Do most hs b/c of educational reasons?

[Soror]

Many to most HS parents, degreed or not, have a real love and passion for life-long learning.

I have to quote newbie bumblesmama :) from the, "The Smartest Kids" thread. This has not been my experience at all. It seems actually the vast majority of parents hs for religious or social reasons where I live. Around here the prevalent attitude is that anything you do at home is better then what is done in ps. So, where you live why do most people hs?

[elegantlion]

Other people? I don't really know. I assume religious reasons, family control of education, but I don't really know. 

 

We started homeschooling because we wanted some freedom of time and choice. I continue to homeschool high school because of educational reasons. I try to tell myself it's not because 6:45 is a godawful too early time to put a tired teenager on a bus. 

[Farrar]

I think that's true of people on this board.

 

I think it's true of people I know irl... But I don't know if it's true for most homeschoolers or not. I agree that polls I've seen imply that religious reasons are most important. And I know there are many who homeschool because ps didn't work for their child, who aren't necessarily driven to learn more in that way.

[8filltheheart]

We sort of fell into homeschooling and had never heard of it before we started. We started simply bc our oldest ds had lost his spot on the K class in a private school. (Ps has never been an option for ou kids.)

 

We continue bc of both academic and religious reasons.

[NittanyJen]

The people I hang out with do it for mostly academic reasons, but the religious folks are out there too.

[ErinE]

In the US, it depends upon the region. In one state I lived previously, the overwhelming majority of homeschoolers were definitely motivated by religion, but the schools were good. In another state, the schools were so awful, academics were the reason for homeschooling. Another state, the schools are okay, there is some religious feeling, but again, it's not as overt as the first place I mentioned. Where I live now, it's about 1/3 split between religion, family life, and academics. The schools are excellent, but there are real problems with bullying and peer pressure.

[ErinE]

Other people? I don't really know. I assume religious reasons, family control of education, but I don't really know. 

 

We started homeschooling because we wanted some freedom of time and choice. I continue to homeschool high school because of educational reasons. I try to tell myself it's not because 6:45 is a godawful too early time to put a tired teenager on a bus. 

 

But wouldn't he be working on his argumentation skills trying to convince you he should stay asleep?  :tongue_smilie:

 

I hear you. Homeschooling high school is still far away, but if we return to PS, I dread the early mornings.

[Ellie]

I think if there were 100 homeschoolers in a room, there would be 200 reasons for homeschooling. :D

 

I guess you could say the root reason was educational. We enrolled our dd in a private Christian school because we had no confidence in the public schools to actually educate our children. We took our dd out of the private Christian school during Easter break of first grade because she was just.burned.out.

 

It was several years before I had any sort of religious reasons for homeschooling, but really, I don't think I could choose just one. It's all of them--educational, social, religious.

[EKS]

In my area, I'd say that the minority homeschool for purely academic reasons. 

[TracyP]

I homeschool mostly for academic reasons.

 

The relationship aspect is #2, and a surprise to me. I love spending the day with my kids. I always heard and bought into the "uggh, it's summer. What am I going to do with the kids?" attitude. So this wasn't on my radar when I started, but has now crept pretty high in my list.

 

Teaching my religious/moral values is important to me, but not the reason I homeschool.

 

In my area, religious and academic reasons are definitely the top two. If I had to guess, I would say religion is the more common reason.

[Parrothead]

I know when homeschooling was beginning one was either a crunchy hippy type or an uber religious family. This has changed over the last few decades. People started looking at homeschooling as a way to get their kids out of bad schools. Bad being subjective. It could be one is in a decent school district but the parents are still not satisfied. Bad could also mean violence, subpar academics and drug problems.

 

Personally we started homeschooling for academic reasons. Our faith does now play a part, as does the fact when we finally landed in a place the schools don't meet my standards.

[Hwin]

I'm hardheaded and wasn't willing to do things the school's way.

 

Now I homeschool for mostly educational reasons, but I am also glad that we are able to infuse our faith into little guy's education.

[*lifeoftheparty*]

We live in a very "educated" area- suburb of DC and Baltimore- a LOT of people work for the government. Median income is $90K. We have great schools here, tons of blue ribbons. And we do Classical Conversations- which is huge around here.

 

A majority of the people I know homeschool because they have a love for learning and want the best education possible for their children. They can't afford private school, or wouldn't choose it anyways, so they homeschool. They are passionate about it. They excel at it. They produce phenomenal children :)

 

I have only attended one co-op here that was made up of people who only hs'ed b/c "anything done at home is better than public school". They were nice people, but had very low standards of academics and manners/behavior. We lasted half a year. It has since ended, that mindset is just not prevalent here. That *I* know of.

 

I have never met homeschoolers who hs'ed purely for religious reasons- and we are Christians and have been homeschooling almost 5 years.

[Dmmetler]

I homeschool because there is no school in the area that meets my DD's specific needs. She's highly asynchronous and would be alternately bored and frustrated by the expectations in a traditional classroom. Most of the HSers I associate with regularly are in a similar boat-we have kids who either had IEPs in PS or would have/need them and HSing lets us customize the education to fit the child, instead of making the child fit the education. And while most of us have come to enjoy HSing for it's own sake and benefits, if a new school opens, we're at least looking at it to see if maybe, just maybe, this one might work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lllll]

..

[Dana]

For us, we were discussing homeschool when ds was in a half day kindergarten. Then he had his anaphylaxis, and we chose to homeschool for health reasons. We had some really rough times the first couple years and if his allergies weren't so severe, I'd have put him in school.

 

At this point, we homeschool more for academics, but we definitely started for health.

 

Most of the coops around here though do have statements of faith that I won't sign, so I'd imagine that many here homeschool for religious reasons.

[ErinE]

 

The relationship aspect is #2, and a surprise to me. I love spending the day with my kids. I always heard and bought into the "uggh, it's summer. What am I going to do with the kids?" attitude. So this wasn't on my radar when I started, but has now crept pretty high in my list.

 

This was a surprise to me as well. We started out for academic and family life reasons, but building a different relationship with my kids has been wonderful. There are still days when I need alone time, but I love being with my children.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Everyone I know either homeschools for religious reasons, because their children aren't getting the accomodations they need in PS, bad schools in their area, or bullying, in that order. I'm the only person I know at this point homeschooling primarily because I think I can give her a really awesome education and am against what standardized tests have turned schools into. 

[swellmomma]

Within the small group of homeschoolers in this area that made it to the latest support group meeting.  2 did so for the flexibility so their kids could pursue higher level opportunities they couldn't otherwise do.  3 of us did so for academic reasons.  the other 5 were for religious/social reasons.  It is very evidenced in the type of education being provided by each family.

When I started homeschooling it was simply to save my son.  He was suicidal at 7 thanks to ps.  I had been wanting to hs him for academic reasons but I  began just to save him.  All these years later, his counsellor concurs, keep him home if I want to focus on academics, or send him to ps if I want to focus on social issues.  As a kid with impairments to social skills that is where the ps could help, but he would academically fail.  Clearly I have still chosen academics as the top priority.

[Mandy in TN]

There have been threads that discussed the changing face of homeschooling and I definitely think it is changing. However, in my area MidTN, you saw a real explosion of homeschoolers when the economy tanked. People who in the past would have sent their children to private schools no longer had that money to do so. There has also been an explosion of a academic tutorial that are set up like one or two day per week classrooms where kids are divided by age, the kids sit in desks or in chairs at tables, and the information covered is of the basic educational variety. For example, this can also be seen in the incredible explosion of Classical Conversations. With this in mind, I would say that a while back a group of would-be private school parents could not afford private schools. They found home education to be an acceptable and much cheaper alternative, set up a system of support through tutorials modeled on classrooms, the word got out, and the situation snowballed.

 

In my area it just happens that most of these families are conservative Christian families and most of the support is exclusive, provided from and to Christian groups. (and by exclusive I mean that to participate you would need to sign a statement of faith, provide information about your home church, and maybe even present a letter or signed document from your pastor. Often high school students are expect to write something explaining their personal relationship with Jesus Christ.)

 

Anyway, many of these families may say that they are homeschooling for educational reasons, but clearly religion and keeping their kids in environments that reflect their particular flavor of Christianity to the excussion of anyone different is a huge side benefit. A benefit that large private Christian schools can often no longer afford to provide.

 

The year Doodle was born I was going to stay home with him. Since I was going to be home anyway, I decided to homeschool my middle ds who was behind where his private school wanted him to be and I felt would benefit from some one-on-one. His teacher was very supportive of this plan. I had no intention to homeschool my oldest, but the week before school started he asked if he could stay home too. I didn't want him to remember that year as the year middle ds got to stay home with mom and the new baby while he was packed off to school. So, at the eleventh hour I hurriedly bought stuff for him and he also stayed home. At the end of the year, we decided that we enjoyed it and it worked for our family, so we did it again the next year. We went year to year until the oldest hit high school.

 

So, I decided to start homeschooling for an educational reason and kept homeschooling because it was a good fit for our family. I do think I did a better job academically than the public schools and really even the private schools for K-6. In 7-12 I just don't know that I did. They have science labs, foreign language instruction, and math teachers with a much stronger background than I have. Sure, I outsourced and this all was a really good fit for my oldest. My middle probably would have done just as well in a traditional classroom. For reasons that are not at all academic, it was still a good fit for my family. :)

 

HTH-

Mandy

[KrissiK]

There's not just one reason we homeschool. There are a bunch. Educational quality of public schools, religious reasons, the fact that my kids would probably be labeled ADD in public schools, don't want to be tied to their schedule, I want to control the curriculum, the tremendous amount of time wasted in public schools, I want my kids to have a classical education...... and on and on and on.

[Soror]

Around here religious objections to schooling are brought up in some way or another all the time, so it is pretty obvious.

[Artichoke]

We began homeschooling because our gifted son's educational needs weren't being met. Religion had nothing to do with it. Now we continue to homeschool our youngest for educational and religious reasons. The majority of the homeschoolers I personally know homeschool for mostly religious reasons. Only a few of those though are completely against public education. 

Edited June 13, 2017 by Artichoke

[go_go_gadget]

I remember reading a statistic that something like less than 5% of homeschoolers do so for academic reasons, and the rest for religious reasons. I don't know how accurate that is in general, nor do I know if whatever survey method used to collect the data allowed for more than one answer per respondent. I think it's fair to say that in the US, religion is a strong motivating factor for most homeschooling families, but not in all regions. 

 

We homeschool first for academic reasons, and second for the benefits to the family dynamic and the option for the kids to have greater freedom in both imagination and inquiry.

[Crimson Wife]

I would say in my neck of the woods the most common reason is being "crunchy" and seeing "child-led" learning as the natural extension of the Attachment Parenting philosophy. There are definitely those who HS for academic and/or religious reasons, and definitely a lot more people who worry about following the state standards than there were when I started 7 years ago (and not because they are planning on just HS for a brief time).

[Crimson Wife]

Around here religious objections to schooling are brought up in some way or another all the time, so it is pretty obvious.

I might have religious objections to policies that the PS around here are implementing (for example, our state legislature just mandated "transgender" students be allowed to use the bathrooms for their self-identified gender rather than their biological gender) but that doesn't mean I am HSing for religious reasons. There are plenty of private religious schools that I could choose to enroll my children in if religion was my biggest concern.

 

Not all HSers who are religious are HSing for religious reasons.

[Chrysalis Academy]

We homeschool for academic reasons, with a big dose of flexibility/freedom thrown in.  I don't know many other people IRL who homeschool for the same reasons we do, which I why I hand out here!

 

From what I can gather, most around here who homeschool young kids are doing so as Crimson described above - in order to unschool/child led/attachment parent/ and/or because they don't agree with the early focus on academics in K & 1st.  We also have active Waldorf schools nearby which appeal to this community.  Other hs because their children have special needs the schools don't accommodate.  

[alef]

I see a variety. Some homeschool primarily because they think they can give their kids a better academic education, some homeschool for a better social situation, some homeschool for a more faith-friendly environment, some homeschool because of medical issues that are better dealt with at home, some homeschool because they don't like the government having so much involvement in their family's life, some homeschool because they believe in child-led learning or unschooling, some homeschool to have more time as a family...all those who I know are homeschooling because they are deeply invested in and concerned for the welfare of their children and for one reason or another have determined educating their children at home is best--for a time, or all the way through high school.

 

Me? There's a mix of several of the reasons above, added to the fact that my own years in school felt like being in prison. Now why in the world would I want that for my children?

[Coco_Clark]

I'm sorry to admit that's not the attitude I've found in my area. I wish the homeschool parents I knew had "a real passion for life-long learning"! I've been around a bit trying to find "my people" and from what I've seen in co-op/ homeschool park days/the local Facebook group around here 40% of families homeschool for religious reasons, 30% for lifestyle reasons (alternative schedules for travel or work for example), 20% because the school failed them in some way (bullying, special needs, ect) and a scant 10% because they love to learn along with their kids or think homeschooling will better foster a love of learning. I agree that "anything you do is better than ps, so *shrug*" is a very prevail ant attitude. Along with "school is what you do as little as possible so you can move onto other better things".

 

When I say my 1st grader does 10-12 hours a week (and he's a fast worker!) people are surprised. When I say we do memory work, read Shakespeare, plan on starting Latin in the next few years, ect, their eyes REALLY bug out. It's all k12 and school in a box here, I don't know a single "classical" family yet.

[Χά�ων]

Reasons people I know homeschool (random order)

Religion

Health

Academics

Sports

Travel

Social

 

 

I decided to homeschool because I believe in delayed accelerated academics. I continue to homeschool for health, sports and academic reasons. DS wouldn't be where he is if I sent him to public school. He wouldn't have the friends he has if isn't wasn't for homeschooling.

[Sobeknofret]

We kind of fell into it, and it worked for us so well, we decided to keep going. I know most of the homeschoolers here do it for religious reasons, but we're secular homeschoolers.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Define "most" and then define what area of the world or even the US you are talking about.  Most people I know irl homeschool for a variety of reasons and educational reasons are at the top or at least in the top two.  

[Mom2TheTeam]

I'm not sure what the reason is for most people around here, though most I meet it is because of their faith.

 

For us, it started out as faith/financial.  When we started, we said we would have sent our kids to Christian private school if we could and we thought that would be ideal.  We knew with the number of children we were going to have that wouldn't be an option for very long because of finances.  HS was the next best thing in our minds.  We are singing a totally different tune now and we believe HS to be the ideal education for our children. 

 

Our number 1 reason is still our faith, which extends to social influence also.  But, we now believe very strongly in the education our children are getting.  I believe they are getting a superior eduction even if it is just because I can tailor their education to their needs. (But, I believe it is more than just that. ;))  We also like this lifestyle better than the one we would have if they were in PS.  (For example, we are leaving for vacation for 11 days tomorrow.  We could not do that if my kids were in PS.)  And, I suspect my kids might have labels, which they do not need, if they were in PS. 

 

So, there are many reasons we HS...None of which happen to be my love of learning.  I would not say that I am someone with a passion for life-long learning.  And, if I was, I wouldn't have to HS my kids to continue to learn.  However, I am enjoying learning with my kids and I do value education and instilling a love for learning which I did not have growing up.  Rather than a love of learning being a reason I HS, it seems to be a welcomed side affect in my own life. ;) 

[2_girls_mommy]

There's not just one reason we homeschool. There are a bunch. Educational quality of public schools, religious reasons, the fact that my kids would probably be labeled ADD in public schools, don't want to be tied to their schedule, I want to control the curriculum, the tremendous amount of time wasted in public schools, I want my kids to have a classical education...... and on and on and on.

This would be my answer as well.

[Arcadia]

The ones I know did it for religion.  Once the mum went back to work, the kids go to the religious schools.  My high population density area though predominantly sent their kids to public or private schools; rare to see a school aged child in daytime. Our neighborhood public schools are safe enough to send to and there are plenty of private schools (religious, secular and international) to pick from.  Another thing is that I stay in a very high rent area with mainly service apartments and the renters would move to "better" schools if the school does not fit their child's needs. My school district has no interest in labeling so parents are not worried about their kids being labeled.

[lailasmum]

Us for quality and efficiency of education and the ability to follow an individualised path. I am one of the life long love of learning types.

 

Most people in my area are unschoolers, I don't know of anyone who home educates for religious reasons. There are a few because they move regularly so they get continuity from home ed. There are a few where it is because their kids needs are not met by school provision so home ed is the last option or their kids are out for cramming prior to 11plus or private school.

[Heidi]

I thought public school was pure torture and a huge waste of time, and I didn't want to do that to my kids. I guess I homeschool for religious reasons since I'm saving my kids from 13 years of hell!

[Pawz4me]

We started homeschooling purely for academic reasons.

 

I can't say for certain why others in this area homeschool, but if the available co-ops are an indication, then the majority of them do it for religious reasons.

[Crimson Wife]

I can't say for certain why others in this area homeschool, but if the available co-ops are an indication, then the majority of them do it for religious reasons.

I don't think you can assume that. The people who first organized the co-ops/support groups may very well have chosen HS for religious reasons, but that does not automatically mean that a majority of the current members did the same. They could very well be HS for academic reasons and just happen to share the same faith as the co-op. 83% of Americans still identify as "Christian" so it would not exactly be a surprise if most HSers do as well.

[regentrude]

The vast majority of people in my area homeschool for religious reasons.

A sizeable group homeschools because they do not believe in the institution school/are unschoolers.

Quite a few homeschool because their child had issues at school, because of ADHD or other conditions.

 

Aside from my family, I only know one family that homeschools primarily because they find the academic level of school instruction insufficient.

[Julie Smith]

Why other people do it, ... I don't know.

 

I do it for educational and social reasons. Also because I like my kids and want to be with them. 

 

[warneral]

If making a decision based on various experiences but culminating in the belief that God led us to homeschool is categorized as a "religious reason" then so be it. My faith rests in my relationship to God and feeds my relationship to others. Therefore, I would tell that our reasons for Homeschooling are relational :)

[Rachel]

I'll echo what some of the previous posters said, there is not any one reason we homeschool.  We homeschool for a mixture of academic, religious, and family reasons.

 

This is our first year and I don't know a ton of other homeschool families in real life, the ones I do know attend the same church as me.  I would say that the main reasons for homeschooling would put half for academic reasons and half for religious reasons.  

[froggiemomof3]

We primarily homeschool because we felt that we were lead to homeschool our children by God.  So I guess religious, for the most part, but the schools aren't anywhere I want my children to be either, so also educational.  I would bet that most families homeschool for a variety of reasons.

[Soror]

I might have religious objections to policies that the PS around here are implementing (for example, our state legislature just mandated "transgender" students be allowed to use the bathrooms for their self-identified gender rather than their biological gender) but that doesn't mean I am HSing for religious reasons. There are plenty of private religious schools that I could choose to enroll my children in if religion was my biggest concern.

 

Not all HSers who are religious are HSing for religious reasons.

Well, I personally have religious objections to certain school policies however if religion was my only or primary reason then the kids would be in our parish school.

 

My primary reasons are educational. I, like other posters, felt that school was a lot of wasted time and torture socially. I love the idea of continuing to learn w/ the kids. I also knew that ds would not have fit in a traditional school.

[SFM]

I think we started because I could see my son was starting to fall through the cracks and I heard echos of the dreaded ADD diagnosis. I could see he was burning out and I hated the schedule. We now homeschool for a variety of reasons; academic, social, religious, etc. 

[My3girls]

We started because dd8 was falling through the cracks. We hadn't been happy with the academics for quite some time, and that was the last straw. So for us it is purely academic. I live in GA and the majority homeschool for religious reasons, but pulling kids for academic reasons is growing pretty rapidly around here. Unfortunately, a lot are going with the K12 so secular groups outside of that are non-existent. We co-mingle with the religious crowd, and I have to keep on my toes about explaining things to my kids. They are a great group but kids are quick to make comments to mine about not going to church and stuff which can lead to issues, Kwim?

[Miss Tick]

Some posters have touched on the fact that often why we "started" homeschooling is different from why we "continue" homeschooling. Some of us might be called shifty. :-D

[abba12]

My husband was homeschooled for religious reasons

I was homeschooled due to severe bullying

 

But why do we homeschool? The lifestyle, primarily. I couldn't imagine sending my kids away for 6 hours a day, and having them come home with 2 hours of homework. When do they get to play, explore, pursue interests, try new things? I know I did it for a number of years (we were in and out of schools) but I couldn't imagine my kids doing it. For me, there's far more important things that we wouldn't have time for if they went to school.

 

But, part of it is academic, my approach to learning is very different to the school

Part of it is religious, we hold the same convictions my husbands parents did

Part of it is bullying, I never want my children to go through what I did (it really was severe instances of unrelenting bullying, and the cycle repeated every time we moved schools. I don't know why, to this day I haven't figured out why I became such a huge target multiple times. I was that kid who, when new kids came to school, they were told not to go near me, even the nice kids wouldn't talk to me for fear of being bullied too, and not just at one school. There must have been something wrong with me, but I don't think I will ever know what.)

 

There's so many reasons to homeschool. But, if a really great academically rigorous school opened up near us, I still wouldn't send them, so I can't say it's academic.

[PeacefulChaos]

I have to quote newbie bumblesmama :) from the, "The Smartest Kids" thread. This has not been my experience at all. It seems actually the vast majority of parents hs for religious or social reasons where I live. Around here the prevalent attitude is that anything you do at home is better then what is done in ps. So, where you live why do most people hs?

Ah... well, if we get into the 'where I live' question... I think it's social and religious. 

However, there are a handful of us now who are doing so for educational reasons.  And for ... Idk what to call it... scheduling reasons?  :lol:  I like the freedom of it.  Between that and the educational part, I was sold on it. 

DH is a little more concerned than I about what is 'taught in public schools'.  He's not, like, crazy about it or anything - but he's happy to not have to deal with it.  He always went to a private Christian school, so PS is totally unfamiliar to him.