Comments on: Your Child Wants to Attend School – Now What?

By: Dianne

Dianne — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:59:12 +0000

my child has a hard time learning at school and at home but she does do better at home . she is mor e relaxed at home and calm. and she can do her school work easier if shes able to concentrate.

By: Some Great Homeschooling Thoughts from Last Week « Just Enough, and Nothing More

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:39:31 +0000

[…] a final decision to homeschool, our children tell us that they want to go to school. What do we do? Karen has a very thorough post about what a child’s request to go to school really means, and what a parent can do […]

By: Evie Maddox

Evie Maddox — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:12:47 +0000

I went through numerous decisions before finally settling on homeschooling. When I taught middle school for two years from ‘93-’95, I decided NO WAY would my future children EVER attend public school! I started thinking about it when my son was just a baby in 2001, and began praying. It was then when God said to me, “you should not be asking if your son should be homeschooled; you should ask if he should attend public school.” So often, we have it backwards, as if it’s normal to send our kids away for the majority of their waking hours. When we moved to a small town, I threw my convictions out the window as a trade for a smaller, safer, “good enough” alternative, which was really about my selfishness to have my time back. I would still have one child at home, but by the time our kids reach kindergarten age, we see our “freedom” fast approaching. I even registered my son a couple of months before school started. Slowly, God spoke to me in bits and pieces. I started meeting local homeschoolers. I started hearing negative things about the school. He reminded me of our initial conversations, and made clear that He never told me to enroll my son in school. He was right. I was being selfish.

Now, after two years of homeschooling, I can’t even believe I considered putting him in school. Once you are doing it, your philosophy becomes almost militant and you feel sorry about the poor kids in school all day! I have seen SO many benefits for both of my children, I would not consider doing anything differently. And the good thing for our kids is that WE have the knowledge and experience to make decisions for them. Five year olds do not have that. My son wanted to go to school, too. Keep in mind that I had been preparing him for school for a couple of months before I pulled the rug out on it. So I had to undo what I had created. For a couple of months into “school” he said he wanted to go to school, but as he woke up at 11 am I reminded him that he would have been in school already for THREE hours! It’s the little things they don’t think about until they are in the middle of it and realize school at home is fun and gives you the freedom to learn what you want, when you want.

I still hold true to my feelings on this. EVERY child is better of at homeschool if his/her parent is not abusive or neglectful. Even parents with barely a high school diploma are better for a child than sitting in a class with an educated teacher. This has been statistically demonstrated!

By: Jena

Jena — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:48:52 +0000

This is an excellent article, and on a topic that I’m dealing with right now. My youngest child will be a freshman in high school this fall. She and her two older siblings have been unschooled since kindergarten, but now this one is set on going to high school. She’s registered, but I haven’t signed on the dotted line yet. So, we’ll see how this all plays out. I’m praying she changes her mind, but I’m also willing for her to try it if that’s what she really wants.

I agree, though, about younger children. They really don’t know what they want or what’s best for them. I love the ideas about getting them a backpack, going through a simulated day, etc. Those things worked for my kids in the younger years.

By: carolyn smith

carolyn smith — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:42:02 +0000

Perhaps you could let her attend Kindergarten so she has an idea what school is all about. Most likely, she will have gotten the idea after the year is up and be content to homeschool. Although my daughter had no desire to go to K, most of it was fear driven, which I didn’t like either. I arranged for her to attend one day in the middle of the year for her to face her fears and have an idea what school was about and that she could handle it if she chose. She did fine and enjoyed her day and now has a ‘been there done that’ attitude about school but with no fear. —

By: Sandra Foyt

Sandra Foyt — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:56:24 +0000

This is excellent advice! It’s difficult to give the child the freedom to choose, given that their desires are shaped by media influence and a lack of experience.

So many times, I’ve seen my kids expressing reluctance to try something new, and yet they’re often glad that they’ve tried it later. One of my parental jobs is family PR person, encouraging the kids to try new things, and to make choices that deviate from the herd.