Homeschool Questions Answered

I’m Just Saying has asked homeschoolers to answer 10 questions. I am a newbie homeschooler…only 3 months in so far but I still thought I would like to take a stab at answering these. I hope they can give others some insight into homeschooling.

1. What was your motivation for homeschooling? Was it based on religious reasons? Was is it based on curriculum – did you want more freedom in choosing what your children were being taught? Was it based on socializing – wanting to have more control in the people with whom your children came into contact with? Was it based on logistics – the nearest school being 20 miles away? What made you finally decide to go this route?

My decision to homeschool was based upon necessity IMO. I had always toyed with the idea of homeschooling so that our family could travel but by the time my son was ready for Kindergarten he REALLY wanted to go to school and so I let him lead the way. K was good but in first grade we got a rude awakening. We transferred to a new state where the students were very much ahead of my son academically. In his K class in Arizona they played games, did art, and learned their ABCs. When we transferred to K in Ohio the kids were already reading, spelling and reciting all the US states, and more. You should have seen me at his graduation ceremony when I saw what the other kids could do…you could have knocked me over with a feather. I also learned that these kids had started school at age 4 with free preschool via the city school district. They already had two years of all day school under their belts and my son had only one year of half day school.

Obviously you can see why he started to have problems in first grade. IMO he is right where he should be academically…perhaps a little behind in reading but that I attribute to the school making him feel like a failure when he couldn’t read as well as the other kids. He lost interest in it. The cookie cutter mentality and the unwillingness to have realistic standards was what motivated me to pull my son from public school. If he couldn’t keep up they insisted on making him feel like a “special case” and that was NOT okay by me.

2. Don’t hate me for asking this. How to you handle socialization? What steps do you take to make sure your children are around other children and adults? Are you active in a home school group? Do you spend a lot of time at church activities? Maybe you utilize the local Y for activities and they meet friends there?

Socialization is one reason I wanted my son to attend public initially. In general I don’t think homeschooled kids are lacking socialization but MY son was when the it came time to enroll in Kindergarten. He spent years being sick and in and out of hospitals (vaccine injury). He couldn’t be around other kids so much because he had a very weak immune system. We had spent a year in Ohio…on a remote country farm. We didn’t know anyone really other than family and we had NO neighbors that had kids. Then we moved back to AZ (for my cancer treatment) and were living on a remote mountain with NO neighbors at all. It was a 30 minute drive into town and all my friends had kids much younger than my son. He wasn’t getting to socialize at all. Kindergarten seemed like a blessing…and it really was. He made friends and he loved his school. Then I did the worst thing I could have done probably…I moved him back to Ohio. :(

I wasn’t impressed at all with the socialization he got in first grade. A twerp would spit in his lunch or touch his food because he has a germ phobia. Girls were regularly kissing him which he despised. Older kids on the bus would make him hold their books and one 5th grader even slapped him across the face. Being an out-of-towner in a small town put him at a disadvantage too.

That kind of socialization he can do without! Now he socializes regularly with two kids his age that live behind us (our yards touch) and a younger boy who lives down the street. My son knows what is going on with all our neighbors before I do. My moms cousin also has two grandsons (both older) who come and spend the day with us. He got to spend a week recently with his cousin that lives in Mexico too. We go to the park, to museums, to children’s plays, to art camps, etc. He goes to the drag races with his grandfather and Uncle to watch his grandfather race almost every weekend and meets all sorts of people. He gets plenty of socialization and my other two kiddos do to. They are not exposed to people with the same family life, the same values, the same religious beliefs only. I want them to be exposed to all sorts of people with different values and beliefs.

3. Do you use the public school system for any part of your child’s routine? Some children here come to the school for band or chorus, or maybe for science class. Do you send your child to the public school to take advantage of any of their programs?

Not at this time but I wouldn’t hesitate to do so in the future.

4. Do your children begin and end school at the same time each day? Do they have a strict schedule, at least as far as waking up and reporting to the school area of your home? If not, when/how will you transition your children into following a more rigid schedule – awaking at the same time each day so that they can follow a routine outside of the home like for college and work?

We have no schedule. We wake when we want to wake, sleep when we want to sleep, and do schoolwork when the inspiration strikes. At this young age I think schedules for the sake of teaching them what holding a job will be like is silly. Especially since I work from home and I have no schedule….I work when I want to work. Of course my kids learn about keeping appointments and scheduling activities whenever we have a workshop to attend or a play to see. If they don’t manage their time well they miss out on things. Those are life lessons and they learn them on their own. I want them to know that they don’t have to do the 9-5 workday or that work has to be tedious. I want them to know what they actually want in life and then go after it…whatever that may be…even if means selling chalk drawings on a beach in between surf sessions.

5. How many spelling bees has your child won? Oh, I’m kidding. We all know most of the recent national spelling bee winners have been home schooled children. I just wanted to throw a little funny in there?

I wouldn’t be likely to enter anything like this but it is cool that homeschooled kids are frequent winners.

6. Do you have a sense of humor? It’s probably a little late for me to ask that but…

Oh yes…no stuffiness here. We all LOVE to laugh.

7. Where do you find your curriculum? Do you shop for it and order it? Do you create your own?

No curriculum so far. We have an assortment of workbooks, printables (paid and free), we visit the library often, we have online learning games, we play educational board games and do puzzles, we take field trips, and we work on whatever interests us that day. For instance…a few weeks back we went to COSI. We sketched a crime scene, looked under a microscope at hair samples, looked at dog DNA strands, watched an autopsy, watched a circumcision, participated in hot air balloon races, used a bottle rocket, toured a submarine, and went through flight training for a NASA space shuttle. We also watched an IMAX movie about renowned American climber John Harlin III, and his journey to the Swiss Alps to climb the Eiger, a peak famous for its treacherous north face, a vertical rock wall that juts more than a mile into the air. We stayed all day until they had to kick us out at closing time. They learned more in one day than they would have in a week at school…and we do stuff like this all the time.

8. Do you have any worries at all about teaching your teenagers the higher level math and sciences? I, for one, could not teach chemistry to my children but I could probably teach them calculus. Is this a concern for you?

Well, I did high school myself (at home) in two years. I taught myself algebra and the like with books. I got accepted into college at 16 and tested out of all the intro math and science classes. I also did plenty of advanced level science classes…biology, anatomy, organic chemistry, etc and I had a 4.0. So it can be done. :) My hubby is a math wiz. However, if my kids need extra help I will get them tutors.

9. What bothers you the most about the reputation home schoolers have? What things do you hate to hear people say about you for your choice? I really hope you don’t say that it’s my previous post.

The idea that bothers me the most is that all homeschoolers are religious fanatics who are trying to hide their kids away from the real world and breed intolerance. That is SO not what we are about.

10. Be honest, do you, at least in your mind sometimes, judge those of us who choose public school? Do you ever think we are making a bad choice for our children? Are you vocal about that disapproval?

Honestly…no. Homeschooling isn’t for everyone or every child. This year I will have one child at home and one in private school. You do what works for your child. Public school could very well be in our future again some day and if it is I will be just as involved in their educations as I am at home. I do think public schools are pretty awful across the board but that just means that parents need to become activists for change. If change will ever occur it will take a certain percentage of people leaving them (homeschool) to get their attention and a certain percentage need to stay and try to re-work things. Everyone has a part to play.

Recommended Reading: 100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing The Right Curriculum And Approach For Your Child’s Learning Style

A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century