Why We Homeschool
With everything that has happened this year so many parents have pulled their children out of public school. I also pulled my child out of public school but to be honest, the virus wasn’t the main reason our family switched to homeschool.
We’ve had many concerns with our oldest child in public school for the last couple of years and even after bringing it up with the school, nothing was getting better. Finally, 2020 changed everything in so many ways for us and we couldn’t let things go anymore.
So here are 7 reasons why I chose to homeschool my kids.
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1. Learn At Their Own Pace
One of the biggest benefits of homeschooling our children is that they can learn at their own pace. One thing we were very concerned about with our daughter for the last couple of years is how she seemed to be having such a difficult time reading.
However, after bringing it up with her first-grade teacher and guidance counselor, they just said that she was passing so it was “fine.” For me, that was not “fine.” My fear was that if she didn’t catch up or they didn’t help her in some way then she would get way behind and it would affect her later.
Fast forward to third-grade now and she is a year or so behind on her reading. I feel like the school really didn’t take things seriously and I for one was so aggravated that now she is behind.
Thankfully, with homeschooling, I can teach her on the level of reading that she is at and help her catch up at her own pace rather than having her still in second grade for all of her other subjects.
2. Special Needs
Do you have children with special needs that are struggling in public school?
Both of my children have high functioning autism and because they are “high functioning” they are just put in a typical class and expected to be like typical kids. This is so frustrating and has caused many problems with my oldest child. From potty accidents to behavior problems, a “typical” classroom is just not the right environment for my child.
That’s another reason I love homeschooling. Our homeschooling environment is so much more relaxed and my children can be themselves. They also don’t have any pressure to be like the other children (which they are not).
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3. Pandemic
Before this year (2020) actually started we could have never imagined what we would witness and have to live through. We could not have imagined how drastically our lives would change. And what’s even harder is how our children’s lives have changed during this sad and crazy time.
Our children have seen a ruthless virus that has taken many loved ones and friends. They’ve seen the grocery stores emptied, business shut down, and even schools closed due to this pandemic.
This past summer, our local schools gave us the option to either send our kids to school with masks and tons of modifications or to do learn from home. I assumed that the learn from home would be similar to the learn from home that my daughter completed in the last few months of last year. We decided to choose to learn from home for our daughter, however, things certainly didn’t go as planned and we had to start homeschooling.
4. Therapy Schedule
With two kids who are on the autism spectrum, they both receive a lot of therapy to help them learn to adapt and manage their behaviors. And although I didn’t think it would be a problem at all, I was wrong.
Since we chose to do learn from home through our daughter’s elementary school we were waiting for instructions the entire summer. But it wasn’t until 4 days before school started that were finally assigned a teacher. And then when the teacher emailed us she told us that open house was the very next day.
Now I am a person that has to have things planned out to function properly (I also have autism). And since my daughter had therapy the next day during that time, I emailed the teacher trying to see if we could work out a different time. But there we no answer.
Finally, the next day I called the school and explained to them about my daughter’s therapy situation. I was reassured that they could work school around her therapies with no problem. But then when I finally was able to talk with the teacher on the phone she said that my daughter would have to be at the computer for basically a full school day and would not be counted as present if I was taking her to therapy every day.
This was just the last straw for me. I was so aggravated by how unorganized everything was and how unwilling they were to work around a therapy that was crucial for my child. Plus, since I work from home, helping her on the computer all day long was not realistic.
So that’s when we started researching homeschooling.
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5. Safety
My child’s safety is one of the most important things a school has to take care of. And unfortunately, we live in a very scary world where there are school shootings.
One of the most chilling experiences I’ve had was when my child came home telling me how she had to practice for a school shooting. She told me that she and the other children had to learn about covering the windows in their classrooms, hiding in a corner, and staying completely quiet.
Of course, schools will argue that they are completely prepared for these events by having everyone be buzzed in to get in the building, but I’ve noticed many times when a parent gets buzzed in other people come in right after so truthfully that isn’t 100% safe.
Having my child at home where I know she is safe saves my sanity.
6. Bullying
Most of us have been bullied in school. And many parents may say it happens to everyone and they’ve survived. For me, with two children that already have autism along with anxiety, being bullied can do much more damage than low self-esteem.
So many children end their lives after being bullied and I’m determined to give my children the safe environment of homeschooling until they are older and more equipped to deal with people who are unkind.
7. I Can Choose What My Children Learn
Public schools have gotten so much worse with what they teach and when they teach it. One problem I’ve found was that my child had such a difficult time learning to read and I honestly believe it’s because they didn’t teach her phonics but instead taught her sight words.
Here is the problem with only teaching sight words. Your child cannot learn to sound out and read new words but only the words they have been taught. But with phonics, a child learns to put letters together to make certain sounds that then create words. After using phonics with my daughter, her reading has improved so much.
Another huge benefit of homeschooling is that I can choose my children’s curriculum. So if I want them to learn about God, I can include scripture reading into our curriculum or I can choose a curriculum that is Christian based.
Should I Homeschool My Child?
The answer to this is different for every family. I never thought in a million years I would homeschool my children, but here I am taking the plunge. For us, the negative just added up so quickly with just our first child and when everything started falling apart this year it was just the best time to make the change.
