Today I will be starting a series about a VERY touchy topic in the homeschooling community. It is one of those topics that is guaranteed to come up the minute you make that decision or if you even decide that you want to voice that you are thinking about making a decision. The result is generally, “Don’t Homeschool! You Will Ruin Your Kids!!”
“You want to do what?”
“Why would you do that?”
“You are just going to ruin them”
These are the statements and supportive feedback most homeschoolers get once they decide to share with friends and family their intentions to homeschool.
Whenever someone says this to me, however, it always catches me a little off-guard. Thankfully my Jamaican stubbornness mixed with my Canadian politeness always saves the day. Sometimes I even have to remind myself that my advisers are simply concerned for me and not trying to attack me and my choices.
As a result of these experiences, I will be addressing the popular reasons given for why no one should homeschool. So sit back, grab your cup of coffee (or 2 or even 3) and walk with me over the next 3 weeks. My first post will be on Thursday and it is entitled : “Don’t Homeschool : You Have No Teacher Training”
Amber S
Sunday 19th of April 2015
Hi Alecia, Thank you for posting this. My kids are just 2 and 3 so I haven't had to tell many people yet about our choice to homeschool but the comments are coming in. Doesn't help that a big majority of our families include people in public school education. But, like many things in life, it's about what is best for our family - not others' opinions. Looking forward to your posts. Amber
Sheila K. from Manitoba
Thursday 26th of June 2014
Looks like an interesting series. One of questions I get asked is "Don't I want the break?" With kids in school I could work or do whatever...maybe even clean the house. People don't question too much especially since I am a certified teacher. I usually receive positive comments and sometimes people say they couldn't do it. But you really don't have to be a certified teacher, just a willingness to do it. With all the curriculum out there, its just a matter of being an expert on your child and their learning bent. With all the support online, anything is possible if you want to. I'm looking forward to reading your series!
jeannine: waddleeahchaa
Wednesday 25th of June 2014
I'm lucky because I've never had much push back about us homeschooling. I am a teacher so that excuse can't be used against us. The main worry I've heard expressed is that home-schooled children aren't socialized with their peers and they won't know how to "act" with other children. I'm sure you'll be tackling the "socialization" in one of your post so I won't go on about that one now.
By the way, I don't think you need to be a certified teacher to homeschool. Parents begin teaching their children the minute they are born. All parents are teachers!
Laurie
Monday 23rd of June 2014
Funny thing is, before I looked into homeschooling, I thought that you did have to be a certified teacher!! The facts just aren't out there (well, they are out there, but not mainstream info) when it comes to homeschooling. The one and only person I knew who homeschooled was a certified teacher, so I assumed you had to be... oops! Thanks for shedding some light on this topic. :-)
Rachel G
Monday 23rd of June 2014
My Mom got all the same comments when she decided to homeschool, which was about 20 years ago now. Of course, after her siblings saw how awesomely it worked for our family they took back what they said and when they started having kids, most of them chose homeschooling...which means most of my little cousins are homeschooled because their parents were convinced by the example of my mom when it came to education!