In March 2020, we pulled our son from preschool. We ended up homeschooling him until August 25, 2021. He's now attending a language immersion preschool, which goes up to the 8th grade.
Our experience has taught us that homeschooling can be incredibly beneficial. It is more efficient and can provided customized learning for our son. Now that our son has been in regular school for over two years, we clearly see how much more he learned through homeschool.
Before we initially sent our son to preschool we were torn. We couldn't decide whether preschool was the best thing for our son or whether preschool was just an artificial construct created by society to enable parents to work more.
Given we both didn't have day jobs, we felt a little bad sending our son to preschool. What if he came down with COVID-19 and gave it to his baby sister? We'd feel horrible.
We also wondered, if we sent him to preschool, what were we going to do all day after 2.5 years of spending every moment with him? Preschool felt like we were outsourcing our parental duties.
Testing The Preschool Waters
While we were still deliberating, we got accepted into a great neighborhood preschool. So we decided to give it a go to at least see what it was all about. Besides, we had already paid over $1,000 in application fees and spent hours on the admissions process.
For almost six months, we dropped our boy off at around 9:30 am and picked him up before 5 pm. In the beginning, we wiped away our watery eyes each morning. But as weeks went by, we felt less guilty.
The seven hours off a day was a welcome break, especially for my wife who was going through her 3rd and 4th trimesters of pregnancy and recovery. I could also do more writing, play more tennis, and take more naps. All these things are great for health.
Now thanks to the pandemic, after more than five months of homeschooling our boy and taking care of our baby girl, I don't think we're sending him back, even if there is an effective vaccine. That said, we're not sure.
Let's go through some positives and negatives of homeschooling. I'm not sure one method of schooling is better than the other. But I do believe the best form of schooling is one that fits your child's personality and your lifestyle.
In this post, I'll try to convince you that homeschooling is the way to go if parents have the time and energy. I'd love for you to convince me otherwise!
The Positives Of Homeschooling
Let's look at the positives of homeschooling. After I finished my first draft, I kept on coming back and adding more positives.
1) More quality time with your child.
Your children will grow up quick. Homeschooling enables you to spend more quality time with your child. I still remember bringing home my son from the hospital at 11:58pm like it was yesterday. His 3.5 years have flown by.
I've spoken to hundreds of older parents so far, and the majority of them have said that if they could rewind time, they wish they would have spent more time with their children growing up.
If I could slow down time, I would. But since we can't, spending more time with a child is the next best thing. The average homeschooling parent could spend 2-3X more time with their child a day.
2) Teach at your own pace and provide better accommodations.
As teachers, we often must teach to the slowest student in the room. Leave no child behind as they say. If your child happens to be the slowest student, then the pace of teaching is wonderful. However, if your child is average, then he or she may get bored and not learn to his or her potential.
By homeschooling, you can tailor all aspects of education to your child's needs. After all, parents know their child best. And the more time you spend time with your child, the more you'll get to know them.
When our son was three years and five months old, we went to the ophthalmologist to check out his eyes. It was only seven months after his previous checkup, but we noticed he wasn't able to see house addresses as clearly on our walks.
The opthalmologist said there was no need to dilate his eyes to check his prescription, since the normal cadence is once a year. However, my wife insisted, so the doctor acquiesced. Lo and behold, our son's vision had changed by a significant two diopeters since his last visit.
When we homeschool, we can provide the best accommodations for our children to learn. If a child has a visual acuity issue, we can get books in larger font. If a child has difficulty paying attention for longer than 15 minutes, we can teach in 15-minute increments. Perhaps a child has an auditory issue. If so, we can speak up and not have to worry about a noisy large classroom.
There's a reason why it costs much more for 1-on-1 tennis lessons than a group lesson. You can get much greater instruction 1-on-1.
3) Teach a more flexible curriculum.
Not only can we teach at a more appropriate pace when homeschooling, we can also teach our children things we find more useful. Of course, we will still teach the basics of reading, writing, math, and science. However, we can place more emphasis on certain subjects we find more important or that our children find more interesting than others.
For example, I think there should be more emphasis on developing communication skills. Communication skills include public speaking and writing. Expert communicators also dovetails well with being excellent in sales. These two skills are critical for getting ahead.
Conversely, perhaps there should be less emphasis on advanced math. Seriously, what's the point of learning calculus unless you want to be a mathematician? Instead, it may be more beneficial to learn how to be an expert at using spreadsheets or a scientific calculator.
As a child gets older, you could also teach him or her practical skills like balancing a checkbook, reconciling a business cash flow statement, building a brand online, and analyzing a rental property for purchase.
You could dedicate an entire course on each of these subjects. Or you can spend half a year teaching AP chemistry when your kid doesn't want to be a scientist or doctor.
A more flexible curriculum is more efficient. We've been spending lots of time creating frugal toys and doing art projects as well to help with creativity. The more we can teach our children what they naturally enjoy, the better learners they become.
4) Save on the cost of attending private school.
If you planned to send your kid to preschool or private grade school, then homeschool will save you tuition expense minus the cost of homeschooling.
I've got to admit, it feels nice saving $1,950/month on preschool tuition while spending more time with my son. One could easily spend $500,000 in tuition between preschool through the 12th grade.
Further, if we home school until he is 18 in San Francisco, we won't have to stress about going through the San Francisco public lottery school system. Social engineering may be good, but it's not really working as families self-segregate.
Take a look at the latest private school tuition for grade school and university for select west coast schools. Homeschooling each child can save a lot of money!
5) No bullying when homeschooling.
Bullying is one of the things that bums me out the most about normal schooling. There is always going to be a bully at school who will pick on other kids for being smaller, less attractive, poorer, or having some type of disability.
During the few times I was picked on, I always fought back hard. It took a couple fist fights for kids to stop bullying me. But these bullies just started picking on someone else. You can see bullying happen all the time in the online world today.
Homeschooling eliminates your child from getting bullied, which is a big relief for most parents. At the same time, homeschooling reduces opportunities for your child to stick up for himself or herself. These difficult moments can make children stronger or break them.
After spending three years as a high school tennis teacher and over 11 years as a blogger, I've come to the conclusion that kids aren't born bullies. Bullies are created because they are either neglected or abused by their parents and/or siblings. Therefore, the quality of the parents of your child's classmates is important.
Perhaps one solution is to homeschool your child and teach them as much about listening, empathy, manners, kindness, and strategies for dealing with bullies for several years. Then send them to normal school and see how they fare.
6) Less peer pressure to do disappointing things.
Middle school seems to be the start of significant peer pressure to act a certain way, dress a certain way, and speak a certain way. Then perhaps this peer pressure really ramps up in high school.
If you homeschool your children, it should be easier to guard against sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's also hard to skip class if your child is homeschooled.
I was a troublemaker growing up. It was clear that so many of the bad things I did was partially due to hanging out with the wrong crowd. Looking back, I'm surprised some kids were able to concentrate on school with so many distractions.
If you were a difficult child, perhaps your own children will be difficult as well. Of course, doing bad things growing up doesn't doom you to be a loser as an adult.
7) A stronger bond between siblings.
One of the things I wish was that my sister and I were closer. She's four years older and we've never lived in the same city after high school.
When I was in middle school, she didn't want to hang out with me. And when I was a freshman in high school, she was heading off to college. I'm sure if we were homeschooled, we would have a stronger bond today.
8) Create stronger bonds with other families.
The great thing about the pandemic is that there will naturally be more families who homeschool. Therefore, more families could create stronger relationships with other families in their neighborhood. Instead of avoiding our neighbors, we would welcome our neighbors.
It seems like we've gone from being friendly with our neighbors decades ago to being suspicious of our neighbors. When someone rings a doorbell, we wonder who the heck could it be?
How nice it would be to have a strong network of families to rely on for companionship and play time for kids. We plan to set up weekly playdates with a couple other families from our preschool.
What's also great about having more than one kid is that at least they'll hopefully always have each other. It makes my heart sing to see my son and daughter play together.
9) Easier to take less crowded field trips.
One of the best things about early retirement is that my wife and I got to go to all the museums and parks in our cities during the middle of the week.
For example, we'd always go to the California Academy Of Sciences Museum on a Tuesday morning. Each time we went, it was as if we had the entire 40,000 square foot museum to ourselves!
At about 11am, two hours after we had arrived, busloads of kids from all over the Bay Area would jam pack the museum. As a result, it would often become difficult to see the attractions or hear the marine biologists speak.
When the temperature hits 80+, we have a family rule that we will always go to the beach. While at the beach, we'll use the field trip to teach about wind, temperature, sea animals, shells, and more. There's so much more flexibility with homeschooling.
10) The ability to travel throughout the year.
How amazing would it be to see the pyramids of Egypt instead of just read about them in a history text book? Instead of learning Mandarin in a classroom, it would be much better to learn Mandarin while living in Taiwan or China.
Traveling can make the entire homeschooling experience more fun for parents and kids. I personally can't wait to take my family to see the world once they are both over five years old. Here's a post on the best time to travel abroad with kids.
11) Less sickness.
Before my son went to preschool, I used to get sick once or twice a year for two weeks max. After my son went to preschool, I was sick for three months out of his six months of attendance. Not only did I get sick, my wife and daughter also got sick. It was terrible.
Although people say it's good to get sick early and often to build your immune system, it felt like we were sick too often. My children are still getting exposed to bacteria and viruses at home and when we go out in the public. It's just not to the point of overwhelming our immune systems.
When you're sick, your quality of life goes way down. It's also harder to work to make money. I would have been less against returning our son to preschool if I was only sick for two weeks during his six months of preschool attendance.
But, being sick for three months was way too much. It was also upsetting to see parents clearly drop off their sick kids to school sometimes because they needed the childcare more than they cared about other children getting sick.
Since we pulled our son out from preschool in mid-March 2020, none of us have gotten sick, knock on wood. Whenever I'm sick, I often think about how much I would give to feel healthy again.
Now that our son is back in school, he gets some type of sickness every two or three months. The winter of 2022/2023 was especially bad as it seemed like he was sick for three months in a row.
Negatives Of Homeschooling
Although homeschooling sounds great, there are plenty of negatives as well.
1) Your time and energy.
Without a doubt, the #1 negative of homeschooling is the amount of time and energy parents have to expend to teach their children.
If you have a day job, even if it's a work from home job, it's very difficult to allocate enough time to teach your children. Even if you could work during off hours, spending 3-5 hours homeschooling your children and then another 9+ hours working may be too much to handle.
Once shelter-in-place began, I began regularly waking up by 5am so I could write before my kids wake up between 7:30am – 8am. After spending just two hours with them, I was already exhausted. Therefore, my wife and I regularly trade off childcare duties to comfortably get through the day.
I also just spent three hours taking care of my kids given my wife went on a mom's night out. It was great for the first 2.5 hours and then my son started melting down because he misplaced an ice pack. So he ruined our entire time due to him being forgetful. At least my daughter was great.
2) The misconception that your kids will grow up socially awkward.
The main stereotype I've heard about homeschooled kids is that they might end up socially awkward. After all, the less opportunities you have to interact with other children your own age and other adults, the less social practice you have.
However, think about how many socially awkward people there are who went to a traditional school! I've attended plenty of events over the past 20+ years and I always come across people who seem so uncomfortable.
With more kids homeschooling now, I don't see an issue with developing good social skills and high emotional intelligence. Homeschooling pods and play dates should be enough to provide for sufficient social interaction. Meanwhile, parents will be more focused on teaching children proper manners.
3) May be harder to discipline.
Kids seem to act one way in front of teachers and another way at home. We noticed our son was an angel in preschool, always listening to his teacher's instructions. He would nap every day as well.
Since he's been home, he's been much less disciplined. He also hardly naps anymore.
Therefore, traditional schooling may help tremendously with discipline and listening to authority. Kids tend to know how to manipulate their parents, whereas it’s harder to manipulate teachers. Further, parents can be pushovers and be too soft on the rules.
4) Lost wages.
Going from a dual-income household to a single-income household can be difficult, especially if expenses are also increasing. However, if one parent is already a stay-at-home parent, then the financial shock may not be as great. The challenge to homeschool may give that stay at home parent more purpose.
As healthcare and childcare costs increase, I fully admit I've been tempted to go back to work to at least defray these costs. Having one parent work and one parent be a full-time parent may be the best combination.
Understand Your State's Homeschooling Regulations
It's important to understand what your state's requirements and regulations are for homeschooling. As with a lot of things, there's a wide range in rules from one state to the next.
For example, some states like Oklahoma don't require any type of reporting or assessments. Neither do they have any state mandated subjects.
Other states like New York require all of those things. Plus they have other requirements including submitting an IHIP (Individualized Home Instruction Plan) every August with a list of your syllabi, curriculum materials, textbooks, or plan of instruction.
Here's a quick glance at the regulation levels by state put together by the HSDLA.
If You Can Homeschool, Perhaps You Must
The 6.8 years of my son's life has gone by fast. In many ways, I wish I could rewind time and relive his younger years all over again. Life speed accelerates the older we get. Homeschooling allows parents to build stronger relationships with their children.
Obviously, if both parents have day jobs, homeschooling is impossible. However, if at least one spouse is a stay at home parent, then I think homeschooling is worth a shot. By the time our kids turn 12, they will want to spend time with their friends and not so much their parents.
If the time comes where both parents and child feel like traditional schooling is more appropriate, then families can make the transition. And if your child would rather homeschool, then that certainly can be arranged once again.
Perhaps the easiest way to answer whether it's best to homeschool or not is whether or not you have 100% control of your time. Homeschooling is very tiring at first. However, over time, you build an endurance muscle and it may get easier.
A Homeschooling Plan
The more I think about it, the more I believe it is best to homeschool a child through middle school and then try out traditional schooling for high school if desired. This way, parents will have 14 years to instill in their children their core values.
The more parents question the efficacy of traditional schooling, the more attractive homeschooling becomes. Plus, the burst of social interaction for four years of high school before potentially attending college should be good enough.
With a solid foundation upon entering high school, perhaps children who receive comprehensive lessons via homeschooling on financial literacy will be less susceptible to peer pressure and more capable of excelling academically too. I certainly hope requirements for personal finance classes in schools increase.
In addition, think about working in an office versus working from home. If you've been able to work from home during the pandemic, wouldn't you prefer continuing to work from home for most days of the week? I'm sure a nice hybrid approach of 3-4 days a week at home and 1-2 days in the office would be ideal.
Homeschooling is like working from home. You still get to socialize with your friends. You just have more control over how you spend your time.
At the end of the day, because my wife and I can homeschool, we must. We can revisit the topic again if there is ever a vaccine. Perhaps by next year, we'll be so exhausted that we can't wait to enroll our son back in preschool.
Finally, perhaps there is a wonderful middle ground of enrolling your child in a traditional school that allows for homeschooling. Instead of having to go to school five days a week, perhaps in the future, students will only have to attend 2-3 days a week. For the other 2-3 days, parents can homeschool and help their children brush up on subject matters. This way, families get the best of both worlds!
Related posts:
Career Or Family? You Only Have To Sacrifice At Most 5 Years Of Your Life
How To Get Into A Great Preschool Or Private Grade School
Readers, what are your thoughts on homeschooling your children? Why not try homeschooling first and then traditional schooling once they're a little older? Is preschool an artificial construct?
I'd really love for you to try and convince me why homeschooling for the initial years of a child's life is a suboptimal choice.
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I am home-schooled myself, and let me tell you, it was the worst decision my mother has ever made. My grades have dropped like crazy. I used to be top of my class, now I can’t even remember long division. My mom and I bicker all the time now, to the point where I literally have to lock my door for 10 hours just to get away from her. It gives your child unbelievable peer pressure when they get older. Feeling the pressure to make your parents proud every second of the day to the point where they have nothing else to live for. I attended a private school before I left. I had friends, good grades, and the work was hard but manageable. Now, my only friend is my dog and my 7-year-old cousin. My grades are unbelievably low, and the work is just pure stupid. Do your child a favor and let them grow up. Let them live their life without you watching over their shoulder every second of the day. I understand we are in a pandemic, and you don’t want your child to get sick, but there are solutions to that. Don’t make them a socially awkward teenager who can’t even give money at the gas station because your scared of losing your child. You won’t lose them, but you have to let them go sometime.
Now you’re writing about two of my favorite topics: personal finance AND homeschooling. I’ve been homeschooling my four kids since my oldest reached preschool age and have to say it’s been a great thing for our family. I hope you keep us updated on your homeschooling experience and your thoughts as you move forward.
We started homeschooling our daughter this summer since we figure that the logistics of school this year was gonna be a mess. Well it’s almost October and we have already gone through the whole school year. Homeschooling is easier than most people think. Especially for younger children.
Covid is going to reveal to America that public education is nothing more than daycare. Especially if the next school year is like this one. I’m not sure about anyone else but 75% of my property taxes goes to the schools. There are gonna be alot of pissed tax payers and I’m hoping this will be the rise of school voucher programs.
As far as the socially awkward thing…. it’s unnatural to spend 12years of your life with everyone that is the same age as you. THAT creates social awkwardness particularly now. That’s allI seem to encounter in those under 30.
How many hours a day of teaching did it take on average? The accelerated efficiency is huge!
Not many. If I had to guess… we spent maybe a total of 1 hour broken into 15 min blocks or so a day of “schooling”. That’s where you introduce the “thing/idea/whatever”. Then you just reinforce it when and where you can in normal life. Counting things/math, sounds/language, spelling, whatever.
Wow! That’s not a lot of time at all a day. I could easily teach for two hours a day myself + another two hours a day from my wife.
What grade is your kid?
If it really only takes less than 3 hours a day to homeschool, then we’re definitely going to give it a go for a while.
This is the “well THAT’S why” moment.
She is an eager learner and in 1st grade. BUT….
She is now reading at a 3rd grade level if I had to guess. We spend time on vocab to help her reading, some math, but mostly fun science stuff and what i guess you would call “Home Ec”…. cooking, cleaning, gardening, budgeting, etc. You know trying to teach practical skills and discipline.
The project tomorrow… which I want to do more than she does… is you put a bunch of pond scum, dirt and water, into a jar and seal it and see what live 1 month, 6 months, a year later. We live near the ocean and before it gets cold we wanna do the same thing. Got the idea from youtube on a page called jar life or something similar.
Age pending, 3 hours can be a bit much. My wife and I have found that the less time spent in structured learning the better. Without practical context so much can be lost.
Also there are tons of free website and cheap pay site for homeschooling help/curriculum. Our state’s homeschooling advocacy group was like $35 for the year to join and had tons to offer. Hell the discounts to local places was worth it alone!
I’ve really enjoyed teaching my 1st & 3rd grade kids since schools closed. I have a way better understanding of their learning styles and it makes me a more patient parent. I’ve also realized what isn’t taught and that schools teach to the middle. My 3rd grader is advanced in math and complained most of last year that he was bored, I blew him off, but now that I’m more engaged I see exactly what he means and he has no interest in returning to school. Distance learning with multiple daily zoom calls for has been a complete waste of time. Yesterday he pitched me his homeschooling plan that covered all subjects and said it would be way more fun than returning to school, I was pretty impressed! He didn’t even mention not being around other kids. We plan on homeschooling full time early 2021, spending more time with my kids and taking a active role in their education has been a covid blessing for us!
Homeschooling pros: nearly everything.
Homeschooling cons: need resources, time, and commitment.
However, all of the stats that support the benefit of homeschooling have one big common denominator that’s not accounted for: the cons of the homeschooling. The parents that decide to home school their kids are usually those that have all of the three items listed in the cons (resources, time, and commitment).
If a parent can equally devote their time, resources, and commitment to their kid while their kids attend public school, their kids will succeed just as much as those that are home schooled. All of the advantages of homeschooling, imo, happens because it requires a dedicated parent/supervisor to make it successful. And a child with a dedicated and committed parent are always more likely to do better in life.
Public school is great too, but it will never be as effective as homeschooling because it’s impossible to tailor a curriculum to bring out the best out of nearly everyone.
I would personally LOVE to home school my kids, but unfortunately I don’t have the resources or enough time to make it happen. So what I’ll do instead is try to be the best parent for them by providing care, encouragement, and discipline while they attend PS.
One more thing re: developing social skills or lessening social anxiety – yes, I don’t think there is a formula that states that MORE exposure will guarantee LESS social anxiety because I believe it’s a personality trait that is given at birth. Proper guidance and nurture can help them cope with social anxiety better, but the base will always be there. It’s like asking why certain people take more risks, why certain people are able to retain information better, etc. They’re just born with it.
Socially, one advantage of going to public school is that there will be TONS of different people your child can connect with. In my personal experience, the people that I befriended during E.S. to H.S. (or “childhood” friends) are still the closest to me decades later.
Anyway, interesting topic Sam. I’m sure a lot of people have thought about this topic during the pandemic.
I homeschooled my three children for elementary and middle school while living in a school district people would climb over broken glass to get into. My neighbors thought we were crazy and I probably lost some friendships over it. They are now highly functional young adults and have all asked if I would homeschool their children when the time comes. I think that’s a pretty strong endorsement!
I’m homeschooling my younger two right now (ages 7 and 9). It got off to a rough start (hard to get back into schooling after six months off) but we seem to be hitting a groove and two hours is totally sufficient. My oldest (13) is doing virtual school – I’d really have to review algebra and science at this point to teach her effectively.
We’re in the middle of a move (from Atlanta to Connecticut) and staying with my parents until our new house is ready in a few weeks, but I’m really questioning whether I”ll send the younger two back this year. We’re living at the beach right now and my kids are outside most of the day which is another bonus to homeschooling instead of the measly 30 minutes of recess a day they get normally. Not worried about COVID AT ALL but worried about the screen time, all the sanitizing and the masks all day – it doesn’t seem like a healthy environment for little kids (or adults).
I know quite a few people taking their kids out of school for the year to test out homeschooling because they didn’t want them starring at a computer screen all day with virtual school.
I wish that was an option for me but I’m 2 weeks away from giving birth to my 3rd child. My daughter also goes to a almost impossible to get into charter school (we live in a city with a horrible school district) and if I take her out I loose her spot and her siblings spots.
Now that I got a taste of virtual school I’m honestly questioning education as a whole…. I definitely see myself giving the kids the option of homeschooling as they get older, especially when it comes to highschool.
I totally hear you on the risk of pulling your kid out and then not getting back in. We had the same fear, but we did it anyway and there are still spots. We also feel that bc we are supporters of the school and good citizens, they will accept our son back in eventually. Best of luck on your birth! Congrats!
All power to you Sam. My wife was going insane during the quarantine days. I have great respect to those parents who home-school their children. It is not easy. My opinion but I think children need the interaction with other kids. It is healthy and helps them become independent and build character. Bullying will always be there no matter what. Eventually they will be bullied by adults and the consequences could be worse.
Here is an interesting article/opinion on the WSJ from two professors, one from Harvard and one from Stanford. Two of the top 4 schools in medicine in our country. They questioned whether keeping schools closed is a good idea. Interesting. I am starting to question this Covid-19 pandemic.
wsj.com/articles/the-case-against-covid-tests-for-the-young-and-healthy-11599151722
Economy Chief
Sam,
Have you ever looked at Atropine drops and Ortho-K for your son’s eyes? My son has severe myopia and we had been recommended a treatment program using both to prevent a further increase in his myopia, so far so good.
Nope. Will look into it and ask. It’s not severe, yet at -2.75. but at this rate, who knows. hopefully it slows down. what is your son’s prescription?
Reference: https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/myopia-treatments-how-to-choose-and-when-to-use
His prescription is -2( age 9). I am told the earlier they need glasses, the worse their eyes will be as an adult…a larger level of myopia can lead to other eye issues. Between the Atropine and the Ortho-K, it acts as a “retainer” to minimize progressive myopia. Both Atropine treatment and Ortho-K have been popular in Asia for quite sometime .
Got it. Not bad! I know many who have prescriptions much stronger, including my own.
FWIW, I’m now a big believer in home schooling. My wife home schooled all three of our children, and I was not too excited about it at first. I feared my kids would end up being mouth breathing cretins with no social skills. Fast forward 20 or so years, and we have one daughter who is a structural engineer, one pediatrician (ok, she’s in residency), and our son is in his first year of med school (to be fair, he went to public school for high school as he wanted exposure to sports and girls). And yes, they are socially healthy and a lot of fun for us to be around, even as young adults.
Of course, we don’t know the counterfactual, so maybe they would have done “better” being traditionally schooled. But show me the data, not anecdotes, indicating inferior outcomes on average of home schooled kids. And I do think the burden is on the anti-home schooling folks to show that their product is superior.
Regarding specific concerns, the social skills fear was totally groundless. Where we were living at the time (Iowa), the network of home school families was extensive and there were too many activities for them to participate in. We had to scale it back – choir, band, soccer, ballet, etc. So the kids had plenty of opportunities to interact with other kids. But we never saw a home school situation where our kids were bullied, or engaged in bullying. Granted, home school families are not a random representation of all families, so maybe the kids are naturally “nicer” (or just watched more carefully). Who knows.
As for content expertise and curricula, there are tons of wonderful curricular and pedagogical products available for home school families.There was even an annual home school conference in Iowa that had tons of curricular products to buy, lectures and presentations for parents, etc.
And the time efficiency is massive. My wife swears that in say grades 1-4, she could get done in 2 hours what would take the entire day in traditional school (the two hours would not be contiguous – work on something for 40 minutes, then take 20 minutes to do something else more fun). That leaves lots of time for letting kids do things like actually go out and play. The amount of school time needed increases as the kids get older, such that her ballpark estimate is that by 8th grade, they were schooling ~ 5.5 hours per day. At the high school level, a college prep course of study would take ~ 8 hours/day, but no homework needed.
Finally, we also think (speculate) that home schooling spared our son being medicated for ADHD. He was what we consider a typical boy with a short attention span and energetic nature that would probably not go over well in a typical elementary classroom. Much different than our girls. We don’t think he would have thrived well at all in an elementary school setting. But she let him work at his own pace and gave him plenty of opportunities to go outside and be a kid. He thrived. Maybe he would have done fine in school – we don’t know. But there is a strong argument to be made that the current schooling system is less conducive to the success of boys, and there is a notable gender achievement gap in academic success, leading for example to disproportionate levels of college admission for females vs males.
So I say go for it.
JPW
One point to mention that is neither positive or negative is the question of the ability of a parent to teach academics. Not everyone is a good or even decent teacher. Teaching requires at least familiarizing yourself with the topics. The best teachers often know the topic inside and out. If people did not want to/could not learn it when they were younger, what is the chance they have the ability or want to do so now for their kids?
Agree. So more educated, patient, enthusiastic, energy, and time a parent had to homeschool, the more the parent should homeschool.
As of now, I am amped up to homeschool and find the task much like starting and growing this site in 2009. A new adventure!
Example, this morning between 8:30 AM and 9 AM I read him a book in English and Mandarin about the 12 months of the year in both languages and discussed the significance of each month. It was tiring, but it was a lot of fun. And then, I can take a break and do some of my own writing and hand off to my wife and tag team. It’s obviously much easier with two parents versus just one parent homeschooling.
But check back with me next year, I may sing a very very different tune.
What are you doing with your children if you have any children?
Thank you for asking, Sam. I have a 10 week old son. Won’t have to make that decision for at least a few years!
I raised 7 children into adulthood. My kids came to me through birth and adoption. I have experience in two states (IL and CA) and public schools, private schools and homeschooling. I say – trust your gut. If I had Do-overs I would have homeschooled more. But it still would have been a mix. I suggest reassessing every year and be flexible.
Also – homeschooling should not take more than 2-3 hours a day. So much regular school time is spent on administration and such. And think out of the box – you will waste the opportunity if you implement “school at home” instead of more creative ways to 1:1 teach. There is abundant info around on how to go beyond canned curricula.
Good luck.
Amazing! A true educator professional you are.
I love what you say that homeschooling should only take 2 to 3 hours a day. It is so much more efficient to homeschool just like it’s so much more efficient to work from home. Think about all the free time one can do to go on field trips and learn even more!
Further, if your child is happy to learn for another hour or two, we could just keep on going and over the course of a year, the child will have hundreds of hours more of education.
What do you think about my plan or recommendation of homeschooling our children until middle school to develop a solid foundation and then unleashing them to traditional school?
I think it depends on the parents, the kid(s), and the options for school environments. We have one child. He has been social since the moment he could turn his head – loves being around other kids his age. He loved to going to school. We also moved around a bit while he was growing up – having him in school was one way that we got to know others in the community. Public schools meet for 180 days – less that half the year. So, we had plenty of time together. If our family unit or our personalities or circumstances were different, homeschooling might have been a better fit. Having options so you can find the best fit for your family is the best situation. Enjoy the ride – they are off to college or jobs before you know it!
Good point about traditional school only being in session for half the year, so there is plenty of time during the other half to spend time with your kids. I really hadn’t thought of that funny enough, which is why listening to other perspectives is so important.
I’ve always wanted to homeschool my kids more to avoid them getting brainwashed by government school, but my biggest concern is socialization. Do you know of a good way to get your children into “homeschooling pods” or resources for setting one up yourself?
I would ask people in your community, schools, and online.
Again, think about how many socially terrible people who went to traditional school. I think this fear of lack of social skills in homeschool is overhyped.
I agree, there are socially terrible people who went to traditional school. I also liked your comment about bullying and agree that “the quality of the parents of your child’s classmates is important.” At home you will be able to choose that better but if you can find a day care or school (less likely) that you trust as it has quality parents and teachers than it may be worth sending them.
The social aspect is what we continued to go back and forth with. From bullying to socially terrible people you can’t control everything at school. We have two little ones that love being social. My wife and I still work or we might have made a different decision but we feel very comfortable with the current daycare. So not school yet as that may have changed our decision. Also, we are very involved at the daycare so it helps make sure we feel comfortable. This provides them the oppertunity to socialize in a controlled way that is closely monitored. As to your point, kids are much different when they are not with their parents so we want that to continue. However, it was a tough choice and one that needs to be right for each person.
Best of luck homeschooling!
As a matter of public policy, I wish homeschooling was better regulated. There is a big difference between families such as yours and those who claim they are homeschooling to avoid oversight from mandatory reporters and truancy officers. I think homeschooling and online schooling is here to stay, and I also think there are very different degrees of parental oversight going on in different households, so I hope as a society we are quick to adapt and develop standards to protect the more vulnerable kids for whom public school was once a safe place where they could get exposure to other caring adults with unique worldviews and learning opportunities that they may not get at home.
We are doing virtual schooling this year. It’s going well so far. The teachers had 3 months to prepare and it shows. They are a lot more organized and there are much fewer technical issues.
Homeschooling is hard for us because I am not a good teacher. I’m too impatient. If we want to homeschool, we need both parents to be at home. We can take turn teaching. We plan to take a year off to travel when our son is in 6th grade, 2022. I think we can road school at that point. The pandemic is a test run for us. We could homeschool, but we like regular school a lot better.
Good luck with homeschooling.
The public district where I lived growing up was actually pretty good, but my mom took us out because my older brother had a lot of discipline issues. I went to public school until 5th grade, private school from 5th grade until 10th grade, and then homeschooled the rest of high school.
I thrived in public school but hated private school. I was so far ahead in private school, my mom (who was a teacher at that school) then decided to homeschool me until graduation, and I graduated a full year ahead. I scored in the top 2% on SAT writing and top 5% on SAT reading. However, I scored poorly on math, only in the top 55%. That was with prep/tutoring, too. Neither the private school I attended or homeschooling emphasized math as much as the other areas. This resulted me not being able to get into my dream college. So while I would agree that advanced math may not be necessary, the fact is that schools still look at test scores, and I regret not having learned math better so I could get into the school of choice. At that time I tried getting into college, a lot of places frowned upon homeschooling. The diploma was worthless to them and they could only rely on SAT score.
Looking back though, had I been homeschooled after 5th grade instead of private school I could’ve easily graduated 2-3 years ahead of others. And if I had stayed in public school probably 1-2 years ahead, and probably with better SAT math score and better school prospects.
Personally, having experienced all of the above, I would’ve preferred public school the whole way because that is what I loved and where I thrived. Even if it meant not graduating early. But that choice wasn’t given to me. I think overall, it depends on how and where the kid adapts and thrives. Homeschooling is a lot of work and planning, my mom was fortunate to have years teaching experience. It can tough for someone without experience.
Thanks for the great feedback!
May I ask what was wrong with private school compared to public school? Usually, people spend money on private school because they feel it has better teaching, smaller class sizes, and better facilities. What happen with your private school?
In terms of math, was it just more difficult to catch up on better math by the 10th grade? I would think if you were not doing as well in math at home school, more emphasis could’ve been made on doing more math. Or maybe, math was just not your strong point given you had additional tutoring as well? And no matter where you went your math wouldn’t be top tier?
I don’t think my math would be top-tier, no matter where I went. It might’ve gotten better if I did additional tutoring. But after trigonometry and math analysis, I didn’t bother because I felt advanced math was pointless. Then again, I need to know enough math to do well on the SATs.
It’s interesting now because universities may be hurting for tuition. Further, I think a lot of parents and students realize that going to college does not provide the return that it once did. So hopefully, colleges will look more favorably upon homeschooled children.
That brings me to my next question: if you’re homeschooled, do you basically just get straight A’s?
The private school I attended was the opposite of what most people envision of a private school. The quality of teachers was poorer than the public school I attended. The curriculum was overly conservative and often (as I later discovered in college), very outdated. It was led by people who were afraid of the supposed ‘left-bent’ public system mentioned by another comment here. We had to wear very strict uniforms that literally hindered proper sports. We had to do mandatory volunteer work aka forced child labor. They also embraced corporal punishment, although now I believe that’s illegal so they don’t do it anymore. A different upbringing I suppose.
I think the maths part was two-fold for me. First, we had an excellent math teacher at the school who left after my freshman year. She was so good at teaching, I could solve algebraic equations in my head. After she left, basically the teachers were reading from a book. I definitely started losing confidence and as topics became more advanced, it all started to become diluted for me. I took the PSAT and my math scores were so low we knew I would have to get prep tutuoring for the SAT. It helped, but I think it was a little too late. When I got to college I had to take remedial math. So it was probably a combination of outdated/bad math being taught at the private school and my lost confidence that held me down a bit.
As far as grades, I always scored straight A’s regardless public, private or homeschool (difference being, no extra credit in homeschool). I scored straight A’s in college too (except when I hit that first math class, but after remedial, straight A there too).
Obviously, this is a bad-experience skew from my perspective. If I had attended ‘prep’ private school or something that actually focused on education, I might be lavishing praise instead.
Thanks. Do you feel your life ultimately ended up getting hurt b/c of poor math skills that led to rejection at certain colleges?
I’m personally not convinced yet that going to a prestigious college makes much of a difference to happiness.
See: What If You Go To Harvard And End Up A Nobody?
My life today is loads better than when I graduated high school. But it took years or wandering around and figuring things out to get there. I think more than maths led to this situation. It was more about the culture shock. How you perceive the world and how they perceive you.
When you go to a right-wing private school and finish at homeschool, it doesn’t look great on resumes. They see the name of the private school and immediately M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Village’ comes to mind. They see your high GPA and assume mommy was doctoring your gradebooks. It doesn’t just affect college prospects. I applied to over 200 positions before landing my first full-time job, 6 years after I graduated. Even though I graduated high school 1 year ahead of everyone else!
You’re right that going to a fancy school doesn’t guarantee you turn out bright and pampered. But where I work, everyone making the f-u money under 50 went to ivy league. I make good money now, but it took way too long to get here and prove I’m worth more than a SAT score.
I’m curious to the responses to questions asked by Sam as well. In addition, I see this statement, “I graduated 1-2 (3,4, etc.) years ahead,” a lot. Do you think that was an advantage or perhaps a disadvantage?
Part of the reason I ask is due to my own struggles with math as a kid. I believe at one point I was even in remedial math when I was younger. I wasn’t great at math in middle school or even high school really. However, When I went to college (majored in Civil Engineering) I learned to see the math equations as more than just numbers and formulas but as a process to derive an answer to a question. Something essentially clicked and I was able to understand it much easier. I received an A in Calc I, II III and differential equations. I went on to take advanced math classes, closely related to structural engineering which I majored in. Structural Dynamics, and Indeterminate Matrices. Anyway, the point is maybe since you rushed (or felt pressure to rush?) through your learning you missed some key concepts or the opportunity for everything to click for you. I think people see things differently when they get older and can utilize more skill sets.
So, I wonder what is the advantage for kids to graduate so early via homeschooling? Sure there might be some economic advantages such as possibly starting college classes sooner (if electing that route) and maybe they are cheaper (inflation and increases, etc.), but what is the trade off? In a sense you are fast forwarding your life by missing all of the little adventures you may go through in high school.
I had a friend who graduated high school early as well. I believe when he left for college at NYU he was 16. You might think that is cool in a sense, but what about being a 16 year old moving to NYC on your own and starting life – seems a bit intense to me. Most people don’t even know what they want to do with life in their 20’s let alone teens.
Last comment, what about sports and clubs etc. Do you think you missed out on those at all during the home schooling experience, or did your parents substitute that some how?
For me, and maybe everyone else, the first 1-2 years of college was just a refresher. I was already taking college classes when I was 16 and the difficulty was on par with my current high school classes. So I don’t think graduating early is too stressful. However, I think I would’ve traded summers for tutoring had we been aware of my maths deficit sooner. Even though I had a 1-year advantage, it ended up evening out because I had to take remedial math in college. You make a good point that ‘rushing’ may lead to concepts not fully being grasped properly. My attitude was get done as fast as possible, because my adolescence wasn’t fun. I just wanted escape and get over the culture difference from the ‘real’ world.
Yes, while homeschooled, I was able to participate in sports and field trips with other home school families. Other private schools also let us participate in their sports leagues. But speaking from experience, it’s just not the same. The social shock when I got to college was real.
Unless you went to boarding school, wouldn’t the social shock be more dependent on you as an individual?
Yes, that’s exactly right. My experience resulted in this shock but I’m sure any the other kids who followed the exact same path, affected them entirely different. Like I said in my first comment, I think it depends on how and where the kid adapts and thrives. You make a lot of great points in the article, and ultimately the parent(s) have the burden of assessing where they want their kid to be educated.
For my own children, I would not commit one way or another (public/private/homeschool) until they have grown a bit so I can see how they perform socially and academically, and get to know them as an individual. My mom’s mistake was taking me out of an environment I thrived (public) and putting me in a place where I suffered (private), and taking too long to realize that school was a mistake before correcting it with homeschooling.
Education is tough, getting it right the first time is probably a miracle.
For pre-school age kids, why not do a little of both? That is, if you have the time flexibility. We do 4 hours, we days a week in private pre-school. It seems to be a great mix. Our four year old love’s going, no tears. He also knows he is not going to need to stay there 8 to 10 hours a day like the rest of his class.
The quality of the public school system varies wildly from one state/town to the next. I’ve witnessed this up close having lived in several places over the years. What I’ve found does not bode well for the future of public education and the kids who attend them. There are some amazing public schools and teachers, but they are not the norm. Sadly a great teacher has no incentive to stay great, nor does an average or poor teacher have an incentive to improve. Political and social engineering is now rampant in PS and teaching fundamental content is secondary. This is more true of large coastal cities, but it’s creeping into the entire system. Many elite students have already fled the PS system for private schools or home schooling. What’s left are many struggling students who know they are not getting a quality education and teachers who are frustrated by a system that lacks creativity and common sense. Bullying, drugs, disrespect and a lack of focus (phones) are so common in schools today that no one bothers to try and fix it. Yes kids can learn survival skills in middle or high school but since when was learning social survival a prerequisite for college?
I don’t know if home schooling is the answer. My mom would have never been able to home school her 5 rambunctious boys without a cattle prod. We thrived in public school but that was a time when things were very strict everywhere in the US, now not so much. (We also loved the varsity sports programs that are being removed from PS).
I think your reasons for wanting to home school are wise and well thought out. If your boy has the right temperament it will be a smashing success. Another option currently popular is called “podding”. Several parents get together and hire a legit highly qualified teacher to home school several kids at a time (called a pod or cohort). You can get a good education cheaper than a private school with social interactions minus the state mandated social engineering, bullying and schoolyard shenanigans.
This is my 17th year homeschooling (I have an 11 and 14 year old left at home) and I’ve already graduated 4 boys who have all successfully been through college. One is an architectural engineer, one an actuary, one a marketing manager, and the 4th a welder. I’d like to address the comments about experts teaching children. I’m not a college graduate, but I was homeschooled myself and taught how to find necessary resources for learning. Parents do not need to be experts in any subject area to teach their kids how to learn. If you’re good at a particular subject- great! If you’re not you simply outsource. Two of my boys entered college as sophomores having taken college courses their junior and senior years of high school. Most homeschooling families use a variety of resources and curriculum available to teach their children at home. Sam’s point in saying not everyone needs Calculus is accurate. 2 of my boys did need it and 2 did not. I still challenged them all to learn as much as they could to give themselves opportunities. If you’re considering homeschooling for all the wonderful reasons Sam has mentioned, then do some research. Don’t talk about what you don’t understand. Many intelligent people, including several US Presidents were homeschooled. In regards to time and energy. Homeschool doesn’t look like traditional school at all. You have the liberty to teach when it works for you. My kids thrived on a 9-2 day, but some families work in time shifts to accommodate their schedules and that works too. The biggest thing to remember so as not to burnout is for the parent/teacher to take needed breaks away. Even school teachers get days off. Leave your kids in the care of someone you trust and go recharge your batteries. Even if it’s only for one day, you’ll definitely feel the difference and come back ready to continue loving your kids and giving them your best. Kuddos Sam!
I love homeschooling. It helps that I’m a homebody, am generally very patient, and love teaching even though I’m no expert. One of my close friends has been homeschooling her two boys for around five years after leaving traditional school sometime during elementary school. And my cousin is also homeschooling her daughter since preschool age. So perhaps their influence has helped me be open and accepting of it.
I also love what great schools and teachers have to offer. Being able to have the option to choose what type of schooling is best for our kids is a very positive thing. As well as being able to change if needed.
Thanks for highlighting so many positives of homeschooling as well as some of the negatives to consider. Interesting how each state has its own set of regulations.
“What’s the point of learning calculus unless you want to be a mathematician?”
Since you asked, I’ll give my opinion: It’s the same as why we all should study history, or physics, or biology, or English, or additional languages, or literature, or…. you get the point. I mean, what’s the point of learning history unless you want to be a historian! In the case of calculus, the concepts are fundamental to understanding and modeling how the physical world around us behaves. One can’t understand basic physics without some underlying appreciation of concepts from calculus.
Perhaps more to your point, I agree with the notion that some people (especially here in engineering-centric Silicon Valley) put too much focus on math to the exclusion of other subjects. As with so much else in life, balance and variety are key.
—A slightly biased math-loving engineer.
“ what’s the point of learning history unless you want to be a historian!”
To not repeat all the mistakes made in history!
Learning history is wonderful. Because it gives people perspective and case studies on what happened and how we can be better.
I admit though, I didn’t like advanced level math because I wasn’t any good at it. But I also felt it was pointless because I wasn’t going to use calculus in day-to-day life. I also wasn’t going to be an engineer like my buddy who got an 800 on the SAT and finished BC calculus as a sophomore in high school.
If people had an idea of how exponential functions work and some basic statistics, they would have absorbed the dangers of Covid much earlier, possibly saving a lot of lives and economic damage.
Ok, can you explain further? Are you saying nobody knew exactly all the nuances of this virus since it’s new? Or we do not have enough advanced-level mathematicians who are also epidemiologists etc?
I am not saying either of those things.
I am saying if the average Joe on the street was familiar with the potential for exponential spread, more people would have taken social distancing and mask wearing seriously back when cases were in the hundreds.
To the average person, a 100 cases in a country of 330 million doesn’t sound like a case for alarm. This in turn dictates policy because no politician wants to cause alarm over what is perceived to be a small problem.
But a 100 cases can quickly grow to millions in an exponential scenario. If this fact was internalized by the general public, they would be much more supportive and cooperative and help stop it.
I’m not sure but if the average Joe took calculus, they would’ve taken the virus more seriously.
This is more to do with proper communication, planning, and logic.
Is it safe to say you were an engineer who took a lot of math? If so, how has it helped you?
And why do you think you and others are concentrating on my math example?
I am not talking about calculus in this exact scenario. But it might be useful in some other scenario that i have not thought of.
Take another example. Today, everyone (almost) washes hands and follows basic hygiene. Is this because everyone in the world is a microbiologist?
No. It means they have studied basic germ theory in school and internalized that knowledge.
I am a Metallurgist (by training, not practice) who did not take a lot of math. I am also not a doctor, but I appreciate what I learnt about biology in school.
I believe more knowledge is better than less.
Got it. I think the importance of washing hands and being hygienic is very important. And it does not take a higher level education or going deep into any subject matter to understand this.
i’ll Bite…
The “because i’m not going to use it in everyday life…” statement always gets me. People use “advanced” math all day every day even if you don’t realize it. I’ll give you a perfect example…
Say you want to toss the ball to your boy in the back yard. You tell him to step back and then you toss him the ball. You might not realize it but this whole exercise is a live physics (calculus) example. The reason you don’t fire the ball in his direction and take his head off, is because subconsciously you are doing the math to make sure you can throw the ball to him and it ends up close enough that he can catch it. You are messing with force, distance, time, angles, etc. Calculus equations of physics. projectile motion range: R = v^2/g sin 2(theta)
Now wouldn’t it be just as fun to take out a piece of paper and figure out all the variables in the equation. You can figure out F, M, V, A, dt, etc.
Math is everywhere and explains everything.
Even exponential growth in finance is math… People should learn math and gain an understanding of it.
I am 10 year high school teacher and parent of 2 boys- 4 years and 20 months.
I am an expert high school math teacher and have the records/scores to back it up. I currently teach Algebra 1 (entry level 9th grade) and 2 different Advanced Placement courses. However, I am NOT an expert early childhood teacher.
My own 2 kids started back at school 3 weeks ago- the growth has been amazing. The 4 year old now READS and the 20 month old is potty trained. Their expert teachers helped them accomplish this.
Maybe the teachers at your child’s preschool were good, but not great?! Could that be coloring your prospective on preschool? My kids were previously at the “wrong” school for them (Solid school, not a good fit) and the change of schools has been night and day in terms of development.
I am HUGE believer in school based education. Which, of course, can be supplemented at home.
The social skills learned in school are important- waiting your turn, standing in line, sharing, advocating for yourself, etc.
Good teachers don’t teach to the slowest student in the classroom- good teachers support each student at his/her own level. Teaching paced at the lowest kid is a recipe for bored students, and lower level students not being pushed to grow.
PS….I do wish I could travel in “off season” …..but, alas.
Sure, my perspective is limited to what I experienced, what my wife experienced, and my young children so far.
Our son reads too. He started when he turned three. The one Thing that really stood out in our minds was that when we went on the preschool tour, the preschool teacher was saying that they were going to start teaching the 2-3 year old kids to count to 10. But our son was already counting to 1,000+.
So that was a hint that maybe school would hold him back bc we both had been teaching him stuff non-stop since he was a kid, but at a natural pace that was sustainable for all of us.
That’s why there needs to be some changes to property taxes, ie: school choice/voucher/tax credits. So many people are using alternative school methods and once again our government is too rigid to change and improve!
Yes!!! I’ve been saying this all year!
Yes, tough to pay property taxes and not get the education it provides.
BUT, that’s a homeowner’s choice not to send their kids to public school.
I think it can be the right decision for some. But it requires at least one person not to work. And as someone whose wife is a teacher I can say that my own personal ability to educate pales in comparison.
The ability to know what is developmentally appropriate proper ways to progress, knowledge of brain development especially outside of academics, into the social / behavioral are all things that many teachers do very well.
If you believe that you can do it as well or better and have at least one parent at home, then more power to you.
I constantly have to monitor so they don’t switch to YouTube (daughter) or an online game like Roblox (son). I WFH until their lunch break so i can do that and it still drives me nuts. I used to read encyclopedias or dictionaries for fun when i was a kid, but then there wasn’t the internet.
Yes, I also think it helps if the parent enthusiastically wants to teach and loves to learn and teach as well.
I enjoy teaching, which is why I signed up to be a high school tennis coach for the past three years and why I like to write. I used to tutor younger kids here and there when I was a high schooler as well.
I definitely have the energy to change for the first several years. And maybe I will burn out.
I think so she’s gonna be fun to try to learn everything again. And then even try to take my SATs again based on what I’ve learned.
I am a former teacher and I found the lockdown emotionally draining as a parent. We are not meant to teach our children all day and be their parent too!
“We are not meant to teach our children all day and be their parent too!”
This could be the dumbest comment I’ve ever read on this website. These are the people indoctrinating, I mean teaching, your kids at public schools.
You just can’t help being a bully. Can you. Bill!
When teachers or anyone else so casually minimizes the importance of parents on the upbringing of their children it should be all our responsibilities to say something.
Parents number one job is to teach their children. Whether that be teaching them to walk, teaching them to be independent adults or teaching them how to learn.
It’s a crazy world we live in now. You can burn police stations down and your a warrior for social justice but if you defend the family unit your a bully.
Sincerely,
Bully Bill
Ad hominem, self-righteousness, sarcasm, mind-reading, and hiding behind ‘defending the family’. You are quite the social justice warrior, yourself.
Thank you Smudge Pot, glad you noticed! Now go burn something.
False accusation, virtue-signalling, playing victim…
Your anger is performative, like all bullies when exposed.
Be calm.
Yes Bill! Look at this country’s current leader…He clearly was raised without parents, although at times it appears he was raised by wolves so maybe that counts. Bottom line is its important for parents to teach their kids so we dont end up with another you know who…
I think it depends on the kids and parents. How educated the parents are and how patient the kids and parents are.
Teachers get to shut off from their students at the end of the day. If the learning was frustrating for the kid, or the teacher, they get a break overnight to reset but if the parent is the teacher there isn’t that reset.
I bring up the parents education, not just as a matter of attainment but the retention since school.
Do they not only remember the material, from 20-30 years ago but how to teach it and make it click for the kids.
And finally its important they get socialization. Both the parents and the kids.
I think the majority of us don’t remember the majority of what we learned. So that’s part of the fun as the homeschooling teacher parent. To learn what we forgot and try again.
I really enjoyed going to business school part time because grades were the focus, learning was. Because I don’t care about grades, and might be fun to re-read all the old classic books, and learn the things that I forgot with my child.
As other homeschooling parents have said, you don’t have to be an expert in the subject.
I was all for school until I became aware of indoctrination and the left ideology. I mike the hybrid or home model better . Plus no bullies or shootings to worry about
Good point about the extreme violence and shootings. I forgot about that.