so what made u to decide to homeschool your children

[Purple Sage]

Ours is kind of a long story. My public school experience was absolutely miserable. I thought it was because of a smaller school and that made me more a target of bullying, so thought a big city school would be better.

 

Oldest DS went to Kindergarten because that was what people do. I hadn't really even considered home schooling at that time. We enrolled him in a Charter school and the first day of school I took him and had a really weird vibe from the school..his teacher was wearing a gay pride shirt, which kind of bothered me that it was necessary to flaunt whatever that was at school! Then when I tried to leave he got hysterical and wouldn't let me. That first day of school I stayed there all day and when it was time to leave he had a poster of pictures cut out of the magazine of "kinds of families" of course including every "kind" if you know what I mean. That night he sobbed and cried and begged not to go back. So we went to our local public school and enrolled him there. It was okay for K and 1st. In second grade he had a teacher that was unbelievably lazy and refused to accommodate any of his needs (ADHD and Asperger's with giftedness) and would call me nearly every day saying he was doing "disruptive things" like picking rocks from his shoes after his work was done. (well give him something to keep him busy, DUH!). Then third grade the bullying got worse and worse and I found out that he was reading very poorly and his teacher was reading stories out loud to the class rather than having them read them just because the "question phase went more quickly that way".

 

That was the final straw there. By then my younger one was in K and had tested as highly gifted but they wouldn't skip him a grade but he was always in trouble for jumping in with answers so he was deprived recess for knowing too much! Both my kids had been tested and qualified for a gifted charter program so we pulled them the week before Valentines day and put them in the gifted school. They thrived there! It was great, they progressed really well, learned a lot, and I don't have any complaints about that school.

 

The year my oldest finished 6th grade though, the pulled the 6th grade from that school. He was supposed to go on to Junior high but had developed epilepsy and they wouldn't accommodate him passing in the halls at a different time to avoid all the chaos and risk of him going down in a drop seizure when 2000 kids were in the halls. Plus, we toured many different junior high schools and the language, behavior and attitudes that we saw from the kids AND THE TEACHERS was appalling! One principal was giving us a tour and a kid walked by saying *** this and *** that. I looked at her and said "do you want to deal with that?" And her answer was "we don't even have the resources to start addressing language like that, that isn't even a big deal". That was it. I told her she wasn't getting MY kid, and we started to pursue home schooling.

 

Every day of 7th grade with my oldest he came more alive and his spark got brighter, I hadn't even realized how much the social aspect of school drained out of my little aspie! Like the social stuff took so much energy that he didn't have any left to enjoy life!

 

During that time my younger one went to the GT school in 4th grade. At the end of 4th they tested him and said that he was too advanced for their 5th grade and he needed to go on into junior high...at 10 years old! Not a chance of that, so he came home and is doing 6th grade at home this year and we love it most days!

 

They use the K12 curriculum through COVA but next year the oldest will be doing a different model for high school and if that is as frustrating as the K12 model has been as far as deadlines etc, then we will be going it on our own...though I am totally intimidated by that!

 

Sorry this is so long, but it was a long process for us!

[LazyDazy]

We moved to an area where the schools are scary (read-dangerous). Yes, even elementary school. People here either A) pay for private school B) homeschool while they are the waiting list for private school C) homeschool or D) take their chances with a school district where less than 30 percent of the students are reading on grade level. This added to the fact the one of our sons hated school and had an IEP that took us a full school year to get. We just didn't think we could fight that battle again. So we homeschool and our son is finally to the point where he doesn't feel like he's "stupid"; he is finally experiencing the joys of learning. He has no plans to return to ps...ever!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

We live in California. Do we need another reason?

We live in California and we are conservative Christians. I never thought I'd homeschool, but when ds1 was 6months we started paying more attention what was going on in the schools politically. We heard about Harvey Milk day (which was passed into law recently) and how he would be taught to kids in KINDERGARTEN, and that "alternative lifestyles" was to be taught as a moral choice.

 

Both my husband and I grew up in the CA ps system (though I did middle school out of state in a private school) and we knew it was bad. Then we found WTM and we realized what a great education we could give our kids!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

t.. but my job.. what I gonna do wih my job.......

 

I don't know what you do, but my husband and I looked at the numbers, and we figured out that we saved money with me staying home. With 2 kids daycare age there was no way I could make enough to afford it, we didn't have anyone who could watch the kids, and we didn't want them in a state funded place. We save money not needing a second car/insurance/gas expenses. I didn't need nicer clothes. I made more food from scratch rather than buying more expensive, quicker foods.

 

Try to see if you can manage on one income. It requires some sacrifice, but it can be worth it.

[applesing]

I am a former teacher and had never considered homeschooling until I taught at a public school. At that school, I saw violence, drug use and apathy toward learning. It was very eye opening!

 

Fast forward a few years, and when our oldest was 4 years old, we moved to what is known as the best school district in our county. I did extensive research in order to find a school system that would work well for us. We really wanted public school to be a good fit for our children, because, frankly, I was NOT interested in homeschooling.

 

So we sent eldest DD to all day kindergarten. This child had been reading for 1.5 years at that point, and all of a sudden, she was too tired (after school) to enjoy reading. She came home cranky and irritable. She would get "stomach aches" at school and need to be sent home. She was bored at school. Stress. The teacher was too busy to provide enrichment or challenging work for her. I saw that the activities I was doing with my 3 year old at home were more interesting and thought provoking than what they were doing with the 5 year olds at school. The kindergarteners were shown movies (many of them PG) on a daily basis during the late fall, winter and rainy spring days. All in all, it was a huge waste of time for DD and for our family.

 

In the middle of her K year, I researched private schools. They were way too expensive for us. In desperation, I prayed to God that if He wanted me to homeschool, he would need to give me the desire. I started reading books about homeschooling, and God blessed me with such a passion for their education. I learned about all of the different approaches to home education and found that it was so much richer than what I'd been taught at the School of Education in college. We started afterschooling the spring of DD's K year and began homeschooling beginning with 1st grade. That was 3 years ago.

 

I am now inspired by homeschooling and by helping my children learn. I am inspired when I see the free time that they now have, the friendships they are developing with each other and the quality of information they are learning. My husband and I have sacrificed a great deal financially in order to do this (in fact, finances are sometimes scary), but we are giving our children a rich childhood and are giving them the blessing of time together. Deciding to homeschool is the best decision we have ever made for our family.