Why homeschool?

My sister and I home school our own two children each and our other sisters two girls for a total of six kids. Our first Born's, (Zech, Mariah and Redemption) who were in Kindergarten, didn't seem to be learning anything. Anything they did seem to be learning was with us after school. The next year, the three children above headed into first grade while my youngest (Nehemiah) went into kindergarten. Our first graders were struggling with reading and the teachers asked us to do some work with them at home. We ended up spending about four hours a night with our children teaching them what we thought the teacher was supposed to be teaching. When the school year was over, I was none to pleased to learn that my kindergartner could not even spell his own name. Our first graders had improved drastically (with their after school tutoring sessions with us) but we had spent so much time after school with them that we figured we were already doing the teaching, we might as well bring them home. If we home schooled them, they at least wouldn't have to do spend eight hours a day at school and then four more at home at school.

So we took them out of school and found a public school in our area that was online. If you haven't heard of it, it is a school system which provides the computer printer and pays you for Internet service and supplies and your child learns the same things that they were learning in public school except they learn it at home. This worked out for a year, our kids were learning how to type and navigate the computer and surf the web. The problem was they still weren't learning. The curriculum was exactly like the other public school we had taken them out of, which meant, it was crap! So we looked into traditional homeschooling that summer for the next school year. What we found was something called Unschooling. Weird word huh? I know, I was pretty confused when I first read about it. For those who don't know what it is I will give a brief description. Unschooling is teaching a child with experience rather than a book. For example, our children play the game Yahtzee one of their math classes. I know you must be thinking that our kids are not being taught. But for anyone who knows how to play Yahtzee knows they add, subtract, multiply and divide countless times in only one game. Our children have learned the fundamentals of math without the boring book that just confuses the issue and makes learning no fun.

When I found the pic above I thought I had to share it with you guys. It is exactly what people need to see. If you don't know it already, home schoolers have home school groups. We get together for field trips, play time, full day recess, etc. Home schoolers also get a lot of help from the companies and parks because they home school. We are offered free days at parks, museums, zoos, and given discounts where the free days are not offered.

Our kids are learning in an environment that encourages individualism, learning and experimentation without having to suffer the mundane tasks that comes with public schooling. If you are a parent you must have, at some point thought to yourself, that your children would be better off at home. They wouldn't have to deal with daily violence, harassment, peer pressure, and favoritism, not to mention that they may learn better in an environment they are comfortable with, and know they are safe in.