When to comes to society, there are many stereotypes concerning homeschool moms. Most often these thoughts come from those who are ill-informed by what homeschooling is all about. Homeschooling parents are everyday people who simply are making an alternative choice for the education of their children.
The reality is there are many reasons why a homeschool mom chooses to educate her children at home. There is not a one-size-fits-all kind of homeschooling.The reasons are vast and the way each family goes about homeschooling is also quite expansive. The reality is no two homeschooling situations will ever be identical.
Too often, those on the outside looking in have preconceived ideas about why we do what we do. They imagine moms who are sheltering kids from the real world. Or they believe that we have something against public school as a whole. Many homeschooling moms are former educators and there are often dads who still work in the public school setting. While they may choose to homeschooling for their own children they can still fully be supportive of the idea of the public school for society at large.
Homeschooling isn’t about one way or another. If one were to try to simply sum it up in a succinct sentence perhaps it would be, seeking to do what is in the best interest of one’s own child. But the reality is most public school families are doing that as well. It shouldn’t be a matter of homeschool vs. public school. It should simply be each family choosing what is best for their own child or children.
12 Reasons why Moms Choose to Homeschool
These are just 12 reasons why a family may choose homeschooling as their mode of education. This by no means these are the only twelve reasons. There could be a series of reasons that ultimately lead to a homeschooling decision.
- They are seeking to support a child with learning or physical disabilities and special needs.
- They believe that public school forces educational, moral, and societal ideals upon a child that are in opposition to the family’s own moral stances.
- Unhappy with the overall quality of education within the local and/or private school system.
- Wants their children to experience education in a hands-on and experiential way versus rote study from books.
- Schedule flexibility so the family can meet unique requirements. These may be vacation time throughout the year, caring for elderly family members, travel with dad due to his work requirements, or a variety of other reasons.
- A desire for a quieter, less hurried pace to daily life.
- Seeing the child developing negative behaviors in their current educational environment and a desire to correct those behaviors in the loving setting of the home.
- Religious convictions and a desire to train one’s own child within that conviction.
- Supporting advanced learning opportunities for children with gifted and talented abilities.
- A desire to teach their child how to socialize within a larger societal community as opposed to an age-based community.
- To protect a child from a negative environment, such as bullying.
- Removing excess pressure that a child may feel due to requirements that are greater
or less
than abilities warrant.
Homeschooling may be outside the norm for many but for those making the decision to keep their children at home for their education, it’s not usually an easy choice. They often spend quite a lot of time researching, worrying over, weighing the options before coming to a decision.
Fallacies that Society Thinks about Homeschool Moms
Homeschool moms have a lot of patience.
Homeschooling moms, like any mom, need a measure of patience when dealing with children. It’s not that they have more patience it’s that they are just around the children for longer periods of time. But, they find the day in, day out of being with kids just as frustrating as the average mom does. They are simply learning how to manage those frustrations.
Homeschool moms (and/or dad) must have a college degree.
The reality is many homeschooling moms do not have a college degree. Most states require a minimum of a high school diploma or equivalency by one parent. The reality is homeschooling simply means guiding a child’s learning. Up through fourth or fifth grade, the parent should be able to teach the basic elementary subjects. But their goal is also to teach their child how to be independent and curious learners who take charge of their own learning.
Homeschool moms have to teach all the subjects, all the time, to all their children.
Again, this is very rarely the case. With the vast digital resources available to homeschooling parents, many parents are choosing to outsource some of the home education subjects to others. If a mom finds that a certain subject isn’t within her area of knowledge she can opt for an online course, a class in a local co-op, a class provided by a community service such as a museum or music conservatory. Homeschool outsourcing is quite common in home education these days.
A homeschool mom must be very organized.
While an organized home may be the ideal it’s certainly not a requirement. And, the reality is with most of the family home all day long, getting and staying organized is not an easy goal to manage.
The homeschooling family must have a lot of money.
This is actually very rarely the case. When one parent chooses to leave the business world to stay home with the children the family budget gets tighter. But, the reality is a lot of money isn’t necessary to homeschool. Learning doesn’t have to cost money. There are many resources that make education possible for free. Some can be found online in the form of printable pages, video courses, documentaries, etc. and others might be found in the local community such as the library, museums, or homeschool co-op classes.
All homeschoolers are crunchy, hippie moms.
Homeschool moms come from all walks of life. There may be a few all-natural granola loving moms out there but there are just as many moms who aren’t. There are homeschool moms who are doctors, lawyers, teachers, business women, fun-loving, faith-oriented, stay-at-home moms. More and more families are looking beyond traditional education seeking to provide
These are just a few of the fallacies that exist about homeschooling moms and families. As homeschool continues to grow as one of the fastest forme
The reality is all homeschool moms, all families, are different. No two homeschools will look alike. Homeschooling moms are all just moms seeking to do what is best for our children. Many days they will feel like we fail and other days they’ll find purpose in seeing that spark light the eyes of their children while they learn a new concept.