Being home schooled means you can play when the weather is good, rather than just between classes. Photo by J&J
As the nation heads back to school I thought I would share what we do in our home.
Click here to skip ahead to read about what homeschooling curriculum we use.
Why we home school:
We chose to home school for several different reasons. Here are just two of them:
Behavioral Problems at School
Our children were having problems at school. To boil it down – they are kids, not statues. The school system wanted statues. Our children would finish a test before others and they would want to do something else but their only option was to sit quietly until everyone else in the class was done with the test.
They were also experiencing other personal problems which we feel were symptoms of the root issue – rather than being the issue itself. (Sorry to be vague, but it’s a matter of respecting that the children will one day grow up and may not want all their personal issues spread across the Internet).
But in fairness, there were problems that existed outside of this which one might rightly say “just take control of your children”, such as them misbehaving on the bus, etc. Rather than write you a book, I need you to simply accept that we tried everything. Nurture and punish, talk and yell, ignore and confront – it all happened at some point.
All of it led to nothing productive. Stress for both the children and the adults was at an all-time high. School became a babysitter – just to get the kids out of the house for a few hours.
The more we saw what we were doing, the more each part of it made less and less sense. In the simplest form: Why send the children to school for 7-8 hours for them to come home with another hour of homework?
I mean really – what did you not cover in the amount of time they had at school that they had to repeat it again at home?
By the time the children were home they would have snack, do homework and of course chores – which took up any time they had before it was time to eat supper, clean up and get ready for bed, and be in bed early so they could be woken back up at 5:30 am to do it all again.
Sounds like life right? Perhaps we were just training them for the way the rest of their lives would be? But did it really have to be that way, or were we just following the crowd?
Do you work on your job when you get home, or do you focus on the needs of the home? It seemed to us that the children needed more time to learn practical skills and more time to be children, while still getting in the core curriculum necessary should they choose a career in the future that required specific knowledge.
It was our hope that this would decrease their frustration with school work, increase their happiness, and help them grow into better adults.
Continue Reading for Page 2: Why we home school, Schedule Conflicts
This is amazing. We don’t have kids yet but when we do we’d like to homeschool. I love reading the experiences of different families and taking little ideas here and there to set aside for the future. I work as an art teaching in public schools, and everything you said about your kids issues in school is dead on. I hate that teachers make little kids sit still for EIGHT HOURS and drill information into their heads, only giving them a break for recess and lunch. That’s why I love being an art teacher, art is a hands-on, messy, exciting learning experience. I’m a big believer in letting kids be kids in school. They’re not adults, why do we expect them to act like adults? Blows my mind. Anyway, rant over. Love your article, I’m saving it for later!
Thank you Meredith. Glad you liked it, and I appreciate your experience and input. It is very welcome here. 😀
We have been homeschooling now for 20 years. Aside for some of our boys having rocks for brains we have been doing pretty well. When we first started homeschooling was still illegal or outside the law when we lived in SC. My how times have changed. Sounds like you are on track. Our older boys have a wonderful handle on their education. When they get to High School age they pretty much teach themselves. They are both at college level and still gobbling up all they can get their hands on, which I think is where every parent is where they want their child to be!
Nice blog………… jim
As of today we still debate if we would like to fully homeschool or do half and half which is what we are doing now but neither one of them are yet of kindergarten age.
You are doing a great job !!!
Thank you 🙂
We love Life of Fred! One of the best. We have used it to homeschool my 3 grandchildren. One of whom is now at university. Sounds like you are giving a wonderful gift to your children. Thank you for sharing.