Home Education

Why is it more important than ever to seriously consider taking your child's education into your own hands? I have been getting asked a lot of questions about homeschooling, along with my personal practices, and how to get started so I thought I would write a series of articles on the subject.

Homeschooling, that is, parent-led home-based education is an age-old traditional practice.

People might have their own preconceived notions about who specifically “homeschools”. “Homeschoolers” consisted at one time mostly of white, middle-class, and religious fundamentalist families, but is no longer limited to these groups nor should it be!

I don’t even like the term “Homeschool” and I rarely to never use it. Being “schooled” in my opinion sums up everything that is wrong with the current government provided educational paradigm. I refer to the teachings that go on in our home as they relate directly with being educated as “Home education”. That being said, learning and educating happens every second of every day of our lives. I believe that seizing as many of these moments as possible and turning them all into opportunities for learning and family communication unwittingly and thankfully growing our family bond.

Let’s break down some of the reasons why anyone should seriously consider taking his or her child’s education into his or her own hands.

Time Time is a non-renewable resource. Once it is gone there is no way of getting it back. During the average school year, the waking hours for a child in attendance are largely spent in one of these schools, on the way to or from one of these schools, or getting ready to attend\winding down from one of these schools. While some parents seem to get filled with joy when their children return to school for the summer, I was never one of them.

I add up all of the hours they will spend in these brick buildings under fluorescent lights. All of the hours being told when to eat, when they can talk, when they can use the restroom, what they are supposed to think, when they must remain silent, and when they can go home. All of the hours over all of the years of schooling. Kids used to start school at 6, they are now offering things like ‘Voluntary Pre-K’ getting children into this system as young as 4. In fact, children have only been being schooled in this manner that resembles a factory for a hundred years or less.

The school didn’t always group children by age, make them subservient to a bell, or even require so many hours. All of this came with the industrialization of education. So for me one of the most important reasons to take my child's education into my own hands is time. Time away from my children that we can never get back.

Violence While statistics do not show that violence is necessarily on the rise, it is hard to ignore all of the stories in the news relating violent school events such as shootings on a regular basis. I can tell you there was definitely a period of time around 50 years ago when children did drive to public schools with shotguns and rifles in their vehicles and coincidentally during the same time there were no school shootings.

This causes me to become highly concerned with a number of things in this school setting. I can’t help but wonder if the setting itself is not a breeding ground for this sort of activity. However, this is an entirely separate topic that I will get into some other time but the take away is this: Those children are sitting ducks.

Bringing weapons to school has been made a punishable offense, so when one of them does, the rest are sitting ducks. Unarmed, and unable to protect themselves. Even if a student only brought a weapon to school in order to protect themselves in the event there was an attack on the premises, if they were caught they would be punished - even when they haven’t brandished the weapon at all.

The government band-aid appears to be metal detectors, armed guards, and armed teachers… When you consider the fact that “schooling” is compulsory and mandated by the government I can’t help but notice how this resembles a day prison for America’s children.

We could include bullying in this category if you'd like. We are all aware it is certainly a "thing". I’m just not willing to send my children for this significant chunk of their life to something that resembles a prison. Nor can I consciously send them to a facility with an increased risk of violence without the means to protect and defend themselves, with no hope that they will actually be protected.

Diversly educated children Getting the chance to make really important educational choices that aren’t included in the average public school education. Such as logic and ethics. Free energy, self-sustainability, what the Federal Reserve actually is, or even how to grow your own food, canning, drying and long-term storage. I do however remember carrying around an egg I wasn’t supposed to break for a week to get a real life taste of what motherhood was like? So weird now that I think back on it.

There is a reason that things like this aren't taught in the government-run public school system. I would never expect them to be. Instead, endless hours are spent on pointless information I have never used once in my entire life.

Your child will have the ability to focus on the information they are interested in learning instead of being forced to absorb information that has no place in our lives. This isn’t even taking into account that large portions of what we are taught via school are out and out false, cherry-picked, or biased points of view that the masses are expected to take on as their own view.

Avoid unwanted poisons I have seen a systematic poisoning of children executed through the public school system. Whether it is the increased inoculation schedules or the fact that most children's prescription drug recommendations start with the schools. [The school notifies the parent of an unruly child. Parent notifies the Dr. The Dr. notifies Big Pharma and the customer cycle has been initiated, ON OUR YOUTH.] I have seen it over and over again. Might as well add the food they serve to the list of poisonous components. The meals are based on a nutritional model that isn’t even good for us. Fresh, pesticide-free, food is unheard of in most public school cafeterias, especially the younger grades.

Above average academics A discovery in the study "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America" stated that there was no difference in homeschooling scores based on the student’s race and that scores for both minority and white students in grades k-12 averaged in the 87th percentile. This statistic is in sharp contrast to the public school systems where 8th-grade white students score in the 57th percentile on average, while blacks and Hispanic students score in the 28th percentile in reading alone. Statistics do not speak favorably only about minorities but all students who homeschool, regardless of their demographics. The study included 5,402 students that homeschool. The study verified that on average, homeschoolers were performing higher than their public school equivalent “by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects.”

The last significant statistic from the Strengths of Their Own study regards the effect of government regulation on homeschooling. Dr. Brian Ray compared the impact of government regulation on the academic performance of homeschool students and he found no positive correlation. In other words, whether a state had a high degree of regulation (i.e., curriculum approval, teacher qualifications, testing, home visits) or a state had no regulation of homeschoolers, the homeschooled students in both categories of states performed the same. The students all scored on the average in the 86th percentile regardless of state regulation

I prefer to make important life choices myself, especially when it comes to my family’s education. It isn’t because I think I know ‘better’ than all those professional educators (although, some of them I certainly do!), but I do think I know my own children the best. This means I know which programs, methods, information, and options would benefit them. Home education for me is about making personal and positive choices for my own family. Doing my best not to outsource what my children learn to a government or religious entity. All the while, being extremely grateful for the opportunity I have to spend all of those hours added up together as a family, learning together, teaching each other, and exploring the information and education that matter to us. Raising conscious children by being a conscious parent.

Next, we will break down the different options out there for the Home Education path that is right for you.