Over the past few weeks, as I worked as a judge for high school speech meets, I got the experience to speak candidly with many high school teachers. They, of course, all had strong opinions on homeschooling, some favorable; others, not so much. But the main feeling I got from every one of them was that they are not ALLOWED to teach anymore. They are not allowed to fail students that don’t apply themselves. They are not allowed to think outside of the box or to help students who are academically faster/slower than the system perceives “normal.” And most of them? Most of them are so jaded and disgusted with the system that they ADMITTED to passing kids that didn’t really apply themselves.

It only makes me all the more determined to make homeschooling work for my family.
tracey´s last blog ..Just Another Sunday Fluff Post

She’s just a naive girl, she says in another post that she agrees that learning needs to happen by activity, not by rote. Not sure how she’s going to do that with a gaggle of 4th/5th graders.

I told my HS group to go leave a comment about the ‘disadvantages’ part, but to be gentle since it’s her first encounter to the dark side…I mean homeschooling.

Liese4-
I LOVE your response, and it did post over on the other blog. I agree with Tammy, you should also have your own blog. I’d certainly read it.

-M Green

It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. It seems I have a lot of catching up to do.

Great article.

Looks like things are going really well for you, congrats.

Sheri H.
Ottawa, Canada
Zayna´s last blog ..Another Dead Deadline

“Schools don’t teach acceptance, and the proof is in how many school kids and people who went to school can’t accept homeschoolers.”

I know that many young people go into teaching because they have exactly what it takes. They’re brimming with enthusiasm, curiosity and the ability to see a child’s unique gifts. But these exact qualities are nearly impossible to sustain in a school system based on judgment.
Laura´s last blog ..You’re Gonna Fall, So Laugh

Disadvantages of Home Schooling

• Time Restraints
• Financial Restraints
• Being with your children “24/7”
• Limited Activities

As a homeschooler I’d like to go over these. But first, you’ve never met any homeschoolers? Really? You have led a very sheltered life. There are homeschoolers everywhere. Next time you see a mom with her kids at the library during ’school’ hours, or at the grocery store, zoo, museum; ask them if they homeschool, I bet they do.

Time restraints: believe it or not, it takes much less time for me to find out what my children need to learn and to implement it than it does for a teacher who is having to come up with work for 30 kids (and maybe even in just 1 subject area!) I have 4 children who have always been homeschooled, they are 15 (10th grade), 10 (5th), 7 (2nd) and 4 (Pre-K). I labeled them that way because if you’ve never met a homeschooler then you probably don’t know that a child can be in any grade if you homeschool. They can be at, above or below grade level in any subject and we can teach to their strengths and weaknesses instead of pushing them ahead or dragging them along. Since I have never worked (which I’ll go into next) and have always been a stay at home, home educating mom I’m not sure what you mean by ‘lives are turned upside down’. Homeschooling is life, life is school so there is no life turned upside down. We school when and where we want and though we have a structure to what we learn, it is flexible. Yeah, life happens, kids go to the ER, people get sick, people die, car wrecks happen - that’s why homeschooling is so great, it is flexible to wrap around any life event.

Financial restraints: okay I have only worked outside of the home before I had children, so about 2 years of my married life I worked. But then I had a son and yes, a baby changes everything; except, we had already determined that I would stay home and that we were going to homeschool. Whew! Two major items off the list I didn’t have to worry about. Most homeschoolers can live off one income and here’s a secret - most people can live off one income. There are things we can do without and things we don’t need to live.

Being with your children 24/7: this is always brought up in regards to homeschooling and I have to tell you, if you hate your kids then yeah, it will suck to be around them 24/7. But, most homeschoolers don’t despise their children, they don’t want a break from them, they don’t need someone else to teach them. I hear all the time about how patient I must be to homeschool my kids, that has nothing to do with it. I love them and though there are days when I pull my hair out, I don’t ever want to send them away somewhere.

Limited activities: this one makes me crack up. If you don’t know any homeschoolers then you don’t know that we have this thing called ’socialization’ licked. “Your child will not be able to join a school sports team or club. Also school related activities such as dances and events will not be in the cards for them. This can cause friendship restraints.” Sorry to disappoint, we have a HS sports team (not to mention the rec center teams and church teams) for sports. Club? We have a drama club, speaking club, game night club…..Dances, events? Do you mean like Christmas parties, skate parties, Valentines parties, etc? We have that too. Personally in my family of 6 we: have worship dance every Monday, have Civil Air patrol every Monday, have park day every Wednesday, have girl scout meetings the 1st and 3rd Fridays, have presentation club once a month, volunteer at the library every Friday, volunteer at the airplane museum a few times a month or more on special occasions, have an exceptional kids meeting once a month, we also do co-ops with our homeschool group (I just had one Tuesday about US government), field trips with our homeschool group and family field trips (many times a month), plus Teacher’s night out twice a month (that’s for mom’s only), Bible study twice a month (for mom), church on Sundays and I think that’s it. It’s not just me (although I admit I do a lot) homeschoolers are in book clubs, soccer teams, they take trips to the museum, do service projects (our group just sent 144 butterflies to the Houston holocaust museum), have park days, and on and on. There are some homeschoolers who are more homebodies than others, just like there are some public schoolers who don’t want to be involved in sports or team activities (no one calls them un-socialized!)

So that’s just my one homeschooling opinion and you can add it in to your pro’s list if you want. Find some homeschoolers to interview, you’ll find they range from shy to outgoing, active to passive, political to religious, busy to quiet and everything in-between - just like ‘real’ people!