Thinking of homeschooling but not sure you can afford it? Here’s a few ways you can save money and earn money while homeschooling.
Read More4 Ways to Handle People Who Disapprove of Homeschooling→
/The disapproving glances. The unsolicited advice. The warning by unhappy family members and friends that you're going to ruin your child if you homeschool.
Read MoreHow to Easily Track Your Homeschooled Child's Progress→
/Are you wondering how to track your homeschooled child’s progress? It’s much easier than one might think.
Read MoreAvoid These 4 Mistakes if You Want to Raise a Child Who Reads→
/Why do we place so much value on reading as a culture but fail to raise a country of readers?
Read More10 Foolproof Ways to Convince Your Spouse (or Anyone) to Homeschool→
/If your husband or wife’s mind is already set against homeschooling, you have to approach the situation very gingerly. It’s not wise to push our views on someone, least of all a spouse.
Usually when a spouse doesn’t agree with homeschooling, it’s because he doesn’t understand what John Taylor Gatto refers to as "the dangers of public school."
The Conversation
But you can start the conversation by asking your spouse a question, such as, "What are your hopes and goals for our children’s education?"
You have now opened the channels for him to let you know his hopes and goals in a non-threatening way. As he shares these with you, listen for his concerns too.
Once you’ve got a friendly discussion going, approach the subject of homeschooling.
If you were to consider homeschooling, would he have any objections or concerns? If so, what would those be?
The Objections
The typical objections to homeschooling are the following:
The children will be academically behind and fail to get into a reputable college.
Homeschooled kids lack good social skills.
Homeschooled children don’t have any friends.
You aren’t qualified to homeschool unless you’re an accredited teacher.
You aren’t qualified to homeschool unless you have a college degree.
Maybe your husband doesn't know any homeschoolers and the idea sounds too fantastic to him?
Keep in mind that your spouse wants what is best for his children just as much as you do.
The Persuasion
Whatever his objections are, you want to take note and ask him if he would be open to watching some videos on the subject, looking at some research, or even reading some books together.
If you keep the conversation neutral and show a genuine interest in his views and concerns, most reasonable husbands will oblige their wives.
Now, here comes the tricky part: you will need to provide him with information that is sound and relevant.
No need to panic though because we have you covered. You can download our free resource list to convince anyone about the merits of homeschooling.
The list will provide you with 10 resources to educate your husband (or anyone) about the the many problems with public school and why homeschooling is the best option today.
This resource is also helpful if you have family members or friends who are strongly opposed to homeschooling.
Grab your free download here: 10 Resources to Convince Anyone About the Merits of Homeschooling.
Once someone truly understands what is fundamentally wrong with public school, it is near impossible to put a child into it unless the person has no other choice.
Some Cautionary Advice
Be careful about taking the attitude of proving your spouse wrong. No one likes to be proven wrong, and trying to show your spouse that you were right will not help your cause.
Instead, you want to humble yourself and be gentle in the way you handle the situation.
Go slowly.
When someone has a fixed opinion, it’s prudent to allow time for that person to shift into a new mindset.
Start early by educating your spouse when your children are young.
By the time they are ready to go to school, hopefully, you'll both be excited about homeschooling!
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Become a Smart Homeschooler to raise smart, ethical, and critically-thinking children. Join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course and feel secure knowing that you have what you need to homeschool successfully as well as live ongoing support from Elizabeth.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child Well to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.
Utilizing her unusual skill set, coupled with her unique combination of mentors, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.
3 Ways to Make Homeschooling Affordable →
/Thinking of homeschooling but not sure you can afford it? Here are 3 ways you can make homeschooling affordable and stay within your household budget.
Read MoreAre You Educated Enough to Homeschool?→
/As women, we tend to think we are not enough just the way we are. Add homeschooling into the mix and our list of not enough now includes neither smart nor educated enough to homeschool.
The thought of homeschooling conjures up fears that we may fail, we may disappoint our families, and, worst of all, we may hinder our children's chances of success.
We wonder how other homeschooling moms do it?
The truth is that even if you didn’t go to college, you could still succeed at homeschooling if you put your mind to it.
What follows is my defense that any well-intended parent—with the right understanding and the right tools—can do a better job educating her children than public school.
I'm Not Smart Enough, Nor Educated Enough
To this, I would ask, who is? My father was in the category of truly learned men of the 20th century, and he never considered himself educated. My father's position used to baffle me until one day I understood that the more you know, the more you can comprehend how little you know.
Most homeschooling parents went through public school and did not start out with a good education.
However, it is never too late to correct this problem.
The good news is that when you homeschool, you will correct it by developing your mind alongside your children. Becoming more intellectually savvy is a by product of homeschooling.
So is developing your brain to a greater degree.
We used to think the brain became fixed at a certain age and didn’t change after that other than to decline as you aged, but neuroscientists have shown that this isn't true. The brain continues to wire itself which is why homeschooling also keeps our brains nimble.
When you have conversations with homeschooling moms, you'll find that they usually have a lot of general knowledge (if they do not have their kids in virtual schools). This is because the more children they have, the more they teach, and, therefore, the more general knowledge they gain—without even trying.
And don’t forget that we have many brilliant self-taught people in our history including William Blake, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mark Twain, The Wright Brothers, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Karl Marx, and Frederick Douglass, to name a few.
We are so well-trained to believe in the magic paper one receives upon college graduation, that we forget most famous people in Western history were self-taught to some degree.
Even without a college education, you will still do a better job homeschooling your children than the public school system can do. In fact, if you have no college education, your kids may have a better chance of excelling academically if you homeschool them.
The reason for this is that parents with less education will not be able to help their children with homework, and these children will fall behind in school. Once the children fall behind, they begin to do poorly in school, putting them on a negative academic trajectory.
When you homeschool your children, you will have the books on hand to understand the material yourself, and you will make sure your child understands it before he moves onto the next lesson. He will not be under pressure to keep up with his classmates which will help him focus better and learn more.
What parent wants their child shuffled through a system where after 12 years of schooling, the child is still unprepared to do well in life?
One last thing, don’t forget that you are the person who loves your child the most and cares most about your child’s future. How can anyone else ever trump that?
So please, please, please do not let a feeling of intellectual inferiority stop you from homeschooling!
You will rise to the occasion and become a better educated person yourself because you were a homeschooler.
And your children will have a solid foundation upon which to build the rest of the lives.
☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will guide you in homeschooling with the classics to raise brighter and more creative children.
Enroll using the link below and feel confident knowing you have the guidance and support you need to homeschool successfully.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s original online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
She has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, and she devotes her time to helping parents to get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
*****
“Elizabeth has given us counseling and guidance to help us succeed with our home school planning. When I feel overwhelmed, scared, or lose my confidence, she offers words of wisdom and support.”
— Sherry B., Pittsburg, PA
Why Rote Memorization is Essential to a Good Education→
/A common practice of students since time immemorial, rote learning has received an undeservedly bad rap in the postmodern world.
Read More9 Books Every Parent Should Read→
/The following books were carefully chosen as a guide to help you navigate some of the issues you will face raising your children in present times.
Read More10 Resources to Convince Your Spouse (or anyone) About the Merits of Homeschooling →
/All hope is not lost. There are things you can do, and I’m going to share those with you shortly. But first, it’s important to understand why a spouse (or anyone) might resist the idea of homeschooling.
Usually, a spouse doesn't agree with homeschooling because they don’t understand what John Taylor Gatto would refer to as "the dangers of public school."
If your husband’s mind is already set against homeschooling, you have to approach the situation very gingerly. You cannot push your views on someone, least of all your husband.
But you can start the conversation by asking him this question: "Tell me what your goals are when you think of the education of our children?" And then follow up with this question: "What would it take for you to feel comfortable about homeschooling our children?"
You have now opened the channels for him to let you know his goals and concerns in a non-threatening way. Listen carefully and understand that he wants what is best for his children as you do.
He is not coming from a place of belligerence but of genuine concern.
Your husband will probably bring up objections such as he's concerned they won't get what they need academically, which will hurt their chances of getting into a good college.
He may say that he's worried about the socialization factor and that he doesn't want his kids to grow up to be social misfits. He might say that you aren't an accredited teacher and therefore not qualified to teach your own children.
Maybe he doesn't know any homeschoolers, and the idea sounds too fantastic to him?
He also might express concern for character development and key qualities he wants his kids to have such as creativity, integrity, moral values, resilience, and discipline (all of which the kids will most likely not get in school).
Whatever his objections are, you want to take note and ask him if he would be open to watching some videos on the subject, looking at some research, or even reading some books together?
If you keep the conversation non-threatening and show a genuine interest in his views and concerns, most reasonable husbands will oblige their wives.
Now, this is the tricky part because you will need to provide him with information that is sound and to the point. I'm going to share some resources that should help you educate your husband (or anyone) about the unparalleled benefits of homeschooling and the many problems with public school.
Grab your free resource here: 10 Resources to Convince Anyone About the Merits of Homeschooling.
This resource is also helpful if you have family members or friends who are strongly opposed to homeschooling.
Some points to remember:
Be careful about taking the attitude of proving your spouse wrong. No one likes to be proven wrong, and trying to show your spouse that you were right will not help your cause. Instead, you want to humble yourself and be gentle in the way you handle the situation.
Go slowly.
When someone has a fixed opinion, it’s prudent to allow time for that person to shift into a new mindset. Start early by educating your spouse when your children are young, and by the time they are ready to go to school, hopefully, you'll both be excited about homeschooling!
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Become a Smart Homeschooler to raise smart, ethical, and critically-thinking children. Join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course and feel secure knowing that you have what you need to homeschool successfully as well as live ongoing support from Elizabeth.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child Well to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.
Utilizing her unusual skill set, coupled with her unique combination of mentors, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.
5 Reasons Why You Should Seriously Consider Homeschooling
/For many of us, taking on the job of homeschooling requires a lot of sacrifice. Some of us give up jobs and careers we love, and all of us give up much of our free time.
However, if we realized the impact of homeschooling on our family, our society, and potentially the world, would it seem like a sacrifice?
Not at all.
What might seem like a sacrifice at first will become the door to a better life for your family and will ultimately impact society and the world for all the reasons that parents choose to homeschool.
Let’s consider five of these reasons:
Quality of Education
Homeschoolers are usually in agreement that we want our children to have an excellent education, and we know it's not going to happen in public school.
Not the kind of education we envision anyhow.
Reading competently, writing skillfully, and speaking eloquently are skills competent homeschoolers want to make sure their children develop because these skills are the cornerstone of a sound education.
With them, the child will grow up to have powerful a voice in a world where few read, few write, and few speak eloquently.
Enjoy Reading
We want our children to not only read well, but to enjoy reading. To choose a book to read over a movie to watch is our ideal. Not that our children never watch movies, but lying in bed with a good book is something they look forward to.
We want our children to be well read and to read books that are worth reading. In 21st century schools, children are required to read books that kids should not have to read such as the Andy Griffith series and books with immoral themes; books that 60 years ago no publisher in their right mind would have ever published.
Curious Until the End
That our children remain curious and become life-long learners in pursuit of knowledge is a concern most homeschoolers share. With studies showing that by first grade a child's innate thirst for knowledge of his world begins to wane, homeschoolers want to fiercely protect their child's curiosity.
Curiosity is inherent to man. Babies come into the world curious but we need environments for our children that nurture their curiosity. Homeschooling provides this environment; public and most private schools do not.
Not a single famous writer, inventor, philosopher, mathematician, scientist, or historian would have become famous had they not been curious. Curiosity is what propels us to keep learning and discovering which makes our lives exciting and colorful and challenging.
A curiosity without which true greatness is difficult to achieve.
Homeschoolers want their children to enjoy learning for the sake of learning, not for rewards or test scores.
The Sorting Factor
Homeschoolers don't want their children subjected to arbitrary tests that serve to sort and rank them amongst their peers.
Instead, they want their children to know that with hard work and perseverance most things are possible, and that test scores are no indication of a person's ultimate worth.
Integrity Means “Whole”
With the loss of a good environment and character training in schools, homeschoolers want to protect the integrity of their children. We want to raise them in an environment that elevates our children to be their best version of themselves, not an environment that chips away at their dignity.
When I was in school, the negative influences were outside the classroom, but that's not true anymore. Children are being taught some grossly inappropriate things inside those four walls that make up the school classroom.
It's time.
Family Loyalty
Another thing you'll find is that homeschooling preserves the natural loyalty of a family and homeschooling families tend to be more closely-knit. On the contrary, in public school, children learn to be loyal to their peers, not their family, and certainly not their parents.
Once you develop the loyalty to your peers that public school is notorious for fostering, it's hard to undo. Most of us aren't even aware it's there. It wasn’t until my parents passed away that I realized how deep the parent / child bond was and how dishonored the family bond is in Western society.
Our bond with our parents is the next strongest bond we have in life. The only bond that is stronger than the parent / child bond it is the bond we have with our Creator. The family bond is a powerful bond that’s worth protecting.
We don't need studies to tell us why homeschooled families are closer-knit. We become close to the people we have shared positive experiences with, and homeschooled families spend a lot of time together, and they have a lot of great experiences together.
In contrast, public-schooled children spend time with peers, and they go home where they have to do hours of homework. There isn't much time left for family bonding.
With the family back at the center of a child’s life, and with family as the basis for a wholesome society, by the mere fact of homeschooling, we will change the world.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Become a Smart Homeschooler to raise smart, ethical, and critically-thinking children. Join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course and feel secure knowing that you have what you need to homeschool successfully as well as live ongoing support from Elizabeth.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child Well to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20 years of experience working in children’s education.
Utilizing her unusual skill set, coupled with her unique combination of mentors, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.
Dare to Homeschool! Overcoming the Fear that You Are Not Good Enough
/As women, we tend to think we are not enough as we are. Add homeschooling into the mix and our list of not enoughs now includes neither smart, nor patient, nor educated enough to homeschool.
The thought of homeschooling conjures up fears that we may fail; we may disappoint our families, we may hinder our children's chances of success.
We look at brave homeschooling moms and think they are smarter, better educated, and have it more together than we do.
The truth is that even if all of these beliefs were true, which is unlikely, you could still succeed at homeschooling if you put your mind to it.
You can overcome the unwelcome thoughts in your head that say you are less than every other mother trying to give her child a better education at home.
I'm Not Smart Enough or Educated Enough
To this, I would ask, who is? My father was in the category of truly learned men of the 20th century, and he never considered himself educated. My father's position used to baffle me until one day I understood that the more you know, the more you can comprehend how little you know.
We still can’t answer fundamental questions with 100% certainty, such as, Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What is the purpose of my life?
While it is true that most of us are far less intelligent than we would have been had we been properly educated during our prime learning years, but we can always choose to correct the problem.
It’s never too late to work at developing our intellects.
We used to think the brain became fixed at a certain age and didn’t change after that, other than to decline as you aged, but neuroscientists have shown that this isn't true. The brain continues to wire itself, which is why learning unto the grave prevents ailments like dementia and Alzheimers.
The good news is that when you homeschool, you will develop your mind alongside your children. Becoming smarter and improving your brain's capacity is a byproduct of homeschooling.
Talk to homeschooling moms you know to see how this works. You'll find that homeschooling moms always have a lot of general knowledge. The more children they have, and therefore teach, the more general knowledge they gain. They can't help it.
Even with no college education, you will still do a better job homeschooling your children than the public school system.
Do not let a feeling of intellectual inferiority stop you. You will rise to the occasion and become a better person yourself by having done so.
I'm too Impatient; I could Never homeschool
You may be impatient, but you can correct this. Impatience stems from three causes: 1) a physical imbalance or 2) an emotional imbalance, 3) bad habits.
Physical Imbalance
When people are irritable and impatient, in Chinese medicine, we diagnose them with having internal heat of either an excess or deficient nature. You can correct this by dietary changes, herbs, alternative healing therapies, and lifestyle changes.
If you feel run down and exhausted, you may be suffering from what we diagnose as deficient Qi. Exhaustion will make you feel impatient and irritable too. You'll yell at your children more, and you'll also have less time for your spouse. The latter can lead to a negative feedback loop.
The less time you have with your spouse, the less support you feel, and the more exacerbated your symptoms become. Instead of being a respite for one another during the years when your young children are more demanding, you grow apart.
Emotional Imbalance
If you find yourself feeling resentful and unhappy with your life, it may be because you aren’t doing anything to replenish yourself. Mothers get into this state when they eliminate all the things they enjoyed doing before having children.
We get too busy, and it’s easy to stop going for bike rides or having lunches with girlfriends, or going to a movie with your spouse, Life suddenly becomes all work and no play.
Play is important for children, but it’s also important for us. Play is what rejuvenates us and keeps us going. Figure out what it is that you love doing most and build some of it back into your life.
Take care of yourself so you can take better care of those who depend on you without feeling resentful.
Bad Habits
You may have a bad habit of getting upset too quickly. In this case, you want to pay close attention to when this happens so you can start to correct your behavior. Easier said than done, I know, but you can do it.
If you get your irritability and patience level under control, homeschooling will be just one more thing you do during the day.
You May Surprise Yourself
The other consideration is that you may believe you will be an impatient homeschooler, but once you start, you find you have more patience than you realized.
You may enjoy the homeschooling lifestyle so much that you wonder why you didn't start sooner.
But you won't know that until you give it a try. It takes courage, and courage comes from acting despite your fear. We all experience fear, but mothers who homeschool don't let it get in their way.
The cost is too high, and they understand this.
Homeschool the smart way by joining the Smart Homeschooler Academy summer program to learn how to give your child the best of an elite education at home.
How to Raise a More Intelligent Child and an Excellent Reader—a free guide and book list with over 80+ carefully chosen titles.Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an educator, veteran homeschooler and a Love and Leadership certified parenting coach with 17 years experience working in children’s education.
Using her unusual skill set, she has developed a comprehensive and unique understanding of how to raise and educate a child, and she devotes her time to help parents get it right.
Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.
10 Books Every Concerned Parent Should Read
/The world is a little topsy-turvy right now especially when it comes to raising and educating our children.
The following books were carefully chosen as a guide to help you navigate some of the issues you will face as a parent living in the West.
Hold On to Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate, M.D.
In trying to understand why children no longer revere their parents in the same way that my parent's generation revered their parents, I turned to Neufeld and Mate's book, Hold On to Your Kids.
Part of the answer lies within the pages of this book and will help you understand why peer pressure is so real, and how you can lose your children to peer pressure. It also contains some suggestions for how to protect the bond between you and your children.
While their solutions are somewhat naive, if I may be so bold as to say that, the authors delineate a very real situation that every parent should understand.
2. Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers
This essay is Dorothy Sayer's famous critique of modern education using her great wit and brilliant insight. It's amusing as well as informative.
To raise the standard for your child's education, you need first to understand what level of academic work he's capable of doing. There's no better way to do this than to ignore the standards of modern education, and, instead, look at what school children used to learn.
3. The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman
Neil Postman was a perceptive social critic who argued that childhood was disappearing. The reason for the disappearance was the blurred lines that technology created by exposing children to the adult world too soon.
With the loss of childhood also came the loss of adulthood, which continues to present a significant problem for our society's ability to remain civil.
4. Gwynne's Latin by N. M. Gwynne - The Introduction
Mr. Gwynne is an expert on the subject of the Latin language. He tells stories of having studied Latin for 90 minutes a day, five days a week as a schoolboy.
By the time I (and later, you) went to school, they had eliminated Latin from the curriculum. To our detriment, too, because without the study of Latin, you can never fully understand or appreciate the English language.
People who learn Latin are better educated. It's a simple fact. The reason you should read his introduction to his Latin book is that he will give you an irrefutable argument for why you should have your children learn Latin. You can study it, too, as I do–it's never too late.
5. The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto
Gatto's opus work tells the story of how a sub-standard modern education came to be, and why you must understand it's origins so you can make informed decisions for your children when it comes to deciding how you want to educate them.
I prefer Gatto's original work over the newly revised work of the same title. Buy a copy of the older book, if you can. His newer version was written during his last years, and intended as a three-volume set, but, sadly, he never finished it.
6. The Platonic Tradition by Peter Kreeft
You may be wondering why I included this title? It's vital to Western civilization that we understand the ideas upon which our civilization was built so that we can protect them when they're under threat of being undermined as they are today.
We also need to pass this understanding onto our children, so they are not easily swayed by the high falutin rhetoric that robs us of our civil liberties under the guise of equality. Kreeft's book will correct the errors in understanding that brought us to where we are today.
7. Glow Kids by Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D.
A ground-breaking book that exposes the technology industry for what it is, and the harm it's inflicting on our children during their most vulnerable years. Protect your child by reading this book and passing it on to your friends to read. We need a no-tech revolution, at least no tech in the lives of children.
8. How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren
The title seems like an oxymoron, but it's not. The authors acknowledge our ability to read but also our failure to read with deep understanding. We were never taught the skill of reading beyond a rudimentary level, and this is the gap How to Read a Book attempts to fill.
They will show you how to tackle a book in a way that will make it your own. Especially if you plan on homeschooling, you want to learn this skill so you can teach it to your children when they get older.
9. Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down was Gatto's landmark book when he first entered the world of non-schooling education. He writes an easy-to-read book about the problems with modern education and why you should consider alternatives to a "school-like" training for your child.
Whether you do or not, you should understand the system so you can help your child navigate it if you decide to put him or her into school.
10. The Leipzig Connection by Paolo Lionni
How modern psychology removed the soul from the study of psychology and then coupled that soul-less subject with the department of modern education and the subsequent impact it has had on children's education. An important read!
Some of these books are inexpensive, some are more expensive, but they are all worth reading.
Receive a free download with the titles and links to 10 Books Every Concerned Parent Should Read.
Join the Smart Homeschooler Academy to learn how to give your child an elite education at home.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a Love and Leadership certified parenting coach with 17 years experience working in children’s education. She has two successfully homeschooled children in college.
Stop Teaching Your Child English Grammar!
/Latin, for an English-speaking country, is a more important subject than English grammar.
Read More4 Reasons Why Children Don't Like to Read
/Why do we place so much value on reading as a culture but fail to raise a country of readers?
Read MoreWhat Kind of Parents Homeschool?!
/Many kinds of parents homeschool; there's really nothing that stands out as a common trait amongst homeschoolers, but most of us share similar concerns and values.
Homeschoolers are usually in agreement that we want our children to have a good education, and we know it's unlikely to happen in public school.
Not the kind of education we're thinking of anyhow.
We want our children to not only read well but to enjoy reading. To choose a book to read over a movie to watch. Not that they never watch movies, but lying in bed with a good book is something they look forward to.
Reading competently, writing skillfully, and speaking eloquently are skills most homeschoolers want to make sure their children possess.
That their children become life-long learners in pursuit of knowledge is also a concern most homeschoolers share. With studies showing that by first grade a child's innate thirst for knowledge of his world begins to wane, homeschoolers want to fiercely protect their child's curiosity.
A curiosity without which true greatness is difficult to achieve.
Homeschoolers want their children to enjoy learning for the sake of learning, not for rewards or test scores. They don't want their children subjected to arbitrary tests that serve to sort and rank them amongst their peers.
Instead, they want their children to know that with hard work and perseverance most things are possible, and that test scores are no indication of a person's ultimate worth.
With the loss of a good environment and character training in schools, homeschoolers want to protect the integrity of their children. They want to raise them in an environment that raises them up, not brings them down.
When I was in school, the negative influences were outside the classroom, but that's not true anymore. Children are being taught some pretty inappropriate things inside those four walls.
Over the 17+ years that I've been working in education, those of us working in the trenches aren't just offering alternatives anymore. We are flat-out telling you to get your children out of the system.
It's time.
Until public schools can offer a better alternative; homeschooling is the way to go.
Fortunately, homeschooling is legal in all 50 states. We need to pull together though and help each other because many women have to work. The good news is that with so many people able to work remotely now, homeschooling is becoming possible for more and more families.
Speaking of families, another thing you'll find is that homeschooling preserves the natural loyalty of a family and homeschoolers tend to be closely-knit. In public school, children learn to be loyal to their peers. I know, because it happened to me.
After my mother passed, my older sister told me that the reason my mother paid extra attention to our youngest brother was because, according to what she had told my sister, every time another child of hers went off to school, they were never quite the same towards her.
She was determined to make sure it didn't happen with her youngest child as it had with her previous six.
It pained me to hear this; it still does. Once you develop the loyalty to your peers that public school is so notorious for fostering, it's hard to undo. Most of us aren't even aware it's there. I know I wasn’t.
We don't need studies to tell us why homeschooled families are closer-knit because it's obvious that you become close to the people you spend time with, and homeschooled families spend a lot of time together.
In contrast, public-schooled children spend a lot of time with peers, and then they go home to do homework. There isn't much time left for the family.
With more and more families homeschooling, I'm looking forward to the positive changes we'll see in our country in the coming years.
And no matter what kind of parent you are, you can choose to take part in this revolutionary shift in the way we educate our young.
Let the revolution begin!
The Smart Homeschooler Academy is now open for enrollment with its signature course: How to Give Your Child a Private-School Education at Home. Enrollment is now open through May 8th!
Elizabeth Y. Hanson combines her training in holistic medicine, parenting coach certificate, plus 17+ years working in education to provide you with a unique approach to raising and educating your children.
A veteran homeschooler herself, she now has two homeschooled children in college.
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