Before I had children, I thought homeschoolers were weird. I was a certified public school teacher who worked as an informal educator at a local zoo. (My husband is a former public school teacher). The zoo had a special class for homeschoolers. I had a co-worker that was homeschooled as a kid. These were really my only interactions with the homeschool community. I didn’t get it.
Fast forward to when I became a mom, everything I thought I knew shifted. When the first baby of our family went from loving to learn to hating it through public school, it broke my heart.
My husband and I had our first son together in 2017. Through research, I discovered that:
A). Homeschool students outperform public school students astronomically.
B). Public schools today aren’t how you and I remember them. They’re much, much, much worse.
C). All of our former public school colleagues opted to homeschool their own kids.
I found this to be very telling. Why would so many public school teachers choose to keep their own children out of the system?
When my son was 6 months old, I bought the Tiny Tots secular homeschool kit from Timberdoodle. It radically changed everything for my little family.
I discovered that my son is a kinesthetic learner. He is extremely bright. He has since tested advanced/gifted. He would never be well served by the public school system because he doesn’t learn the way that they’re able to teach.
I want my kids to learn from a quality curriculum in a well-funded environment. We live in a state who has a governor that’s actively removing honesty from the curriculum and skewing it. I want my kids to be well-educated. Competitive globally, if you will. I want them to visit places and learn by actively doing things. Field trips each week. Working at their own pace. Focusing on their own interests.
They can’t do that here with the public schools. If I want this kind of education for them, I’ll have to provide it through homeschooling.
Since that initial kit, we have used so many different curriculum options. If it doesn’t work for my son, we find a new one. We’re a member of co-ops. He’s in classes and extracurricular activities. Now we homeschool all of our boys and it’s been great.
While, yes, our kids won’t be involved in a school shooting or be subjected to many of the things that public school kids are, that isn’t our primary motivation.
The kind of homeschool experience we provide our kids takes time. It does take sacrifice. But we think it’s worth it. As our kids are assessed, we realize how far ahead they are when compared to their public school peers. This motivates us to continue our approach.
