Why do some parents home school their kids?

Delora Struzzi: I am watching your question to see what people say. I always think if it's a matter of education, you can always support and do activities at home to enhance a school education.My son's in his second year of "special" preschool at our public school and it's been fantastic, the teachers are great and he's thriving! I am wondering what should I be worried about as he gets older/why are people homeschooling....Show more

Moises Rupinski: Some people just don't want their kids to be around with the school kids, which are to them the bullies and the jerks. They are afraid 2 let go.

Fritz Sisomphou: Wow! Thanks for all of the great answers guys! I would have never thought that this question would lead to so much great insight. I am going to have a hard time choosing best answer!Now I know why home schooling is a good idea. I definitely agree with pretty much all of the points that were made.Thanks everyone!...Show more

Sammie Bocanegra: Everybod! y seems to have given you some pretty good reasons, but you should know a little about homeschooling as well if you want ot better understand why so many people do it. It is different for every family that does it, and often even for every individual child. As stated above, some people do online school which means you have teachers you corespond with over the internet. The online school sends you your materials and you complete the work and get a grade, just like regular school, only done on the computer from home or the library or the road if you travel a lot.Some people homeschool through a private school or school of corespondance that sends them their books and materials for assignments, labs, projects, etc through the mail. With this type of home schooling, you usually send a report to the base school at set intervals.Some people attend charter schools that let them go in to school once or twice a week, collect work, turn in work, and get help if they need it, though t! his isn't really what most consider to be homeschooling. Neith! er is online school to some people.Some people take full responsibility for their own/their child's education by doing more traditional homeschooling. The parents and children choose their own curriculumk, text books, work books, lab equipment, videos, software, and any other materials they wish to use. They also choose their own subjects based on the child's individual interests and goals, for example, if the child wishes to go on to university, they will study the important core subjects that universities look for on transcripts as well as a variety of electives based on individual interests, needs, and goals. I personally am interested in robotics, animation, creative writing, and music, so this year I've been studying Programming and Robotics with various books and robotics/electronics kits for labs, 3D Animation with computer software, and creative writing with a textbook and books frokm the library. I also takek music lessons in the community and I am a member of a ba! nd. In this form of homeschooling, the state may require that you take a yearly standardized test to show that you are performing at or above grade level. In the states that are a bit more strict about homeschooling, your parents may need to send in a quarterly report, just like a report card in a way. Your parents may also give you tests at home if you all agree that this is what will be best for you, but it isn't required.You may also get grades like you do in school, or you may be on a Pass/Fail system, or you may have a totally unique grading system, or no grades at all. I take tests, but not for grades. When I take a test in a subject it is only to determine how far along I've come in that subject. The "grade" is never final because I homeschool to learn, not to just get by with a passing grade. If, for example, I took a test on a chapter I did in Algebra and I didn't do well on a few questions, instead of just going on to the next chapter, I go back and review the stu! ff I didn't get right on the test and then take the test again before m! oving on.. For me, all tests are for is to tell me when I can move on to something more challenging. For me, and many others, tests aren't always in the same format as they are in public school. Sometimes in certain subjects, I'm tested by being given an extensive project or presentation to do to show my understanding of the topic cover, or asked to write a paper on it, or give a mock lesson on it as if I were the teacher. You know you truly understand something when you can accurately and confidently teach it to someone else. Often my mother, adult friends, or friends closer to my age who are in college or who have already mastered te subject will act as audience durring presentations or re-teaching activities, checking me if I don't seem to understand something. I only do this for certain subjects and topics though.Homeschoolers sometimes do a lot of the things you may do in public school, but sometimes they do more as well. Many homeschoolers do a lot of hands-on activit! ies like labs in science. This year, I am taking Chemistry, and I have all the same lab equipment you would use in a public high school chemistry class, just on a smaller scale, and with lab instructions specific to homeschooling (not requiring large groups of students, or very-hard-to-obtain chemicals). It was the same in Biology and in Physical Science. I have homeschooled friends who take thier science classes in a co-op group (kind of a homeschool class where parents and community volunteers act as teachers for each subject), and still other homeschool friends who take all of their highschool science classes (and some other classes) at the local community college as duel-enrollment students (just like regular highschool duel enrollment).Homeschoolers don't miss out on the social aspects of school either. They certainly do not spend all of their time inside the house. ...Show more

Karey Dunken: The public school system is not conducive to good education or good per! sonal development. It also kills creativity and individuality. It also! promotes unhealthy competition and finding the answer that makes the teacher happy instead of fostering cooperation, appreciation of others, and critical thinking.(My husband and I don't have kids yet, but we do plan to homeschool)Edit: It also is so far from the "real world" and you can better prepare your child for the real world if you homeschool. Proper socialization is also made easier since they are not stuck in a classroom all day full of people ONLY their own age where they are also forced to remain silent for long periods of time and focus on some teacher yapping at them from the front of the room....Show more

Nell Dipiero: Are you sick and tired of the school system? If you really think that homeschooling is the best path for you, then you have to do your research before you talk to your parents about it. When you do get their attention, it's important to use facts, logic, and persistence to make them come around to letting you homeschool instead of going! to school. As you do your research, you'll be able to see whether this form of education is really right for you https://bitly.im/s/convince-your-parents-to-let-yo......Show more

James Langmyer: I have nothing against public schools in general - truly I don't - but the schools in our district have as much as admitted that they can do nothing for our son. He is highly gifted and dyslexic, which means he has a 5-year grade range between subjects; however, he's above grade level in every subject except for spelling, and with our "wonderful" state laws, he can't be accelerated for any reason. Meaning, he might get grade-level instruction in that one subject (though it probably wouldn't be in a way he understood), but he'd be bored silly in every other. No thanks.Through homeschooling, he is able to work at his own pace (which is usually ahead of what classrooms could accommodate) and can work in the way that makes the most sense to him. He's very auditory and kinesth! etic, which means that he needs to hear, talk, move, and "do" in order ! to learn - all traits that would get him medicated in our local schools. And being dyslexic, he needs to learn in a way that most classrooms don't teach - which wouldn't happen in any of the schools in our district. Again, no thanks.Schools are good, for kids who learn well in that structure. However, not every kid does. Mine doesn't learn well in highly structured large groups - he finds that environment incredibly distracting and frustrating. He is able to motivate himself to learn and helps to make his educational goals. Through homeschooling he can learn in a variety of environments - in our house, at a friend's house, at co op, at the library, at the nature center or museum, etc. School just plain isn't the best choice for him - homeschooling is. Therefore, we homeschool. :)Edit - xtra - that may be true in some cases, but if the school isn't able to provide a reasonable education for him, why should I send him there and then "supplement"? It'd just be doubli! ng the work for him. I wouldn't be supplementing, I'd be helping him unlearn things that don't make sense and reteaching them to him. It really makes a lot more sense to just teach him at home in the first place. Like I said - schools are great for some kids, not so great for others. The choice should be there, either way....Show more

Bethanie Menden: My child is receiving a much better education than she did in public school and she is having more fun. You cannot beat those reasons.

Craig Virani: All of my children were/ are healthy for the most part and attended public school until the schools failed my children. My oldest son was not doing his daily work, failing his classes, and they continued to promote him. I asked them to hold him back but they refused because his standardized test scores were "fabulous, an asset to the school". I pulled my two oldest sons from the public school system in KS and didn't have a private school anywhere near us so our on! ly option was home school, which we did for three years.Then we came to! TX and put them back in public school. The school refused to look at their portfolio so put them back in the 9th grade vs 10th and 11th. They quickly found out my children were doing college quality work and completed enough classes through credit recovery to be considered sophomores within 3 months. I would have to say the home schooling worked.I found out this past year that my daughter was forced to watch movies in her World Geography class, movies such as We Are Marshall, Remember the Titans, Rudy, Radio, Friday Night Lights, anyone see a theme here? They did vocabulary once a month or every three weeks so they had something to show for their time in the teacher's class. Then in her health class they were forced to watch King of the Hill and another child I know said they watched Family Guy the entire semester she had that class. Her brothers admitted to me this was pretty common and they went through the same thing. Sorry, but I don't call this education and I certai! nly don't think my child needs to waste her time and my money going to a school that will not/ cannot teach her. She also has a medical condition that while not life threatening can be problematic if the school did not let her do what she needed when she needed and they were not very accommodating, even with a doctor's note. My child, at age 16, loves to listen to classical music, read books that most teens can't understand, and wants a true education- not a piece of paper that says she can pass the TAKS and meet the minimum standards of this state. There is not a private school nearby that I feel can do a better job than we can so won't waste our money on the institution's tuition when we can decide what she needs to learn and when....Show more

Clark Lachowski: Lots of reasons. In my case, the local public and private schools couldn't (and possibly wouldn't) do anything to meet my needs. I was perfectly healthy and had no learning disabilities -- my problem was that ! I was quite a bit above the academic level of my classmates. My teacher! s and schools couldn't do anything about it, and as a result I was bored out of my mind. Can you imagine your teacher telling you off for reading faster than your classmates? It happened to me several times. One time, I almost got in trouble for reading two chapters of "Johnny Tremain" instead of the one chapter the teacher had assigned. And that was at the local private school, which was definitely better than the local public schools! When I finished at the private school, we had four options: send me to the public middle school like all the other kids (but the school was terribly overcrowded and not exactly known for providing a quality education), send me to the Catholic school the next town over (but that would only solve the problem for one year, and then I would have to go to the public middle school), send me away to boarding school, or homeschool me. My parents really didn't want to ship me off to school somewhere else, and the more they learned about the middle sc! hool the less they liked it, so they chose to homeschool me.As a result, I was able to move at my own pace, follow my own interests, devote a substantial amount of time to music (which was a huge part of my life during my teenage years), finish high school two years early, and finish my Associate's degree by the time I was 18...in other words, when my peers were just starting college. Had I stayed in school, who knows what would have happened because I would have been miserable....Show more

Gilberto Cratin: well i dont really think it has anything to do with not wanting there kids to interact with others itsmore of an free schedule. the kids can graduate early have accelerated paces and exceed the kids and there are no fluff classes like in schools with study hall planning time . some parents also like the idea if they need to go somewhere (vacation) you dont have to waitfor school to get out.. dont have to worry about getting your kid to school on time and when there! sick you dont need to call them in sick. parents can monitor your grad! es and if they have questions you always know where you can go. ...Show more

Forest Duttinger: 1. Home schooling allows individualized attention and instruction. In a one-on-one setting, homeschooling parents can better observe how their children progress, what areas they find difficult and can focus on helping them learn what they do not know, rather than wasting time on what they already know. This means that you do not need to require "homework" because you already know whether they have mastered the material. You can also forget about making your child sit for six or seven hours a day. When there are not 30 other kids to deal with, you just don't need that much time to present the lessons.2. Children learn at their own pace. In a home school setting, children can advance at any time, and not wait for the rest of the class to catch up. Conversely, if the child is a slow learner or having difficulties in a certain subject area, she/he can remain to focus on that are! a without pressure that others are already moving on.3. Parents can pattern their teaching style and curriculum in accordance with the child’s learning style, allowing him/her to successfully understand the subject matter. Hence, better results are achieved. This is particularly true of children who may have difficulty focusing, or who are dyslexic, or who learn in other non-traditional ways.4. There is limited peer pressure. Many homeschool families are quite large, and provide a special kind of environment where there are other children at different ages and levels of development. Families with one child, or only a few children provide many extra-curricular activities for socialization. Yet, even when they are diligent about providing social interaction for their child, these parents observe that they have much more control over who is influencing their children. No one group is with the child 30 or more hours a week setting the standard of "cool", either in opinion or ! behavior.5. Real World Learning occurs naturally. Activities which are ! outside the context of books are very much essential to the child’s learning process. Trips to the park, the museum, the zoo, going fishing with mom and dad can be a great way to spend an afternoon educating your child. Everyday life provides many learning opportunities - even a trip to the post office or the grocery store can be educational. And every time you are out with your child during school hours is an opportunity to explain why you homeschool, and for your child (and you!) to hear your reasons.6. There is plenty of time to impart your family's values. The main problem with institutional schooling is that it doesn't permit enough time to share your own family's beliefs and values in a way that will counteract the relentless opposing view your child is encountering in the outside world. If your child gets on the school bus at 7:45 AM and then plays a sport, has a piano lesson, or some other activity after school, they may not get home until after 5 PM. Then it is t! ime to eat dinner, do homework and chores, watch a little TV or spend some time on the computer, and go to bed. Good grief! How do you have a relationship with someone you see for only a few minutes a day? This is especially important for Christian and other faith-based families since there is considerable hostility to expressions of faith in schools.7. You have the flexibility to vacation whenever it is convenient, and not necessarily during the summer. So you can schedule around the parent's vacation rather than around the school year. And vacations can be a great time to see all those historical sites or national monuments that you can count as a field trip!...Show more

Gene Debell: 1

Wilbert Shellgren: I'm perfectly healthy, and don't have a learning disability. I've been homeschooled since 2000.I was bored out of my mind in school, and I was in the enrichment program. The program was a complete joke- they took a couple of us out of school at what I remember! as inconsistent times, just so we could go do trivial projects in the ! library. There was no gifted program. My elementary school was really diverse (right by a medical school so people came from all over the world to study there, and brought their kids) so most of the resources went to kids with some real problems, or getting someone to translate the lessons in to Japanese, French, or some other random language. I remember we had a huge chart at the front of the school keeping track of how many languages were spoken at the school. I mainly think it kind of sucked for the kids who were stuck in ESL all the time, and even if there wasn't a gifted program, there might have been something for kids who could read well if all that time and energy wasn't being spent on kids who would only be there for a year or two.Anyway, basically, I was bored as hell. I was getting yelled at for reading too much, and I'm a very kinetic person so being forced to sit at a chair that was too small for my lanky Swedish bones was pretty rough on me.Private school is e! xpensive, and then you have to be sure you've found the right kind of school. I think that I would have enjoyed a small private school, but homeschooling has been okay.I think there were some major flops in my education that were pretty avoidable, but I'm working with what I have, and it's not so bad. It beats being in school, anyway.EDIT: I suppose I should be more detailed, but it's almost midnight over here so I'm being lazy and giving you a list of general disclaimers:-I'm not out of the system for religious reasons. My parents are, le gasp, atheists and so am I. Well, my mom's kind of a Buddhist...I don't really know, actually. Either way, religion's never been forced on me, though I could go to church if I wanted to. However, religion never factored in to the decision to take me out of school.-I'm hardly sheltered. I live in Manhattan so I'm out and about every day. My parents actually wish I was around more often. Recently a bunch of my friends graduated, so I've hit! a bit of a dry spell, but I'm still reasonably happy with my social li! fe.-I'm unschooled. I've had some family issues which have held me back a bit and led to some angst, but I'm holding down some AP courses so it can't have screwed up too badly....Show more

Stanton Valdivia: I choose to homeschool my children because I want them to receive the best education possible. With homeschooling, they can learn at their own pace-if they take a little more time to grasp a concept, that is fine, and if it is something that they easily comprehend we move ahead.They can learn in the way that suits their individual learning style-not all children learn in the same manner. Some might do well reading out of a text book, and that is certainly the easiest way to teach a crowd, but some students will learn better hands on, or hearing a lesson, etc.I want my children to be prepared for the real world, so I homeschool them. This way, they are living in the real world rather than being segregated to four walls to "learn" about the real world. Instead of! being at school with 29 or so other people born the same year they were and from roughly the same neighborhood, they are mingling with people of all ages, races, etc. and learning how to successfully live life.I homeschool my children BECAUSE OF socialization. School is not the only, and it is certainly not the best, place to socialize. Also, would you expect your child's classmates to teach them the math they are currently studying? Of course not! Why expect them to learn social skills from other classmates, who are also in the process of learning them?Unfortunately, my children still deal with broken hearts, conflicts with friends, people that annoy them in the various activities that they participate in. It is a more controlled environment than public school, though, and they have parental guidance-that is what we are there for. As a parent, I want to help them understand how to settle a conflict (real world style, not school style), etc.And, part of why I homesch! ool is because I want my children to remain perfectly healthy! My niec! es/nephews and other children I know who attend school get sick much more often than my children do. And, if we are sick we can continue lessons without spreading whatever virus to everyone else. Not to mention head lice! We have dealt with that, but not nearly as often as the public school (and private) students that I know. Why should something so great as homeschooling not be an option for my children just because they do not have a disease or a learning disability?...Show more

Rona Ising: There are almost as many reason to homeschool as there are homeschoolers:Religious reasonsFlexibilityCustomizing the curriculum to fit the needs and learning abilities of each studentTo offer a better education than the local public and/or private schoolsSafetyFits the family's parenting styleThere are many many more reasons....Show more

Julieta Suleiman: For me, I didn't want the government to tell my kid at what age they had to start learning; what they had to learn a! nd when! I do honestly know my kid the best and so I can allow her the opportunity to read at a first grade level, do third grade math, and breeze though a high school science book if those are the various levels she's ready for. She can't get that kind of Susan-focused attention at school. Another thing that is really groovy is the weird extra-curriculars that we have the freedom to do. Homeschoolers make videos, direct plays, build sculptures, compose music, sew, balance checkbooks; swim classes are "P.E.". Medieval Times was a "history lesson". I could go on and on and on!I can see why it makes most people nervous. I think it's in the best interest of the child to have lots of people around to interact with, and I think it is ultra-important that the educating parent be educated their selves!...Show more

Matt Gerdeman: We have LOTS of reasons. In no particular order:*As a former teacher, I know how lousy both public and private schools are in our area.*Schools are! scared to discipline these days due to lawsuits, so bullies and such o! ften run rampant (and much of it is not reported, is swept under the rug, to avoid looking bad).*The negative peer pressure from badly-behaving children.*Safety.*Boredom--My children have learned so much already, they'd be bored silly in a school (and would probably get into trouble because of it).*Enjoyment--We love our kids and enjoy being around them. Why let someone else enjoy the best part of the day with them and get to do all the fun stuff (such as field trips)?*Control of our own schedule--We can schedule visits to Grandma whenever we want because we aren't bound to a school's schedule; we can enjoy libraries, parks, museums, and such when they aren't overcrowded; we don't have to stop our family activities for some homework project that we suddenly find out is due tomorrow.*Morals--Schools do little these days to instill morals (and a lot to weaken them).*Individualized learning--Why force them to follow a factory-type education when they can have one geared to th! eir own strengths and weaknesses?*Consistency--If they have the same teacher for all of their education, they aren't going to end up going over the Rain Forest 5 years in a row while never hearing about World War II, as often happens in schools where the teachers regularly change and no one really has an overall plan.*It's the best education out there!...Show more

Mikel Bethay: some parents home school there kids because they don't like the bullying. i am home schooled and i don't mind it because in the brakes you can do anything and you have no home work.