CHOOSING TO HOMESCHOOL – HOW TO DECIDE

Choosing to homeschool has become more and more popular. Why? Because people are realizing they have a choice and they are taking action.

The misconceptions are: 

“Kids who are homeschooled are weird.”

“Homeschooled kids are socially awkward.”

“Kids who are homeschooled have no friends.”

We made the decision to homeschool our daughter pretty early on in her life, and actually while she was still in the womb.

When we told people we were choosing to homeschool, many thought it was weird. They were not on board and their assumption was we were raising her to be an outcast.

 

We had very specific reasons for why we wanted to homeschool. I mean, if we knew before she was born, clearly we had a strong basis for the decision. 

However, once we had her and we saw who she was as a person, we DEFINITELY knew we made the right decision.

Here’s what we took into consideration when making this pretty big choice.

1. WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR KIDS

On the surface, this is an easy answer. We want our kids to be healthy, happy, successful…and there’s plenty more you could add to this list.

There is more to this question, though. 

The traditional route for schooling (public or private school) generally follows a traditional path. Meaning, you start in Elementary School, go to High School, go to College and then get a job. 

What if you were less of a traditional mind and more of a new age mind? Maybe you didn’t graduate High School when you were 18, but 15 or 16. Maybe you wanted a different outcome, other than a traditional job.

This can easily be obtained by choosing to homeschool. Why? Because in the standard 8 hour day at school, it might only take you 3-4 hours at home. That leaves A LOT of free time. And that time can be used to try new things, learn new things and go explore and be hands on.

2. YOUR LIFESTYLE

This absolutely has to go into the decision of whether you want to homeschool or not. Speaking from experience, we have a nontraditional path therefore we needed a nontraditional system for school.

So what do we mean by lifestyle??

Well, let’s say you’re an actor, or want to be an actor. There is going to be travel involved. And if you’re on location you might want to bring the family along.

It can be difficult to pull the kids out of school and uproot them from their routines by doing that.

The decision to homeschool could be the difference between your family always together or your family apart. Obviously this is dependent on your lifestyle and situation and what you want.

3. WHAT IS YOUR CHILD LIKE

There are a few pieces to this part. One, your kid’s personality, and two, your kids abilities. 

I break it up because they both factor into the decision you may ultimately make to homeschool your kids. 

So, let’s talk about personality. We’re going to use Trudie as an example just to make it easier to explain. 

Trudie is attached to Mommy 24/7. It’s just who she is. She doesn’t like to leave my side, unless we’re in the house. It’s like pulling teeth to get her to leave the house without me. 

It’s been a challenge because we’ve NEVER seen a kid this adamant about one parent as much as she is. She is why I left a traditional 9-5 job in Manhattan. She would go on hunger strikes and cry for literally hours when I tried going back to work.

That being said, it would be way more stressful to leave her in a situation she 100% was not comfortable in. Quite frankly, she might never be comfortable, and ultimately it could create a larger problem later in life. 

Her abilities, however, was the larger reason for wanting to homeschool. From day one, Trudie has been very quick to learn, eager to learn and in a hurry to grow up. She picks new things up right away.

As such, putting her in a traditional school setting could ultimately hold her back. With 15-20 kids in a class, everyone has to learn the same curriculum, and at the same speed. 

There’s always a flip side to this. She needs to learn patience, other kids may need the extra time, etc. 

We totally get that. BUT, when you’re thinking about homeschooling, it should be based on what works for you, your kids and your family.

4. YOUR GOALS FOR YOUR KIDS

Not to get into scary stories, BUT, when we were in 9th grade, one of our teachers was dating a classmate. Whoa!

We can’t imagine our daughter coming home and telling us this. We wouldn’t want to send her back the next day, seriously. 

And that’s exactly why our parents didn’t know. Imagine telling my parents my soccer coach was dating someone on my team – yikes!

When we think about that and everything else floating around in the news, it seems to make the decision much easier for us to homeschool. It’s just another piece to the puzzle that seems to make sense. 

Your personal beliefs can come into play here as well. Religion plays a big part in families deciding to homeschool their kids, because you can’t teach religion in public schools. 

What values do you want to make sure your kids are getting?

And do you know what values the teachers that are teaching your kids have? (One of our brothers had a teacher who was trying to push witch craft onto the kids in English class. A brave soul spoke up to protest.)

5. SPECIFIC TOPICS YOU WANT YOUR KIDS TO LEARN

We have heard this reason A LOT from homeschooling families. The school system they live in doesn’t teach some of the things they would like their kids to learn. They decide to teach it themselves because of it.

This could range from the arts and theatre and music to agriculture and specific sports. It’s much easier to homeschool than it is to move your whole family to find the right school with all the qualities you are looking for. 

For many, choosing to homeschool is an easy one. Everything lines up, including the ability to stay home and teach. And for others, it takes a lot more thought and working out the details as to whether it’s right for you.

Hopefully, some of the things we listed help you in your decision. The awesome thing about homeschooling today is that SO many people are doing it!

You’re not without a support system, a play group, a field trip group, or even a mom group. And, you can even get resources from your county and city to homeschool properly. 

The thing to remember is to do what’s right for you, whatever that may be.