What is your opinion on home schooling?

Question

If you or someone you know does it, what was your reason for doing so? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I know a few families in our community who home school, and I have several friends who were homeschooled when they were kids. In my opinion, the homeschooled kids that I have come in contact with (both friends of mine who were homeschooled and kids who are being homeschooled) are at least an entire grade level above their public schooled peers, they are very outgoing and confident, are more intelligent, can actually carry on an intelligent conversation (as opposed to the public schooled kids whom I talk to which all they can seem to talk about is all that "he said she said, oh my gosh, did you hear this, she said this she said that, do you know what she actually did?!? Oh my gosh, he's so hot! you'll never guess who so and so slept with " and bla de bla bla bla), are much more mature and show better judgement in life in general. They're not isolated either, they get together with other home school kids for group projects once a week and go on field trips, and participate in sports at the public schools. My friends who were homeschooled as kids (all are now in their 20's and 30's), are some of the smartest, most well adjusted people I know and they tend to have great family lives. This is just from what I see around where I live (rural midwest). I myself went to public school and I'll send my kids to public school because we have a great school system here, but in my opinion, homeschool is great if it works for the individual family!

Edit: The first answerer to your question said that it was the "Lazy sogs way"! What the heck are they thinking? Lazy? Educating your children all day every day is being lazy? Oooooooooooookay whatever buddy. Parents who homeschool are their children's teachers. Once again, I was not homeschooled, I was public schooled, so this is not a one-sided opinion!

Answer 2

I wasn't home schooled and suffered socially in school. I just don't know if that is a valid reason for not home schooling. I'm sure its got both its ups and downs. I've investigated it a little, I'm a long time from making that decision. I just haven't found enough benefits or programs that I'd feel comfortable with following. I do see major benefits to private or Montessori schools if you can afford it. I'm hoping to at least find something suitable for my child when she gets to that age, as I know how children get lost in the system in our public schools.
With that said I also feel that its just as much of a responsibility for parents to encourage their children no matter what type of education they choose for their children. So I can't completely blame the school systems for children getting lost. Without a solid foundation in the home a child can easily not be an accomplished student.

Answer 3

Like anything else, there is a trade off. There are plenty of ways to socialize kids without them having to go to school everyday. Most homeschoolers belong to associations that get together weekly for that very purpose. There is also church, sports programs, scouting, etc. for getting your kids out there. But, your children will not be exposed to the whole social strata of your community. They will only meet other kids like themselves. It's the same problem that parents who put their kids in private school have.

It also depends on how well the parent can educate their child. Some people do a very good job of it. Others, not so good. As a general rule, however, since the kids can learn at their own pace, they do very well on standardized testing and later go on to do well at college. Again, the parents who belong to the associations often trade off the teaching of subjects, the parent who is good at math and science teaches that while another parents helps with literature and history.

Most of the people I know that have homeschooled have done so for religious reasons. One person has homeschooled because her daughter was special needs and the schools were not doing a good enough job of helping her. And another took her little boy out of school because he was being slowed down by the school. He should have been allowed to skip a few grades but the school wouldn't do it because it he helped skew their test results favorably.

Answer 4

i think it depends on the child, the parent, what the child does besides school to get social experience, and the school system. some special needs kids or very gifted kids simply do not get their needs met in the regular school system. other kids suffer serious bullying, etc. some school systems are disasters academically and even safety-wise. i think those are all strong reasons to homeschool.

teaching 20+ kids at wildly different levels in one room obviously has its educational drawbacks. an educated parent can virtually always do a better job educating their child one-on-one than even a good teacher can do when they have a couple dozen other kids to attend to as well. so educationally, i think homeschooling is a great idea.

i do agree, though, that it's important for kids to learn how to interact in a group, how to interact with other kids, how to relate to other adults besides the parents, and how to deal with difficult people. regular school obviously has the advantage in these areas. some homeschooling parents make a great effort to make sure their child also has those kinds of experiences. others neglect it, and it's true those kids end up not quite fitting in later.

Answer 5

I have done Both for My son.Unless you can get the school to work with you and offer 1 a Tutor to come in and work with the child at least twice a week and also a after school program for social skills . I would Not recommend It.My personal Opinion Is it isolates The children.Not all children have the choose tho. for medical and religious reasons some children are home schooled.I decided to put my son Back in the public school system.The best decision i ever made.

Answer 6

I was homeschooled, my sister still is.

I came out top of classes and all that, super-genius style. My sister is still struggling. We both have different learning styles, and both of us may have fallen through the cracks in a public school environment.

Personally I think homeschooling is fine, so long as the child is actually learning and progressing, and meeting other children in other activities (swimming, arts & crafts, dance, sports, etc).

My mother did it for religious reasons and out of fear of the 'corruption' in the school system, as well as because she wished a higher level of education for us than was available.

For what it's worth, I grew up and decided I'm agnostic, and do have a "question everything" attitude so I wouldn't say I was "brainwashed" by my parents as some have suggested.

I would like to homeschool my children, because I would like to be a part of that element in their lives, but probably won't unless they are not doing well or are uncomfortable in public school (father's wishes).

Answer 7

Hi,
There are numerous documented benefits and advantages of teaching children to read early on, and teaching them to reading using phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. It is clear that early language and reading ability development passes great benefits to the child as they progress through school at all grades, and that early language and reading problems can lead to learning problems later on in school.

For a simple, step-by-step program that can help your child learn to read visit this web site: http://readingprogram.toptips.org
Bye

Answer 8

I think that home schooling is not a very good idea. You want your child to go out into the world and socialize. I believe that alot of this socializing takes place at school. If you home school it is kind of sheltering your children from the real world. You want your kids to be strong and independent. I know a parent who home schools because of this crazy world we live in. All the school shootings and everything. But you have to really evaluate your surroundings. You can only guide and protect your children so much. The stronger the parent you are the stronger children you have. You are their learning tool.

Answer 9

I have to laugh at all the crazy notions people have about homeschooling! LOL "I know someone who homeschools because of the crazy world" - therefore all homeschooling must be bad! ROFLOL

People meet one hs'er and suddenly think everyone who homeschools must be odd or weird or abnormal or sheltered or strange or dumb or whatever.

Very few homeschoolers lock their children in the house and never venture outside. Yes it happens. However, it also happens with public school kids. I know a family down the block where the younger son goes to school but that's all he does. He isn't allowed to go to the park, join any clubs, have any friends over or go to anyone else's home. I know this is a fact because his older brother is my son's best friend. Why one is treated one way and the other another, I have no clue but this child is so socially maladjusted it's sad. Does that make all public school kids weird and socially inadaquate? No - it makes that ONE child sad.

My kids don't just socialize with one type of kids. Homeschoolers aren't all Christians. Therefore we don't deal with just Christians. We have muslim, athiests, Christians of all faiths, different beliefs, ages, etc. I'll bet my kids socialize with more groups & different beliefs then most of your kids do being in the same classroom day after day.

We meet different groups of homeschoolers all the time.

As for not being a "trained" teacher. oy What a cop-out. A friend of mine is a teacher and after all her training she started teaching her first group of GRADE 1'S. She was told she needed to teach phonics and had never been taught phonics ever. She had learned at a time when whole language was big so she had learned to read by sight and since university was all about how to deal with 30 kids at one time and NOT about actual curriculum, she had to learn phonics before she could teach those 1st graders. So much for all that "training". *grin*

We started homeschooling because my son has Asperger's (a form of Autism) . School was a nightmare.

We brought all 3 kids home and started. It was the best thing we ever did. It allowed him to mature at his own rate and gave us a great lifestyle to boot. The kids love it. They've learned to enjoy learning again. We have so much freedom to learn in the style we want and to learn what we want. The kids are invovled in things that they could never do if they were in public school.

They've been in film school, extras in a movie, fencing lessons, golf lessons, we see theatre productions in the middle of the day instead of late at night, we get to travel and we're usually done our school work by 1 in the afternoon. No wasted time. No busy work and no homework after school when they just want to play with their friends.

Answer 10

my cousins were all home schooled. one is now grown, two are in uni. they all ended up going to high school though. they are a lovely family and my cousins were raised very well, but suffered socially even through high school. it is difficult for me to say if it was the home schooling as they lived in a very rural community where other children were not close by. i am sure that if they had lived in a more urban center they would have had more access to friends their own age and the transition to public would have been easier. regardless, they did very well academically once they entered the public school system.

my aunt chose to home school them because she though she could do a better job then the public school they would have had to be bussed into could. she did do a great job, but as i said.....they had some social difficulties once they entered high school.

best of luck with this choice.