Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

1. I want to spend more quality time with my children.
2 I find rushing to get somewhere early in the morning makes me a grouchy parent.
3. The amount of homework young children have to do steals valuable family time.
4. I'd like to be the main influence on my childrens; values.
5. I'd like to be able to travel as a family without worrying about absence policies and school schedules.
6. My son thinks outside the box, which is something that busy teachers with 30 students don't have time to deal with.

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

I hadn't really known much about homeschooling until a friend talked to me about it. I read Home Grown Kids and other books about homeschooling and it made sense. We talked about teaching our daughter at home. She was past 3 yrs when I called that friend to let her know that "our" midwife had passed away. She said "Oh, Sara died. I gotta go, I'm in school." My reaction, not spoken, was that if that is what homeschooling make you do to your friends, I don't want to do it. My daughter went to a good quality Christian school for K-5 and 1st grade. K-5 was okay but 1st grade was torture for me. My happy little girl was gone all day, came home grouchy, and had a LOT of homework. We kept her home the next year so we could enjoy her. We have homeschooled ever since and I agree with the reasons listed above. I really don't feel comfortable enough to get involved with the public schools.

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

I just wanted to say a quick thanks for this post. I was reading it the other day after having a particularly challenging day of doubting my choices and this thread inspired me to sit down and THINK of WHY I wanted to homeschool.

If you'd like to read them, I posted them here:
http://jandlfletcher.blogspot.com/20...schooling.html

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

You know, whenever someone asks me this, I still have to stop and think. We've been homeschooling for so long now, the questions for me is "why would I ever put my kids in school?"

While some of my reasons for continuing are the same as when I started, keeping on with it has led to new & better reasons for continuing. Especially now that 2 of the 4 are adults.

I live in a province in eastern Canada where we are typically economically depressed. Most jobs are blue-collar. A government job is seen as the pinnacle of a "good job". The literacy rate here is at sixty percent.

Literacy. 60 %. :jawdrop

That right there should be reason enough for anyone who lives here. When 3 of my 4 kids were reading fluently, I had a better literacy rate in my household than the education system here was doing.

And both of the older kids have said college/school was like a game. Do what the schools want, get the "points", jump thru the hoops - pass to the next level. It is training to be a cog in the machine. My kids don't want to be "normal" and average and that's not what I want for them ether. I want them to be happy & satisfied, doing what they love.

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

This thread is immensely inspiring, thank you all for sharing! My oldest is only 3 1/2, but we suspect he is autistic (slowing going through the evaluation process currently), and I am seriously considering homeschooling him. I'm thinking that I will be better able to give him the time and attention he needs to learn well. Being at home we can be flexible when he's having a bad day, he can get up and wiggle around if he needs to. I'm still not 100% sure, but after reading a bit of this thread I'm feeling excited about the possibility!

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

Three more reasons have come up recently. First of all, because we're on a six-day-a-week, year-round schedule with a very light curriculum, we have plenty of time to get everything done. If we get whacked with one germ after another, as in this cold season, we can let things slide until we are all feeling OK and still be on track--no dragging anybody to school with a pocketful of Kleenex because they're "not too sick" and the absences are piling up. Second, I don't have to worry about getting a little girl to the bus stop when the snow is going sideways, the preschooler would rather be asleep, and the baby wants to nurse. Third, because we start our school year in July and end it in June, we can keep Easter Week and the Twelve Days of Christmas, take birthdays off, and blow off schoolwork to hit the beach when the weather is perfect (where Sophia is exploring tide pools, examining how to make water run all the way down an inclined plane made of sand, hunting fossils, etc., so that's really school--but still!).

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

We home school for many reasons.

Both my Hubby and I were board in school and got in trouble a lot. I was lucky to have a mom who was able to let me do independent study starting in Jr. High. I did this off and on (private Christian school and 1 semester of public high school) until I graduated early from High school. My hubby was not so lucky and never did well in school.

So when we talked about schooling our kids we knew we wanted to be in control of what they learned and how much time they spent sitting still and doing school work. Our oldest son is very out going and artistic. He easily gets distracted. We didn't want him to be in trouble all the time and be labeled.

We also liked the idea of getting to spend the time with our kids. Learning about their passions and being there when they discovered the world. Not hearing about it after a long day and lots of home work.

I read a wonderful book about HS when we were first talking about it I think it was called Homespun Schools. I was really surprised to hear that most kids aren't ready for traditional sit down book learning at 5. When they're supposed to start school. He had lots of stories of families that did hands on things like field trips, and working around the house. Planting gardens and helping in the kitchen. Until the kids were closer to eight and they were at the same grade level as other "schooled" kids their age and doing better in school then they were. So that inspired me.

We're in our 2nd year of "book" learning with our oldest son and he's doing very well. I can't Imagen doing normal school.

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

Just because I don't have a big list of reasons to do anything else.

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

*No one loves or knows my child like me. He is a quirky, intriciate little boy and homeschool will allow us to help him reach his best potential. He is very sensitive and loves doing 'his own thing'.

*I taught lower elementary and LOVED it. I certainly don't think every parent needs that experience to homeschool, but I am very excited to use my education background and the mountains of materials in my attic with my own kids for a few years.

*Our public schools are not horrible, but not great. Someday we may be in a better district and be more open to public schools, but this one is not an option we're willing to even consider.

*Our church run K-12 school has a phenomenal reputation in the JR/SR high and they'll likely end up there. (DH is actually on the board.) However, an elementary school was recently merged and they have a lot of work to do to get it up to par. We're not willing to spend $7000+ for a medicore elementary education when we can comfortably provide a much better experience for our kids at a fraction of the cost.

*I was homeschooled a little bit and turned out ok. ;)

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

When our daughter was a baby, 14 years ago, I just couldn't imagine letting someone else have the privelege of being with her for most of her life. I'm so glad God worked it out so that my husband allowed us to have a "trial" of homeschooling for a few years. Life just grew up around the idea that we were a family who could rely on one another for what we needed to grow.... and we didn't need someone else to raise our daughter for us during weekdays.

Now that I'm older, I can see the hand of God throughout the process and am so thankful that the culture of our home is one that depends on the Lord to guide us. He gives us all things pertaining to LIFE and GODLINESS... what more do we need to be able to homeschool?

It's not about education, primarily, it's about being stewards of these Little Blessings by serving God and one another each day.

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

great thread

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

This is awesome to see all the responses and is very encouraging! It absolutely concretes my reasons for homeschooling our children... thank you, thank you!

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

We had a blizzard today, with wind chill skating on the edge of the frostbite zone. The roads were glassy and the sidewalks were choked with plowed-up berms. There was no refuge from the wind or the stinging snow.

My daughters didn't have to deal with any of that.

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

I've never posted to this thread. I initially started homeschooling because of my personal experiences with public and private schools as a child, because two of my LLL co-Leaders homeschool - their homeschooled children were so sweet, smart, and well adjusted, and because my oldest son didn't take change well at all. The school he would have gone to for kindergarten was different than the one he would have gone to for 1st grade. It seemed like the best fit for our family at the time.

My reasons for homeschooling now:
1. We can choose the curriculum, learning styles, and place of learning to fit the child.
2. It is flexible and portable...the whole world can be our classroom.
3. It fits our eclectic family.
3. We can go to school in our pajamas.
4. We can take birthdays as a holiday and can have rain days off as well as good weather days, etc.
5. FREEDOM FOR CREATIVITY !!!!!!!
6. We can concentrate on one subject a day if we want to.
7. A child can concentrate on a his interests. For example, if a child is interested in birds he can develop a whole unit study around birds if he wants to.
8. It best fits my beliefs that learning is a lifestyle.
9. It teaches children that learning doesn't happen in a classroom ans teaches them how to be life-long learners.
10. FREEDOM FOR CREATIVITY !!!!!!
12. We can go v visit out of state family in the throughout the school year.
13. multi-age levels working and learning together.
14. My very active 12 yo can move and doesn't have to sit still in order to learn. He can wiggle, sit down, jump up, drum his feet, rock his chair, eat an Apple, talk, etc. without getting into trouble.
15. FREEDOM FOR CREATIVITY!!!!!!!
16. We can incorporate learning and knowledge into everything we do and the children grow up seeing that learning is a lifestyle.

Re: What are some of your reasons to HS?
 

Because our science lesson today is watching the solar eclipse. When I was in middle school in our local district, before NCLB drowned the curriculum in busywork, we took half a day to learn about eclipses and viewing safety and watched a total solar eclipse together. Just went to the middle school homepage. You can take a selfie at 6:00 tonight in their gym as part of an anti-tobacco rally, which is worthy I guess, but the eclipse isn't happening according to those NCLB standards that are STILL on the mission statement for the district YEARS after it became widely known that NCLB is based on snake oil, so it doesn't get a mention. Because the physics standards related to eclipses were scheduled to be taught some other time. Pshhhh, reality, get with the program.

Sorry, juuuust a bit bitter.

ETA: We've been observing it using a sheet of paper with a pinhole in it taped to the window. Hold a whiteboard or other flat white object up a few feet from the pinhole and move it gently around until you see a tiny image of the sun on it. You can watch the eclipse happening on the whiteboard, no protective gear required! Awesome.