I homeschool my 12 year old and one of her friends. Homeschooling simply means that I teach them here at home, instead of sending them to a public or private school. Some of the pros are:

1) I can make sure their education is well rounded, and that they are learning at the pace that fits them best

2)They get all the attention they need instead of competing with 29 other students.

3)They aren’t restricted to tight schedules.

4)They have more time for socialization and to just be kids.

5)They don’t have to lug around 30+ pound backpacks all day.

I really haven’t found any cons for the kids. They love it, and they’re learning everything they need to be.

I am a home schooler going to the 9th grade and I have been home schooled all of my life. I can’t tell you everything (that’s a much longer conversation) but here is a summary I hope will help you:

The cons of home schooling are small, so I’ll start with them first. Many people believe that the social aspect of home schooling leaves kids deprived of all human contact and unable to survive. This is 99.9% NOT true, and can easily be fixed by involving home schooled kids in activities and programs that keep them involved with other kids. I’ve done this since I started school and it has helped me develop outside of the home tremendously.Any home schooled kid who is locked up away from the world and seems weird is more than likely a rare case. You have to take individually. Home schooling (like anything else) can be abused.

The pros go on forever. Home schooling provides a one-on-one teaching atmosphere without distractions that allows you to learn at your own pace and fully understand your work. You can concentrate much better, and you become much closer to your family. You learn to appreciate your situation (educationally, especially) when you leave the home. I think most home schooled kids enjoy learning. If there’s something you like to do you can work at becoming good at it, because there’s more time to do it. Also, you get done faster.

One more con: no snow days (although sometimes my mom gives me one anyway).

Home schooling is to us; in a nut shell; taking back the parental right/obligation to direct the upbringing of our children, allowing them the freedom to grow as an individual spiritually, physically, mentally, and academically.

It is being a family in the fullest sense, 24/7 where children can grow, and develop at their own pace, daydream, and explore if they want, without having their self worth diminished because they do not fit a mold; defined by grades, and test scores; that has been put into place by a system that thinks each child should be at the same level at the same time, learning in the same manner, otherwise they are a failure.

Wow, that was a mouthful, but I needed to say it.

All that being said, I still believe whole heartily that home schooling is not for every family, and that home schooling is, and should be only one of the many choices families should have in “schooling, including public, private, and charter, however home schooling will get our vote each and every time over any other form of “schooling”.

So much for not always being “defensive”, I think today I will just call it being passionate about the home schooling life style.

There’s no way I could tell you everything I know. I’ve spent years reading books, reading websites, talking with others and reading what they do.

I will give a brief summary:

Homeschooling is educating your children at home. Some do online schooling, some do things through their local schools, some take an approach just like it would be in school (sometimes even with a classroom and school desks!) and there are other approaches.

Where you live affects what the legal requirements are. Don’t listen to people who make blanket statements about requirements or resources (“You have to tell your local school. You sign up and they send you the textbooks. etc.”) because it varies from place to place and if you are working under the homeschooling laws or through some other form of program.

Typically, though, you have a lot of say over the content of the program. You have control over the pace of the program. You have to pay for the things you want to use–but you get to use what you want. You have to keep in mind your child’s whole development and provide suitable outside activities.

There are many pros IF homeschooling is approached in a good way: kids are less influenced by other people who have as little of a clue as they do, they get to go their own pace, they get one-on-one attention when needed, they have more time to be kids, they tend to be more mature as teens, tend to be more self-directed, don’t have a problem doing things with various ages and genders (that’s just how homeschooling activities tend to be!) and more. Those saying that homeschoolers’ social skills will be limited don’t seem to realize just how many parents make a point to get out and do things regularly; that instead of sitting a desk and having permission to interact here and there and at recesses, homeschooled kids get large blocks of time of continuous interaction with others. Also, homeschooled kids tend to be involved in more activities than do their public schooled peers.

Cons: the people who don’t know enough about homeschooling and trash it.

i did home schooling. i was 16 when i went into home schooling. there is different types of home schooling. 1 is a type you do online. 2 is you actually have a personal teacher. 3 you can have the books sent to your home and you read the material and do the exam and send it back. ect ect. the way i did it i went threw pennfoster. they have a website. they send you a form. you never see a teacher. after you and your parents sign the contract you will get the material. you read the material and do the exam and send it 3 ways. 1 is over the phone 2 email or 3 mailing it in. it is hard. do not think it is easy… but you can ask your parents for help and they have a link to where you can ask actual teachers also you can ask over the phone and they will walk you threw it step by step. the pros are you can finish years early if you work hard it looks good on your college resume. you can do it at your own course. NOW the cons are when you do this there is no one to joke with. your other friends are at school. its a totaly different world. there is no prom no school events. its even hard to concintrate some times. if you have anymore questions feel free to ask. i finished high school early an am in college. good luck

Go back on this forum. This has been debated thouroughly on a regular basis. Pros: Convenience of scheduling, individual education plans, one on one teaching, ability to have the child self direct learning needs, ability to advance at own pace,(some do 2 grades a year) ability to slow pace until child grasps concepts, time freed up for extra-curricular activitieslike volunteering, prime time music lessons, home based business, (one homeschool philosopher thinks every family should have some sort of business that the child can run) older children can take college level courses, you can eliminate make work projects, the child learns to be an individual, freedom from peer pressure, closer family relationships, control over content of your childs education. (recently in Boulder Colorado the high school students were being encouraged to have sex with any combination of genders they could and to use the drug Extacy to enhance the experience. The 12 and 13 year olds were told to masturbate. This happened in April- the principal and teachers involved are still teaching in Boulder) the child can explore items of interest in depth, you can use any medium available to teach your children. You also get freedom from bullying, overloaded classes, biased teachers, government control over curriculum, peer pressure to have sex, do drugs, smoke etc.

The cons are- not every child thrives in the home learning enviornment some need the competivness of the class, the general population may think you are nuts and your child weird if he doesn’t behave and dress like a public school clone, it usually means sacrificing one income. (but it allows you to raise and teach your own children-isn’t that worth it?)

You have to be diligant, organized and creative to provide a rounded education, (or just buy a packaged curriculum and follow directions) Another thing, there is a very small percentage of homeschoolers who do not educate their children at all and some that abuse them out of sight of the public eye. These are rare but do hit the media.

Homeschooling is a growing movement. It is becoming oraganized and is being increasingly recognized as an educational option. Personally, I don’t remember anything I learned in school other than how to read and basic math. Everything else I know I learned on my own.

Homeschooling is educating one’s child or children at home instead of sending them to a public or private school. I believe the word “homeschooling” is a misnomer and should actually be home educating.

Homeschooling methods vary:

1) school at home – parents replicate the school experience complete with school books/textbooks.

2) eclectic – whatever methods that help the child to learn are used.

3) unschooling – child led learning in which the child studies/learns about things that interest him or her.

4) online home education – classes are done via a CD, DVD, or interactive computerized website.

The above arre just a few of the different homeschooling methods; there are others.

The pros are that one can teach to the child’s learning style whether it is visual, auditory, or kinesthetic/tactile. Another pro is that the child does not have to wait for his classmates to move on to another stage of learning; he can move forward at his own pace. There are also many opportunities for learning via community classes, activities, resources, etc.

I don’t see any cons as there are also many opportunities for one’s child to be with other children outside of traditional school, i.e., park district activities, church , homeschooling support groups, play groups, etc.

It is impossible to tell you all that I know, altough I have only homeschooled for less than a year. I am constantly reading/learning abtout the best way to teach my first grade son.

I hope this is helpful.

WOW! Tell you everything….there isn’t room on here for that! I research and research and research some more when I think I know all there is to know about homeschooling. Type “homeschooling” into Google and go for it. You can also type it into AskJeeves.com and yahoo.com and any other search engine you use. You can go to the library and check out books galore that can help you research homeschooling. I homeschool my 9 year old and have homeschooled my 12 year old. It is the most fun and joyous time of my life. I have gotten so much closer to them and love watching them explore their interests and bud into the young adults they will one day be.

It does take alot of time and effort though!

I can’t tell you everything I know about homeschooling, I’d have to write a book to do that, and even so, I feel that I know less about it than many other people I know.

I will tell you that it is the practice of educating children in the loving envorinment of home and family.

It can’t be narrowed down to one method, or one schedule, or one curriculum. The beauty of homeschooling is that it can be tailored to suit the student, the teacher, and the family as a whole. So every homeschool is a little different.

I just came from a friends house, and she has a large room dedicated to homeschooling, a full size classroom chalboard hangs on the wall, American Flag in the corner, desks for the kids, children’s art work and projects adorn the walls, and shelves of books take up one entire wall. This looked like really nice, and had me a little jealous. I live in a small house, our school books are on shelves and in cabinettes in every room of the house because they don’t fit all in one room. We have to clear the kitchen table immedieately after breakfast and lunch so we have a place to do our “desk work”. My American Flag is propped in a corner, we remember to say the pledge once or twice a month. But you know what? My kids are learning as well as hers are. My son, who a special ed teacher once said would always struggle in reading, just scored in the 58th percentile in reading comprehension, (50th percentile is the midpoint, so 58th is in the high end of what would be considered the “average range”). He scored in the 99th percentile in math computation, 98th percentile in math concepts, and 96th percentile in science. As for the other subjects, not one was below 50th percentile. This was the boy who spent a year in a special ed preschool and had his preschool teachers insist that he wouldn’t succeed in Kindergarten and First Grade if I homeschooled him. Supposedly they said he “needed” specially trained teachers. They also refused to set any academic goals for him and instead only focused on occupational therapy and speech therapy. Since pulling him away from those specialists, he has learned to speak clearly, use scissors, and every other skill that he supposedly needed “therapy” for.

My other children are learning very well also.

Here are a few of the pros of homeschooling.

1) No one, no matter how much special training they have, knows the child as well as his own parents know him.

2) No one cares about the child as much as his own parents do.

3) Parents can tailor lessons to the child’s needs, if the child is advanced in math, but struggles with reading, the parent can give him 4th grade made and 2nd grade reading so that he can gain skill and confidence.

4) Parents a children get to spend time together, homeschooling parets don’t “miss” their children’s childhoods.

5) The parents can pass on their beliefs, customs, and values.

6) The parents can know exactly what the child needs extra work on, and exactly what he knows well enough to skip some work on.

7) The child can experience the real world, instead of the artificially created environment of the school classroom.

8) homeschooling is effcient, so there is more time to do outside activities like hiking, swimming, camping, sports, chess clubs, music, science museums, art museums, etc.

9)The child socializes with lots of people of all different ages, instead of only with those who happened to born the same year as him.

10) Homeschooling is fun.

Here are all the cons I can think of.

1) People who don’t know anything about homeschooling assume your kids are locked in the house all day and never see anyone else.

2) People you don’t even know, when they find out you homeschool, think its their job to quiz your kids on whatever trivia they think is important to know.

3) Many people have stereotypes in their minds about homeschooling, and either assume that you kids will socially inept and stupid, or that they will be super wiz kids who finish Algebra 1 in 3rd grade, and are ready for college by 8th grade. It gets tiring to remind people all the time that homeschooled kids are individuals, and therefore every homeschooled child is different.

it’s ware your schooled at home. I’ve been home school since school started. usually the parent & the books are the teacher.

everyone does different cirriculum & scheduals but we do learn & it helps to let the child go at there own learning pace Not the schools.