Poll: when did you consider yourself a homeschooler?

[kalanamak]

I said preschool, because I started planning way back when. Even if kiddo was just moving around magnet-letters on the fridge, I was boning up on basic math, grammar, and phonics.

[scrappyhappymama]

I spent a ridonculous amount of money on A Beka K4 for my oldest son, so even though he was only 4, I consider myself to have been homeschooling since then. We also joined a homeschooling group that year that allowed even preschool aged homeschoolers (without older siblings). And we fully intended to continue to homeschool (and have) into the traditional schooling years.

 

But, I do have friends that started out "homeschooling" in the preschool years and either decided not to continue or never planned to homeschool for K and beyond. And I don't really consider them to be homeschoolers. I think a plan doesn't necessarily constitute a label. Many other folks I know planned to send their kids to public school, and maybe even sent their kids to Montessori or another preschool, but then changed their minds and decided to homeschool for K. I'd consider them to be homeschoolers, not public schoolers, regardless of their preschool choices.

[lailasmum]

Other because we really decided to home educate when our dd was born and never involved our selves in the community that had their kids in nursery/ preschool and schools, we felt that we were home educators from day 1 and never had a sudden day that we began home educating.

[happypamama]

We have always intended to homeschool, so I have considered myself a homeschooler from the day my oldest was born, or even earlier, but I guess technically, I've been a homeschooler since DD was 3 and didn't go to preschool.

[s.z.ichigo]

I'm going to vote "other" because it was our intention to homeschool before our daughter was even conceived. I believe that intention is enough to label yourself, if you choose to. :001_smile:

[Nestof3]

I think the issue here is that some people are more influenced by what governing authorities say than others are. I personally would never determine whether I am really homeschooling based on whether the public or private schools think my children are of schooling age. Some people just seem much more dependent upon the opinions of authorities involved in other educational models.

[RahRah]

The day when we realized sending DS to K based on age was not going to work for him, that waiting another year to start K meant he was going to be bored silly in K, that sealed the deal for us!

 

Before that we were doing things, but I didn't consider it "homeschooling", just life here in our home....since starting K though, there is a purpose, goals, and schedules to do, specifics to learn and do, etc., so now we "homeschool"

Edited June 22, 2011 by RahRah

[twoforjoy]

I think the issue here is that some people are more influenced by what governing authorities say than others are. I personally would never determine whether I am really homeschooling based on whether the public or private schools think my children are of schooling age. Some people just seem much more dependent upon the opinions of authorities involved in other educational models.

 

I'm not sure that's it, so much as what a parent considers part of parenting, and what they consider "schooling." When my DS was preschool age, he attended preschool for about a year, and the rest of the time was home. I didn't consider myself a "homeschooler," because we weren't doing anything I considered above and beyond normal parenting stuff. I read to him a lot, I sang him nursery rhymes, I did some prereading stuff, we went for lots of nature walks, but to me that was just parenting.

 

When I started adding in formal education, then to me that was homeschooling. It's my job as a parent, at least in my mind, to read to my child. It's not necessarily my job as a parent, in modern society, to teach him fractions. So, when I'm doing that, I feel like I'm homeschooling and not simply parenting.

 

I think maybe it has less to do with reliance upon what the authorities say than upon the ways we think about parenting and educating, and how much we see the two as distinct.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I didn't consider myself a "homeschooler," because we weren't doing anything I considered above and beyond normal parenting stuff. I read to him a lot, I sang him nursery rhymes, I did some prereading stuff, we went for lots of nature walks, but to me that was just parenting.

.

 

But some of us did do more than what is normal parenting stuff. In my case, it was because my ds is accelerated. He was constantly pushing, pushing, pushing for more and to give it to him, we did do school. It wasn't onerous but it was school.

[littlebug42]

I voted preschool age because my oldest dd was ready for K stuff (and could read already) when she was 4 getting ready to turn 5. However, she missed the school cutoff by 30 days because of her birthday. We just began K that year anyway. I did not have to notify for her yet though.

[twoforjoy]

But some of us did do more than what is normal parenting stuff. In my case, it was because my ds is accelerated. He was constantly pushing, pushing, pushing for more and to give it to him, we did do school. It wasn't onerous but it was school.

 

Right. I'm just saying that I don't think it's so much that people are saying "I won't consider it school until the government says it is" as people having different lines for when what they are doing moves from routine parenting stuff to "doing school," and at what age they make that transition.

[mountainman]

Since birth.

[Nestof3]

Oh, I completely agree that this is what makes many people decide when he or she is homeschooling. My point was that if a person bases his or her status of homeschooling on whether the child is of mandatory school age (determined by some governing authority), my only conclusion is that it is the opinion of the governing authority that determines the validity of the homeschooling.

 

I'm not sure that's it, so much as what a parent considers part of parenting, and what they consider "schooling." When my DS was preschool age, he attended preschool for about a year, and the rest of the time was home. I didn't consider myself a "homeschooler," because we weren't doing anything I considered above and beyond normal parenting stuff. I read to him a lot, I sang him nursery rhymes, I did some prereading stuff, we went for lots of nature walks, but to me that was just parenting.

 

When I started adding in formal education, then to me that was homeschooling. It's my job as a parent, at least in my mind, to read to my child. It's not necessarily my job as a parent, in modern society, to teach him fractions. So, when I'm doing that, I feel like I'm homeschooling and not simply parenting.

 

I think maybe it has less to do with reliance upon what the authorities say than upon the ways we think about parenting and educating, and how much we see the two as distinct.

[mhgillil]

I chose 'Other.' I was a homeschooled student, K-12. My DH and I do not have kids yet, but we decided before we were married that we are going to homeschool. I guess I'm a pre-homeschooler now? lol

[breadnbutter]

Well I knew I was going to homeschool from the beginning so it was hard for me to pinpoint. Milestone one: Buying the first little learning workbook. Milestone two: When she was preschool age and asked hundred times over about if she's going to preschool and having to answer, no, we're not sending her to preschool. Milestone 3: Yep I remember that day seeing the Kindergarten bus drive by on the first day of school while my kiddos looked out the window..... Milestone 4: Spending over a hundred dollars in one order for "real" curriculum.