I guess the question isn’t directed to me, but I can still say I loved it.

I’m 21 now but was homeschooled K-8

Remember that you are your own director of education now. You can choose to do a project on quantum physics or cosmology, cellular biology or philosophy, futurism or geography.

When people asked me why I answered straight up “Because I learn more that way.”

Without school to take up all your time, you have space to integrate learning into your life. Any time you discover something you don’t know, figure it out. Your town library and the Internet are a great way to start.

Set a challenge for yourself like “I will understand Relativity and all its applications by the end of next year”

Most of all HAVE FUN. Living without school doesn’t mean living without friends or free time. What it means is that you are free to explore the world on YOUR terms, wherever and whenever you like. The best way to have confidence when you’re confronted is to be SURE that you can handle anything they (mentally) throw at you.

I’ve been homeschooled since the middle of 8th grade. When people ask me where i go to school at i tell them and they ask “really, why?” And i just say because thats what i wanted and then i go on to tell them the flexibility i have with my schedule and the free time i also get. They usually say “thats cool” or if they are interested they ask what type of curriculum i use.

Best advice i can give you is make sure a parent is with you or somebody to help guide you in it. Im doing this all on my own with my dad not really doing much except asking me about it occassionaly. So its hard to stay focused and motivated. Dont let the fact that your homeschooled keep you away from other people. You can still go out and join clubs or organizations. Google search these things within your state and a whole list will come up. Hope that helps!

My kids are 6 and 9, but I also know well a few homeschooled teens. I’ll answer on behalf of my 2 plus 2 others (13 and 16).

Yes, they like it.

My two haven’t had to deal with the questions, but the other two have. The other two tend to answer with how great it is and the kinds of things that make it better for them than public school (they were both in public school before they began homeschooling). Sometimes other kids are still jerks about it; a lot of the time, the other kids think it’s cool and wish they could, too.

My kids do not consider public school “normal” school. It makes it sound like homeschooling as abnormal, which by a certain definition it is because it’s not what most people do, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with homeschooling.

None of the kids are embarrassed about doing it. I have only ever met ONE homeschooled girl who was embarrassed about it (she had been in public school for 6-7 years and had only one year of homeschooling under her belt). No other homeschooler I’ve met is that focused on what other people think.

Advice: stop worrying so much about what other people will think about your homeschooling and make it a great experience for YOU. It’s got nothing to do with everybody else!!

I started to get homeschooled half way through last year so all of my friends were asking me why I was getting homeschholed. I did get a little embaressed by it at times but not too much. I just told people that I needed to be homeschooled because of health reasons (which is true). I like but I miss school at the same time. Over all it has been a good experience. BTW-I’m 13 years old.

I’m 16 too and I’m a junior in highschool. I’m not homeschooled anymore 🙁 but I was up until 4th grade. I loved being homeschooled and if I were given the chance I would go back to being homeschooled in a heart beat. Even after seven years of public school I still don’t like it and with only two more years of highschool to go I doubt my ideas on public schools will change.

I was never embarassed about being homeschooled. You shoudln’t be embarassed because your getting a better education then public school kids. It wasn’t as if I was oddly unsocial because I was and am in dance classes and I make friends there, I was on a tee-ball team, I attend swim class for awhile and I was in a gym class for homeschooled children. It wasn’t as if I was dumb, if anything I was smarter then some students my age. So there wasn’t anything for me to be embarassed about. If anything some public school students should be embarassed by how little they see their families and how little they know about them because they’re locked up in school all day.

Plus, if somebody is going to make fun of you, bully you or think your weird because your lifestyle is different, then obviously it wasn’t even worth taking the time to tell them your homeschooled anyway. The people who really are your friends and care about you won’t care your size, shape, beliefs, family size and most importantly your education style. If it does change how they think about you then obviously they weren’t your friends to begin with.

The only other advice I have for you is get involved in some co-op classes if you can and have fun and make the best of it! There is no point in doing something if your going to look back on it someday and regret it.

full disclosure: I’m old.

A home schooling mom, to be exact, and while many of you who posted are quite articulate, I just can’t keep myself from posting a little spelling lesson for the others (home education being about EDUCATION, after all). Considering you’re all middle or high school age, you really should know by now how to spell:

embarrassed

alright

didn’t

which

friends

boring

straight

back

what

heard

something

I’m going to

psycho

you’re

—————

and Mikey, you may want to Google:

punctuation

run-on sentence

paragraph

aight,i was in homeschool for 3-4 years before this year wich i decided to o baq to school,what i have to say is that im not going to lie it is very embarising when someone asks u where u go to school only if its more than 1 person if its just u talking with 1 person u dont feel like more people are against u….if they ask why say i liked school because of being around frinds and everything but its booring other than that thats wat i always said im actually thinking about doing sutin called concurrent enrollment from wat i herd its basically u go to school for ur electives and sports or clubs and u do the rest at home if i did that i could play high school sports,have a job and still meet alot of people…..ima tell u str8 off homeschooling it is harder to meet people i mean in Florida theres a huge P.E thing i used to go to every friday where there was about 500 kids and there was like 10 of those P.E camps anyway that was primarily how i met people but now that im older my mom wont care if i go places alone or with other frinds so i am considering concurent enrollment,there is way more advantages about homeschool than there is in any high school the single only good thing about going to regular highschool is that u get to be around girls all day and people automatically look at u different if ur homeschooled they think crazy phcsyco parents or geeky kid but most of my homeschooled frinds are anything but geeky most of them hang out do drugs sadly and have alcohol parties sometimes the fact is when ur homeschooled if ur old enough to have a job being homeschoooled is great,the only thing is u must find some way to interact with frinds look it up the best way to find frinds while being a homeschoolers there will be aall sorts of activities sadly my mom worked and could hardly ever bring me to them but my aunt has always homeschooled her kids and thats how i did it for 4 years anyway im 14 years old and will be 15 sept 12th currently in 9th grade

I was home school in my pre-High School years and could honestly say that I learned more from my Mother than I did in any school. I liked it, the trick, though is to stay involved with people your own age. If you already have a group of friends, that’s good. If you don’t, you’ll need to find one by getting involved in other things. I for example, spent time with the kids from my church youth group.

I’m 16 too. Yeah, people do give you that funny look like “Why one earth would you wanna be homeschooled?” lol…

I love it. People think it’s probably boring..but really it’s alot better then any regular school. I don’t go to school as long (it only takes probably 2 or 3 hrs. each day) so the rest of the day I can do whatever I want. Go places, do things, hang out with friends..whatever I want.

When people ask why I don’t go to regular school I just tell them “Because it’s boring!” haha..that’s what I tell them. Or I’ll tell them “I just don’t..I don’t like it.”

I’m 15 and have private teacher. which is basicly homeschooling. It’s really great, I mean u don’t have to worry about bing late and highschool can get pretty hard on like homework and stuff. To get a good education you can like be the teacher or oraganizer and organize what u do first and last and what u feel like doing. It’s great to cuz it helps u prepare for collage, setting schedules like that and being flexable with a schedule. That’s what everyone says. Good luck!