School is starting soon or already has started for many around the world. With this new school year comes thought and preparation. Many parents are considering schooling their children themselves.
The question ‘Should I home-school my child?’ has crossed many a parents’ mind over the course of most children’s lives. In the last ten years, many parents have considered homeschooling their children for many reasons, one being financial cuts to school districts. State budget cuts are digging into county school funds and many schools have cut the arts, foreign languages and even core classes causing over crowding in the classroom in order to keep their school districts from going under.
Another reason could be the curriculum used for public or private school. The onslaught of Common Core has parents scrambling to find a better way to educating their children at home.
Nevertheless, there are many reasons parents decide to take on the total responsibility of educating their children as many parents have done before them. Let’s look at a few:
- From Birth: Some parents know instinctively from the birth of their child that they are going to home-school. No if, ands or buts; they are converted from the beginning that the home-school lifestyle is for them and they plan from day one to take on the responsibility of teaching their own child.
- Public School Trial: Some parents are happy sending their children to public school during the kindergarten or 1st grade period and then realize that their child’s personality has transformed from the “sweet child” they knew before public school to the “survival child” public school sometimes forces children to become. It doesn’t always happen that way. Some children have to learn to defend themselves at school and this amazing transformation takes place which leaves parents baffled at what happened to their children. When a parent realizes what affect public school has in their families, they immediately withdraw their children. I have witnessed this many times.
- Temporary Withdrawal: Some parents feel it necessary to withdraw their children from public
school for a short time all the while thinking that they will send their child back. This type of withdrawal is usually during the junior high school period when children are particularly cruel to each other and life at school is unbearable. In many cases, children are sent back to start high school but if both parties are in agreement, the child will finish out on his/her own at home.
- Education Crisis: There are some cases where parents pull out their children after troubles with a public school teacher, behavioral problems with the child or with the other children and their own child in the classroom. There could be grade deficiencies, or lack of challenge in a curriculum which causes the child to be bored out of his mind. With Common Core curriculum, children are often frustrated with learning and parents disagree with the appropriateness of what is learned.
The reason to home-school could be because the child feels like a round peg being pushed into a square hole. With some budget cuts to school districts some classes have suddenly doubled in size because of lack of teachers. This happened to us when my daughter started her freshman year in public school. The budget had been cut that summer and on the first day of class they rearranged how the class schedule would run for everyone leaving my daughter in a class of 40 students instead of 20 which was originally planned.
To read more of Valerie’s articles, click here.
Whatever the crisis parents find themselves in, home-school invariably finds its way as a solution for many problems. The lifestyle of home-schoolers has helped many children stay grounded and close to their families. They receive more parental guidance since they are at home more often than public school children and many times retain good study habits. Parental training and attention is a stabilizer in a child’s life and in many instances it’s what children need in these turbulent times.
Valerie Steimle has been writing as a family advocate for over 25 years. As a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she promotes Christian living in her writings and is the mother of nine children and grandmother to twelve. Mrs. Steimle authored six books and is a contributing writer to several online websites. To her, time is the most precious commodity we have and knows we should spend it wisely.
To read more of Valerie's work, visit her at her website, The Blessings of Family Life.
