What led you to homeschool?

[craftymama]

I'm not really asking why you homeschool now, though the answer may be the same, but more what caused you to consider homeschooling to begin with.  

 

 

[Miss Peregrine]

Dh's work schedule. He never would have seen the kids.

 

Dd is gifted and I thought she would be bored.

 

I couldn't bear the thought of sending her away for the day.

[Lolly]

Dd#1's medical needs.

[displace]

2e - gifted with specific learning disabilities. More than 50% of 2e students are homeschooled and there are very good reasons why.

[eternalsummer]

DS6 was in kindergarten at the local PS - one of the schools I went to as a kid, and remembered fondly.  DD9 was in 3rd.  After a few weeks of school, DS started coming home glum - and he wasn't a glum kid by nature.  Both kids are quite bright - DD9 spent most of the day reading at her desk, as the schoolwork was too easy for her, but she didn't get in any trouble, was just bored.  

 

At the parent teacher conferences in Oct. I learned that DS had been relegated to sitting at a different desk whenever the kids did worksheets (which was all day, off and on) - the "bad kid desk," basically - even if he hadn't disturbed anyone, because he always finished early with his work and then talked to the people around him, distracting them.  Between this and other issues (the teacher suggested we buy a blanket filled with rocks to put on him during class, to weigh him down so he'd be less likely to want to move around, insanity I thought), we figured he might as well be homeschooled, as he wasn't learning anything at kindy anyway (the kids were literally relearning the alphabet and how to count to 5).

 

 We pulled him out a few days before DD9 (who wanted to be homeschooled too, as she was bored), and the first day that he was home but she wasn't, she came home and asked us if DS had been home from school.

 

Yes, we said, he stayed home today - how did you know? we asked her.

 

She said, because he wasn't sitting in the "safe seat" at lunch.  Thus we learned that he sat every day at the bad kid seat at lunch, because he talked.  Turns out the school has a "silent lunch" - you can't talk at lunch at all.  Full day kindergarten + boredom in class + no talking rule at lunch meant that DS was in trouble every single day.  The punishment for talking at lunch?  At recess you have to walk around the playground in circles instead of playing.

 

This was his life every day for 2 months, and I still feel bad that it took us as long as it did to realize what was going on.

 

So that is why we homeschool - schools (at least the ones we have available) are not environments that are suited to active, bright young boys.  An environment that is biased against kids like my son and towards kids like my daughter might be better for my daughter in terms of ease for her, but it is not really any better for her in the long run, as she is immersed in an incorrect artifice.  Plus, they were bored :)  We may eventually find a school that is more balanced, and less inclined to treat young boys as inherently diseased/flawed, but I suspect they'll be too far ahead at that point for it to work anyway.

 

There is a Waldorf school in the city we're moving to this summer - it has a one day a week homeschool program and I'm hopeful that the environment/structure will be more suitable.  It's a philosophy I can see working better for our kids.

[fraidycat]

Moving all the time, usually mid-school year thanks to military pcs orders.

[IsabelC]

When Mr. 11 was 4 and a bit, we took him to a series of intro to kindergarten classes at the school where we intended to start him (nb, kinder here is for 4-5yos, so some of you would call it pre-K). Within a couple of sessions, I could see that it wasn't going to work for him. We decided to informally home school for a year and then see whether he was ready to start prep (which is 5yo kinder). He wasn't. We kept him at home, and then we thought it didn't make sense to start his sister at school when we could just as easily keep them both at home. We did end up trying school out later on, but it still didn't work out so we wound up home educating three kids, which is what I'm still doing now.

[Catherine]

My ds had 7 miserable years in school, in 2 different schools actually, and when things reached a crisis point, we knew we needed to change something.  I did not know that more than 50% of 2e kids are home schooled-where did that statistic come from?  But that is definitely us and it's the reason I took on teaching all three of them, and why we continued for the 10th-and last-year now. 

[Pawz4me]

The boys' academic needs weren't being met.  Both of them were being "challenged" by being used as babysitters for kids in their classes who had behavior issues.  And we always knew we were going to do something other than our local middle school (due to principal issues/poor administration -- not due to teacher/class/student issues).

[wendyroo]

Public school did not serve me or DH well in various ways. I learned very little, was bored out of my skull and was physically and emotionally bullied every day I was there (by both students and insecure teachers). DH had a happy go luck public school experience where he was the beloved class clown who never tried very hard and was never pushed to excel because he was always doing "fine"...except when he started taking SATs and trying to get into engineering schools "fine" didn't turn out to be very good.

 

We decided long before we had kids that homeschooling would be the first method we would try with our kids. We are open to trying other methods in the future if homeschooling isn't working for a particular child, but in general we think homeschooling is the best option for our family.

 

Wendy

[displace]

My ds had 7 miserable years in school, in 2 different schools actually, and when things reached a crisis point, we knew we needed to change something. I did not know that more than 50% of 2e kids are home schooled-where did that statistic come from? But that is definitely us and it's the reason I took on teaching all three of them, and why we continued for the 10th-and last-year now.

 

It was used by one of the Drs. Eide in one of the lectures from dyslexic advantage. I'm unable to pull a link now but will if I can later today. The rest of the students who are not homeschooled are spread among private school, college (I presume dual or early enrollment for teen aged kids), and public school.

[Night Elf]

My son was in Kindergarten and having a hard time with the hours, the noise level in the class, and the craziness of the kids. He had some issues we didn't understand too. He was way ahead of his classmates academically so we figured we'd bring him home for the rest of Kindergarten and put him back in for 1st grade. After 2 months of homeschooling, we realized it was the best thing for our family so we stuck with it.

[JustEm]

My now 6 year old started reading at 3 and by the time he was 4.5 knew what the above average kindergartner would know in reading and math. Problem is he has a late birthday so he wouldn't have entered k until basically 6 and I knew he'd be bored out of his mind and be the trouble maker in the class because of that. Here he is at 6 now, in what would be more than halfway through ps kindergarten and the boy reads at 2nd grade level and is already teaching himself multiplication. No way could kindergarten have been good for him.

[Alice]

Around here everyone does preschool for 3 and 4 year olds. I was "late" to sign up my oldest for preschool the year he would have turned 3 (it was March of the previous school year and the few places I called were full). I was kind of ambivalent about preschool anyway for him as he was a kid who didn't really like to be away from me but it was just sort of the thing to do. I figured we would just do preschool at home and see how it went. It was great, so I decided we'd keep him home another year and I got the Well-Trained Mind to read about homeschooling. (Retrospectively, it wasn't the best resource for homeschooling preschool but I had heard of it somewhere.)

 

Once I read that my reaction was "wow, this is the way I wish I had been taught" and I started to think that maybe we could go beyond preschool. He has a birthday that just misses the cutoff and so although he was totally ready for kindergarten the fall he was turning five he would have had to wait a year in public schools. I figured again, I'd try K at home and see how it went. I remember thinking that if it was a complete failure he could always do K again. So we tried another year. And another, and another. And here we are 7 years later. :) 

 

I was influenced by the fact that I knew other homeschoolers. Not so much that they convinced me to do it but that it didn't seem like a completely foreign option when we started thinking about it ourselves.

[mom2att]

Pretty much copying Amy's post, but switching the order:

 

1. Dd is gifted really smart and I thought she would be bored.

2. I couldn't bear the thought of sending her away for the day.

 

3. Dh's work schedule. He never would have seen the kids.

 

#3 is the reason we KEPT homeschooling.  That plus the fact that my second child had a lot of issues that would have made school very very difficult. In a nutshell, we started homeschooling because dd was ahead and I didn't want her to be bored, but we continued homeschooling because we loved it and it gave us so much more time as a family.

[Luckymama]

Math :)

 

She cried every day about going to school, saying she hadn't learned anything new at school since first grade. She is one of those kids who retains everything (everything) she reads or hears. She sat at the kitchen table while her older siblings did their homework...and learned math that way. She also had been working her way through the school and public libraries since kindergarten.

 

We made the decision to homeschool in January of her fourth grade year.

[LLMom]

I wanted something better educationally for my children.  I had read many books by John Holt in college while doing my final research paper for graduation.  It was on homeschooling.  (this was in the late 80's)  I was convinced after doing that paper.  Now, only homeschooling 1, I am doing it because homeschooling seems to be best for my dyslexic child.  The others are better off at school right now. 

[kroe1]

We moved to an island that does not have a school.

[Chris in VA]

For dd--She learned to read very early, and I wanted to continue to be her teacher, and a friend was homeschooling so I thought that would be neat. I read  A Pocketful of Pinecones and had a moment where I put down the book and my heart was just saying, "Yes! Yes! I want to help her keep her innocence."

 

For ds--He was a page in the VA Senate in 8th grade, and he knew we'd decided to hs his sister the following year (this was in February, I think). On the way back to Richmond, he turned off the radio and told me he'd been thinking about being homeschooled. Since I'd read WTM, it wasn't that scary to contemplate. He wanted to ask US, not "strangers," if he had a question. He wanted to read something that "meant something." He felt behind after being a page (the school was very slow to send work for him to do during the 8 weeks or so he was down there), and thought homeschooling would help him catch up. He is also Aspie-tendency Man. School, with the changing of classes, especially, was sensorially challenging, and also required more inferential ability than he had (he once did ALL the homework listed on the board--half was for another class, and he just didn't grasp that). I told him to pray about it, and he surprised me by saying he already had, and it was "like when Dad became a priest," i.e., he felt God was calling him to homeschool. That kinda took us aback and made us look very carefully at the possibility of homeschooling high school.

 

 

[JudoMom]

I graduated from an excellent public high school with a full academic scholarship and got to college and realized I didn't really know anything because instead of learning I played the system to get good grades and scores. That's when I decided I would homeschool. I wanted my future children to spend their school years learning.

[Insertcreativenamehere]

DS2 had a difficult time transitioning to the full-day environment of first grade and had developed anxiety, depression and behavior issues resulting from his younger brother's frequent hospitalizations and life-threatening illnesses. He did virtual school at home for most of first grade; being home was an excellent fit for him. We've since transitioned away from the virtual school and are happily homeschooling on our own.

 

DS1 did PS for K-3rd grade but after his brother had been home for a year, we brought him home as well. He was doing fine in school academically and was even a bit bored, but was losing his love of learning due to the behavior issues of other children. When he saw the curriculum that I was planning to use for his brother, he asked to be homeschooled. Both boys still attend PE and music at their PS and this hybrid approach has worked well. 

 

It has been a great fit for us and we are planning to homeschool our rising kindergartner as well. 

[Desert Strawberry]

I first considered homeschooling when I was 14. I had been afterschooled. I knew that I was capable of teaching my own.I knew I didn't want to do both. It was overwhelming to me, going to school all day and having more lessons at home. I knew I'd either homeschool our send my kids to school, but not both. 

Years later, when I had Sagg, the sight of the school bus turned my stomach. My reaction was so deep and visceral, I stunned me. I had chosen a good neighborhood with a good school, but I couldn't bear the thought of sending him. 

At 2 and a half, I had to put him in preschool/daycare. I cried and cried. He cried and cried. The mild autistic features that had always been there came out full force. He was slipping away, a little bit each day. We pulled him out at 3 and he's been home every since. The other 4 have never been to school.

[SparklyUnicorn]

dumb luck

 

When my first was a baby I met a woman at the library who had many kids and she homeschooled.  I was intrigued.  I had never heard of homeschooling prior.  So I started reading up on it.  I liked the idea so I told DH about it. 

 

That's about it.

 

 

[Miss Tick]

I was not interested in choosing or driving 25 minutes to 3 hours of preschool. After that successful year, I thought I could surely handle kindergarten and we have progressed in that fashion ever since.

[Pamela H in Texas]

My initial reason was academics.  Primarily, it was that I wanted my kids to be able to go their own pace as well as delve in as deep as they wish or go as broadly as they wished.  

I was a very advanced child because my mother was really good at letting me progress at my speed.  She provided an educationally rich environment and then added materials as I needed.  She would have LOVED Pinterest back then!  LOL  I spent years of schooling attention seeking because I already knew the skills and could learn the information more quickly.  I loved summer learning, afterschooling, following interests, etc.  For middle school, I was in an alternative program that allowed me to do 7th through 10th grades in less than a year and a half though my schooling was just a few hours daily.  Then when I was in 10th grade in public school, a girl went back to homeschooling because of her gymnastics.  Now I had a name for what I wanted my own kids to do :)  

When my daughter was little, she too was very advanced.  She learned how to read at three.  I supported her and decided to give her a phonics background.  We enjoyed our "schooling."  I was also tutoring a teenager and my daughter really picked up the math!  I started researching homeschooling.  I loved that she could continue linearly as she wanted (and she did!).  She could also follow interests, go broader and deeper, and most importantly "just be a kid" while doing so.  I remember a discussion with my stepmom who was concerned about her doing high school subjects at 7.  I told her that it didn't take her any longer to do those than it took a typical kid to do 2nd grade at home and no where near as long as school kids spent in school.  She had MORE time to "be a kid" even while going faster, deeper, and broader.  

 

Anyway, we added hundreds of reasons over the years and especially as we've added children.  But the first reason for me was academic.  

 

ETA:  My mother had looked into private schooling AND homeschooling.  Unfortunately, she only knew one homeschooling family who was ultra-religious and a little "weird."  She just didn't feel it was a fit.

[creekland]

I worked in our public high school and was continually amazed (not in a good way) about the level of education there.  By the time oldest reached 9th grade, I couldn't take it anymore and pulled all three of mine out figuring we couldn't do worse.  I wish I had pulled them all out when oldest reached 7th grade or possibly when each of them reached 7th grade in hindsight.

 

 

[Night Elf]

Oh, I wanted to add how I learned about homeschooling. I had no idea it was even a possibility. I didn't understand what it was when I encountered a homeschooler. During a school day, I was at the Home Depot and saw a woman with 3 school aged children. I asked if they had the day off knowing my school system was in school. She told me they homeschooled. I was flabbergasted. I asked if that was legal. She told it was and about her using Calvert School for the kids. I went home and started researching. It took me 2 months to convince DH to let me try homeschooling our son. After 2 months of homeschooling, DH thanked me for discovering this wonderful new lifestyle.

[Heidi]

My sister, who was trying to convince me to homeschool, gave me a copy of TWTM. That book helped me realize I could give my kids a better education than what I had received.

 

As I further investigated homeschooling I learned all about Charlotte Mason and classic children's literature and formed strong opinions on how to educate a child. When my oldest was ready for K I toured the K room and thought no way. Bookshelves full of junk books, a big TV, and a computer center were crammed into an overcrowded room where my daughter would spend 8 hours of her day. She could already read well. I figured the only thing we'd be missing out on was line standing practice. Best decision ever.

[regentrude]

The low academic level of the middle school, combined with the horrible social atmosphere (bullying).

DD read fiction for five years in school, with teacher's permission, and was bored out of her mind.

If a kid neither learns anything at school nor goes to have a good time with friends, there is no reason to send her.

 

[fairfarmhand]

My dd was so little. And I was going to hand her over to a total stranger all day long? No thanks.

 

Also, she was working well above Kindergarten level and I didn't want her to lose the enjoyment of learning.

 

We've added 1000 reasons why it's best for us, but that's where we started.

[mmasc]

We got military pcs orders right when oldest DS should start K. We were already going through a big adjustment with the move, the school was 25-30 minutes commute one way, plus I had a two year old. I thought 'This is crazy! We could be *finished* with school just during that commute time!' So I decided to keep him home one more year. We tried PS the next year (after another move) and knew it wasn't for us, and missed what we'd had the year before. I can't imagine ever going back now.

[mumto2]

 

It was never really a concious decision for us because at first we were just working to meet the interests of our daughter which were more intense than any of her same age friends. Then a childhood friend of mine came to see my new baby boy and brought her homeschooled kids with her. After a lovely afternoon where her kids very kindly entertained my 2 year old she made a comment that I was already homeschooling but didn't know it. :lol: After that she provided me with catalogues that made it so much easier to find the mathy puzzles and other educational toys dd required to be happy. She also dropped off a bunch of great stuff that she was done with which created a more formal environment. I just kept going and never really looked back.

[VaKim]

Well, I didn't even know anybody other than certified teachers were allowed to homeschool, or I'd have done it from the beginning. My oldest dd had just finished 3rd grade, and they were letting her slip way behind in math, but still passing her. So I was online looking for something to help over the summer. I somehow stumbled upon a comment about homeschooling somewhere and checked into it. I figured if I was going to have to be teaching her after school all the time, I might as well do all the teaching. 

[Garga]

My son went to 3 years of preschool. He was all ready for K, overly ready really, when the school system changed the cut off date to move up a grade. His birthday caused him to miss moving up to K by 12 days.

 

I asked a private school if they would be flexible on the cut off date and they said no.

 

He was bored out of his mind in preschool by that 3rd year and I wasn't going to put him through a 4th year of preschool. It has served its purpose of giving him a place to play for a couple hours a week, but he was getting too disruptive in his preschool class because of his boredom.

 

I figured I'd homeschool K and then see what happened...and here we are with him in 7th grade now.

[shawthorne44]

The big homeschooling lawsuit in Texas happened in my school district while I was in High School.  I heard about homeschooling through that and I thought "ohhhhhhhhhh, I was I could be homeschooled.  I could read books all day."  I know I'd have learned a ton more than I did going to public school.  My husband self-taught and then literally slept through school.   

[JBJones]

Bullying and social problems.

[LostSurprise]

We've had various reasons. 

 

*one of my kids wasn't accepted by his peer group but was academically ahead (socially immature/odd sense of humor/smart) so we did it to allow academics to continue while he matured socially at his own pace

*one of my kids had a severe, life-changing medical condition develop so we did it to be closer as a family

*one of my kids is an introvert and loves the ability to manage his own time

[Ethel Mertz]

We pulled DS out of preschool when we learned (from him and confirmed by marks) that his teacher was pinching him when he didn't conform to classroom expectations (i.e., little 3 year old boys not being ready to sit quietly at a table or in a circle). At that point, he hated school and we thought it didn't bode well for a 3 year old to hate school. The next year, he "won" the local charter school lottery for PreK. By that time, he was reading fluently. I asked what they would be doing during PreK and the administrator replied that they would be learning their letters. Clearly, this wasn't going to work for DS. We jumped into homeschooling and never looked back.

[shawthorne44]

Oh, I wanted to add how I learned about homeschooling. I had no idea it was even a possibility. I didn't understand what it was when I encountered a homeschooler. During a school day, I was at the Home Depot and saw a woman with 3 school aged children. I asked if they had the day off knowing my school system was in school. She told me they homeschooled. I was flabbergasted. I asked if that was legal. She told it was and about her using Calvert School for the kids. I went home and started researching. It took me 2 months to convince DH to let me try homeschooling our son. After 2 months of homeschooling, DH thanked me for discovering this wonderful new lifestyle.

 

I will remember this and be polite and informative when anyone asks about homeschooling.  

[Sk8ermaiden]

Standardized tests. I feel that spending all your time learning to take tests is not conductive to actually learning. I want my child to love to learn. 

[purpleowl]

When I chose to quit my job teaching at a Christian school, I knew I was giving up the tuition benefit they offer.  Since a Christian worldview in education is important to us for our kids, choosing to stay at home was effectively choosing to homeschool, though my oldest was only 3.5 at the time.  

 

Academics quickly became a reason that's just as important for us to continue homeschooling, but the biblical worldview was the initial driving force.

 

Also, I really like not having to get my late-sleeping kids up and out the door early. ;)

[lynn]

My oldest had add and anxiety issues and I got tired all the calls from the school and decided that homeschooling would be a better choice for him. Then to not have to mess with different school schedules I brought my middle son home. They went back to ps in3rd and 5th grades. When oldest was in 7th grade his anxiety got the best of him and we brought him home. He went back in 8th grade and went through high school. Middle son had bullying issues in 6th grade so we made the decision to let him finish the school year at home. Most recently our decision for youngest 2 was that we did not want youngest ds to go through the middle school and again it was easier to have Dd home also. I loved my homeschooling years and will continue to make our decision year to year. Right now the kids are happy and doing very well in ps. Except for getting up in the morning.

[Runningmom80]

Homeschooling was the furthest thing from my mind. It quickly became the "least worst option" because of academics and food allergy concerns.

 

Now I can't imagine doing anything else!

[mom2scouts]

I have a highly gifted child and school was a nightmare for him. The school could never figure out what to do with him and would just have him skip a grade every now and then.  He started high school before puberty.  I thought about homeschooling but I was too scared and it's my biggest parenting regret. He's an adult now and has very few good memories from school. When a younger child started having problems in first grade, I decided I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.  I took him out and plan to homeschool through high school.  I have many more reasons that I like homeschooling, but that was my original reason.

[EKS]

We decided to homeschool our older son when he flunked first grade at a Montessori elementary school.  He has dyslexia, but we didn't find that out until several years later.  We thought we'd only homeschool for a year to get him up to speed, but here I am 12 years later, with one homeschool graduate and another homeschooling high school.

[displace]

It was used by one of the Drs. Eide in one of the lectures from dyslexic advantage. I'm unable to pull a link now but will if I can later today. The rest of the students who are not homeschooled are spread among private school, college (I presume dual or early enrollment for teen aged kids), and public school.

 

I may look again later for the link but I am now stuck on watching Dyslexic Advantage videos on youtube about STEM homeschooling, and probably will watch videos all day long.  If I find the quote I'll link it.

[Hyacinth]

Ds was a late bloomer in many ways. The idea of sending him to all-day kindergarten at 5 seemed counterintuitive in terms of his emotional, relational, intellectual, and physical development.

 

Like others mentioned, reading the WTM gave me that bittersweet "I wish I had this education" coupled with "My kids can have this education!" That son is almost 14 now, and we have no regrets.

 

 

[carriede]

My uncle and aunt homeschool(ed) their children (their oldest is 7 years younger than me) so I've always "known" about homeschooling. My ideal growing up was to be a SAHM, so homeschooling has always been a viable option in my head.

 

When DH and I started dating more seriously, he told me he was interested in homeschooling. So we decided together it was an option.

 

Both DH and I went to public school and both have a BS. Neither of us have particularly negative school experiences, but we both have high IQs and have realized our educations could have been much better (now we're working through the Well Educated Mind together).

 

In short, we want to give our children the classical education we desire for ourselves. Plus, DS5 has always been a more clingy child and was NOT ready to be separated from me 5 days a week for 6 hours at 4 years old (prek is the default here).

[waa510]

1) Saw info on homeschooling on a cloth-diapering site and was like "Heck yes!" 

 

2) Dh was military and every single colleague who had grown up mil brat said to homeschool. "Don't make your kids switch DoD schools constantly."

 

3) We got used to the freedom of vacationing whenever and always being together during toddler/preschool age and didn't want to give that up

 

4) Dh and I were unimpressed and ill-served by traditional school as kids.

 

5) Dd started reading on her own at 3. I added in OPGTR to make sure she had no gaps...even though I didn't want to start schooling her just yet!! She was way too advanced by K age to put her in. Our 1st grade teacher neighbor said she'd blow away the kids in his class. :/

 

6) This is selfish and lame but I just couldn't imagine not being with them all day. It sounded so foreign and bizarre in concept *for me* that I had to seek out other options. 

 

6) It just felt so right. I started Dd on schoolwork at 3 b/c she was zooming on her own. It kept her busy and worked so well. By her 5th birthday, Dh came to me and said, "We need to keep doing this." lol. 

 

[MotherGoose]

When I started looking into K options, I thought that it would be possible to find a half-day program like I had. Nope! All Kers must be in school all day now. Somehow I managed to learn to read and stand in line in half a day, but apparently now they must be in school all day. Given how grouchy my dd was if she didn't get enough sleep, including a rest time in the afternoon, I knew I would not ever see her except when she was tired, grouchy, or on the way out the door. The school would get her best hours. Also she began reading at 4, and was reading chapter books by K, although her handwriting and coloring skills were more like a 3-4 year old.