Anyone NOT regret homeschooling?

[creekland]

No regrets here - except not pulling all three of mine out when they started 7th grade.  My biggest disappointment is that youngest wanted to go back for high school.  He has not done as well academically as my older two.  All three did fine socially.  The older two have no regrets with homeschooling - they preferred it - as it prepared them very well for college.

 

If in a doubting mode, can I suggest taking a look at the College Acceptances thread (remembering that many colleges have not released decisions yet):

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/484961-class-of-2014-college-acceptances/

 

Homeschooled kids can successfully go anywhere (college or not) - carefully designed for any niche - and we get to share more in it all! 

 

Public school is good for some kids who thrive in it (and that's IF the public school is decent at challenging them to their ability, some are, some aren't).  It tends to not work the best for kids who are too fast or too slow for the masses in their classes.   Homeschooling can be tailored to any student.  It does require work though.  IMO it's worth it.

[Mommamia]

Great to wake up and read more encouraging words.

 

To those who posted in the regrets post- I had started reading there and went on a bunny trail through many other threads on the WTM. I am sorry, I hope I didn't offend anyone with mentioning that thread!

[madteaparty]

We just started 5 months ago; I am a very reluctant homeschooler.

I do not regret it for him at all. I think 3rd or 4th grade through middle school is when homeschooling makes a lot of sense to me (we homeschool for academic reasons). So I am very happy I have the opportunity to do this for him.

 

My two caveats are: 1. I am completely ambivalent about HS high school (4th grade math already challenges me, LOL) and 2. There has been a huge personal cost to me to be able to do this. I had to take a step back in my career, take a paycut, etc. to make this work. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do, I feel so very lucky to be able to keep a toe in for now and still homeschool, but in my particular case it has a real and calculable cost.

[FriedClams]

Finishing year 8. Zero regrets. I love where my kids are spiritually, academically, relationally... I enjoy their company. I love our family rhythm. I love where we've traveled and the books we've read. I love the inside jokes and the impromptu days off. I love dong Algebra with my dd, and I loved teaching my kids to read. Yes, we have hard days. Yes, I've made innumerable mistakes. I wouldn't change the path for anything.

[Garga]

The kids are only in 3rd and 6th, but no regrets so far. I adore what we do, and overall, I think the kids are glad they're homeschooled. They only went to preschool (which they didn't much like) so there's not much for them to compare against, but when I ask them if they're interested in going to school they say no.

 

I think the other thread was't just regrets about homeschooling, but also regrets about parenting mistakes. A couple of people said they wished they'd helped their kids with learning disabilities earlier, for example.

 

So far, homeschooling is a wonderful fit for us. I hope we make it all the way through high school.

[Butter]

I was homeschooled for the last few years of school.  I don't have any regrets about that myself.  I have two kids in public school right now.  Cameron is in 6th and doing fabulously even though he has a language-based learning disability.  They have told me several times that whatever I did homeschooling him was excellent because they rarely see kids like this do so well academically entering middle school if they've been public schooled the whole time.  Right now middle school is working well for him and he is thriving (never thought I'd say *that*!), but he knows he can come home again any time.  For now he chooses to stay in.  My daughter is in 9th grade, but she's still 13 years old.  The skipped her a grade when we moved here and put her directly into high school even though she should have gone into 8th.  Her test scores (we did a full battery 8th grade CAT last spring since we were enrolling her in school) were very high and I could show them the stuff she did at home and that was enough to skip her (and she is doing very well and thriving in 9th grade).  My little guys are too young to tell (K and 2nd), but I suspect the outcome will be much like their big siblings.  I had them in school the first semester this year (and it was a wonderful experience - I just prefer them at home) and they did fine.  Now I can definitely say though that even in an amazing school district, elementary at home is better.

[Clear Creek]

Nope, no regrets here.  We are in the middle of our 7th year, and it is by far the best choice for all three of my children; they would all be underserved in the local public schools (students that don't pass math are still moved on to the next grade level with no remediation in elementary school, and there is no acceleration for advanced students in elementary and junior high).  And I like having them home with me, and they feel the same way :001_smile:

[Rebel Yell]

There are many things I wish were different, but I don't regreat homeschooling. And my girls don't either- even though they know there are some things we just can't easily do (or afford) at home, they still do not want to go to public school.

[Rebel Yell]

I regret

 

not moving to a better school district so I'd have a safety net during hard times,

not buying a MUCH cheaper house (would have had to predict the housing bubble bursting, but still),

not buying a bigger house so that I wouldn't have to basically "live in my school" for 15 years,

not putting my foot down more on the extent to which my DH and kids could take me for granted in the name of Homeschooling: The Everything,

not telling DH, 20 years ago, that we probably couldn't raise a houseful of kids comfortably on one income in his career field, and

not working harder to create an IRL support system for myself.

 

But I do not regret homeschooling.

 

I really love how my teens are turning out. I love to see my youngest son head down the same path, bright and curious with good food for his mind and soul, not distracted by public school issues and standardization. He'll benefit from my earlier trials, too. I did take a few notes about what I did wrong the first three times.

 

I love how much I've learned, myself, over the years. I'm pretty sure I slept through public school because soooo much of our homeschooling curriculum has been entirely news to me! Failure to learn the first time wasn't entirely my fault, though -- world history was a high school elective in my school. Nobody would have ever cared if I spent a lifetime without even learning what's in SOTW, let alone going beyond through the Rhetoric level with my dc.

 

I love the relationships. I think my family and I will spend a lifetime learning to fully realize the benefits of these years together.

 

I'm exhausted, poverty-stricken, burnt out, and OLD. Homeschooling the whole way will use a person UP.

 

But I'm saving all my books for the grandchildren because homeschooling works when we do. No regrets.

 

:grouphug:

 

[marbel]

I've still got a few  years of homeschooling left, but I don't regret it and don't expect I will, and it has nothing to do with my kids and how they are turning out, etc. 

 

What would be the point of regretting it?   If my kids turn out to be unemployable slackers, how would I know it was because of homeschooling?  They could just as easily become unemployable slackers if they'd gone to public school or private school.  One of the biggest unemployable slackers I know went to a very well-thought-of private school.  

 

I spend pretty much zero time regretting decisions I (and my husband) make if the decision was made with care and thought and in good faith.  There is no way to know what the outcome would have been if my kids had gone to school.  Maybe better, maybe not good at all.  

[Miss Marple]

 

I spend pretty much zero time regretting decisions I (and my husband) make if the decision was made with care and thought and in good faith.  There is no way to know what the outcome would have been if my kids had gone to school.  Maybe better, maybe not good at all.  

Yes, this is how I feel as well.  I also didn't set anything in stone - I gave myself plenty of room to make changes as I saw fit, to do whatever I needed to do in order to reach the goals we had set.  

[Sobeknofret]

The only regret I have is that I didn't start hs'ing sooner.

[Elisabet1]

I have never regretted home schooling. I hope my post did not come off like that. I was just having regrets in how we did this or that. But honestly, my regrets, none of them involved home schooling, they involved parenting. 

 

One big regret..that I did not home school my oldest. That is a HUGE one!

[momto2Cs]

We're in our... gulp... eighth year of homeschooling, and I can honestly say that no, I have never regretted it. It has overall been one of the best decisions my dh and I ever made. Our kids are thriving, happy people. Yes, it is challenging, but everything worthwhile is!

[Elisabet1]

I should add, that I did see where some people commented that they had a child with special issues and they regret not sending those specific children back to school. 

 

In my case, I do not regret sending my one child back to school. I do not like that public schoolers scorn that I home school some and home schoolers scorn that I public school some. But my daughter was angry and moody and refused to do anything I asked. When she went back to school, it forced her in to an environment where she did what she had to do. She is very competitive and cannot stand being behind anyway. So she is coming out at the top of her class. I think we home schooled just exactly the right amount of time with her. A little background..when she first started home schooling, she was in special education and the public school told me she would never really learn to read, she was dumb, and had a low IQ, etc. Now, they have "lost" those special education files where they told us this (that's ok! I still have copies! LOL). They were doing a very poor job educating her. By the time she went back, for high school, she was way above her classmates who had been sitting in those seats all those years. 

 

However, the math education at the public school has been horrid! I have had to re-teach everything at home. And the science education was also horrible until she got to the AP class. The AP Science class is great. The foreign language has been great. These are subjects she has a lot of interest in too. But with my daughter's emotional issues, it has been way better having her in school than home. Plus, she is the sort who, when she was home, refused to socialize. I would take her to a lot of activities and she would not even try. Then, she would grab on to me and insist on going with me everywhere. I could not even meet a friend for lunch because she would come along, sit right down next to me and dominate the conversation. If I told her no, she could not come with me, she would get horribly upset. It really shut down my life, while making me fight her constantly to do any work at home. 

 

Not every form of education is perfect for every child all the time. There are some children, at some points in their lives, who need something different than what might be great for our other children at other times.

[My3girls]

I only regret putting them in ps to start with, and not planning to live on one income from the start of our marriage.

[Tiramisu]

I have openly talked about not enjoying hsing high school, but I don't regret it at all. There may have been things that could have been better academically if they had gone to school,  but there are also things which could have been worse. That's all conjecture, though. What I know for sure is that my two oldest are who they are as people because of homeschooling. I am continually stunned that a mom like me could have produced such well-balanced, kind-hearted human beings. Only by the grace of God. 

[mommymilkies]

My only regret is not starting sooner.  Dh wanted our oldest to try ps.  Big mistake!  Of course I have cruddy days, but I do not regret homeschooling. :)

[LibraryLover]

Regret hsing? No! It was mostly wonderful...until it wasn't. I hs'd one child into college (with a scholarship), and the other was hs'd until this year.

 

PS I didn't see much hsing regret in that thread...a couple, but most people wished they had started sooner.

[happypamama]

We're only a few years in to homeschooling and have approximately eighteen left to go, and I don't regret it for an instant. If I ever get worried that I'm doing the right thing, I look at my late blooming child -- he was nowhere near ready to go off to school for a whole, or even a half, day at five, and he wasn't ready to read then either. If I hadn't already been homeschooling, I'd have considered it then, or pulled him after a short time. Keeping him home gave him the time to mature at his pace, and he is thriving and happy. Of all of the things I may have gotten wrong as a parent, keeping this child home is one that I feel 110% confident that I got right.

 

(I don't regret keeping my other children home either.)

[BigMamaBird]

We're in our fourth year and I don't regret it.  There are moments I'd love to ship them off somewhere far, far away.  But at the end of the day, I know it's the right thing for our family.

[BlsdMama]

After reading through the " regrets " thread( and some other threads) I came away feeling a bit discouraged.

 

Anyone have time to remind me that homeschooling IS worth it? And we won't mess our dc up by not putting them into ps?

 

Some things are better left unopened... I'm not opening the regrets thread. ;)  Nothing will be the end all be all.  Some of our children are going to regret being homeschooled.  I regret my time in public and private school.  Did my parents make a poor choice.  I don't think so.  It was the choice they made and such is life. 

I don't love homeschooling as I once I did.  I believe in it.  I believe it to be the right thing to do.  I'm often exhausted these days but it is a worthwhile God-calling ministry and I'm obeying.  I wonder if it wouldn't be far harder or discouraging for an atheist?  Perhaps.  I wonder how they get through when it gets hard.  And it *does* get hard.

 

I think often we assume hard means wrong, or falling short means wrong and it does not.  Daniel WAS supposed to be in tossed in the lion's den.  But he had to be wondering at the time, "What am I doing here?  What led me to this?  Was that a bad call?  Perhaps I should have chosen differently...." 

 

My homeschooling choice has been much prayed after.  This was the answer.  What is left to me but to obey and glorify Him where I am?  And so I do.  Or try to, even on the hard days.

 

And there are days that I feel I fall incredibly short, but there is great comfort in obedience.

 

I will have schooled eleven children (at least)  - God willing, through high school by the time I am through with this ministry.  I am absolutely certain that some of them will feel it was a bad call as some children always feel everything was a wrong choice on the part of their parents, lol.  That doesn't make it a regret. :)

 

No, I don't regret homeschooling.  My oldest is currently a senior.  She has been 100% homeschooled.  That makes this our thirteenth year.  The baby is due in August.  That's eighteen more.  If this were to be our last, that will equal 31 years of homeschooling.  I am grateful for the opportunity.  I fear my children will not be allowed the same choice some day.  It is an amazing journey and it has changed me in a million ways. I try not to fight it - the changing, the aging.  It makes me wiser.  Could I be doing something society would value more?  Most certainly.  But that doesn't mean it's actually more valuable. 

 

Question 1 of Westminster Catechism?

 

What is the primary purpose of man?

A. To glorify and enjoy the Lord.

 

What is the primary purpose of mother?  To do the same.  How do *I* do this?  Through schooling, nurturing, and teaching my children in fear and admonition to His glory.  I know not how I could have fulfilled this purpose but to homeschool.

 

[shinyhappypeople]

I don't regret homeschooling.

 

I *do* regret homeschooling with a public charter program for the first 3-1/2 years.  I regret putting older DD through the trauma of standardized testing (she's a late bloomer).   I regret pushing her *so hard* to catch up to her age-mates.  I regret trading my child's well-being for the money they offered.

 

Was it Maya Angelou that said, "You do what you know.  When you know better, you do better."?  It's something like that.  I know better now, so I'm doing better, too.

 

But homeschooling itself is fine.  (OK, truthfully, I wish private school was an option, but it's not.  So, best not to dwell on that. :( )

 

[Alte Veste Academy]

 I'm often exhausted these days but it is a worthwhile God-calling ministry and I'm obeying.  I wonder if it wouldn't be far harder or discouraging for an atheist?  Perhaps.  I wonder how they get through when it gets hard.  And it *does* get hard.

 

 

I imagine they get through the hard times in a way similar way, by remembering why they are doing it in the first place. I am agnostic, but I feel I've been "called" to do this by my conscience, my family's values, and the needs and best interests of my children. That's more than enough to get me through when it gets hard. :)

[regentrude]

  I'm often exhausted these days but it is a worthwhile God-calling ministry and I'm obeying.  I wonder if it wouldn't be far harder or discouraging for an atheist?  Perhaps.  I wonder how they get through when it gets hard.  And it *does* get hard.

 

No, I don't see why that should be. An atheist can do a hard task  without needing to feel they are obeying a deity's calling. An atheist or agnostic can do this simply because her conscience tells her that it is the right decision and worth seeing through. Atheists can get through difficult life situations because of love, determination, moral principles, personal integrity (i.e. sense of loyalty, duty, honor) which do not require belief in a higher being, but are powerful motivators to do hard things.

 

(And lest somebody misconstrue what I said: I did not claim all atheists have moral principles and personal integrity. Sadly, I can not think of any single group- whether based on religious or other identities -  that could be honored with such a blanket statement.)

[ElizabethB]

No regrets.

 

We have lived in a lot of different school districts and I have remediated hundreds of children in my 20 years as a volunteer reading tutor. While there is quite a difference in schools, even the best schools cannot be tailored to the individual strengths and weaknesses of your children. For example, last year my children's computer adaptive scores in math and reading subscores ranged from K to 12 between the two of them, I can teach each where they are, that is hard to do for every subject in a normal school. Interestingly, I can teach upper level physics to them both, but chemistry required 2 separate books.

 

With 8 moves in the last 10 years, even people who do not like homeschooling concede that perhaps we need to homeschool for consistency. It is not one of my top 3 reasons, but it is the most effective for naysayers. It is in the top 10 reasons we homeschool, though.

 

I decided to homeschool after remedial student #3, years before I even had children. He had just completed the 5th grade, reading at a 2nd grade level, about to be put in Special Ed. I worked with him for 6 hours over the summer and got him to 6th grade level. His parents moved to a rural school district after an unsuccessful battle with his urban school district. They drove over an hour to work for a year or two before retirement so that their son could have a good education. (This was before homeschooling was popular, althogh this urban school was so bad that about 10 percent of the people I worked with homeschooled their children, an astounding percentage for the timeframe, mid 1990's.)

[ScoutTN]

No regrets here. 

Even on bad days, I know it is the right choice for our family.

 

[Tiramisu]

(And lest somebody misconstrue what I said: I did not claim all atheists have moral principles and personal integrity. Sadly, I can not think of any single group- whether based on religious or other identities -  that could be honored with such a blanket statement.)

 

:iagree:

 

Well said.

[mamatohaleybug]

I didn't read the regret thread but I wholeheartedly LOVE homeschooling! No regrets. Actually, I regret waiting until second grade to start homeschooling. ;) 

 

Very happy homeschoolers here!

[Jilly]

I have no regrets at all. Sometimes homeschooling has been a tiring, overwhelming journey but it has been wonderful. I wouldn't change a thing. 

[mamajudy]

I have absolutely no regrets about homeschooling. I wish that we could have done a million more things in our home school, but we did what we were able to do. All five kids have gotten accepted to numerous colleges with scholarships. They have all been successful in college and beyond. The youngest now has to decide which college to attend next year. The things we did as a family, because we homeschooled, were priceless. The kids' relationships with each other are great. Homeschooling these 23 years has been a wonderful blessing, and I will really miss it when my youngest graduates in May. 

[speedmom4]

I have been homeschooling close to 14 years. The longer I homeschool the more I know it was the right decision. My oldest has graduated and is a college freshman. She is thriving. I have a good relationship with all of my children and three of them are teens! I'm so thankful that I have had the privilege of being at home with my children every day. No regrets!

 

Elise in NC

[Donna]

I don't regret homeschooling at all. I do regret putting my boys into school for high school and wish I had kept them home. They wanted to play sports and have done well in school but they would have learned so much more at home with me and we would have dealt with a lot less of the garbage that goes on in school. I think they are better able to stay true to themselves having had time to figure out who they were without a lot of peer pressure.

 

I love homeschooling and will not put my daughter in school. I love our time together at home, the flexibility to meet her needs and follow her interests, and I love being able to provide her a quality education where she can really learn and learn how to learn without worrying about test scores.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

no regrets......I might do things differently meaning how I taught something or what books we used but no I don't regret it......agree with the posters that say how tough it can be at times.....sheesh I have my "I'm going to pull my hair out" moments,but that comes with raising kids too not just teaching them......hang in there---take a break if you need it----and don't feel guilty about it.....we all need to recharge and regroup sometimes...... :)

[KeepItGoing]

I'm in my 16th year of homeschooling and have rarely had regrets - but it's been a hard couple of years, and I've been asking myself whether things might have been easier and better on my kids if they'd been in school.

 

Tonight, though, I was talking with my 17-year-old about her new haircut.

 

"I've been wondering for a while what I would look like with short hair," she told me, "and I figure that now is the lowest-risk time to try out new looks, without having to worry about the effect on my career or anything like that."

 

She thinks high school is the lowest risk time to try a new haircut out? It blew my mind. I know a lot of young people who consider a bad haircut to be a bad enough event that they think their life is ruined by it, but she thinks it's low risk.

 

We haven't made all the right decisions, but that gave me increased confidence that this homeschooling thing is going to work out for her. Especially since anxiety is one of her tendencies, it's nice to see.

[FO4UR]

I've been doing a great deal of soul-searching lately.  I've even talked with the kids about the option of PS.  Just today, I met with a lady who was asking about help for one of her children.  As she explained what a typical day is like, my children realized that they want to HS - no question!...even if it means they cannot participate in music/sports/etc.  As I listened to all she has been through to try and get her child help through the system, I realized that HSing really is worth my time and effort.  Honestly, I left that meeting feeling blessed for the opportunity to HS and simultaneously sad that she does not currently have that same opportunity b/c her child needs help and she is a great person who would be a great HS momma.  Maybe things might work out for them in the future.

 

 

It *is* a great deal of time and effort...blood, sweat, and tears.  I am pouring my life into HSing, and I want to know that it will be worth it.  I guess I can't predict the future, but I do know that the alternative (PS) would be a greater headache.  

 

I think I'm going through a phase where my reasons for HSing are shifting.  All 3 of my big kids can read.  That was the first litmus test I concocted for this HSing experiment years ago.  I need to define why I'm doing this thing in 2014.  (My kids are reading LOTR and Little Women for bedtime free reading tonight...in fact, dd giggled and snatched the pretty hard cover copy of LW I unpacked today like other kids would snatch candy.  That might be enough reason.)

 

I don't regret HSing in the least.  I do realize, however, that there are great sacrifices to be made in order to HS with integrity.  I will not always enjoy making those sacrifices...but I would regret NOT making those sacrifices when the day comes to send my little birdies off into the world to try their own wings and they fell to the ground with a great splat.  

 

 

On hard days...I think, "Honey, I love you....but you just can't live in my basement when you are 35.  Have a sandwich with your math."

 

[Hunter]

Neither me or my boys regret homeschooling.

 

My boys were raised in domestic abuse, and my relationship with them is strained due to a very messy divorce, and their preference to deny much of what happened, before and during the implosion. I'm sad, but I understand.

 

But the homeschooling aspect--no one has any regrets. It gives me chills to think what would have happened if homeschooling hadn't of been an option for them. My youngest would almost certainly have major anger issues that were resolved and prevented by homeschooling. My oldest wouldn't have been able to radically compact his education and build a resume, and get the hell out of dodge, before the implosion.

[MomintheMountains]

Regret hsing? No! It was mostly wonderful...until it wasn't. I hs'd one child into college (with a scholarship), and the other was hs'd until this year.

 

PS I didn't see much hsing regret in that thread...a couple, but most people wished they had started sooner.

 

I agree.  I posted a regret about using an unschooling "methodology" (if you can call it that, lol), but I do not regret homeschooling at all.

[FloridaLisa]

Regrets about the decision to homeschool? Not at all.  At the time we made the decision, it was walking by faith, not sight.  Now that I can see all the blessings (and character chiseling (me more than my children) and shared experiences and testing and hard years and provision and discoveries and fruit after day in and day out of sowing), no regrets at all about walking off that edge in pursuit of what God had for us. 

 

Regrets within homeschooling? Yes, for sure. That what happens when a broken vessel does the teaching. But the things I regret haven't really changed the finish line.  My three that have already graduated have ended up at the place where they w/should be.  My regrets probably made the process a bit more circuitous!  Ah well, that's the stuff of life.  I always feel I could nail something after I've finished it! That's why I'm already pre-studying for the grandparent stage!  :D

 

Lisa

[Chrysalis Academy]

Some things are better left unopened... I'm not opening the regrets thread. ;)  Nothing will be the end all be all.  Some of our children are going to regret being homeschooled.  I regret my time in public and private school.  Did my parents make a poor choice.  I don't think so.  It was the choice they made and such is life. 

I don't love homeschooling as I once I did.  I believe in it.  I believe it to be the right thing to do.  I'm often exhausted these days but it is a worthwhile God-calling ministry and I'm obeying.  I wonder if it wouldn't be far harder or discouraging for an atheist?  Perhaps.  I wonder how they get through when it gets hard.  And it *does* get hard.

 

 

 

 

:confused1:  :confused1:  :confused1:   This is a truly bizarre statement.  If you had said, "I don't know how I would get through it if I were an atheist" I might understand what you mean, but are you trying to say that atheists don't have the wherewithall to get through hard times? Or the resiliency to get past discouragement?

 

Perhaps you should get to know an atheist or two.  We're normal people.  We cope by calling on reserves within ourselves, within our families, within our communities - just like everyone else does.

[freesia]

We are in our 9th year. No regrets here.

[shinyhappypeople]

 

 

On hard days...I think, "Honey, I love you....but you just can't live in my basement when you are 35.  Have a sandwich with your math."

 

This made LOL.  Thank you.  I need that :)

[Kareni]

No regrets here.  Our daughter was homeschooled from 7th grade through 12th grade.  We were fortunate to have a publicly funded homeschooling center nearby where she took a variety of classes both fun (fencing and chess) and academic (AP US History, AP Latin, and Ancient Greek).  She also took classes, at our expense, at the local community college in 11th and 12th grades.  She went on to a somewhat selective liberal arts college where she thrived.  She graduated in May and is now teaching English in South Korea.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[CourtneyBrooke]

My parents started homeschooling their children 30 years ago. They have no regrets.

 

I've homeschooled all of my children from the beginning- absolutely no regrets.

[abba12]

My parents made a lot of mistakes, and I have no relationship with my mother today. But homeschooling during the times they did is the one thing they got right. I'm much more passionate about it than she ever was, but I KNOW its worth it. many of our friends are fellow graduated homeschoolers, and while some currently believe they would send their kids to school (they are all childless and at least two of them have very idealized perceptions of what school is so I suspect some minds will change with time) I can see clearly the advantages and changes HS brought to their lives and how different they are from their peers.

 

I could spend hours listing what I love about homeschooling. It won't always be easy, it won't always be fun, but I am fortunate enough to be starting this journey completely confident in the end result, so for me, a lot of the pressure and doubt isn't there. I will make mistakes, but people have screwed it up a lot worse than I ever could (my mother and my MIL have been two shining examples of everything NOT to do) and even they usually turn out kids who, while they have flaws, are better off than they would have been in school. Especially if you look beyond the academics and at personality, character, confidence. My husband and I fully appreciate the opportunities and experiences we had through HS even while we disagree with the methods and motives that put us there, and I know for a fact we are not the only ones. In some cases even bad homeschooling is better then public school. Something pretty drastic would have to happen to make me regret homeschooling, though we are still in early days here

[Mommee & Baba]

I absolutely do NOT regret homeschooling my children!

 

I'm coming up on 7.5 years doing so and feel that it's been the right choice for our family. My children have never been in the schooling system and for that I'm more thankful each day. We are closer than many families I see who don't homeschool and parent similar to us. I see how close our children are and how compassionate they are for others compared to those that are raised in a different surrounding. Those are reassuring things for us. We know that we've made the right decision when our children thrive in the environment we've built for them!

 

Small example....my oldest is super sensitive to noise. She's been attending the same AWANA club for 3 years and the past 2 years have really been a struggle. She exclaimed the kids are so disrespectful of the rest of the students and the teacher that they talk, whisper, text, and such while they are to be participating in a classroom discussion. It's bothered her so much that she's asked to no longer attend! She asked me if that was just a glimpse of what some teachers allow in public school. My answer was a simple yes. She was sincerely bothered by the answer. When she first started expressing how she didn't like the classroom setting I thought she was just dragging feet to not do the work. She loves the game time and the stories told but when it comes to reciting scriptures she's struggled due to the classroom noise. She said the kids aren't respectful of others and their need to concentrate. I was rather upset that she was really fussing about going and I've spoken to her teachers repeatedly. They've tried to help her by taking her in the hall to recite her scriptures but she's now said the rest of her classmates are mocking her because of this. We are gluten and dairy free and when they have pizza nights I bring her own that's allergy friendly made from home per her request. She's having pizza tomorrow night and has asked to eat at home because the kids make fun of her food and how it smells and looks. I talked to my dh thinking she was really just trying to get out of the scripture part but as I type this tonight I've simply realized.....kids can be mean!! The worst part is the parents allow this behavior and I'm finding this club for her to be less of a positive experience. My other children love their classes and will continue to go. I'm going to have my oldest daughter do her scriptures at home with dh and earn her points with us and not force her to continue to be in that classroom setting. I thought at first that homeschooling has caused me to over protect my kids so much so that they aren't able to experience the real world. Who was I kidding!!? I'm homeschooling my children so they aren't one of those kids in that classroom. She'll be 11 in June.

[PachiSusan]

I do not regret homeschooling my daughter one iota. 

[CyndiLJ]

I am no longer a rookie after 4 1/2 years, but I am also not a guru by any stretch.  We started homeschooling when our highest grade level child was entering 5th grade, and by the end of the year had added two daughters to our family who had no English, and brought our other two sons home from public school as well.

 

I don't regret it for a second, and neither do our kids because:

 

1)  They are getting a far better education than they would have at any of our nearby schools, without question.  We live in a rural area with a school district that is very low performing, and I realized early on that I literally couldn't do any worse at home.  Luckily, even though we are not performing near where many on this forum are, we are far ahead of where we would have been.

 

2) My son who would have been completely illiterate had we stayed in the system (and I do mean illiterate, at 12 he could not read at a 1st grade level) is learning...really, really learning.  I never could have predicted how well he would do once given a chance and worked with one on one.

 

3)  The hearts of our kids are just different in so many ways, they are softer, kinder, less jaded.

 

4)  We get to do things we would never have been able to do, like volunteer regularly, spend hours each week wandering into related-but-not-quite-on-topic conversations which might just be the biggest blessing of all.  This morning as we were going over E.D. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy book, we somehow spent 30 minutes sampling works from Beethoven, Vivaldi and others...just because we wanted to right that moment.  Was there curriculum?  No way.  Was there learning?  Of the best kind.

 

5)  Hugs.  All day long.  Giggles.  All day long.  

 

6)  Learning no longer happens at certain places, learning happens whenever and wherever we are.

 

7)  If something is stupid, biased, or incorrect in a curriculum, we can point it out, skip it, or debate it without fear of recrimination.

 

8)  We can be exactly where we are in terms of levels on our work, and don't have to pretend we have learned what we have not, nor waste time relearning what we already know.  We can be called one grade level but work at three in various subjects.

 

9)  Real lunch breaks.  Doing school on the couch in front of the fireplace while it snows outside.

 

10)  Love...we get to be with the people we love the most all day long.  It is a gift that could never be overestimated. 

 

Do I have regrets?  Nope, not a single one...not even that we didn't do it earlier.  It solidified our decision for us easily and without equivocation.  I am glad we had the public school experience.  We met wonderful people, we learned what was not going to work as well for us.  Experience is the best teacher.

 

 

[KeepItGoing]

About five years ago I saw that a middle-school neighbor, a dear friend, was struggling mightily with social issues at her private Christian school. I also could tell that she was not being well prepare academically for high school.

 

I spoke to her parents about teaching her myself; they listened but decided against it.

 

That girl went through horrible things for the next few years. She endured terrible things. She transferred to a good public high school and struggled both academically and socially. She ended up bulimic and self mutilating. When she was 15 or 16 her mother became severely ill, on top of everything else going on. Eventually there was a suicide attempt, a hospitalization, and the girl ended up on numerous medications to try to get her mood stabilized.

 

A few weeks ago the mom told me that one of her greatest regrets is that they did not let me homeschool their daughter. "She would have been better off in every way," she said. "Socially, emotionally, academically."

 

We can't know how things will turn out. Everyone does things that they do (or should!) regret. In my case, I do wonder whether homeschooling has made some difficult issues even more difficult for my children. I will never know. But there have also been many blessings along the way, and I have confidence that things are going to go well for them.

[BlsdMama]

:confused1: :confused1: :confused1: This is a truly bizarre statement. If you had said, "I don't know how I would get through it if I were an atheist" I might understand what you mean, but are you trying to say that atheists don't have the wherewithall to get through hard times? Or the resiliency to get past discouragement?

 

Perhaps you should get to know an atheist or two. We're normal people. We cope by calling on reserves within ourselves, within our families, within our communities - just like everyone else does.

Lol, one of the most beloved people in my life is an atheist. She is also a homeschooler. It is simply that when *I* hit that wall, and maybe you've hit IT, or maybe you've not, but when I c same up against the Big One, the wall I simply didn't have the strength nor the motivation to climb, it was only my faith that kept me doing what I was doing. At that point I did not believe homeschooling that chug hold was right for me or right for that child. The only thing that made me persevere was that I believed my (personal) call was to home educate and so I did though I did not want to nor did I believe it was best.

 

Fast forward a couple years later and with testing and a much clearer perspective on this child's special needs and I can see that going away from home would have been devastating for him on many levels. But I think perhaps you can see how my unique experience contributed to my statement? Maybe? I probably should have elaborated either than just saying it and leaving it flopping about. :D. I meant nothing derogatory by it, I simply cannot say there was a thing in me that kept me homeschooling that child except my faith because my head and my heart were not in it. Simply obedience to my calling. ;)