It's Back To Homeschool Week!


The "I Have To Say..." blog is hosting "Back To Homeschool Week" this week, with a one-post-per-day idea, one question per day. I'd love to participate! Be sure to check at the end for a link to the main blog so you can go visit everyone else!

Today's question: Monday, August 6---What led to your decision to homeschool? Why do you do what you do? What brought you to homeschooling? What factors played a part in your decision?

I actually decided on homeschooling all the way back in my senior year of high school. I'd never heard of general homeschooling as we know it today, although I had read about it in regards to children who live in very remote areas like parts of Alaska and such. When I was a senior in high school, one of my younger cousins began having a lot of health problems and had to stay home a lot. At first, when he was ill, they were having a state tutor come in, as most people do in that situation. But even after he got better, he was having trouble at school, mostly with the TEACHER. How sad is that? If I remember correctly, I think the final straw for my aunt and uncle was when my cousin was told by the teacher to "sit down and shut up!" - and if you know my cousin, you know he was not being disruptive, he's always been just the sweetest person. He was also in about 3rd or so grade, not very old. So he was removed, and they began homeschooling. The rest of the children eventually followed.

As I said, I was a senior in high school when all this was going on. I hated high school - I was a nerd and not popular, and I was bored as all get out. When I learned that there was such an option as "homeschooling", I was just a bit indignant and wanted to know why nobody'd bothered to tell ME about this! LOL I would have loved homeschooling - I could have just spent my days in the library and been the happiest teenager on the planet. I determined right then that even though it was too late for me, I WOULD homeschool any children I had in the future.

When I was seriously dating my now-husband, I actually laid this out to him at one point. I told him that I wanted two things out of marriage and motherhood: to be a stay-at-home mom, and to homeschool the children. I didn't want there to be any surprises later, I wanted him to know before we got in too far.

As the years passed and the children came along, I was so thankful that I had already decided on this, for several reasons. One, I just love my children so much! Schools have gone down considerable in the morality arena in the years since I was in school, and I just can't imagine putting my children in a school today for 8 hours every day, and then trying to "deprogram" all of that junk from their minds at the end of the day.

Secondly, the school where our children would go is not a very good school. This is a poor neighborhood, and unfortunately that has been reflected in the quality of the school. I looked up their standardized test scores one year (public information, it's on the state education website) and they were not good. Not bottom of the barrel, but I want better for my kids.

Thirdly, I don't think my kids would do very well in school anyway, especially not the Kiddo. He's just too "different", and doesn't always absorb material in a school-approved way. He's smart, but has difficulty with certain things, and early formal schooling would have ruined him. I've had enough bumpy patches with him trying to teach him at home, I can't imagine what kind of irreparable harm would have been caused by trying to squeeze him into the public school mold. The Munchkin? Well, she'd probably do all right, except for the teensy fact that she would be constantly in trouble for talking!

Do I ever regret it? Only for the occasional five minutes when I'm butting heads with one or the other, or when I really wish I could have a day to myself without kids, but in general that would be a resounding NO. Homeschooling is one of the best things that has happened in my life, and I love it.

Be sure to visit "I Have To Say..." for the rest of these little essays and posts from homeschool bloggers all over!

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posted by Homeschool Help Web at 9:39 AM |