Why We Homeschool – Education Is Horked Part 5

Toward the end of last year, my wife and I decided to make a fundamental change in the upbringing of our children. We did not renew our commitment for the private school where my daughter had attended, and instead decided to give homeschooling a go. We have known many people that home-schooled over the years, but had never really given it any thought whatsoever until the end of last year. I decided to write about why we made the transition in the event that others are considering it, but are not sure what to think.

We are not crazy, we are not living in a hole somewhere, and wanting to isolate our kids from the outside world and all of its warts. In fact, it could not be further from our objective.

We have talked about taking our kids on extended trips to other parts of the world ever since they were little. We have long believed that we did not want our kids raised as another set of suburban brats who only had one lens through which to view life. Our kids are old enough now that they can get along just fine on long trips, and so we are taking our first trip this year. We looked pretty seriously at South America, and more specifically Argentina, as our first destination. However, even though we could stay in South America relatively cheaply, we could not make the logistics work this time around. So, we are heading to Italy this spring. It is our hope to take at least one, if not more, trips of this kind each year, including trips to Africa with non-profits we are involved in. We simply could not do this with our kids still in private school, both for calendar and financial reasons.

It’s amazing how full your schedule gets, running to and from school twice a day, then all over the city to various activities. It was quite simply not how we wanted to live. We wanted to give our kids every opportunity to pursue the things they enjoy ( and even some things they don’t ), but not at the price of our lives revolving around what their schedule is.

Additionally, we are done with school work in much less time than a regular school because there are just two kids. The ability to have focused time where required with each of our kids makes the school day much more efficient. The kids are responsible for managing their day each day and ensuring that the work that is assigned is done.

One of the great things this year has been that since we settled on going to Italy, we have been able to devote a good chunk of the school day preparing for the trip. Our kids are learning “survival Italian”, reading about the culture of Italy, and studying the history of all the places we intend to visit. Instead of this being just a vacation, it is quite literally a part of the school year for them. Obviously that is not a bad way to spend a few weeks of the school year, but because we control the calendar, we have been able to ensure that the regular studies all get done AND have been able to add in new subjects as we see fit.

In addition, we have been able to provide more time for fine arts and related activities than we ever could if they were in a regular school with regular hours.

Lastly, we have traveled as a family on numerous trips where I had to be somewhere for work, and while I was at work the rest of the clan has found something in the area to go and study. This has included Atlanta, Northern Virginia, Tidewater, and other parts of the region.

I will not lie and say that money did not enter the decision. We took a hard look at what we were spending for private school tuition and realized that, for now, we could spend that money better elsewhere and broaden horizons. It’s just that simple.

One of the most important lessons I think we can teach the next generation is that it just does not matter what everyone else is doing, or what they are studying, or where you sit on some standardized depth chart. Who wants to be just like the person next to you? And who decides what the right questions are for you and your life? I am enough of a non-conformist that I love being off the grid and doing what I think is right, regardless of what anyone says about it. It’s something I want to instill in my kids every single day. Having to answer the question about where they go to school by saying “I am home-schooled” is difficult for them and it makes them “weird.” We need more weird.

If you have made it this far, you will notice a common thread running throughout the reasons. We quite simply wanted more say in how our kids are raised and how they learned. They are very different, they learn very differently, and we have created a highly tailored environment that helps each of them learn the way that suits them best.

For those that wonder about the “socialization” of kids in a home-schooling context, I challenge you to spend a day with a group of home-school kids and a day with a set of kids from any public or private school. I think you will find there is no difference, or at least no negative difference.

The goal of this post was not to persuade anyone to consider homeschooling, but rather to think seriously about all of the alternatives available. We chose this particular path for right now, with the realization that we can change it when we think it’s no longer working or we want to try something different.

For those of you that have kids of school age, have you ever thought about homeschooling? What are the reasons you would or would not consider it?