Mainstream Homeschooling?

With the Fall Semester about to kick off at local public schools and probably most schools across the country, the question about whether your kids are at the right educational institution crosses the minds of concerned parents everywhere, so I guess it is no surprise that in the past two days, I have been asked by a sister and a friend about homeschooling. They want information about where to start, what to do, and whats it all about. Seeing as they are asking me, someone new on the homeschooling scene, It makes me ask the question is homeschooling really going mainstream as all the latest research suggests and isn't it interesting that one sends her kids to public school and the other to private school? I think so.

Research from the Department of Education's National Center for Educational Studies and National Home Education Research Institute suggests that the homeschool population has increased sinced 2003 and the three main reasons are that families are either dissatisfied with the school environment (i.e. violence and social scene), are wanting more of a religious or moral education not available in our public schools, or that the academic performance and instruction of these schools has been rather poor. So, with that information, let's look at my sister's situation, my friends, and my own situation to see why is homeschooling of interest to us.

With my sister who lives in South Texas (further than I), I know for a fact they prefer a religious (i.e. Catholic) education. They are not satisfied with the local public schools in the area and would only consider sending their kids to a public charter school out of the area and very difficult to get into. Not to mention the amount of violence, adult situations, and teen pressure found at the local schools. Additionally, the school performance at the local level is not very good, so thus another reason for her choices. She did have her kids in a private Catholic school a few cities away. With the economic downturn, that has become slightly difficult to manage. So, I think one of the major reasons for her to choose to homeschool. My sister is a college graduate and a registered nurse and her husband, has some college coursework and has an intermediate city job.

With my friend, she is a college graduate, engineer as is her husband. They live in the outskirts of Houston, TX (a great place to homeschool by the way). She is dissatisfied with work I believe and is trying to decide whether her children would be better off at home with her or in the public school system. She's thinking of becoming a teacher, but her question is do I teach my own or others and which would be better. (You know my answer)

Then there's me. I am a college graduate, ex business owner, and now full-time mom and homeschooler. My husband is a federal government employee. We had our kids in a prestigious private Catholic Montessori School but were unsatisfied with the school's instruction of primarily our son's education. We definitely don't want to send our kids to public school as there are only a few in the area that are exemplary, the social scene is not what we would like for our kids, and there is no religion taught. Additionally, we have a four year old that is, for lack of a better word, 'eating' up the education we are giving her here at home. She is on a Kindergarten curriculum and is doing extremely well. If we were to wait until she were six to send her to school as the requirement for the state of Texas, we fear we would hold her back. Additionally, we know that the two eldest of our children have dyslexia (we did our primary test with our middle child today and indications are that she too has it) and we know for a fact they would not get what they need at the private school and don't believe they would get it either in a public school plus we didn't want them labelled.

So, according to the reasons from the research we have seen as to why more and more parents are homeschooling, I can concur that we too fall in that category. Thus, I too definitely see this as a movement. I know several families that do homeschool and I know many more that just now started homeschooling for the same reasons mentioned above. In fact, I know at least five families alone in the same school my kids were in that are now homeschooling. Isn't that interesting and mainstream!

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Christi Family is a blog and local family resource for Corpus Christi and surrounding areas of the coastal bend.Created by a family of five, we blog about everything that matters to us. We invite you to read about our journey as we catalogue our thoughts about Family Matters, Fun Matters, Home Matters, Faith Matters, School Matters, and other things that Just Matter (at least to us). We’re exploring Corpus Christi and are providing you with what we find. Whether you’re looking for local resources, wanting to find local events geared just for families, or are wanting a quick reference guide on everything local, this might just be the place for you and yours. We’re filling our pages with resources for mom’s, kids, visitors, newbies, and families in general. As we continue our adventures in life, we’ll also continue our exploration of what we can do with this site and hopefully you'll benefit! Our focus is family, it’s that simple. You won’t find business meetings listed on our calendars, instead you’ll see calendars for families, toddlers, or just parents. It’s your choice! Join the fun! Let us know what you’d like to see or what you think we should explore! We’ll share our thoughts!