Why I Choose To Home School

So this blog post is NOT to shame anyone who sends their kid to public school. I went to public school and for the most part loved it especially when I was older. When I was little I don’t remember liking it to much mostly because I hated getting up early and I was picked on some due to me being short, but looking back, I loved school and can remember so much good stuff that happened during my school years.

I remember when I was curious about home school that I read so many blog posts and found so much online information that it finally started to turn my heart more towards the idea. So that is why I am posting this, not to shame any one and not to make home school sound like the best thing ever, but a blog post helped open my eyes to more and that is why I am sharing it.

Public School does offer a lot for kids that home school can not such as being with the same group of friends all your life and having life long friendships. It helps kids learn about deadlines, rules and being on time.

Public School offers a lot for the kids to get into daily such as art, music and sports.

We know all this because most all of us came from Public School. Home School was known and a thing when I was little but I personally didn’t know any kids that were home schooled. When I was older at around 17, I was working at a job and I remember a kid younger than me who would come and stock bread. I remember hearing he was home schooled and he was already working at age 14 part time with his dad. I thought that was bizarre but cool at the same time.

I use to hear about homeschooling and then my brother was actually home schooled when he was getting into his freshman year. I was already graduated but he hated school. He was always picked on, looked down upon so my mom home schooled him the last years of his school.

To be very honest, I use to feel sorry for home school kids. I didn’t think they were very social and they seemed kinda weird. I felt like they missed out on so much as a kid growing up.

Ok, so fast forward 20 years and here I am with a child getting closer and closer to starting Kindergarten. When they are around 3 and 4 years old, you just can’t picture them being independent and making these huge changes of going to school, sitting in a classroom. You get scared they will get picked on, you fear their safety and all kinds of things.

God started to open my eyes to homeschool. It honestly never registered to me to try it till I started realizing more and more people were home schooling their kids. I asked friends on Facebook to tell me the pros and cons and my goodness it seemed like everyone was for it, even the parents who had kids in public school. I got so many messages of people telling me they home schooled their kids and they loved it, I think I had 1 person who discouraged me from trying it. He only just made the point that God will protect my children and they were meant to be around kids who are different. Even though that was good advice, and I did understand that, he lived in a VERY small town and his kids were older.

I come from a town with 6x more kids than them and in a much different environment. So I took his advice but still felt like God wanted me to just be with the kids more.

I also feel like school has changed so much since I was a kid. When I went to my class reunion, my best friend was there who is a 1st grade teacher and one of my high school teachers were there. They were talking about the gender stuff and my high school teacher was saying just to be safe and not get in trouble he calls everyone “Friend” He stopped calling kids “Boys and Girls” My best friend was talking about the stuff she has to deal with in first grade such as if a kid wants to be a dog, she has to go along with it. It was crazy!! I sat there and listening and was to oblivious of what was going on in the schools. This is also coming from my hometown which is a very small town. I couldn’t imagine all this stuff when you are in the bigger schools. I know this is nothing new to hear but as I am listening, my eyes were starting to be wide open with shock.

One of my biggest things that I will miss for my kids experiencing is seeing your friends all day / 5x a week. You know when you get that best friend when you are little and they become a part of you. Well, so many people made this point and I didn’t think of it…

In school, you may find a best friend but the next year, you get separated from them due to being in different classes. You have to restart over again finding your person.

My friend made the point as well that I loved.. She asked me “How many kids did you have in your class growing up?” I said ”when I was little…maybe 15-20” She then said “Out of those 20, how many was your best friends” “ I said “I had maybe 2 friends”…. She was making the point that you are in a class with 20 people but only find 1 or 2 friends. Kids don’t need 20 friends, they really only need 1 or 2 best friends and that’s all that matters.

If you can plan the field trips, the play dates, the pen pal writing, video messages, or phone calls then your kids will stay connected to their best friend their whole life and have a great relationships with them. We all know kids fight if they are with each other too long and then stop being friends.

Your kids may have a best friend already in their neighborhood, a sports group, church or a family friend. Home School Kids make friends from Co Op Groups and being around kids who are older and younger than them. It’s important for kids to be with smaller kids and older ones.

I also know that my young child doesn’t have any set moral values yet at such a young age. Kids will always believe what they are taught and I don’t want them to hear from school something is right when in fact it is wrong. When a child is grown and knows the difference between right and wrong then I am more for them going to public school.

Ok! So now that I have told you how God lead me to homeschooling, I am going to tell you WHY I LOVE IT..

 

• More Time with the kids

This was my biggest reason as to why I wanted to home school my kids. I wanted more time with my kids. Time is something you can not get back so I wanted to treasure those little years and allow her more time to play and be with mom and dad

 

• Public School is to long

School requires waking up early, getting dressed, traveling to school, going to school for at least 6 hours a day then traveling home. From 7am to 3pm, kids are going to school. That is a long time and almost like a full time job. When you home school, your actual home school day is 45 mins- 3 hours depending on the grade level.

 

• Kids are influenced by others

Your kid can have the BEST principle and teachers but other kids are one of the most influential to them. I know my kid doesn’t like mayo simply because her friend doesn’t. When they don’t have any principle morals yet established, they will fall for all kinds of things because their friends are doing it and like it.

 

• Need more playtime than structure

Structure is good! We all should have structure but as little kids, they need to play and use their imagination so much more than sitting still

 

• I don’t feel Public School is safe

I know teachers and staff do everything they can to keep children safe but when your children are out of your hands and in a building where I hear of to many school shootings, bomb threats and even kids talking about suicide, it makes me nervous. Yes, I know my Jesus will protect them, but I don’t want to put them through that kind of trama.

 

• I don’t feel like I know what goes on or what they are learning

Unless you are going to school board meetings and very involved in the school system and know the circular they are using. Kids don’t want to talk about their day, so even when my child did Pre School. I would ask “What did you do today?” The answer would be “Nothing” or “It was fine”

 

• No Rushed Mornings

Getting up when you want, eating breakfast and watching a little TV and not rushing home to get the kids to bed is so freeing.

 

• More time for fun and field trips

Kids get a few field trips when in school and there is so much they can do to learn in different ways that just being in a classroom. I am learning myself through home school that there are so many different ways kids can learn without workbooks.

 

• Works great with our schedule and husband’s Schedule

If your child goes to school during the day and your husband works nights to weekends, you barely get to see the family together. It is also great when we want to take a vacation during “public school time”

 

• You get to be apart of the happiness they feel when they understand something new

This has been the best part! When you are the teacher, you get to see their excitement of learning and you also get to relearn school again. As you are teaching and going up the grade levels, you get a refresh of what you learned. If you know something is not necessary to learn, then you can make that call if you want to teach it.

 

• No Homework

One of the complaints I heard from parents is the amount of homework they have to do. The kids are in school and class for hours a day but still come home with work, and not only that but you the parent have to sit down with them to teach them and help them understand it if they are not getting it, so you are home schooling anyway.

 

 

Now, I am not saying my kid will NEVER go to public school. We don’t know the future and my kids may love public school over home school. Like I said, that is not the point of this blog is to shame anyone who sends their kid to whatever educational path they want or need. This is just some reasons why I love what we are doing and I just hope it encourages you to give it a try if you are curious or feeling that tug to go that direction.

 

Thanks for reading

Sarah