Homeschooling?

Question

I am homeschooling my daughter and she wants to go back to public school. She is a gymnast working out 24 hours a week but by homeschooling her, I noticed that she was alot less stressed than when she went to public school. What should I do?

Gymnastics was not interfering with her school work. She was a straight A student. She was just stressed out all the time because of the hours of homework she had to do when she got home from practice at 9:00 at night.

Answer 1

Your daughter obviously loves gymnastics...and is there a lot. I would talk to her and find out how she plans on getting her homework done after school and gymnastics. I would find out why she wants to go back. But please keep in mind that you are the parent and know what is best for your child. Even if she wants to go back it doesn't mean that it is the best idea for her. I know a family that homeschooled and let their 2 children go to school and they decided after 3 weeks that wanted to come home because the kids at school were so immature and only worried about clothing, boys etc and learning was way down on the list.

Answer 2

I believe, along with those who have asked questions in their post, that there is not enough information here for any of us to give you an answer.

We can, however, reflect back some things we are hearing in your question.

You seem to believe that your daughter was less stressed when she was homeschooled and that that was better for her.

Neither you nor your daughter seem to question the value of her gymnastics to her and maybe to you. You want to stick with that.

Your daughter finds something of value in public school that she is not finding in homeschooling, and believes that whatever that good thing is, it is worth being more stressed in life in order to get that good benefit.

Perhaps you could ask your daughter what it is that she really likes about public school, and then see if there is some other way to get that benefit.

In the final analysis, you may have to choose whether what she values is worth the extra time and stress from attending public school, because you are the wise parent.

It is okay love your daughter, listen to her, try to find a creative solution that meets all needs, and then trust your own gut when you have to make a final decision for your daughter's good. That is your job as her mother while she is still so young. You can do it.

Besides, if you take a different approach to what school is all about at home, she may find it a blast, and she will be equipped far faster and in far more real life skills than she will be at school. She obviously has the intelligence and discipline to accomplish great things.

Maybe you want to take a look at something as refreshing and as radically liberating as entrepreneurial homeschooling? Seriously. Check out Rhea Perry's site www.educatingforsuccess.com to see what I mean. Your daughter may be thrilled by this kind of homeschooling.

Answer 3

This is not an easy question to answer. So much depends on why she wants to go back to school, what the schools in your area are like, how she feels about her gymnastic schedule, how your homeschooling is working now, how old she is, what her goals are, etc.

If she would continue to hold a 24 hours a week workout schedule, going to school would create a very limit life for her. She would have school, gymnastics and homework. And that's it. There wouldn't be time for anything else - especially hanging out with friends. There's only so many hours in the day to do what we want.

If she is less stressed now, as a homeschooler, and she is getting a good education, as well as getting in her desired hours of gynmanstics, and she is generally happy, I'd say wait a little longer before enrolling her in school. Enrolling in school is a huge commitment. It's not like signing up for summer camp. Figure out exactly what it is that she wants from school, and find out if there is a way to bring that element into her life without having to drag all the other negatives of full-time school with it.

If it's hanging out with friends that she's looking for, then get her involved with clubs and activities other than gynmastics, where she can relax and not compete. Or you could team up with another homeschool family, like a previous poster suggested.

You are already so busy with all the sports, you don't want to cram her life with thing after thing, but you want to give her enough variety that she doesn't get burned out on her routine.

So, my final answer to this is; seriously listen to her. Don't brush her off. Understand her point of view. But find out what it is exactly that she's looking for. Then, talk about it and decide together whether school is really the best solution to meeting her needs. It might be. It might not. But you won't know until you find out what her needs are and what your options are.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Both types of schooling are great, but it really depends on her. Does she want to be a professional gymnast? and go on to the Olympics and such? Homeschooling might be better. However, if she might want to do something else, it really depends on the goal. Public school can sometimes be more beneficial to some students. You should talk to her about her reasons and goals. Maybe, if you can't decide still, you should let her go back for a trial period, a semester? You can always switch back to home school if the stress becomes too much.

Answer 5

You are the mother. You get to decide and you don't have to feel badly if your decision goes against her wishes. Your job is not to make her happy at all times, but to look out for her and to do what you think is best for her.

After having said that, I wonder about a lot of things: her age, why you pulled her in the first place, why she wants to go back, how long she's been homeschooling, what she plans to do with the gymnastics.

If you are completely fine with her going back except for the worry of her stress level, then what I would do in that situation is to talk with my daughter about what I had observed and set some limits: if you go back to public school, you can not spend so much time training.

If this is only the first year homeschooling, I'd say finish the first year at least, possibly even the second, before considering having her go back. Why? Because it's an adjustment period. It's just like moving to another school or another city: there is a period where the kids usually want to go back to where they came from, but we don't simply move back because they want to, right?

I'd definitely make it a point to figure out why she wants to go back, if there's some way to change things in the homeschooling to better meet her needs, and just how important is it to me that she homeschools.

Answer 6

School can put alot of stress on children and teens. Since you mentioned that she is a gymnast what you could do for her P.E. area is help her out in that area with stretches or anything that you know that may work such as taking up personal classes for that area. If you feel as though homeschool is a better idea that a regular public school you may be right. I graduated on homeschool a year earlyer than my class mates and i found that with me being on homeschool i didnt have to worry so much about the teachers getting frustrated and all the kids in school and peer presure and all that crap, i was at my house and did my work when the regular school was out than i was done with my work and was able to go hang out and stuff, as a parent you are going to hear how homeschooling takes away the childs social ability and all that stupid crap, personally it doesnt take away anything it makes it better for the child and on top of that the child's ability to be more sociable comes out more often when around other people and the child isnt so scared to be opened. Good Luck i hope this helps a little.

Answer 7

You may want to impress upon her that if she wishes to remain a gymnast, then homeschool is IT.

If she wants to remain the calibur of gymnast that she is, she MUST keep up with the schedule that her coach has set out for her.

If she goes to public school she will be adding almost 24 hours a week of homework, on top of the 40 hours spent in class.
Homeschooling takes A LOT less time.

Try to remind her how stressed out she was while attending school, and find out why she wants to go back. If it is for SOCIAL reasons, find some new social outlets for her.

Tell her it's her choice, be a gymnast or go to school. Tell her she CANNOT have both.

Answer 8

If she wants to go back, let her try it. She might miss some of the benefits of going to public school. If all goes well, then great. If not, she can always have homeschooling again. I know a few people that were homeschooled. A lot of people think that it's a bad idea because it creates a lack of social skills, but that's not necessarily true. As long as there are activites, events, clubs, etc that the child belongs to, he/she will learn social skills.

Answer 9

I'm a homeschooling mom to 3 kids. I dealt with this issue a couple of years ago when my son was 11. I'm not sure how old your daughter is, but I'll tell you about how I handled this.

With parenting, sometimes it's "learn-as-you-go." That's because we are growing as parents too! I used to tell my kids (who have always been homeschooled) that if they ever wanted to go to public schools, just say the word and it'll happen. My kids have all kinds of friends (homeschoolers, public schoolers, and private schoolers). Well, it really shocked my when my 11 year old announced his decision to start public school. I really considered it (honestly, I'd been a little irritated about teaching him lately). My husband and I discussed it; I also talking to my mom (who works in a public school). Well, my mom gave me a piece of advice that has really stuck with me on many subjects even after this one. She said "kids can't make grown-up decisions that is as important as their education." I really had a hard time doing this, but I felt it was in my son's best interest to be homeschooled, even as irritated as I had been with him lately. He wasn't too happy about it, but my mom talked with him and was able to get him to see that the public school just isn't what it's cut out to be. He's pretty open-minded and sensible, and was accepting of my decision. Now, 2 years later, he has thanked me several times for making that decision for him.

I'm not really telling you that you should keep homeschooling your daughter. What I'm saying is that there's a reason why kids under 18 aren't considered adults - it's because they don't have the maturity to always decide what's best for them (many adults don't either, but especially kids!) So you have to be the parent and decide what YOU think is really best for her, and try to help her to really understand why you are reaching that conclusion, and how you want only what's best for her!!! Good luck, as I know this can be difficult, but she may thank you for it later.

Answer 10

Tell her why you think she should stay homeschooled. That is about the best you can do. Unless you force her to stay (but then she might end up hating you, which she will get over).

If you want, I can talk to her. I'm fourteen, homeschooled, and a college-bound/Olympics-bound (trying) hockey goalie who practices 10 hours a week off-ice and travel at least twice a month (8 hours and up distances) to play with my team. I'm pretty good at persuading! (if I do say so myself) And it might be better if you let her talk to someone who knows what she is going through.