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Homeschool vs Public School

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As a parent, we have to make the decision on education for our children.

As a parent, a stay at home mother of two, I was recently faced with the important decision of my children’s education. I was not sure if I wanted to homeschool my children or send them through the public school system. I then started talking with other parents that were having the same experiences. Socialism, curriculum, time, requirements, religion, and the child’s personality, these are thoughts that parents’ in today’s society are contemplating when making a decision about their child’s education. Which is the best option, homeschool or a public school environment?

In my opinion, it is important to know and recognize your child's strengths and weaknesses as well as your own. My son Hayden, for example, he has not been away from me in four years and I was extremely worried about putting him in school because of the attachment he had to me. I decided to put him into a preschool. It was three days a week, for a few hours in the afternoon. All of the parents stayed the first day. Hayden cried the whole time we were there. From the mouth of my four year old, “I don’t want to be here mommy! I want to stay home with you and Ry!.”. I was heartbroken, I kept thinking, he is not going to adjust, I may have to teach him from home, I have to research the requirements, what type of curriculum, what kind of time and money am I going to invest, and was Hayden still going to develop the social skills that he needed? That is right, I thought about all of these things in three minutes. The next day on the way to preschool, I had explained to him, I was dropping him off and I was going home and would be back to pick him up. He told me he was fine with me leaving. I walked him in, hung his book bag up, started to walk into the room and turned around and waved while saying “Bye mom! See you later, have a great day.” I almost fell over. I was in shock! I thought the reaction was going to be much worse. I never thought about homeschooling again. He is now in kindergarten, getting good grades and behaving like any five year old would.

Every parent should do their research to determine what is best for the child. As you’re children started to get older, you want to see what options you have to choose from when it comes to their education. During my research I have found that homeschooling is different in each state, therefore, the parent(s) will have to do their research about the requirements in the according state. Some states require that the child be registered under a certified homeschool director. While other states do not have any requirements. There may be fees when you live in a state that requires registration. Homeschooling provides individual attention to the student, giving the parents a sense of security. That sense of security comes from knowing for example, if your child struggles in one subject but excels in another, you can taylor the school day to compliment the child as an individual. I think that being able to teach my child according to their skill level is a positive thing. However, I am a stay at home mom of two, did I mention that my children are thirteen months apart and fight all the time; My fellow stay at home mothers know what I am talking about. Do I want to stay at home all day every day with my fighting kids? The answer was “not really.” Then I started to think about the cost of curriculum. Some home school curriculum, such as ABEKA, can be costly. It depends on what I choose. I can choose every subject, or some subjects. I can choose to have DVD's sent to my door that put the child in the classroom environment visually, teacher included. Depending on what route I go the cost can be anywhere from $200.00 up to $700.00. These days they even have virtual learning sites that you sign into just like online college courses. Some other concerns parents may have is their child developing social skills. Some homeschool organizations provide ways for the kids to develop social skills. There are homeschool groups that meet weekly to do science experiments together. They also have people from the community, like the local DNR come to share information with the children about nature and wildlife. It depends on each individual and each group as a whole to put effort into giving the children as much social interaction as possible. These things take a lot of time and effort to put together. It truly depends on the parents and how much time they want to put into keeping their child active in building their social skills. With all the information that I gathered I still had to do research on one more subject-public school.

Public school provides free transportation, allowing both parents the ability to work full time. Having my children go to public school will help them develop social skills that will help them learn how to deal with real life events, specifically ones that mom cannot take care of or fix for them. Getting them involved in the after school activities and sports that public schools offer will also help with a child’s social skills. Additionally, there are a few other things that I thought about when examining the public school environment. In a public school, there will be more peer pressure, which may involve drugs and alcohol, cheating, and bullying. However, as the parent we are supposed to guide and prepare our children for situations like that and hope that they make the right choice based on what we have taught them. All of these situations have to be dealt with by the teacher, since the students’ parents are not present. This gives the teacher parental type responsibilities and can be a distraction from the class as a whole. That means the student will not have one on one interaction, unless they were to stay after school to get the extra help. Even know there are all of these answers to the questions that most parents have including myself, in my opinion the decision should be based on the child’s needs, since every child has a different skill set.

In my research for this essay I spoke to a few parents who made the decision to homeschool their children after experiencing the public school system. I know these individual’s personally and have seen what their children have been through. I contacted them, this is what they had to say:

Mary Lipscomb:
2/3/2014 through email
“Homeschooling changed my daughter’s life. She was bullied for many years in public school, she became very to herself and closed up. I was never able to get her to talk to me, being the persistent person that I am, she finally told me she was being bullied and having anxiety attaches at school. With therapy, we were told that she was not able to be around crowds it “freaks her out”. The decision to be homeschooled was Allie’s decision. She is eighteen now and is graduating in May. I do not think that she would have it any other way. Allie will be staying with us until she feels comfortable enough to be out in the real world.”
Dana Maust
1/30/2014 through email
“We decided to try homeschooling after many nights that ended in tears at the kitchen table over homework. Mayson would tell me that he didn't understand and that the teacher didn't explain things well. I figured if I was going to teach him anyway, I may as well give homeschool a try. I ordered books from ABEKA. We started homeschool in the third grade. We homeschooled again in the fourth grade, but Mayson went back to public school for the Fifth grade. He was on the honor roll and excelled quickly. I was going to college and it was too much to try and juggle everything and I didn't want my son's education to suffer. However, in the sixth and seven grade we ran into other negative issues, such as being required to research Gods and Goddesses for a project. Some of which are based on crude sexual myths. These are not things I want my child looking at on the internet. That is just one example of the progressive nature the public school system has moved toward. I think it is our responsibility as the parent to teach and talk to our child about important things like sex. My experience has been that the school system is trying to take over the parental role. Mayson's day was mostly fillers....plus with hours of homework he didn't have much time to unwind after getting off the bus. I will add that while in the 6th and 7th grade Mayson tested two grade level above through MSA testing. Homeschool is not for everyone and it also may not be forever. Mayson has been back and forth and at 14 years old he will tell you he prefers homeschool. The only negative he mentions if not seeing his friends every day. That is one of the reasons why he has been in AYSO for several years”

Every child is different and has different needs. There is not a right or wrong answer. In my opinion, it should be up to the parent to decide if the child should be in public school while they are young. But, I feel that when the child gets older they should be able to voice their opinion and have a part in the decision of homeschool vs. public school. When it comes to our children, we want what is best for them, weather that would be making the decision to homeschool or place our children in the public school environment.

Casey, S. (2014). 7 Costs of Homeschooling . Retrieved from http://www.moneycrashers.com
Family Education. (2014). The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling. Retrieved from http://familyeducation.com
Ray, B. D. (2014). Research Facts on Homeschooling . Retrieved from http://www.nheri.org
White, M. C. (2013). Not free, after all: Public school fees add up. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com

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