Homeschool population at your church?

[Revwife]

We have about 350 people in our church and we are the only homeschoolers.

[Lightly Salted]

yeah, we're almost loners, too

 

we have:

 

one hs family with 2 elementary schoolers

one hs family that uses GVA

two families who technically hs but do so through extensive M-F co-op options, one elementary, one high school

(no slam, they're just not as available for get-togethers or support as other hs'ers)

 

We have about 350 in morning service, and several public school teachers. Homeschool is misunderstood, not necessarily maligned. To complicate matters, I left my teaching position at our church's Christian school (where DH is headmaster) and withdrew our children so we could homeschool! :tongue_smilie:

Edited March 23, 2010 by Lightly Salted

[ConnieB]

Two Sunday morning, one Sunday evening service....probably 250+ at the mornings and half that at the evenings....so definitely not a small church. No school attached, but we are the only homeschool family.

 

When we were looking for a new church after moving we attended a couple of services at another church that had a school attached. When we struck up a conversation with the pastor he was quite pleasant, happy to see that we'd returned a few times.....but as soon as he mentioned the "fine school" and I politely said we homeschool, you could actually see his posture and demeanor change. I might as well have casually mentioned that we were lepers. That was our last visit there, lol. We'd already had some discussion about the wiseness of homeschooling among a congregation that support a private school on campus, but had almost convinced ourself that it wouldn't matter since we were used to be surrounded by public schoolers. Obviously we were wrong, lol.

 

 

I guess you really need to ask yourself whether it's a problem for your family....obviously for us that other church would have probably become quite a problem. At our current church I've not heard even subtle negative comments.....but while my kids enjoy Sunday School they haven't really made friends outside of church time. I think it's because most of the kids go to the nearby schools so they all know each other well from school and talk about school happenings a lot. Kinda like our kids feel about our neighborhood kids.....everyone is nice but there is just not enough bond there to really make it better. Part of it may be our fault as we haven't made it a priority to make something work....but neither have any of the neighbors.

 

All that sounds like my poor children have no friends, but that's definitely not the case.....we just have to arrange and travel for play dates with our homeschooling friends who are all over town. But it's worth it because they are of like mind when it comes to education and unlike Sunday School or neighborhood kids who object when a game or idea even hints at learning...our hs friends WANT to play learning games. We don't all subscribe to the same homeschool theory, so there is some tension occasionally (especially with the unschooling family when the kids complain about my kids having to do some school before they can get together, lol)....but it's much less tension or awkwardness than with the public school families. It's like we're unwelcome foreigners but they're trying to be polite, lol.

 

When I think about it like this it annoys me....maybe even makes me sad....but most of the time I don't bother thinking about it. I can't change them, and I'm not willing to change me....so that's how it is. I'd probably feel differently if we had no friends and make more effort, but why bother when a quick phone call and a drive one way by one parent and a return drive by the other nets a fun filled day of learning and playing together.

 

There is one of those mega churches a few miles away....attendance in the thousands each week, multiple services, multiple languages even, etc etc....and they have a HUGE homeschooling group. They even have a section of the church library that has curriculum that can be checked out and the librarian (see how big it is, our church has a plastic file box keeping track of check outs, lol) will take requests for curriculum. We went with friends to a couple services, but something about being in a nearly stadium sized building with a screen that rivals the IMAX theatre in size just made it too hard to me to feel like I was worshipping. I felt like I was there watching a concert. I'll always be a small town church goer, lol.

[Renee in NC]

Well, there's us...and then there's us. :tongue_smilie:

 

There used to be another one, but they up and moved....:tongue_smilie:

[myfatherslily]

We have alot and live in an area that's full of homeschoolers. Our church has a cover school (in Alabama, you have to be under a cover school) and there are others who are with others schools as well. We range from just starting, to almost graduating, to graduated and now homeschooling our own!

[bearnpurple]

Our church is small.....on a big Sunday we have 60. We have 15 regular attending children (including mine) and 5 of them are PS the rest are HS. I try not to say much because I don't know when/if our situation could change. My oldest did attend a christian school for 3 years before HS.

 

On a side note, even the ones whose kids are PS say they "wish they could HS".

[AndyJoy]

My church has 33 kids in K-12.

 

5 attend public school (3 families)

3 attend Christian school (1 family)

25 are homeschooled (8 families)

 

We also have 4 formerly homeschooled young adults who attend community college locally and 3 off at college.

 

I've been told that in the past there were 2 homeschooling families that looked down on anyone who didn't homeschool, but they've moved on to another church now. If you want support for homeschooling, we've got it, but those who don't are not criticized. For a while we had a homeschool PE day at the park, but it fizzled out. I'm looking at starting it up again. Most of our homeschooers are part of a non-denominational co-op.

[mommaduck]

Most ppl at our church either public or private school. We do have some homeschoolers, so we aren't the only ones. Our county is pretty evenly mixed between church schools, private schools, public schools, and homeschooling. In fact, many will homeschool the the first 6-8 years and put their children in private schools at 7th or 9th grade. We thought we were going to homeschool all the way through high school, but now are looking at private school for highschool. We have a decent sized church.

Edited March 23, 2010 by mommaduck

[Margo out of lurking]

Anyway, I was wondering what the "schooling population" was like in your churches. Hardly any homeschoolers? Mostly homeschoolers? Does your church have its own "homeschool group"?

 

I'm also curious if there is a certain ... mmm, subtle (or not-so-subtle) comparison between schooling methods. Are people who have their kids in public school looked down upon? Are people seen as "more righteous" if they homeschool?

 

We went to our church for a few months before realizing that 90% of the families homeschool. I have to say that I love that.

 

We don't have our own hs group, but with so many church families who hs, I don't feel a great need for a "group."

 

No, I don't believe there are comparisons. There are a few families who have put their kids in ps, but I don't think they are looked down upon at ALL. Who's to say how the Lord is leading another's family? Wow.

[dangermom]

There are 5 congregations of my church in town. Not very many people homeschool, probably 1 or 2 families per congregation. I'm the only permanent homeschooler in my congregation right now, but a friend of mine is hs'ing her daughter just for this year.

[Heather in OK]

There are two other families that I know of.

 

And I've tried reaching out to both suggesting maybe we could get our kids together. Neither seemed interested at all. And I've tried chatting with them more (even a simple "Hi") and they just don't seem interested in even talking. *shrug*

 

Maybe I should shower more?

[prairiegirl]

We are the only homeschooling family in our church.

[Mrs Mungo]

There are quite a few in my church. But, they all use Sonlight of TOG and most are a particular flavor of homeschooler. Therefore, in our case, we sort of stand out more than we would if there were no homeschoolers.

[mom4him]

To my knowledge it is our pastor's family and us that hs. We have had several new families start coming in the last couple of months so I am not sure about them.

Our church probably runs around50-75 on Sunday Morning.

I have never felt any anti's towards school choice regardless of what it is. It was not that way with the church the my dc and I left last summer. They have a school in that church, my oldest ds and husband work at the church and I always felt like many of the leadership felt that we should have our dc in THEIR school.

Nope, noda, no way!

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

We used to be the only ones. Now there is one other family. There is also a young family of which the father is a former homeschooled student.

 

When we first started going there, eleven years ago, there was some confusion about us and we got grilled about socialization a few times. Now we are part of the scenery.

 

Now me, I wonder what the 6 plus public school employees think of us. But I don't ask. :-)

Edited March 23, 2010 by Virginia Dawn

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Our experience has been all across the board.

 

-Here in onbase chapel in Japan - several of my homeschool friends attend chapel (actually all of last year's and this year's support group board members are/were part of our chapel service). I would say that is mostly because the lady who kept the support group going reached out to her friends to help her out. Maybe 10-25% of the families with school kids homeschool, but there are also a lot of families with preschool age kids and single sailors.

 

-Hawaii - Homeschoolers weren't a majority, but they were sizable. Lots of support from fellow homeschoolers (who included several active members of state and local support organizations and homeschool activity groups (debate, First Lego League, honor society, etc). There were a couple homeschool families on the elders board, but none of the pastors homeschooled.

 

Germany - Only homeschool family in our church. Only American family in our church. Homeschooling was not a legal option for the German families. I would say that they were rather befuddled but curious. (We used to laugh and say that we were considered oddballs but we were THEIR oddballs.)

 

The church that we first went to as a married couple had a private school that was venerable enough that the senior pastor had graduated from it in one of the early classes. The school was quite good. But there were also a lot of homeschoolers. They had a support group of fellow church members. They also organized some low key coop classes that met during the women's weekly Bible study time. The church library did a lot to support homeschooling by making sure that it stocked books that would be of interest to homeschoolers (from how to books to good literature to science books). We weren't homeschooling at the time, so I can't say how it felt to homeschoolers. I can say that we began to consider homeschooling because we liked the models that families there presented.

 

We've never been part of a church that preached that homeschooling was a requirement.

[Kirch]

We're the only ones in church of 125-150. We have a lot of public school employees in our membership, but it's never been an issue. I've never had anyone question us about homeschooling or imply anything negative at all. In fact, I'm on staff at the church, along with the pastor and youth pastor, who are both teachers in the ps district. Both of them are fine with hs'ing--the youth pastor and his wife are actually considering hs'ing their oldest next year. We have a wonderful, loving church, though--I'm not surprised that we don't get any grief about it.

[i.love.lucy]

We're new to our church and I'd say there are a bunch of us. I just found out the pastor's family hs, and my dd's SS teacher, and many of the kids in her class. It's not a huge church, but seems like a bunch of us.

 

But we didn't pick it for that reason. It's just kinda been a perk as we get to know more people, especially for my kids.

[mommyrooch]

We are the only homeschooling family in our church. Everyone is accepting of us there though. In fact, my sons best friend is the music ministers son whom happens to go to public school.

 

I have found that I fit in WAY more with my public schooling church crowd than I fit in with my homeschooling crowd. ;) I am judged less by my public schooling church than I am by my fellow homeschoolers. :glare:

 

Things that make you go hmmm. :001_huh: :lol:

[MyThreeSons]

but that's changed over the years. We've always had a mix of homeschool, public school and Christian school kids in our church. At one time, it was probably about 80% homeschool. There are more public schoolers now; I don't know of any in Christian school. A couple of families have some kids at home, some in public school. Interestingly, though, the youth group (7th thru 12th grades) has only one public school student.

 

Right now, I think everyone is of the mind "what works best for your family is great". We did have some pretty vocal anti-homeschoolers in the past.

[Jenny in GA]

 

I have found that I fit in WAY more with my public schooling church crowd than I fit in with my homeschooling crowd. ;) I am judged less by my public schooling church than I am by my fellow homeschoolers. :glare:

 

Things that make you go hmmm. :001_huh: :lol:

 

 

Could you please elaborate on that? Sounds intriguing ... :bigear:

Jenny

[*********]

All of the families in our homechurch fellowship homeschool. We have between 50-75 people who attend every week. :)

[chiguirre]

There are 5000 families (but a "family" doesn't necessarily have school aged kids) registered at our parish. My guess is less than 50 hs. There is a hs group, though.

[kdeno]

used to be exclusively (almost) home educated families . Now a few are sending their children to Christian School so I would say 60% homeschool. There is absolutely no tension or "superiority" or either side.

[Hedgehogs4]

In a church of about 500 we are one of 8 families that hs. Most of the families are considered the "leadership" of the church. We are really well respected, given all the hard "leadership" type things to do, regularly praised by the clergy as being mature, having the greatest kids, "what you do is so great..." but they don't listen to us when we have any input about family / youth / children's ministries!!! i just don't get it. they want us to do all the work, but don't want any of our opinions. they say, "we wish everyone was where you are, but they aren't and you know..." (basically, don't change the way we've been doing things for a really long time.)

[CalicoKat]

100% homeschoolers. We just started attending a home church. There are 10 families involved, everyone homeschools. And we're the smallest family and we have 5 kids.

 

It's kind of refreshing to not be the oddity.

[TravelingChris]

We are in a church that has families that homeschool and families that don't. We also have lots of couples past school aged children, singles, and young marrieds without children or with little ones to young to homeschool. So out of the families with school aged children, probably about half or maybe a third homeschool. The homeschool families tend to have more children so it depends how you count them. Many others have children in private schools.

[SquirrellyMama]

I'm not sure what the numbers would be but we have a large homeschooling population at our church. I think all of our pastors and their families homeschool.

 

Kelly

[TravelingChris]

I should add that while we don't choose churches with how many homeschoolers go there, we make sure that churches we attend/become members have a welcoming attitude towards homeschoolers. That can mean that it isn't mentioned but it can't be negative. Our church in FL had mostly public schoolers but was very welcoming of homeschoolers and did have two other families. In Belgium, the chaplain was homeschooling as well as a number of other families though others were in schools (American, Belgian or Canadian). In NM, we were one of the few homeschoolers but again everyone was welcoming. CA was where we had a problem. There I left a church when the interim minister compared homeschoolers to terrorists.

[Orthodox6]

Our parish population has fluctuated greatly over the past 5-6 years. I don't know how many we "number" now -- maybe 250 people? maybe 300? At any rate, ours is the only homeschooling family. The other family moved to a different parish. We have been in this parish since January 1997, though, so everyone knows us. Only once did some snobby attitude clobber us, and that was from a visitor.

[charlotteb]

I would say that about 1/3 of the kids at my church are homeschooled. Both of mine are, the kids' church director has 4 that are hs, and I can think of 2 or 3 more families that also homeschool. We don't have a huge amount of kids at our church- maybe 30. So yeah, about 10 are hs.

[cathmom]

There used to be another one, but they up and moved....:tongue_smilie:

 

Yes, can you believe the nerve of those people?????

 

:lol:

[mrs.m]

well, it's pretty much just a few of us. I go to a church of 2000 people attending weekly. It's possible that there's some families I don't know. But in the women's ministry, there's only 4 families. For the most part people act like they feel sorry for me because I have my kids all the time. Sometimes, I feel sorry for me too. LOL! But it isn't more righteous to be a homeschooler in our church nor is it to send your kids to school.

[mommyrooch]

Could you please elaborate on that? Sounds intriguing ... :bigear:

Jenny

 

Well, it seems that most homeschoolers around here are extremely conservative in their views. Us, not so much. ;)

 

For example, I allow my children to read Harry Potter and the Lightning Thief series. Most of our fellow homeschoolers think this is an abomination. :D We enjoy all kinds of music including many secular artists. Our fellow homeschoolers listen to nothing but Christian music. My kids watch Hannah Montana, Spongebob and I Carly. Needless to say, their kids don't. Every single homeschooler I personally know believes in Young Earth Creation. We believe in an old earth. To top all of this off these people are convinced we are wrong and don't hesitate to tell us that. :glare:

 

Things like this make us feel like we are square pegs trying to fit into round holes. Like I said, we really don't fit in with them.

 

Our church friends however (whom send their kids to public school) accept us for who we are and they don't judge us. While we disagree on some things they don't make us feel like we are somehow lessor than them and wrong because we have different views than them. My kids have way more in common with their church friends than they do with their homeschooling friends.

 

It's because of this general acceptance that we feel more comfortable with this group even though we homeschool. :)

[GWOB]

We attend an LCMS church, a denomination not know for homeschoolers. Our church is a pretty good size for our area, with an average attendance of about 150 on Sunday morning. We have one other homeschooling family that attends. Our children adore one another. We do have a lot of ps teachers, former teachers, education professors at the local teacher college, and even a former superintendant. Some people think we are weird, but the former superintendant asked me to be on our board of education (I felt so incredibly honored). I have had another mom ask me about hsing, so I do feel respected. I find the LCMS church to find education very important, so the idea of me educating my children is perfectly fine with everyone.

[GWOB]

Well, it seems that most homeschoolers around here are extremely conservative in their views. Us, not so much. ;)

 

For example, I allow my children to read Harry Potter and the Lightning Thief series. Most of our fellow homeschoolers think this is an abomination. :D We enjoy all kinds of music including many secular artists. Our fellow homeschoolers listen to nothing but Christian music. My kids watch Hannah Montana, Spongebob and I Carly. Needless to say, their kids don't. Every single homeschooler I personally know believes in Young Earth Creation. We believe in an old earth. To top all of this off these people are convinced we are wrong and don't hesitate to tell us that. :glare:

 

Things like this make us feel like we are square pegs trying to fit into round holes. Like I said, we really don't fit in with them.

 

Our church friends however (whom send their kids to public school) accept us for who we are and they don't judge us. While we disagree on some things they don't make us feel like we are somehow lessor than them and wrong because we have different views than them. My kids have way more in common with their church friends than they do with their homeschooling friends.

 

It's because of this general acceptance that we feel more comfortable with this group even though we homeschool. :)

 

Oh crap! That sounds like us! Do others think we are freaks? (I do keep my OEC beliefs under-cover for the very reason you mentioned.)

[mommyrooch]

Oh crap! That sounds like us! Do others think we are freaks? (I do keep my OEC beliefs under-cover for the very reason you mentioned.)

 

When a couple of homeschooling moms heard that I take my kids to our local museum of natural history (dinosaurs, evolution and old earth views) they acted as if I were a raving lunatic. :willy_nilly: Judging by their reactions you would have thought that I was taking my kids down to the local bar during happy hour. :lol: Needless to say, I don't share our field trip expeditions with them anymore. :D

 

I have found that it is only other homeschoolers that think we're freaks. Surprisingly, we fit in quite well with the secular crowd. ;)

 

It is tough (at least around here) to be a Christian homeschooler because apparantly if you aren't the "right kind" of Christian homeschooler you might as well not claim you are Christian at all. :glare:

 

Very condemning and intolerant behaviors indeed! :toetap05:

[GWOB]

When a couple of homeschooling moms heard that I take my kids to our local museum of natural history (dinosaurs, evolution and old earth views) they acted as if I were a raving lunatic. :willy_nilly: Judging by their reactions you would have thought that I was taking my kids down to the local bar during happy hour. :lol: Needless to say, I don't share our field trip expeditions with them anymore. :D

 

I have found that it is only other homeschoolers that think we're freaks. Surprisingly, we fit in quite well with the secular crowd. ;)

 

It is tough (at least around here) to be a Christian homeschooler because apparantly if you aren't the "right kind" of Christian homeschooler you might as well not claim you are Christian at all. :glare:

 

Very condemning and intolerant behaviors indeed! :toetap05:

 

Yep. The other hser at our church loaned me CHOW. She warned me of the "questionable" content in the first few chapters. I read them and thought "How is this NOT Christian?" I love our local hs group ladies, but will keep my Creation beliefs to myself.

[mommyrooch]

Yep. The other hser at our church loaned me CHOW. She warned me of the "questionable" content in the first few chapters. I read them and thought "How is this NOT Christian?" I love our local hs group ladies, but will keep my Creation beliefs to myself.

 

Boy do I feel you.

 

I was talking to a fellow homeschooling mom the other day about books we had read and were reading. Now keep in mind that I am VERY careful about what I share so I truly "thought" I was in safe waters when I mentioned a particular book we were reading.

 

It was Old Yeller! I honestly thought before the words even came out of my mouth that I was safe with that admission. Boy was I wrong!! :blink: Apparantly, Old Yeller is very dark and something that she just wouldn't let her kids read. :huh: Her kids are the same age as mine. 11 and 8.

 

I would have never in my wildest dreams imagined that Old Yeller would be too dark for an 11 and an 8 year old? :confused:

 

I then made the grave mistake of mentioning that Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were on our agenda and that cinched the deal for her. I had instantly become a heathen mother in her eyes. Those books have some curse words in them afterall. :D

 

This is the kind of condemning c**p that I have to deal with all the time. I do not care if they agree with me or not. To each their own. That part doesn't bother me. It is that they treat us like we are non-Christian sinners just because we don't do things the way they do. That really chaps my hide. :mad:

 

This is why I too check all discussions about my religious beliefs at the door. :)

[Peaceful Isle]

We are the only homeschool family in our church. I used to be a teacher in a Christian school, but then pulled my dd out of school to homeschool her about a year ago. Best choice I ever made.

Our family is so much closer, and my children are ahead in their education. Every one is different in their choices though, and i don't judge others;).

I have gotten a few questions form our church people, and I am sure some think we are weird for homeschooling, but I guess I'm too "stupid" to care what people think of me. I just happily go on my way with confidence !:)

[Tonia]

We're the only homeschooling family in our congregation of 60-70 people. The assistant pastor's kids are in the local christian school and the other kids attend public school. Wish we had a few more homeschoolers.

[LittleIzumi]

Our homeschooling population is me :lol:. Maybe 200 people total?

[Lilymax]

Interesting to see that there are so many others who are the only homeschoolers in their church.

 

That's the case with us. In my former church, there were four or five HSing families. But we're the only ones in this church of about 100. A couple of kids go to Christian private school, but the rest are in public school. One of the PS moms mentioned that she was homeschooled as a child and that is why she has hers in PS. :confused: I'm sure there's a story there, but she's not the friendliest person on the planet and I don't want to ask why she's against HSing her own kids....though I am curious! LOL

[Crimson Wife]

Interesting to see that there are so many others who are the only homeschoolers in their church.

 

It makes sense when you consider that at most 5% of school-aged kids are HS. And how it's fairly common for HS families to be unaffiliated with a traditional house of worship-some are secular, some are "spiritual but not religious", some are "homechurching", etc.

[Tap]

Ours has a lot of homeschoolers and like yours, the church is also a private school. It is fairly common to homeschool in our area so it would almost be a rarity to find a church that didn't have a lot of homeschoolers.

[sassenach]

We are the only ones. I don't feel weird about it, and no one else is weird about it. I think that the culture of our area lends to that. We live in an extremely live and let live area. I think most people strive to not cast judgements on the way that others choose to live their lives. It makes ministry tricky (dh is the pastor), but day to day life pretty smooth.

[sassenach]

Interesting to see that there are so many others who are the only homeschoolers in their church.

 

That's the case with us. In my former church, there were four or five HSing families. But we're the only ones in this church of about 100. A couple of kids go to Christian private school, but the rest are in public school. One of the PS moms mentioned that she was homeschooled as a child and that is why she has hers in PS. :confused: I'm sure there's a story there, but she's not the friendliest person on the planet and I don't want to ask why she's against HSing her own kids....though I am curious! LOL

 

I have a friend who was homeschooled and chooses not to hs her own. She feels that she was shortchanged academically, and I would have to agree. She now lacks the confidence to hs her own, even though she can see that many kids benefit.