What was your motivation to homeschool?

[Doran]

We were considering cruising long term aboard our sailboat and were discussing how we'd address the issue of educating our someday children. When the children really did come along and reached school age, we lived very close to a wonderful pre-school and kindergarten where both kids felt safe and happy. How I wish that could have continued through elementary school!

 

Dd1 went to public school in first grade but complained of having to miss recess "again today" because a few kids in the class misbehaved. She also said that her teacher shouted a lot. Halfway through that year, our bright, eager learner began to say she didn't want to go to school. She came home for second grade and her younger sister, after completing K at the sweet little private church school, came home after that. We've been here ever since.

 

Doran

[Jill- OK]

...believing five too young to go off to school.

 

Honestly, it just seemed to naturally fit with our other lifestyle choices.

 

I have other reasons now...but that's why we did it, initially.

[Jeanne in MN]

each student that came into the school was given their own IEP (Individual Education Plan) based on what they needed for credits at their school, what skills they were struggling with and what they were interested in. I loved seeing the materials the teachers would pull together for their students. I loved watching the kids see how far they came in the few months they were there. I loved watching the 17 yr. old boy who came in with a 3rd grade reading level have it go up to a 7th grade reading level while they were there. It made so much sense to fit each kid's education to their individual needs.

 

When we had our own kids they were adopting all day every day K just as my daughter was getting to that age. At the informational meeting, people asked questions that the presenting teachers couldn't answer. I researched the questions at home on the computer and found the answers within an hour. The superintendent had also said that they students aren't just competing with kids across the globe, but the kids across the table. You really need to think about that in K?! C'mon!

 

I wanted my kids to be kids. I wanted a strong family influence and bond. I wanted my kids to love learning. I wanted to avoid some of the crap I went through in school. I wanted my kids to have a Christian education. I wanted to teach and it made more sense to teach my own kids, then send them off to school to teach someone else's. Lotsa reasons!

[Amy in Orlando]

:o I was so ignorant when our boys were young. After they'd all spent at least two years (three for the oldest) I noticed how bored and arrogant they were becoming while I was flabbergasted at how very little was expected of them. I had a neighbor who homeschooled but I thought (still think) she was total nut and her kids were semi-monsterish. I resisted homeschooling for a long time simply because of what I'd seen at the neighbors.

 

Finally, I visited a few homeschooling groups (lol while my kids were in public school) and found The Well Trained Mind. Once I read that book, I realized my kids could still be nice functional human beings AND homeschool. I haven't looked back. We're in our 8th year.

[Kay in Cal]

We talked about it before we had children. I had lots of negative school experiences as a young child, and we both thought we could do better academically. The idea of a family-centered lifestyle was compelling. I found TWTM and read it when I was pregnant with our first ds--been on the boards ever since! He's in 1st grade now...

[Frontier Mom]

Before we even had children we both decided God was calling us to home education. As a youth pastor at the time, we just saw so many children turn against their parents and siblings. It just didn't seem like a good route to follow.

 

When it is all said and done, we want our dc's to be each others best friend. We tell them that very thing about every couple of days. People will come and go, but family is forever.

 

We love homeschooling because it is a lifestyle, not something you do. The longer we home school and are around others who don't, the happier we are with the decision.

[Jill- OK]

...dh and I had (learning disabilities on one side, and gifted issues on the other) were formative in that we didn't automatically see traditional school as the most normal and best way.

 

My little brother was homeschooled, too, so it wasn't a completely foreign idea.

 

Edit: I'm not saying this well; what I'm trying to communicate is that I find people many times with the mindset that school is the norm, and it's hard to wrap your minds around the idea that school isn't the default 'best'.

 

Erm...maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all, LOL! I don't want to come across as anti-public school, because I know that for many kids/families, it's been a good experience, and I do think it's necessary...I'm just saying that having bad experiences kind of freed dh and I from the angst that many homeschoolers experience when they have to break away from the idea that school automatically represents the highest and best.

[percytruffle]

Ds was at the end of 3rd grade when we began. He is mildly dyslexic and struggled through k, 1st, and 2nd with horrid teachers and programs. He was in the bottom 10% of his class, but his IQ was in the 82nd percentile. Yikes. Their solution was to label him LD, take him to a small room, closet, with desks and five other LD kids (emotionally disturbed, low IQ, mentally retarded...) each time he needed to take a classroom test. The special ed teacher was pretty non-existent. An untrained aide gave them their tests as the emotionally disturbed student turned over desks. Best of all was our meeting with the head of special ed for the district who very bluntly told us he was the expert and once ds was labeled it would never be removed and we really had no say in what was best for him. This did not fly well with me.;) Our homeschooling adventure had begun.

 

The first year we only homeschooled ds so we could devote our entire attention to remediating his academics and giving him the tools and will to succeed. This poor kid had stomach issues and personality changes related to his failure at school. He is now in 11th grade and doing beautifully in every way.

 

The next year we offered Dd, two years older than ds, the opportunity to homeschool. She wanted to do it and we were all in. She graduated last year and is a science major at the local community college right now and looking to transfer to a four-year school next year.

 

The only regrets I have about our homeschool decision was not making it sooner. Our original reasons were academic and psychological, but the benefits to our family unity and our children's spiritual growth and maturity have been way above our expectations.

[percytruffle]

I'm from NY too. Do you mind if I ask which high school you attended? Just curious. NY did have some very good schools back in the day. I am from Rochester. You can PM me if you don't want to give out personal info or you can choose to ignore my nosey request.;)

 

I was so hopeful when I sent the dc to school since many parts of my own education were good, but the ps system did not work for my dc. They did not attend school where I had grow up.

[brehon]

I thought about homeschooling for quite a while after my first child was born. I first learned about TWTM in A Common Reader [RIP] and after I read the book I felt that this was close to what I wanted for my kids' education. My dh [aka Mr. Military History] is really excited about taking "field trips" to Revolutionary War and Civil War battle sites when the kids are a little older.

 

My underwhelming academic and almost overwhelming social experiences at PS also contributed to my desire to give my children something more. Like Peek a Boo, I think the cumulative aspects of the negative social interactions at school are akin to water torture (the drip, drip, drip of peer relationships and interactions were like hot iron on my forehead) and can truly affect one's life for years afterward.

 

And, truthfully, I'm having a great time watching the light dance in my kids' eyes. I want to experience first hand the excitement of them learning new things. It keeps my soul young.:cool:

[Claire]

Heh-heh. My dh calls NCLB "No Child Gets Ahead".

[Pamela H in Texas]

Academics here also.

 

I wanted my kids to:

1) go the pace best for them as individuals

2) take things deeper/broader as interested

3) follow through more

4) have more time to do the above

 

My hubby's first reason, btw, was for them to have the opportunity of healthier social development.

 

Of course, by the time they were school age, we added in physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and family reasons also :)

[Daisy]

My Dh wanted me to homeschool from the beginning but I so didn't think I would have the patience. DD went to our church's kindergarten and then we started her in first grade public school. HUGE mistake. I guess Dh knew what it was like being a ps teacher but I just never thought it would impact my DD. Each thing was just another straw on the camels back...

 

1. No Science or history taught. Teacher's response? "Oh, yeh, I should do that." Later we discovered the school had been told not to teach those subjects due to NCLB. My DH's school no longer teaches them. The Jr. High only teaches it to the advanced students. So they hit High School and still think Mexico is one of the 50 states (I am NOT joking). So I was teaching science and history at home after school.

 

2. DD was bored to death. The teacher refused to give her more challenging work or even filler because as she said, "We don't want this to be a problem again next year. Your daughter is too advanced." Oh, and b/c she was bored she talked in class and would get in trouble. She'd come home crying and throwing herself on her bed saying, "I just can't be a good girl." This is my obedient, compliant child. WHAT?? They wanted to send her to gate (gifted program) but the school shares space with the worst school in the district in the worst possible neighborhood. NO WAY! So I started sending DD with extra workpages to school everday so she would have something to do.

 

3. She would literally bed to sit on the detention bench rather then go to recess b/c the kids were so mean. I stood and screamed at teachers to do something about the boys fighting against the fence line, one day. They were kicking a small boy who was curled up in the fetal position on the ground!!!! I finally got the teacher's attention and they said, "Oh, yeah." CRAZY!!

 

4. And the straw that broke the camel back?? One day the school forgot to notify me that my DD's afterschool chess club (which she loved) had been cancelled. They FINALLY called when they found her curled up in the corner of the bathroom crying her eyes out because she didn't know where she was supposed to be. No one realized she was still on campus. No one realized she hadn't been picked up. No one noticed she was missing. She was 6 years old. I got royally pissed off!!!!

 

And so I finally did what I should have done from the beginning. I took her out and started homeschooling. It has been the best decision we ever made. Now that Arnold is passing all this crazy legislation, I'm even more glad to have her out of that environment.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I was a teacher. It is hard to do a good job teaching in the schools. And it can be hard to get a good education as a student in the schools. I decided that I wanted to teach my own kids when I was still single. When my dh and I were engaged we talked a lot about having kids and then homeschooling them. It was a deal-breaker for me. Fortunately my dh didn't have a problem with it. He has gone from a neutral "not minding" if I homeschool the kids to being very enthusiastic about it as he's seen what it has meant for our children.