Where you ever against homeschooling?

[mom2agang]

When my dh and I had children old enough to "school" he was the one who wanted to homeschool. Me, growing up in a teachers house that he went nuts! NO WAY! Those kids are WEIRD! and DUMB! Unsocialized! NO WAY!

 

But the we agreed for 1 yr and it was fun and it worked great with our schedule. (my dh is laid off in the winter) So I would try one more year. Now after 7 years I'm sold for life and sometimes too vocal about homeschooling. Anyone else pulled in?

[mom2agang]

It won't let me fix the title. Were not where.

[TravelingChris]

No, I wished I was homeschooling when I was a little kid and found ads for Calvert School in the back of my mom's Woman's Day magazine. That was in the early to mid 70's.

[Tracy in Ky]

When dh and I were newly married, my sister began homeschooling. We thought it was crazy! lol. God obviously had the same plans for me :D

Edited March 5, 2010 by Tracy in Ky

[LizzyBee]

I wasn't exactly against it, but I thought it was the weirdest thing I'd ever heard of, and I would never do that. Things change when you have your own kids!

[Pip]

I wasn't against it, I just didn't understand it. I didn't know about all the resources available. I didn't see how it could be done. In the late 80's I was interviewing a girl at my job in Atlanta. She said she had been homeschooled and graduated early. I just looked at her dumbfounded and finally got out "Is that legal? Should you be telling me this?"

[Time4tea]

I wasn't against other people doing it, but it took 3 years of ds going to school before I realized I was going to have to do it. He actually asked in K to hs. I thought "man I can't do that." But I could and I did.

[BigMamaBird]

I sure was. I bought into all the socialization nonsense and thought all hs kids were weirdos. But then we started working with our church's youth group and 75% of the kids were home schooled. We saw something different about those kids, something that we wanted our future kids to have. Once I got to know those kids and talk to them, I realized that home schooling was the way to go and I haven't looked back since.

[delaney]

It won't let me fix the title. Were not where.

hit edit and the "go advanced"

[delaney]

I was a PS teacher......what's your guess? The only interaction I had with HS kids was a 4th grade boy who spelled "once upon a time" "unsaponatime" and a 1st grade boy who came to me "reading" but his mother didn't realize he had no phonics and had memorized the little paper books she made.:glare:

[sparrow]

Yes! I remember watching a talk show in the mid 90's featuring home schooling families. I turned to my new husband and said, "Can you believe the nerve of these people? Boy, you'd have to think an awful lot of yourself to think you're qualified to teach your children ALL subjects!" :blushing:

[Laurie4b]

I don't know that I was against it, but I certainly thought it was weird. I got into homeschooling when we got a foster child (through private arrangements, not CPS) who was years below grade level, but wouldn't have qualified for special services; socially, she was a pregnancy-waiting-to-happen. So we decided she needed to be homeschooled and then saw how incredible the kids were in the homeschool community. That sealed the decision for our children.

[MomtoCandJ]

I wasn't against it because I didn't know about it, but once I learned about it I wanted to be homeschooled

[KidsHappen]

Nope, I started homeschooling before I had really ever even heard of it. People were always asking me, "Can you do that?" Well, I am! was my reply.

[rockermom]

I played with neighbor kids whose Mom homeschooled them in the early 80's. At first, I thought it was weird... then I thought it was cool. I begged to be homeschooled (early elementary years), but my Mom insisted that those kids were weirdos and would always be because their Mom had made them shut-ins. :lol: (She pretty much still feels this way.)

 

They were good, smart kids. The only thing "weird" about them was that they didn't swear and were respectful to everyone.

[Ellie]

We started hsing in 1982, when I took our first-grade dd out of school at Easter break.

 

There was a hsing family on our street. We became very good friends, but they were SO not like us! We were in church 3 times a week, dds wearing black patent-leather shoes and white ruffly socks on Sundays, all prissy Martha Stewart types :-) while they were very Bohemian, slightly slovenly in their dress, vegetarians (I'd never met a vegetarian), no furniture in the living room except for two chairs (children schlepped on the floor when the parents were sitting in the chairs), really INTO sci-fi, really INTO computers (which in 1980 was a Commodore)...and they homeschooled.

 

I thought, you know, they were the "kind" who would do that.:lol: They had already been hsing for several years when they moved into the neighborhood--they were the REAL pioneers.

 

When dd came home and cried over half a page of arithmetic homework, I went down the street and talked to my weird homeschool neighbor. What a blessing she was to me! She gave me all of her John Holt newsletters, which is exactly what I needed under the circumstances, and let me hang out at her house every.single.day for weeks...ok, maybe not weeks, but still...:)

 

So, yeah, I guess I "against" homeschooling, but that didn't last long. :-)

[ProudGrandma]

When I was going to college to become a teacher, I was TOTALLY against it. Later when I became a wife and a mom, my husband was ALL for it, and I thought it was fine for others but NOT for me...and then BAM...out of the blue, something hit me and one little thought about us homeschooling entered my mind and I couldn't get it out...and so now...here we are.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

I was 'against' homeschooling yesterday around 2pm when I dissovled into tears and decided to 'quit' homeschooling 'again.' :D:D

 

But then I remembered reading some of the stories from other parents here on the WTM boards. Even with all the sickness (mine this week) and the struggles somehow I still think that homeschooling is best for my children.

 

Go figure.

[Cammie]

I wasn't "against" homeschooling but I sure as heck thought it wasn't for me! I couldn't imagine wanting to be home with the kids all day every day! Now, I am practically begging DH to switch from afterschooling to full time hschooling for next year. Oh well, never say never!

[Dmmetler]

Not really. I grew up in a neighborhood with a lot of returned Mennonite missionaries, and almost invariably the kids had been homeschooled (or in small village one-room schoolhouses, taught by their parents) until the oldest child entered high school, when they'd return so the oldest child could attend the high school associated with the seminary. Some of these kids were homeschooled in the USA, some went to local schools, but they all seemed to know SO MUCH more about the world, since they'd lived in it, and were usually ahead academically. Besides, there's just something innately cool about a girl who can curse at a teacher in Zulu ;).

 

So my association with homeschooling was missionaries and mission kids, and I thought it was really neat. I would have LOVED for my parents to have gone to Zimbabwe or Kenya and come back with all the neat experiences and houseful of interesting objects.

 

Even after teaching in public schools, and seeing quite a few returning "homeschooled" students for whom "nonschooled" would be a more exact term, I still had a view of homeschooling as being successful-but for someone else, when you're in a situation where good schools don't exist.

 

It wasn't until after I was told, at age 2, that my DD would be unlikely to fit into a traditional education system and thrive there that I began researching it, and it took her teacher suggesting that we pull her and homeschool to make me willing to try it myself.

 

And I still think it would be really cool to go overseas and homeschool in a different country for awhile, if I could only talk DH into it :).

[Dobela]

I am a former public school teacher - and yes, I was very,very opposed to homeschooling. Not to mention I had other family members who were long time teachers. When we married (I was 28 and dh was 33) he was very pro homeschooling. I just thought he would 'mature' beyond that thinking and see that the kids attending the same school I worked for would be a great thing. I had career plans too you know. Granted, I had only seen the failures who returned to public school and I had been indoctrinated in college that I had been given 'special training' that no one else had. I did know a couple of a families at church who homeschooled, but at least one parent had been a public school teacher so I thought nothing about it. When one mom was frustrated at teaching reading to her son, I told her she could do it because she had been trained - duh, she was a high school math teacher so she had never been trained to teach reading. But I still believed we (ps teachers) had been given some kind of 'special powers' or something.

 

My change was kind slow and took several events to bring me around to homeschooling. But now, I love it and can't imagine my children ding anything else.

[MeaganS]

I wasn't against it, but I definitely thought that it wasn't for me, until I started researching it more out of curiosity. Now I'm convinced. My mom even considered homeschooling us when I was in elementary because our school was so bad, but her personality wouldn't have worked with it, so I always assumed mine wouldn't either. My husband, on the other hand, thought all homeschoolers are weirdos. He's still not completely sold, but I think he's getting there. He tells people we're planning on homeschooling our kids (while telling me he doesn't think it's going to happen :lol:)

Just yesterday he said that he mentioned homeschooling to his boss, and she said she was homeschooled and it screwed her and her brothers up. When he started telling me this, I sort of cringed because I didn't need him to get any more bad ideas about homeschooling, but then he said that they probably didn't homeschool the way we're planning to! Seperating homeschooling styles and people from the homeschooling style we want to have and people we are is exactly what I've been trying to convince him to do for a year! Those homeschoolers who are weird are weird because that's how their parents are and want them to be. That's my thought anyway. It looks like we're making progress!

[BikeBookBread]

Yes. I attended a private, highly academic Christian school all 12 years. I have very fond memories of my times there.

 

But most of my concerns stemmed from the belief that my girls would be seriously missing out on the social activities. I still worry about this, but I truly believe the academic benefits far outweigh any fond memories of pep rallies, track meets and choir tour...besides, they can still do some of these things, just via different avenues.

[LibraryLover]

Never.

Edited March 7, 2010 by LibraryLover

[LittleIzumi]

I was also against getting married before a career and having more than one, maaaaaybe two kids. (As I'm expecting a planned #3 at 25 :lol:.)

[Satori]

Well, up until 14 months ago I thought I was a career woman and it was all about my hard work and ambitions. I always have to have some kind of goal, purpose, passion... Homeschooling just never crossed my mind because I was too busy.

 

Once I realized I didn't have to have a job, all of a sudden the idea of homeschooling hit me. And I mean very suddenly. Now it is all about my daughter. I can't believe how fulfilling homeschooling is!

[KnitWit]

Yes, I was. I've eaten a whole lot of crow in my life. :lol:

 

-I was NOT getting married, EV-ER, (I have been married longer than not now).

-I was NOT having any kids, (I have 6).

-NO WAY was I quitting my job and staying HOME! (I haven't worked since my four month stint of throwing up day AND night with my *first* pregnancy LOL!).

-NO WAY would my kid NOT go to PS, (I pulled her out after one year!).

-I would NEVER drive a mini-van, (I drive a 15 passy...cause it was cheaper than any other *mover of 8 humans and all their stuff*)

 

I do continue to be a very opinionated person, but I have developed enough pride...or maybe I've been humbled enough ::giggle::...to keep it mostly to myself! LOL!

[mom2agang]

LOL!!!:lol::lol::lol::lol:

I was NOT having any kids ( I now have 10)

NO WAY was I quitting my job and staying HOME! ( I havent worked in 12 years.

NO WAY would my kid NOT go to PS. ( Mine have never went)

I would NEVER drive a mini-van ( I also drive a 15 passenger. hey it fits 12 humans and 7 car seats)

Yes, I was. I've eaten a whole lot of crow in my life. :lol:

 

-I was NOT getting married, EV-ER, (I have been married longer than not now).

-I was NOT having any kids, (I have 6).

-NO WAY was I quitting my job and staying HOME! (I haven't worked since my four month stint of throwing up day AND night with my *first* pregnancy LOL!).

-NO WAY would my kid NOT go to PS, (I pulled her out after one year!).

-I would NEVER drive a mini-van, (I drive a 15 passy...cause it was cheaper than any other *mover of 8 humans and all their stuff*)

 

I do continue to be a very opinionated person, but I have developed enough pride...or maybe I've been humbled enough ::giggle::...to keep it mostly to myself! LOL!

[newlifemom]

I thought hsing was fine for others, but not for me. I bought into the whole, get rid of your kids as soon as possible. [You know the commercial where the dad and mom are dancing through Staples to It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year]

 

Fast forward to when dd, now 11, was 2. We lived in a small apt that was easy to clean. Dh brought home a bunch of home school books he had picked up for free to send to his homeschooling sister in Hawaii. Well, I had nothing better to do, so I read them. Went to the library and checked out every home school book I could find. One of them was TWTM. :D

 

Fast forward to today. My oldest went to preschool and my goal is to keep them home until college. Not even sure how college will work. If you would have told me 15 years ago I would be doing this, I would have spit my coke in your face laughing. Heck, I don't even drink coke anymore. :lol:

[newlifemom]

Never. I did a research paper in 11th grade on Summerhill, John Holt etc.. I got an A, but the teacher chewed me out in his commentary. Something like, "This paper is technically excellent and well written, but I am not sure you understand the serious flaws educators see in these theories". HA!

 

Love it!

[laughing lioness]

No. I was always all about alternative ed. Wanted to grad at 15 like a friend of mine did and had enough credits but my parents wouldn't hear of it. I always knew I would NOT have my kids suffer the boredom and tedium and teasing (we moved every 2 yrs- I was the new kids all.the.time) that I did.

[jujsky]

I used to be against it too. When I was a teenager, the grandchildren of one of my grandmother's neighbors were homeschooled and they were WEIRD! They would always come over and insert themselves into the adult/young-adult conversations and it was uncomfortable.

 

A couple years after college I was working in the office of a factory and I had the pleasure of meeting my co-worker's homeschooled grandchildren. I was expecting to meet weird, sheltered kids I couldn't relate to (partly because the grandmother was a born-again Christian and was pretty vocal about her beliefs at work, so I was expecting the same from the kids). I was so wrong! The kids were bright, articulate, and outgoing. They totally changed my impression of homeschoolers.

 

Several years later we had our children. I started researching schools early-on and learned that the schools in our district were horrible and all of the private schools in our area were either religious or prohibitively expensive. We decided to homeschool for pre-K to see if we could do it, and we've never looked back. :001_smile:

[mama2cntrykids]

Nope, I was never against it. In my German class in HS there was a girl who was HS'ed and came in for the German class. I was so jealous, lol!

[Crimson Wife]

Love reading these stories!

 

I was never against it, I just thought I'd only do it as a last resort if I couldn't find a good public or private school for my kids. We did start HS by default but I quickly became a convert.

[jenL]

I am a former ps teacher with an M.Ed, so yes, I was very against it. My SIL homeschooled my niece and nephews, but I fully believed there was so much they were losing by being at home despite them being bright, articulate, polite children. I fully believed they were missing out on socialization, and it would come back to hurt them as they grew. I could not have been more wrong, and I am ashamed to even say I was against it.

 

Around the time my son was 1 or 2, I remember joking with a colleague after a drug incident at my middle school that maybe I'd homeschool some day. We laughed and chided homeschooled children whom we believed were inadequate, unsocialized, not as intelligent because "how could a parent do our job??? We were trained professionals." The following year, a student who was homeschooled was placed in my LA class. He was an excellent writer, extremely well-behaved, kind, courteous, everything you would want a student to be. Aside from my SIL's kids, I believe he was my first "test" to soften my heart.

 

After we moved to the South, I began meeting more homeschoolers and seeing they were normal, fully adjusted, and great kids. The idea of homeschooling kept creeping into my thoughts. When it was time to put my son in K, the pull toward hsing was so incredible that I knew I couldn't ignore it. I know it was a God-thing because my heart was so hard toward homeschooling before.

 

We've been homeschooling for 2 years now, and I cannot believe how wrong I was. Now, I am a firm believer in alternative education and that education is a choice for each family. I'm not anti-public school as some are, but I know it's not for my family, and I do not have a desire to return to my teaching career. I'm so thankful that we were lead in this direction. I cannot imagine doing anything else. My sons are thriving, and I am incredibly blessed that I can be with them to watch them grow.

[Lilymax]

DH and I always planned to HS our kids; even years before they were born, we said that's what we would do.

 

And everyone looked at us as though we'd sprouted a third eyeball. (LOTS of PS teachers on both sides of the family.)

 

But when DS1 was born colicky and high-needs, I began to doubt my ability to HS. Still, when he was 3, I bought a structured preschool curriculum, because I thought that's what I had to do since all his little friends were going to preschool. Well, he hated it...I hated it. We gave up after a few months. I "knew" I was a homeschooling failure.

 

We enrolled DS in the "best" local pre-K and all we got out of that were lots of tears and viruses. I pulled him out after a few months. Then DH deployed to Iraq the spring before DS1 was set to start kindergarten, and I was so scarred from our disastrous pre-K experience that I knew I didn't want to attempt kindergarten at home with a baby and a deployed dad.

 

So we enrolled him in one of the "best" private schools. He ended up being there til the middle of third grade, when bullying and a few other issues made me realize I had to give Hs'ing another try. DH had always preferred HS, but let me decide since I was the one who had to take on the bulk of the work.

 

Thankfully, God prepared us because in the year or so before we began HS, I was around some of the most amazing HS'd kids. And I had their moms pep-talking me and giving their support.

 

It's been better than I imagined--we are in our third year and DS2 has only ever been to preschool. DS3 will most likely never go to school at all. We've officially become one of "those" families and I love it!

[EKS]

Yes--at least for my own family.

[kesmom]

I was never against it, even as an elementary ed major in college. I had met some really wonderful homeschooling families during that time.

[Rhonda in TX]

No. I thought it was great, but "I could never do that." Famous last words! LOL

[TXMary2]

I don't know that I was "against" it. The first time I heard of it I was 18 and I met a woman that was homeschooling her two kids. I never had thoughts that it was weird or wondered if it were illegal. I actually thought it sounded neat because growing up I had wanted to be a teacher. Then I met other people over the years and I believe each time God was planting a seed. I do distinctly remember tellling two different homeschool mom's at different times that I "could never homeschool because my kids would drive me crazy." That wasn't true and I don't know why I said that because I loved being a stay at home mom and missed the kids while they were at school. I think I said it because I thought it was what I was supposed to say. Anyway, I learned after that to never say never!! LOL

[LND1218]

Oh yes I was totally against it.

[KrissiK]

When I was a kid in the 70's we knew one family that homeschooled their kids and they were by far the weirdest people we knew. So, I thought all homeschoolers were weird. They're still a very odd bunch. Nice people, but just.... weird! I've never really been against homeschooling, though. I just thought that if I did it my kids would turn out strange.

[Jackie in NE]

No. I thought it was great, but "I could never do that." Famous last words! LOL

 

Famous last words indeed! I swore I would never:

 

1) Homeschool

2) Return to school myself

3) Be a missionary

 

Well, I've been homeschooling for 7 years, and I am 1 yr. from away from earning my 2nd Bachelor's degree. Never say never! I wonder where God will send me for missions? :lol::lol:

[Tree House Academy]

Absolutely. My dh introduced me to a family of homeschoolers in GA. I thought he was crazy for taking me there. THEN, I met the kids. While I still wasn't sold on homeschooling as a way of life for US, I did realize that homeschoolers were not all weird and the respect, and sheer talent those kids showed was amazing. The mother was wonderful - not weird or quirky. They were just great people! I still think back on them and can see God laying the groundwork and preparing me for the journey we would eventually take. Dh was the first one to get me interested in homeschooling. I definitely held some stereotypes about homeschoolers before I met that family in GA. :)

[HRAAB]

I met my first homeschooling family shortly after dh and I were married. That being my only exposure to homeschooling, I was very opposed. Let's say I didn't my children and family resembling that family in anyway. Fortunately, I met other homeschoolers while my first two were young. They quickly changed my mind.

[Colleen in NS]

Anyone else pulled in?

 

I wasn't against it; it was just something I was never going to do. I first heard of homeschooling in the early 80s at a new church my mother took us to - almost every family there homeschooled and I thought that was weird (I was already 16 by then and very used to p.s.) - plus I thought, "Who would EVER want to teach their own kids at home??" My mother was a p.s. teacher and I had zero interest in teaching. Couldn't imagine it. When my oldest was born, my mother came to visit and was talking to a new friend of mine (a homeschooler!), answering her questions about how to teach her kids reading. Then my mother started talking about other things teaching-related and I got interested - she made teaching and learning sound like fun. I started reading up on homeschooling and the rest is history. My mother is very pro-homeschooling, too.

[sleepymommy]

I was never against it. I didn't think I could do it though, I actually use to dream about the time the boys would be in school. I wanted to go back to school or work part-time. I guess technically I could still do that, but there isn't that desire anymore.

[swellmomma]

I was never against it. I wanted to homeschool from the minute the pregnancy test showed positive. My husband was 100% against it. He said that he would 'allow' me to homeschool when I got a teaching degree. He is still my husband legally, and still mostly against it, but in the end the custody agreement cuts him out of the educational equation. I am hoping by the time the kids are entering Junior High and High school he will come around, but who knows. He still talks about the 'S' word frequently. I had to point out that just because he does not ever see them, and does not pay for any of their extra currics does not mean they are shut ins.