What made you want to or not want to homeschool?

I didnt give any thought of it until we moved to Jax FL and the elementary school my daughter was to go to was surrounded with barb wire! The kind that you see around prisons. The neighborhood surrounding the school was kinda scarey too. So I ended up homeschooling all 3 girls and they just never went back to public school even though we've moved to some really nice school districts.

I home schooled Rachel for 4th and 5th grade, she did great. I home schooled Heather for 2nd and realized that not all children are the same :icon_confused:
No really that is when I realized that Heather had ADD. Also at that time I had a new baby and PPD so really it did not work well at all.
I had to go back to work part time to help out and that ended up becoming full time so there you are.
I really don't have the patience to homeschool 2 out of my 4 kids.

Before having kids, I thought homeschooling was the craziest idea.
I started homeschooling my oldest son after he completed k-5 at
a private school. With my husband being in the military and crazy schedule
we have continued year by year with the grace of God. My sons
are currently in 9th and 6th. My high schooler will probably go back to
a local private school his 2nd semester of 10th grade. They are on block
schedule.

Carol

My oldest (now 16) went to a Christian private school K4 and half of k5. I had a friend who homeschooled her kids and we became close and she encouraged me to give it a try. I did and we have never looked back. Its not always been easy but we love it. My kids love it too.

When I was in high school and first heard of homeschooling, I thought it was the craziest thing! I fell for the whole socialization issue and I didn't think that a parent could educate as well as a college educated teacher could! lol

Fast forward a few years. My friend has a son the same age as DD8 and when she started school, I was :eek: to find out that she would be homeschooling her son! Actually, she had already started and he was already a grade ahead of DD8! :huh:

Oh, did I pick her brain and ask question upon question! Four years later, I have finally convinced DH to let us give it a try. :clapping:

What finally brought me around to the seeing the good of homeschooling was when I started working in the public school system. I am on my second year as a kindergarten aide and have my eyes been opened! I see just how little time each child has one-on-one with the teacher. I see how the teachers only seem to teach in one way. I've seen some teachers whom I believe are only there for a paycheck and to socialize with their friends!

And ultimately, I want to homeschool because I realized one day that I was sending my kids to strangers who were with my kids more hours a day than I was. That broke my heart the day that dawned on me.

It has taken a year for DH to jump on the bandwagon.

I started considering home schooling about a year before my oldest daughter was to go to Kindergarten. The thought of sending her to school brought me to tears. I am sure at the time it had a lot to do with the depression from loosing our son. I told myself other reasons, though. I had two little sisters in ps at the time. I didn't like how they were teaching to the tests. My sisters would come home so stressed. Their homework would be a workbook. They were in young elementary school, 2nd or 3rd grade. When it was time for my daughter to begin Kindergarten she already knew colors, shapes, numbers, counting by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, and reading. I was wondering what the point to sending her to Kindergarten was. Every year that came along after that I would pray about whether we ought to send her and every year the curriculum for her would be laid in our laps and so we have kept going.

I graduated from the same High School my kids would have to go, and honestly, I wasn't going to put them through what I went through. I hated that place for YEARS, when I left I told them I would never come back and I have so far lived up to that. All that decision making happened before I got saved, then once the Lord found me and saved me I just suddenly saw hundreds more reasons to homeschool. With all that said I don't homeschool now, my wonderful wife does it all, at one time, on more than one occasion I had to "persuade" her to keep going with it, but now her convictions are ten times stronger than mine on the issue.

BD.

Thank you so much for sharing!!

BD. and Mich_bail.. I point you two out because 1) BD. you're a dad and 2)Mich you mentioned your dh.

I can't say how much my husband's support has meant to me over the years. I couldn't have and would not do it without his support.

Mich, I am glad your dh is jumping aboard!

Oh Heather, me too!!!! It's exciting! I think that I have finally settled on what we will be working on/learning from. DH has pretty much left the decisions up to me, but I do keep him informed and show him samples. This past weekend we went to a huge Christian book store called Mardel about 1 1/2 hours away to look at different publishers of curriculum, text books, etc. I can't wait!

I am not a homeschooling mom. i just do not think i could do it.
we are blessed to live in a wonderful public school district. They instill good work ethics and good character in the children. My DH went to this school and it has only gotten better. the school is one of the reasons we live her. my boys seem happy so far, and they also attend Sunday school at our church.

. . . the list goes on and on.

I worked at an educational/teacher supply business when my children were small, and met a few homeschoolers. Yet I always thought them a bit eccentric.

It wasn't until my son was in grade 2 at a local public school that we decided to homeschool. You see, his teacher was sending him home on library day with Cat in the Hat and other easy books, but at home he was reading Narnia, Little House, Black Stallion, and other books. Turns out he was reading at a 5th or 6th grade level and the teacher didn't even know it!

He was very, very shy as a child, wouldn't speak unless spoken to, never volunteered, and only did what was asked of him, no more. I happened to hear a radio broadcast of Focus on the Family about homeschooling, did several months of research, talked to my dh, and we agreed to "try it for a year." Well, that year he just blossomed!! And the year stretched into 10, and we graduated him having earned a National Merit scholarship. Not only that, but on his own he attended 2 Worldview Conferences in his late teens, worked at a grocery store from age 16 (and still does when he's home from college), and was active in church. It was the best thing we ever did for him.

As a result, it was just natural to homeschool my other children. All kids are different, as we parents know well, and we've had to alter our approach and curriculum somewhat with each child. Not all of them have the same gifts, so we've tried to direct and nurture them in a way that best suits their talents.

And, when I began researching the public schools, I learned SO VERY much about how and why they originated, what the philosophies of mass-education are, the hidden agendas, the peer culture, and everything else, that I never looked back.

We are in one of the better public school districts in one of the better public school states (although I don't know where that designation comes from). Yet I have issues with a system that takes God out of the picture and promotes religious equality (save for Christianity), teaches alternative lifestyles as morally equivalent, and reduces the importance of America's history in favor of "global studies."

I could go on and on - dh did his master's thesis on the educational system and privatization of schools - but it would take too much space.

I am not one who believes everybody can or should homeschool, but I DO believe we should have more choices available, and that schools need to be accountable to parents in some way. Homeschooling is very challenging, and takes a huge commitment. It can be exhausting at times. But for our family, the benefits totally outweigh any disadvantages we may encounter. Our family is close (the kids have great relationships with each other), my kids live and learn about their faith daily, they are way above average academically, have plenty of friends and social activities, and are extremely self-motivated. It has worked well for us.

We considered it - my wife used to be a high school teacher (French) before she became a SAHM. We moved to a great school district before our oldest started kindergarten and I couldnt be happier with the education he has received since. His teachers have years and years of experience teaching children his age and they are good at their jobs - honestly better than my wife would be....besides my child LOVES going to school.