at her new school would even listen to the teacher. The final straw was when she was "propositioned" (to put it nicely) by a boy in her class who had been held back a couple of times. The solution that the principal thought was appropriate (after I threatened to call the cops due to NO returned phone calls) was to bring my child AND the boy into the same room and ask them together what happened. I pulled her out the next day.

I looked into home school and did a lot of research finding that kids who do this work at their own pace, follow there interests and usually end up with better test scores. We have found all that to be true and have benefited in having a closer family, happier kids who have great friends and many interests.

Answer 9

i don't have children but if i did i would home school them. there's several reasons. less danger, more attention to problem areas, you get done with schooling at a faster pace. (i was home schooled myself and graduated earlier. it depends on the learning pace of the individual.) but there's also some negatives, like not having as much social skills because they're not around different type of people/personalities. etc.

Answer 10

My ds is ADHD and I got tired of being a "pioneer", the one to educate his teachers every year about adhd.

The public school is so "full of it" -- they keep telling everybody how great they are when kids don't even know which side of a sheet of looseleaf to write on first.

bullying/teasing at school

bad influences at school

bomb threats at school