When I learned about homeschooling

[Night Elf]

I remember when I learned about homeschooling. My ds was in Kindergarten and having a hard time with being gone all day. I went to Lowes one morning and ran into a lady with 5 daughters. Standing in line, I was wondering why they weren't in school. I did ask her if her school was on vacation and she said 'oh no, we homeschool'. My reaction was to say 'Is that legal?' I remember her laughing and saying absolutely. We moved to the parking lot and she told me about homeschooling in Georgia. She told me she used Calvert School. I was getting so excited! So I went home and started researching. It took me 2 months to talk my DH into letting me take our son out of school. And when we did, we never looked back. And now all my kids are grown and sometimes I think about how awesome homeschooling was when they were little. We had so much fun learning. Man those years went by fast though. :)

[SparklyUnicorn]

This is a lot like how I started.  I met a woman at the library with many kids and she mentioned she homeschooled.  I had never heard of homeschooling prior so I wanted to know more. 

 

And the years do go fast. 

 

 

[maize]

I was homeschooled through early elementary school, so the concept was always part of my life :)

[Desert Strawberry]

HOw lucky for you and your children that you ran into that lady, and that she was open enough to tell you about homeschooling. Tiny moments change lives.

 

[alisoncooks]

We had friends that homeschooled. DH thought it was a great idea-- I thought he was off his rocker!! I was 100% nope.

 

And here we are, 6 years in. ;)

[sassenach]

That's a good reminder that those "rude" questions might just be curious questions!

 

We moved to Florida and half of everyone home schools there! Once we started meeting normal, lovely, homeschooled kids, we warmed up to the idea.

[HomeAgain]

I worked at a library.  The children were so well behaved, polite, and were doing things above grade level - like signing their cards in cursive and knowing how to use the Dewey Decimal System.  Prior to this my only interaction with homeschoolers had been on extremes of the spectrum - the first generation kid I worked with (and avoided) and the explosive unschoolers next door to a friend's house.

 

I did a bit of research and when school failed us, that became a viable option.

[Miss Tick]

I ran into that lady's cousin at the park when I was babysitting in college. Thank goodness she didn't get offended when I asked if it was legal.

 

Thank you Park Lady, wherever you are!

[UCF612]

I met a girl in 7th grade algebra who was homeschooled but came to middle school for math only. She was so sweet and we became friends but I remember thinking she was very sheltered.

 

As an adult I thought it was an absolutely terrible idea and something I would never consider. Yeah. Until I had a child with life threatening food allergies to every "kid friendly" food. I was terrified to send him to Kindergarten. So I debated for a year (his pre k year which I felt no obligation to send him to preschool) before deciding I wouldn't ruin him if we only homeschooled for a year. We've homeschooled 4 years now and plan to keep going! He did go to private school for 2nd grade, his choice, but he wanted to return home after that year.

[OneStepAtATime]

I thought homeschooling was for kids with health issues or they were actors or athletes. :laugh:  I had no idea there was a "homeschooling community" or that it was even legal except under special circumstances.

 

DD struggled in school from 4k onward.  We finally got her tested in 5th and found out she was very bright (which we knew) and profoundly dyslexic, among other things.  School was becoming impossible.  I was desperate.  One day my family was taking our walk around the neighborhood area and decided to take a different route.  We ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in years.  She now had 5 kids.  They had started homeschooling the oldest 3 just that previous fall.  We started talking.  Turns out they had moved into our neighborhood.  She invited me over to see what she was using and point me in the direction of additional information.  It was a life changing moment.  Homeschooling as not been an easy path, but it gave DD a fighting chance.  She is a much happier child as a homeschooler and has found talents she had no idea she had.

Edited November 22, 2016 by OneStepAtATime

[tm919]

20 years ago when I thought I was wanted to be a lawyer, I did an internship in an office where one woman was a part-time lawyer, a full time homeschooling mom, and a part-time homeschooling activist.  None of the legal stuff stuck but when I had kids I remembered her passion about homeschooling... ultimately decided afterschooling was more my thing, but I will never forget how she was so passionate about her kids' education.

[EmilyGF]

In 1990, our neighbors started homeschooling. I was so jealous. I tried to convince my mom to homeschool me. That went over like a lead balloon! 

 

So now I homeschool.

[Mom25girls]

It does go by so quickly. This is my 19th year homeschooling. OMGOSH! AND...to be honest...I STILL don't feel like an "expert" and I STILL have curricula panics every year (this year's would be on the High School forum). LOL. Enjoy your time because it's not just school, it's your family memories. I'm very thankful that we've been able to share so much time together. 

[Guest]

I first got the idea from Mary Pride's Big Book of Home Learning, which I thought I was reading for enrichment activities and ideas. But the more significant Divine Intervention moment came a couple years later when I was in a bookstore, staring at educational materials. My eyes were welling up with tears because I wanted to homeschool but DH was 100% against it. Standing there in the bookstore, I mentally decided that I would start looking into private schools tomorrow. I was at the edge of giving up that dream. I went to the counter to pay and the cashier said, out of the clear blue, "Are you a homeschooler?" (i have NO IDEA what motivated her to ask me this!) i said, "No...well, I want to be, but I don't think that's going to happen." She said, "I homeschooled my daughter all the way through. She is in college now, studying Marine Biology." She said a couple other encouraging things to me and I took it as a "sign" that God did not want me to give up the dream.

 

 

A few years later when I was actually homeschooling, I went back to that store and the lady was still a cashier. I told her about how she unknowingly had encouraged me that day and she was overcome with emotion. She came around to the other side of the counter and gave me a big hug. It was one of the lovlier moments in my life. :)

[displace]

DS was young, in daycare, and I had fantasies of not working every hour of his life and me actually spending time with him. I do believe that was my first post, about wanting to homeschool to spend time with him and if that was a "wrong" reason.

 

I was wanting to homeschool because of moving to a few different places in a short time for K, so we did a short stint of homeschooling before PS and then homeschooling again (then PS, now likely homeschooling again, as the world turns).

☺ï¸

Edited November 22, 2016 by displace

[pinkmint]

I think the first time I was aware homeschooling was a thing was hearing that child actors/ entertainers do it. I had no clue about the homeschooling "community" until pretty well into adulthood.

 

I think there was always a desire in my heart towards the idea of homeschooling though without even knowing anything about it. I remember waking to school one day in 6th grade with my friends talking about how it's senseless for us to be in school so many hours in the day.

 

Then in high school when I was a juvenile delinquent, I pressured my mom to let my attend the local "special" school for bad kids where you are assigned a course of independent study and check in once a week. And so I basically homeschooled myself the last year of high school.

 

Years later I met some families with oddly well behaved teens and found out they all homeschool.

[porque]

I was in graduate school, browsing at the college bookstore and picked up a John Holt book, Teach Your Own,  I think. I thought it all sounded brilliant -it was a few more years before we had kids but the idea of homeschooling stuck with me.

 

[Spryte]

In the 90s, I was taking a class on the ancient Greeks, and I met an older woman who was auditing the course. We were in a study group together, and then became friends. Her kids were grown, all with masters' degrees at least, and living all over the world doing amazing work. They had all been homeschooled. Prior to that, homeschooling wasn't even a word I'd consciously heard.

 

Then I realized that a lot of the kids in my mother's art world were homeschooled. What else do you do when both parents need to be in the road? They were all great kids, too.

 

When DH and I were adopting, it came up again. DS's birthmom was homeschooled. :)

 

Still, we didn't plan to do it, despite a fascination with it. Until it was time to enroll for K and the school couldn't manage allergies, and clearly wasn't a good educational fit. We fell right off the fence! It's year 8 now, no regrets.

[Jan in SC]

My oldest ds had seizures when he was in kindergarten that kept him in the hospital for a week for video monitoring. We took a week's worth of school work, which turned out to be a joke. When a med student tried to check my ds' reflexes in the wrong place, and my ds showed him how to do it correctly, the neurologist suggested that we homeschool. He said that his wife homeschooled their children and his oldest was about to graduate from Boston College and was heading to med school. He told me that my child would be incredible bored with our current school. (This wasn't his only time around him.) So, after researching private schools, and trying one for a year, we homeschooled. The private school was great, but the tuition was ridiculous! We homeschooled until this year. 

[JustEm]

I knew about homeschooling for most of my life. One year my brother was really struggling in school socially so my mom hired a woman to teach him in our home. It was great for him but only needed for a year. Then in 4th grade I was homeschooled at someone else's house with her 3 kids and my brother. That too only lasted a year but it was great.

 

While in highschool my older sister was homeschooling 2 of her kids. Then when my oldest was born my other sister was just starting out with homeschooling her oldest.

 

With all this exposure to homeschooling I never even considered homeschooling until I really got to know my oldest's personality. He is just like me and would have been bored in most brick and mortar schools so homeschooling it is. Thankfully dh's bosses home schooled their kids and many of his students are home schooled so he was already familiar with it enough to not have any doubts about it

[Junie]

I learned about homeschooling while I was in college (earning a degree in education).  A large homeschooling family in my church "adopted" me and I spent many wonderful hours in their home.  I realized that if I had children, I would like to teach them myself.

 

Years later, when dh and I were dating, we discussed homeschooling.  He wasn't really on board.  We went to a homeschooling convention on a date and he saw how many options there were.  We have homeschooled all of our children since the very beginning.

[thessa516]

I grew up knowing about homeschooling because our Pastor homeschooled his children, but I never thought I would homeschool. Years later I was teaching first grade. My DS was also in first grade (in another district), but his teacher was absolutely horrible. He couldn't read and was not making progress. I remember thinking I wish he could transfer to my school so I could teach him. Add to that how my district handled 9/11 (basically they didn't tell the teachers what was going on - I only found out because my DH had called me), and before I knew it DH and I had a copy of The Well-Trained Mind in our hands and I put in my notice that I would not be returning for the next school year. Here I am 4 more kids and 14 years later! Still learning, still loving it! 

[Guest]

.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Æthelthryth the Texan

[iamonlyone]

When my husband and I were attending the University of Tennessee for our master's degrees, we met a homeschooling family in our church there. We thought it was a neat idea, but I didn't think I was the homeschooling type (i.e., in my mind, grinding my own wheat for homemade bread, etc.). When we moved to Mississippi after grad school (our firstborn was two weeks old), we attended a church where literally every family homeschooled. I was amazed at all the different personalities and approaches and realized there wasn't a single "type" that could effectively homeschool.

 

One day when I was at the park with our daughter, then about one or two, I was praying and the verse (or partial verse) "redeem the time for the days are evil" popped into my mind. I wondered what this meant in terms of child rearing and thought (my thought for me, here—not applying this to everyone!), "How can I teach, disciple, train, and encourage—fully redeem all the time possible—if my child is at school during the day?"

 

Nineteen years and two more states later, we have graduated that baby through our homeschool program and she is a professional ballet dancer (great educational flexibility with all the training hours she put in through the years!), our second child homeschooled until high school, and our youngest is a homeschooling junior this year.

 

Interestingly, I would have been afraid to homeschool if I had known all the reasons it turned out being a gift to our kids (oldest on the outskirts of the spectrum and some health concerns and middle with auditory and executive processing issues and dyslexia). Glad I didn't know what I know now, and glad we made the choice—albeit a sometimes difficult one.

[Guest]

We had neighbor church friends who homeschooled. That was probably my first exposure. I had a horrible time in school and a friend who was afterschooled by his aunt, who homeschooled her two kids. That was when the idea started percolating that I wanted to spare my kids a lot of the crap I went through.

 

Then coincidentally my best friend in college was homeschooled until high school, and the man I ended up marrying was the same. By then I was pretty much positive I was going to homeschool my own children and was just happy to get some proof of concept from well educated, well spoken adults that it worked out. Both were highly unique individuals and excellent in their chosen fields, good ambassadors ;)

[FaithManor]

I knew about it at a younger age. The homeschool fight was very much lead here in Michigan, and there were lawmakers also fighting to outlaw parochial schools as well. So there was this "banding together" of the few homeschooling parents with the parochial schools to fight for educational rights. I think I was 15 when my parents took me to our local county courthouse to politely demonstrate for the De Jonge's who were facing losing custody of their children for homeschooling. That case was heard about nine miles from my current house, and of course eventually landed on the State Supreme Court's lap.

 

However, I had not considered homeschooling my own children until our dd was not being challenged enough at the Lutheran K-8 that we had picked due to being superior academically to the local PS.

[Elizabeth 2]

Although I don't recall knowing anyone who homeschooled personally before 7th grade or so, it wasn't a foreign concept either. My mom was raising my brothers and I as a single parent, so variations in In family life weren't foreign to me. One of those was how children were educated. Some were at public schools, some went to boarding school (my mom did while my grandfather was posted overseas), some went to private schools, and some educated at home. Since we didn't have TV, the many books we read included each of those possibilities. Plus the first elementary school I went to was as close to homeschooling as was possible in public education. 30 kids, grades 1-6, in two classrooms, taught collectively by two teachers. I didn't expect school to look one way or another because I didn't know it was "supposed" to!

[shawthorne44]

I was in High School when my state was persecuting the homeschoolers in my city.  I think I was late high school when the court case came down making it legal.  There were newspaper articles about the persecution and the court case.  My reaction was, "Homeschooling is an option?   Oh, man, I wish I were homeschooled!"    I am a bookish person.  I could have had a far superior education if I'd just been left home alone with the school's textbooks.   I'd have even promised to keep the house clean and dinner on the table when they got home, if they'd allowed homeschooling.   Both my parents worked.  

[Seeking Squirrels]

I first heard of homeschooling when I was in about 8th grade. Our church got a new music pastor and they homeschooled their 4 kids, 2 of whom were close to my age, a year older and a year younger. I was amazed that this was a thing and wanted to homeschool so badly. I used to dream about their mom schooling me, too. I never was able to homeschool myself, but I always loved the idea of it. DH was against it at first, but was open to researching it and he came around long before it ever mattered. DD8 is in ps this year and it's killing me. :(  It's taking all the restraint I have to not pull her out. 

[LMD]

Dh blindsided me with the idea when our oldest was an infant. I of course reacted with a gasp and 'I could never do that'

He had known 2 homeschooling families growing up who were so-so examples, but the idea stuck. Dh said that it was my decision, but asked me to at least think about it.

 

My library had WTM and I was sold. And angry at the 'education' that I received. Our infant never went to school, and is now 11.

 

I know of at least 3 families who decided to homeschool after meeting us, honestly, I have mixed feelings about that...

[Guest]

Dd wasn't happy at school and I hated school, so the lady who'd supervised my breastfeeding counsellor training said 'Hey! You could homeschool! I've got all this info about it for you.' 

 

Turned out she'd homeschooled for a year due to medical needs of one of her children.

 

Dh was on board because he also hated school, and I had the support of my local breastfeeding support group who were absolutely awesome and affirming, so we took dd out half way through her first year.

 

Dh and I were terrified of telling her very stern kindergarten teacher. The teacher nearly had a heart attack. She begged dd 'to always keep reading' in a sort of desperate voice. Like we were going to lock her up in the basement with only a rat for company or something. Given dd at this point was already reading 24/7, and lived in a house with two writers and a heck load of books, it was a pretty stupid thing to get desperate about.

 

I know one family who started homeschooling when their eldest was unhappy in K, and dh talked to her dad about it, and sold them on it. 

 

Ah, happy times! When my littles played together, read together, learned together. I really loved the first decade.

 

I know that had to be so annoying at the time, but the mental image of this made me chuckle. "always keep reading!" Indeed. :)

[Carol in Cal.]

I first heard about it in old books that included child actors/circus stars/dancers (the Shoes books) or children of missionaries using Calvert (maybe books by Pearl Buck?  Can't remember for sure.).  I didn't think anyone did this any more.

 

Then at a family funeral, long before I had kids, a difficult cousin, super patriarchal and arrogant, came and bragged on how they were homeschooling and how this was the superior method and how all the best Americans in the 1700s were homeschooled, and I thought, barf.  It seemed to me that this was an attempt to both feel superior and prevent your kids from learning any ideas but your own.  I mean, this is a guy whose wife asks his permission to buy a yard of cloth to decorate their wall.  

 

Fast forward to when DD was little, and I was reading Mothering magazine, and it just seemed like the cozy, attachment parenting thing to do, but I thought it was unfair to do this with an only child.  Figured that out, and off we went.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Carol in Cal.

[Wheres Toto]

My oldest danced with a couple of homeschooled sisters but it wasn't really a recommendation IMO.  They were the stereotypical sheltered, uber-religious homeschoolers - I believe they used Alpha Omega Lifepacs.  

 

Ds flunked out of his first preschool when he was 2 1/2.  He wouldn't sit down in circle time, didn't speak outside of his own weird language, was very strong-willed.  We ended up having an assessment done and he was admitted to Early Intervention when he was three, for speech delays (receptive and expressive) and -some behavior they "couldn't quite classify but was definitely atypical".   He started speaking pretty quickly after starting, although was still not quite age level in all categories at the end of the year.  Despite that, he was declassified because they need to have at least two deficiencies to qualify and his speech was improved enough and his other behaviors were still not quite defined.  They did tell us not to send him back to kindergarten until he was 6 (late August birthday) despite the fact that he was already reading and doing the K math with some of the older kids in the class.

 

They told us in April that he wouldn't be eligible for EI for the following year.  EVERY decent preschool in our area fills up in February.  So,, we decided to keep him home for preschool. Then we talked about how bored he would be in kindergarten if we wanted two years AND did anything at all with him at home.  He's not the type of kid to be quietly bored so I was sure we'd have behavior issues to deal with.  So doing preschool at home gradually evolved into homeschooling.

 

Dh was onboard from the very beginning.  I was extremely surprised because he's fairly traditional, even somewhat old fashioned about a lot of things.  But he was completely bored in school and thought the idea of a customized education was great.  I have all except my student teaching for elementary education, plus degrees in management and biology, while he has a degree in Chemistry and is absolutely brilliant at math, so we weren't really concerned at all about the practical aspects of it.

 

We now know that ds has SPD, ASD, and is gifted.   Dd has ADHD (likely) and anxiety.  So, our decision to homeschool has been confirmed to be the right one for us.

[lllll]

nm

Edited December 29, 2016 by ..Kathy..

[dirty ethel rackham]

My oldest couldn't go to preschool and pretty much everyone around here sends their kid to preschool.  Plus, I didn't really agree with the need for preschool if the child has an enriching home environment (which I felt we had.)  We had nobody to hang out with since our playgroups all disbanded when their kids went to preschool.  I attended a La Leche League supplemental meeting (I can't remember the proper term, but it was really a parenting meeting rather than a breastfeeding support meeting) and the topic was alternatives to preschool.  When one mom presented homeschooling as an option, I felt my heart beat faster and instantly sat up in my chair.  I asked a ton of questions and did more research at home.  I felt like we were born to do this.  I joined a local non-sectarian support group and attended some park days.  I took my husband to an evening parents meeting so they he could get to know people and see that they weren't all granola crunchy hippies or religious fanatics ... that there were some "normal" people.  He was sold. 

 

That said, I became pretty "crunchy" after hanging out with these people. 

[Garga]

I can't remember at all how I first heard about it.

 

I wish I had some sort of cool story about it! But I don't. Somewhere along the line I heard of it, and somewhere along the line I read a book or two about it.

 

When the district changed the laws and my son would have been held back in preschool an extra year, I decided to jump in and teach him K myself. If it didn't work, no biggie. He could just go to K the following September, on schedule per the district.

 

Same thing happened with 1st. I figured if I messed it up, he could just go into 1st the following September, on schedule per the district.

 

He's in 9th now, being homeschooled. He seems pretty happy and so does his brother. :)

Edited November 23, 2016 by Garga

[KungFuPanda]

I was the LLL librarian. I read all of the books. A few of them were about homeschooling. It was the first I ever thought of it and seemed a natural extension to our child-centered lifestyle.

[Melissa in Australia]

I know about homeschooling forever- had met may people who homeschooled, my mother did correspondence school with a few of my siblings. I had a neighbour who homeschooled. I had a BAD attitude to homeschooling, a BAD ATTITUDE. it wasn't until my oldest was completely failing primary school, and I was spending most of the day trying to help him at school then spending 3 hours every evening trying to help him that I realised I had no choice but to homeschool him. now I am completely sold on the philosophy 

[emmaluv+2more]

I *think* I've known about homeschooling forever.  A couple of families I have known for years homeschooled their children, but I don't remember  ever thinking much about it until my oldest was around 4.  I was struggling really hard with the idea of sending her away for 8 hours a day 5 days per week to let complete strangers do what I was more than competent to do myself.  I was completely terrified to introduce the idea to my family, but everyone has always been completely supportive.  That child did want to go to kindergarten, so we sent her.  She was miserable and we withdrew her right before winter break.  We never heard a single thing from the school about what happened or why she was no longer attending.  I am now in my 7th year of homeschooling.

[Arcadia]

My oldest public school teachers all advised us to homeschool him. The assigned school admins told us to go to public charter, private school or homeschool but not to our district schools. So when public school staff tell you to homeschool, you know how bad a match my district schools are to my kids.

[luuknam]

I'm not sure. From about 12yo I'd read the education pages of the Saturday newspaper, and I also read the newsletter of the organization of parents of gifted children, and I'm sure I came across the idea in one or both, probably more than once. But, it was a "homeschooling is something you can do in America" kind of thing. I asked my mom about it at some point and she said it was definitely illegal in NL.

[Mimm]

My learning about homeschooling story is actually my mother's. She met a woman at church who homeschooled and they got to talking. The woman talked about the freedom she had to not live by the school's schedule and set of rules which really appealed to her. I was always getting in trouble for day dreaming and they wanted me medicated for ADHD and my parents didn't like that idea.

 

I remember my last day of second grade, I rushed home and begged to start working on my third grade stuff. I was the oldest so I always got new books. But I also got experimented on. If something didn't work for me, my brothers didn't have to suffer through it. ;)

[Bluegoat]

I was in high school and stumbled across The Teenage Liberation Handbook.  I hated school but was by that time interested in knowledge and it really resonated with me.  I tried to convince my mom and step-dad to let me stay home, but they would not agree.

 

I read a lot of Holt and about Summerhill and all that during that period, and became convinced that was the way to go.

 

By the time I had my kids university had changed my perspective somewhat, but I still thought homeschooling was a viable option and better than what elementary schools here offered to young kids. 

[BooksandBoys]

I was four when I started the Abeka Kindergarten curriculum at home. My mom homeschooled me for eight years.

My parents narrowly escaped a Gothard indoctrination when I was three, but I'm thankful that they learned about homeschooling while being wooed by that group. Homeschooling was wonderful for me!

[Lucy the Valiant]

I was a high school teacher when I first "met" home schooling, and it was a 100% negative experience.

 

Imagine my shock when we moved to a new location and I discovered the "other end of the spectrum" of home schooling! So very thankful for those who were patient with my questions, and gentle with their encouragement, and bright with their consideration of the possibilities. What a difference it has made for me personally and for my children and for our whole family!

[Dmmetler]

While growing up, I thought homeschooling was something you did when you were on mission in Africa or South America-because the only kids I knew who has been homeschooled had been mission kids, who then came to either our school (for elementary) or the Mennonite high school. My neighborhood had a lot of the seminary families, and it was very common for families to return when the oldest child was ready for high school. Sometimes kids would be homeschooled to finish out a school year. I always thought it sounded awesome.

 

My former district tended to get kids who had been "homeschooled" in name only, usually to avoid alternative school placements. It was a pretty bad impression. However, when DD was 3, I found this nice group of moms at a local park-with these really great kids, who welcomed us. Even when DD was in kindergarten, I'd go to park day because I missed them. By January, when school just wasn't working, we decided to homeschool. They were polite enough to not say "I told you so!"