Why did you choose to homeschool?

[Peri]

My husband is a police officer and was determined that "socialization" was going to take place on our terms!

 

:iagree: All I see is children being taught how to be rude and disrespectful. That is not how I want my kids to be.

 

And after getting to know some hs families at our church, we really liked what we saw in these children. As a bonus, we knew we could give them an excellent education if the public school system wasn't in the way.

 

I also loved what I saw from some homeschooling families. It was a big bonus to me to be able to show her how to aim and focus. Not get looked over, left behind, or given a label because she didn't get it.

 

The biggest reason I HS is just because i love it. I dunno why but I just do

[Guest]

I've stated before, we were the ones that would never ever homeschool!

 

I think it all changed when we actually had kids ourselves and realized that we were responsible for their safety! My sil (homeschooler) would email us every article on school shootings, getting rid of prayer, the curricula public schools were approving, etc. Looking back, I am very thankful for this. While I understand homeschooling is not for everyone and I don't, as a Christian, believe you are sinning by sending your kid to ps, dh and I prayed and decided that for our family, we were more comfortable keeping them home. The s*xual predator that posed as a student hit a little too close to home (literally) and was probably the last straw. After that, no question.

 

As we've researched and prayed more, we've come to realize how many different benefits homeschooling truly has. My goal as a mom is to raise my kids to know and love the Lord. Do I believe that can be done while sending your kids' to school? Absolutely! So, spiritual benefits is not entirely the reason we chose to homeschool, but we do feel we have a bit more control over what enters their lives at this young and tender age then if we sent them off to school.

 

I love what some people have said about the reasons they started homeschooling are not the reasons they've stayed homeschooling.

 

Basically, we started because we feel it is protecting our children. I think as we go further into the process, we'll start to see more and more benefits of homeschooling.

[Mekanamom]

Academics and Economy.

 

The local public schools are not very challenging (and have gang "issues"), and the local private schools are very expensive.

 

So, I decided to provide an education just as good or better than the private schools. ;)

 

Now that we've been at it for, wow- 7 years (!), I have other reasons. I think it's so important for the kids to learn at their own pace. To really study the things they find interesting, even if it takes a bit more time than a regular classroom could provide.

 

And we enjoy the time we have together. :)

[chiguirre]

It came down to hiring a lawyer or homeschooling. I wasn't up for a huge legal fight so we started hsing. Now I really don't see us sending any of the kids to public school unless they want to go to highschool. It's just not worth the stress and acrimony to deal with the special ed system and the complete lack of an appropriate education for autistic kids.

 

When you answer the casual inquiry with this response, people tend to just nod and agree. It cuts out the "weird homeschooler" stereotype immediately.

[sheryl]

And, I'm originally from Ohio....so there!! :001_smile:

 

Sheryl

 

I'm often asked why we homeschool our children. The main reason for us was biblical conviction, but there are others as well. My husband is a police officer and was determined that "socialization" was going to take place on our terms! We also felt that a private Christian school would not be wise stewardship of our limited resources. And after getting to know some hs families at our church, we really liked what we saw in these children. As a bonus, we knew we could give them an excellent education if the public school system wasn't in the way.

 

So, since this is such a diverse group, I was just curious about how you got here.

[Saille]

Here's what I said on the Tapestry of Homeschooling survey:

 

 

We believed that the compulsory and institutionalized nature of public education was likely to decrease self-initiated learning in our children, as well as narrowing the breadth of their interests to things largely defined as "not school". As a teacher, I myself had seen the prevalence of these problems and attitudes among schoolchildren. It also seemed to us that the best current educational theory advocated making the classroom more like the "real world"; having full-time access to the real world seemed simpler and more effective. Additionally, our children's generation seems likely to have a higher number of college graduates than any previous generation; college degrees are less likely to make job applicants stand out. Retail was, at the time of our decision, reported to be the fastest growing job sector. Consumption, and the promotion of consumption, do not, in our opinion, provide a satisfying vocation. It seems to us that internships and mentoring relationships are the missing piece of the employment puzzle. Being unavailable during the majority of the average person's work day is therefore undesirable. Finally, homogeneous age and economic groupings do not seem to us to be the best breeding ground for experienced and tolerant community members. Resistance to peer pressure and commercial messages is best encouraged by exposing children to a diverse array of people making a wide range of lifestyle choices. For all of these reasons, we homeschool.