WHY I PULLED MY SON OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL // HOMESCHOOLING?!

Now before you go ahead and assume I’ve completely lost my mind, please understand that I did not come to this decision lightly. The reasons listed below are what prompted me to consider homeschooling, but it was the strong sense of direction from God that was the ultimate deciding factor. At first, I thought it would be impossible but the more I prayed and trusted God the more it became evident that this was what God wanted for us.

“How did homeschooling even get on your radar?” you might ask. Well, if we go way back, you’ll learn that my siblings and I were all homeschooled at some point during our childhood. I attended a Christian school for Kindergarten and 1st grade, and then I was homeschooled from 2nd grade through 7th grade. In 8th grade I went to public middle school and then continued on to public high school eventually graduating from college with a degree in Nursing. My son knew that I had been homeschooled so when things started to get more difficult for him he started asking if he could be homeschooled. I never intended to homeschool any of my children, I even swore I’d never homeschool my kids, but I’m hopeful that this will be a wonderful time in our lives that we will look back at with fondness.  

I feel blessed to be able to homeschool right now and so without further ado, here are my 10 reasons why I chose to homeschool my son.

**I’ve shared 5 reasons that are personal to my son’s situation and which prompted me to take him out in the middle of his fourth-grade year, and another 5 general reasons on why I think homeschooling is a great option for families**

TOP 5 REASONS WHY I PULLED MY SON OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL

 1.     Stress

You might be thinking why didn’t I just wait until the fall of 2019 to start homeschooling, and you’d be asking a good question. But my answer is this: my son has been more stressed, moody and emotional since the start of this school year than I have ever seen him. Could I have waited until the end of the year? Sure. But what if things got worse? I have the capability to do it now so I’m doing it now.  Never has my son suffered from migraines until now. He’ll be up at night crying from eye pain. We saw an eye doctor. We saw his pediatrician. Blood work was perfect. Eyes are perfect. Everyone’s suggestion is that it is just stress related migraines. But just to be extra safe I’m even taking him to a neurologist to make sure it isn’t anything more serious. Could my son’s migraines really be caused by stress? What does a 9-year-old have to stress about? Every morning I have to drag him out of bed, force some breakfast down his throat, convince him to wear pants and a long sleeve shirt and then drop him off at the front of school with a sad look on his face. When I pick him up and ask about his day I constantly hear “horrible, like always”. He would tell me things like “No one likes me”, “I don’t fit in here”, among multiple other stories and situations. As a mother, it would break my heart every day. Then you have to think, does he just need to tough it out? Although I think some struggle is necessary and good, it had passed the point of being beneficial. I could not let my son suffer any more. It was clearly affecting his health so something needed to change. **This is probably my biggest reason for even considering homeschooling, but all the rest are just as important and combined make it the obvious right choice for my son at this time.)

2.     Math Class/Common Core Math Curriculum 

If you have a child in public school I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of crying over extremely confusing common core homework. I guess learning how to do the same multiplication problem in several different ways could be helpful if you really don’t understand one way to do it, but my goodness it just makes things so much more difficult when you can simply learn one way and be done with it. God bless these teachers because I don’t think I could do it. Fortunately, my son will be learning “old fashioned math”, as he likes to call it, for the remainder of this school year.

Also, before my son attended public school in 2nd grade, he went to a private Christian school. They used a classical curriculum and my son excelled in math. Granted it was kindergarten and 1st grade, but you could already tell that he was clearly gifted in math. When he first started public school, the common core curriculum was very different and at times frustrating, but he continued to do well. His second year (3rd grade) in public school he even made it into their “top math” class. He was so excited and we were all very proud of his hard work. The change in classroom dynamics was a little hard at first, but his third and fourth quarter he received A’s. When fourth grade started in the fall I assumed he’d be in top math again, as I had no indication that he was struggling the previous year and his grades reflected that he was doing well. He would complain about the questions that made no sense, but he would get his work done and knew it well enough to get through it. Eventually though, I was made aware that a rubric was created in June as a way to advance only the top 20 students the following school year. Unfortunately, my son did not make the cut and so unbeknownst to both of us he was placed in a lower math class. After speaking with his teacher, it seems as though she didn’t feel he was quite ready for top math in fourth grade and I can respect that. But it was very frustrating to find out about this after the school year started. Not only that, but what if there are more than 20 students who are eligible for top math but they only have room for twenty? Too many students. Too few teachers. Too few resources. Don’t get me started on that.

3.     Busy, busy, busy

I don’t know about all you folks reading this, but I feel like our days are constantly busy. Wake up quickly, rush out the door quickly, get home quickly, play quickly, finish homework quickly, eat dinner quickly, get to practice quickly, shower and get to bed quickly. It seems like we’re always rushing and so I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to have a slow morning filled with rest, a healthy breakfast and family time. There is nothing more important than your relationship with God and your family. Homeschooling will allow for so much more time to be spent on both and I couldn’t be happier. 

4.     Diet

 My son’s diet probably isn’t helping his migraines either, but I can barely get this kid to even eat an English muffin before he runs out the door and forget packing him a lunch he’ll actually eat. I am so excited to be able to cook him meals that nourish him. I used to pack him a water bottle at the beginning of the year but he refused to ever drink it. I don’t know why he won’t drink anything at school (other than occasionally from the water fountain), but I’m so glad I can have him home to make sure he is drinking plenty of water!

5.     Chores

I can’t help but feel guilty asking my son to do chores around the house when he’s been in school all day, has homework to do, basketball practice, dinner, shower, etc. Sometimes it feels like I’m just adding to the stress by trying to instill these values in him. Yes, I still make him do chores if I feel it’s important even if it stresses him out, but this is a big thing and I’m glad that he will now have plenty of time to sweep and mop the entire house every day.

TOP 5 REASONS WHY I THINK HOMESCHOOLING IS BEST

1.     Closer to God and closer to family 

As a Christian, I feel it is so important to spend time together as a family reading the Bible, praying together and living a life pleasing to God. It often feels like those things are pushed to the bottom of the priority list when you’ve got a million other things to do. Homeschooling allows us to slow down life and focus on what we feel is most important. Yes, education is important, and we will get to that, but I’m so happy to be able to start our day, unrushed, in God’s word.

2.     Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility

If we want to do Language Arts first instead of Math, we can! If we want to start school at 7am, we can! If we want to go to Hawaii for two weeks, we can! Anyone have a place for us to stay?? Sometimes we’ll be in a really good groove for the day and we can get all our work done in one shot, other days it will seem like its taking all day and if we need a break we can take one! If it’s a nice day we can go for a walk to clear our mind and be refreshed when it’s time to start back up. Want to do your math work in a fort? Why not? Want to read your reader to your baby brother? Be my guest. Want to eat for more than 15 minutes?!?!? Sometimes kids aren’t lazy or dumb, they’re just bored of their environment and their strict schedule. Flexibility is a wonderful thing. Routine is good, but being flexible is key! 

3.     A Tailored Education

Another huge benefit of homeschooling is the vast array of curriculums that one can choose for their child. Each curriculum has a different teaching/learning style and it’s a beautiful thing to know that a child has other options besides a “one size fits all” education. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”-Albert Einstein (unless the internet is lying to me)

4.     Socialization

A huge concern people seem to have with homeschooling is that the child will be socially awkward, have no friends and lose all ability to converse with humans. I, a homeschool alumni, am here as proof to tell you that yes, I may be socially awkward at times but I do have good friends and I do know how to converse with humans of all ages. I actually feel like since my son is more of a shy kid he is easily overwhelmed by the number of students in his class. He wants to be the cool kid and doesn’t know how to navigate an entire classroom full of his peers. When he attended a private school, he was a social butterfly but his class had 7 students. I want my son to build confidence in himself as a person and then let him spread his wings when he is ready. And not for nothing but hanging around a bunch of boys his age sounds like a recipe for disaster. Have you ever been in a room full of 9-year-old boys? It gets crazy real fast. Teachers can’t supervise everything. Half of the time my son told me about an issue at school I ask if the teacher knew about it and the answer was “no”.

But if you’re still concerned about socialization, my son will be attending a homeschool co-op once a week where he will take classes that are taught by other homeschool parents. We know several families that attend and my son is looking forward to it very much! My son is also involved in sports, he attends community group with several different families with kids from our church, he’s got three younger siblings he gets to socialize with every day, and there are kids in the neighborhood he plays with as well.

5.     Extra Free Time 

One of the biggest perks of homeschooling is that you don’t need to be doing schoolwork for 7 hours straight in order to finish everything. Each family has their own schedule and time it takes to do their school each day, but I’d say most homeschoolers would agree that you could cut that time in half and still get everything done.

In the little time that we’ve been homeschooling so far, I can already tell the difference in my son just because of the increase in free time. Just yesterday he was cleaning an old piece of furniture that was covered in dust. Why? I don’t even know. Because he was bored and that seemed like something fun to do. Him and two of his siblings were all working together with hot water, soap and washcloths and scrubbed this thing until it shined. Tomorrow, my son is looking forward to building shelves in a closet to make a pantry with his dad (something he would have dreaded just a month ago). When my son would come home from school he would be completely drained and want nothing to do with anyone or anything besides electronics. And honestly, I can’t blame him.

So, does this mean I’ll be homeschooling all of my children as they reach school age? No. Does this mean I’ll be homeschooling my 9-year-old son for the rest of his schooling years? No. But I will say that as each of my children get older I will consider the pros and cons of public school, charter school, private school and home school and will make a careful decision on what I feel is best.

Do you homeschool? What are some of your reasons? Comment below!

Be good. Be wild.

Xoxo Rachel