Wow...this is an amazing story! I love how you make it sound so amazing. I’m sure there are struggles that go along with it but you are making a wonderful go at it. Thanks for sharing.

It’s not amazing.  It’s work.  It’s boring a lot of the time.  We want some alone time some days and can’t get it. We have more questions than answers.  We’re afraid.  We don’t know if we’re screwing these little people up.  But we’re doing the best we can with what we think we know and we think it’s best thing for us for now.

I did not nor did any teacher that I knew of taught the “test”.

At least you will never have the experience of having a police officer come into your class room and drag a student off in cuffs.

I am glad that you are taking the time to home school your children.  They will learn more from you and your wife then they will learn in a public school.  Too much time is wasted dealing with non teaching issues during the day.

Thomas

I’m glad you decided to do it, Shaun, in spite of the stereotypes some people have.  I was homeschooled all the way and look how I turned out.  Okay, maybe that’s not the best argument. 

Seriously, though, I’ve never regretted not going to “real school”, and am thankful for what I got to experience and learn because of being homeschooled.

Will you homeschool all the way through, or just in the elementary grades?

I always wanted to be home schooled, but it wasn’t possible with my mom working full-time and my dad not always having his wits about him… it probably also would have been hard to work out the teaching 10 children all at different stages in their educational development. Despite my not being home schooled, I turned out very weird, and I think in today’s society, being weird as a kid has more to do with your convictions than it has to do with the schooling you got. Some of my best friends are home schoolers, and there is no denying their weirdness factor, but they also tend to be the most enthusiastic followers of Christ I’ve met!

Shaun,

I was home schooled for several years.

It had its ups and downs, but the main thing I would encourage you to keep in view is socialization.

Apparently you live in a neighborhood with several kids and yours connect with them, and that sounds awesome for this season.

As your kids grow, or your circumstances change, or people move in and out of the neighborhood, just be careful to ensure lots of socialization opportunities for your young’ns.

That, in my experience, should be a good safeguard against the biggest potential danger of homeschooling.

That, and start your kids on Donald Miller books nice and young :0)

so great to hear of your journey.  holly and i homeschool our two oldest [6 and 4] and I resonate with your bullet points!

appreciate the friendship!

ooo.. I love Donald Miller! I don’t always agree with him, but he rocks my socks!

Shaun.

We homeschool our two oldest too.  Maybe someday we should let them play and be weird together.  We can supply them with twelve-sided die, pull their pants up too high, and give them cigarette lighters. 

My homeschooled kid can beat up your homeschooled kid. 

AP

P.S.  Thanks for the Rabbit Room props.

If you decide to homeschool your students all the way through high school, you’ll also have the option of letting them dual-enroll in a university their senior year.  I have a few students right now in my college freshman comp. class who are seniors in high school, and they are homeschooled but are taking some college classes to earn credit before they even officially “begin” college.  They’re definitely capable of doing the work, too.  I think that’s pretty cool. 

Props to you for homeschooling.  I hope to do the same with my kids.

Shaun, our girls are also homeschooled and this is a great post!  Thanks for your thoughts on this topic.  I’m right with you on every single point.

Kevin

I had the privelege of being homeschooled through high school graduation, and your bullet points resonate with me. I don’t regret my parent’s decision; in fact, I can honestly say that for me, being homeschooled was one of the best things in my life. It allowed my parents and I to customize a curriculum and a study pace that challenged me, fit my personality and made sure I was ready for the higher education in my future.

it’s good to hear from a homeschooler who isn’t passing judgment on the decision my wife and I made to do public school. we’ve had some really bad experiences here in east tennessee with homeschool folks.

i grew up overseas and homeschooling made sense. i was very social. i had lots of friends to play with, neighbors, fellow mks and church friends. when we returned to the US i went to public school for 3 mos in 2nd grade and 5th and 6th grade. skipped 7th grade due to another move out of the country and began 8-10th in a private school in australia. 11th was public. not fun at all having left my 10th grade class mates across town. 12th grade i homeschooled and we moved back to the states and i finished. i only wish i could’ve had a better preparation for college writing, but didn’t learn a whole lot in 12th grade. I did the ACE program and do NOT recommend it at all. You don’t learn squat. I didn’t, I just went through and completed all my tests and turned them in.  But I loved science with my dad as a little girl. We would go look for tadpoles, do many fun experiments. Very real world. I probably learned more about astronomy then I ever did in college just from star gazing with my dad. Certainly more fun than taking owl pellets out of foil and reconstructing rat skeletons for 5th grade science. blech. i’ve known many well rounded homeschool kids who are full grown adults now just like myself. i think we’re pretty smart. and friendly =)

Any questions...?

Sure I have a question.

Did you really think writting all that would make some of us think you were any less weird?

Yay for homeschooling! And very good post on the subject.

I think the worst part of homeschooling was, ironically enough, college. Almost everyone on faculty or staff was extremely leery of any homeschooler. I should have realized BEFORE I enrolled, that the admissions counselor disparaging my upbringing and questioning my intellect, to my face, on my first visit to campus, would be just the start - I would be living in a prejudiced enviroment for my whole university career. For example, I delivered a speech about homeschooling in class, and got verbally ripped to shreds by the whole class - while the teacher watched! No one was asking me questions about the speech… they just accused me of being a horrible and inferior person.

After another professor did a similar thing I complained to the Dean of Student Life. He didn’t get it either until I pointed out that no one would ever be allowed to say such things or ask such questions about the parents of a person who went to parochial school. It was not an earned reputation I was dealing wtih there; it was total misunderstanding and unthinking prejudice.

I hope and pray that the ‘old guard’ has moved on by the time your kiddos get to college!

I applaud your decision to homeschool your kids and at the same time am thankful that you’re not criticizing or judging those of us who don’t.  I’ve thought about it at times, but know myself well enough to know that I wouldn’t see it through and that wouldn’t be good for my kids at all.  I’ve taught students from nursery to adult education in public, private, university, and employment classrooms over the last 25 years.  I’m good at it, and I enjoy it most of the time.  It bothers me sometimes to know that I provide for others what I cannot provide for my own children, but I know it’s best for them and me in the long run.

My kids have gone to public schools (except in Hawaii) and have faired well.  I’m a fairly regular figure in their classrooms and I’m sure that helps too.  They’ve had many opportunities to stand strong in their faith, witness to their teachers and their peers and I believe have made a difference along the way too. 

Thanks for what you do.  Keep it up!  Your kids will thank you for it one day because you do it for the right reasons.

Beth

I was homeschooled for ten years.  I’m not incredibly abnormal.

Nate

i think the comments you made about sitting in the lobby while your kids were at co-op sorta gave your secret away to those of us that homeschool.

I’m homeschooled too and it’s just the way you described it. It has it’s goods and bads, but when you hear you can sleep in, you’re sold. Some people think just cause your homeschooled you have no knowledge of the outside world and never socialize, which couldn’t be any farther from the truth. Frankly I’m very happy. Most of the time I’m teaching myself and getting good grades. This helps prepare me for college and the real world when I don’t have a teacher to question. Also that is so completely true about what you said,” what takes a public school kid to learn in 6 hours a homeschool kid can learn in one”.
Anyways I found your blog through Brody Harpers blog. I often see your name on Phil Wickham’s blog, so I thought I’d check you out. You seem like a cool dad and guy.
P.S. Love your hair, it’s so mysterious and great. It’s almost as good as Phil Wickham’s, ok it’s as good.

I don’t know if there is a better compliment than the one Kimberly L. just gave you…

We are in our third year of homeschooling. All I have to say about your post is: Ditto. You are echoing our thoughts and situation nearly exactly.

We homeschool, too.  A 7-year-old.

It’s the bomb.  I posted about why I do so a couple of weeks ago and that whole thing about not having to wake up early made the top 3.

A couple of you mentioned being treated badly by homeschooling parents.  That was my biggest reason for not wanting to homeschool.  The parents we knew that did it were evangelists for homeschooling and unkind ones at that.

The truth is I’m not sure it’s the best decision for us, let alone anyone else.  So we’re taking it one year at a time, thinking at this point that we’ll “mainstream” our kids at some point. 

Brian, my brother-in-law, has three kids in public school and they’re great kids.  They seem to love school and do well there, which makes it tempting sometimes to bail on homeschooling altogether.  Homeschooling is just a good fit for our schedules, our kids and our personalities today.  But who knows about tomorrow?

It’s the unkind (nay, vicious) crusaders against homeschooling that make me dread the day I might have to decide to put my kids into public school.

There’s gonna be weirdos on all sides. Can’t really blame either system for that.

(Funny how we use words like “evangelists” and “crusaders” to describe people we don’t like.)

OK. Since it’s “show and tell"…
We home-school our 5 oldest, and I like the results, but it is ALOT of work with that many. It’s worth it. However we do it just because it is best solution for us. Where we live, the public schools are just so horrendous (I have a friend who teaches there, and they are homeschooling their son) that there just isn’t another option, private school being out of our price range. I’m also with Shaun on the imitation factor. Our family is tight, my 15 year old daughter already has job opportunities galore and my 11 year old son has a chance to go to Europe next year. So, no socialization problems here.

My wife has her masters in Education. She taught 4th, 3rd and 2nd for upwards of 10 years. She personally won all sorts of awards for excellance and she can’t wait to teach other teachers how to teach better.  With that said, some of the other teachers sucked! As in any job. What homeschool lacks is a trained eye for learning problems and sometimes the pluses of bigger education like sports, trips and that one special teacher who brought out what your kid should do for the rest of his or her life.

My question to you Shaun. What about keeping our “Christian” kids in school to influence the others?  I personally am not for schools teaching any religion because then you get a teacher who is stronger in one subject then another. Religion and the relationship that I hope comes with it should be taught at home. Its our kids living it out that effects others. Taking the kids out takes that away.

Compassion Int. is about sharing GOD grace he bestowed on you. Is home schooling taking away from the sharing of GOD’s grace? I don’t have this answer and I’d like to know yours.

And Brad, just above my post. I’ve seen homeschools like yours that do great in life. And I’m all for getting my kid farther than yours (not your’s Brad, just being general) but where does our survant heart come into play?

ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!
that was a rapturous applause for you guys. Great stuff

Mr. Police Man, I got a ticket yesterday so I’m trying not to take that out on you here ; )

Seriously, first, my motivation isn’t at all to get my kids ahead.  I don’t think knowing more stuff than the other kid is really all that beneficial but that’s another post for another day.

Second, my oldest kids are six and five.  Not sure what kind of evangelists they are at this age.

This is sort of like the argument that we’re to be “in the world” and you may recall that my response to that comment whenever it’s made is that I don’t believe we can be OUT of this world...ever.  It’s impossible. Look at the Amish - still being noticed, talked about, influencing whether they want to or not.

Being out of public school certainly hasn’t taken us out of this world.  We still go to grocery stores, play at parks, buy gas, spend the night at friends’ houses, go to birthday parties, shop at the mall etc.  School is not the world.  Earth is the world and we’re still on it.

Shaun,

Thanks for your honesty and tact with this subject.

I have a 5th grader in public school.  Never considered home-schooling because I have a full-time “regular” job.  We are blessed to have found a wonderful, small school that has the family atmosphere we value for our child (and is walking distance from our house - woohoo!).  This school also happens to lead the district in test scores.  If we didn’t have an option like this where we live, we would likely give more consideration to alternatives like private school or homeschooling…

Kids do learn a lot more than just academics from being the traditional school setting.  Respect for a range of authority figures, the ability to resolve conflicts with a variety of personalities in other children, and the discipline of keeping to a common schedule and routine (which may be very important as an adult, depending on what they end up doing) are just a few examples.

I think that my daughter is pretty well grounded in her faith and morals.  We have a strong children’s ministry at our church, and she has plenty of positive role-models in our family.  She DOES face challenges at public school (as did I at a private Christian school), but I believe the trials thus far have been learning experiences that have made her even stronger. 

We make a point to be open ears at home about both academic and social issues.  We’ve recently started making dinner at the table each night a norm, and this has been a great conduit for such discussions.  If anyone out there isn’t doing this, I strongly encourage you to make it a priority!

We also try to be as active as we can in her education and school activities.  And there are plenty of opportunities to supplement her “standard” public school education with family activities and trips. 

Not every family has the same options.  And not every child has the same needs.  But every parent has the responsibility to make the decision of what they believe is best for their kids and follow through.

Wow, sorry for the length!  Good topic.
Annie

You sound like a great mom, Annie.

Nancy’s right.  You’ve already told blog readers that you homeschool.

However, weird it may seem to some, you can take solace in the fact that homeschooling is almost normal now (much more normal than being a raw foodist).  This is quite unlike 20 years ago when my parents started and it had only been a legal option for a year.  There wasn’t exactly a plethora of social science data to say these kids on average end up OK and many people thought my parents were going to raise kids who would flounder in college and never be able to hold down a job. I had a graduation ceremony where 2 out of 10 kids had been homeschooled while it was still illegal.  2/10 were also national merit finalists.

It’s kind of fun homeschooling my kids and knowing several 2nd gen homeschool families.

MB

Please tell me you aren’t using phonics to teach them to read and all is good.

As a graduate of the public school system, I’ve always been pretty skeptical of the whole homeschool idea. However, kudos to you, Shaun. I’ve never heard a more convincing presentation of reasons for homeschooling.

Your post actually caused me, for the first time in my life, to give it fair consideration.

Oh one more thing…

Public school teachers are some of the hardest working underpaid people in this country.  They put in many more hours than the school day requires.  Most of them do not want to teach to the test, but really have no choice.  They will often find other ways to introduce other learning at personal sacrifice.  They are required to be teacher/surrogate parent/savior to these kids in some cases. 
I know you weren’t saying anything against them, I just wanted to give a shout out to these great people.

And what is wrong with phonics?

On a different note, I started out in a Christian school, was homeschooled 4th through 10th, went to a public high school for the last two years, public Community College, and finished up at a Christian college.  And you know what?  I wouldn’t trade any of those experiences for anything!

Everything has it’s pluses and minuses.  There are great teachers in public schools and there are poor parent teachers.

Still, it always makes me excited to hear about someone else homeschooling who enjoys it.

Just don’t use me as an example of someone turning out normal.  I am weird.  My brother, who was homeschooled all the way through is normal, however. 

My wife is student-teaching in a public school right now.  She gets so frustrated because she does have to spend so much time just teaching the stuff that will be on the AIMS test (Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards).  It really bugs her that she can’t make learning fun for the kids in the class.  It’s great that you have the opportunity to hopefully make learning fun for your kids and help them prepare for the “real” world.

Mark,

Uh-oh, you might wished you hadn’t asked me!  Obviously some phonics knowledge is necessary for reading, but I think a lot of schools have gone so far in the direction of teaching phonics that they aren’t really teaching reading, they are teaching children how to decode.  I work in a program that is used as an intervention program in many schools (but I work in a company with adults) for the kids who aren’t getting reading.  We take an entirely different approach...a constructivist approach.  We believe that reading is a process your brain learns on an implicit level, much like riding a bike.  This program has amazing success across all socio-economic levels, with all different linguistic abilities, and also with students who have been told they have a learning disability.  It’s really amazing to watch someone who has struggled with reading their whole life become someone who reads with no effort.  It’s a lot harder to implement once you’re an adult, though, so it’s best to get to kids before they learn to read. 
Whether or not your child reads comfortably and effortlessly will have a huge impact on all their further learning.
If anyone wants to know more, come visit me at my blog...my email address is over there.

So Shaun, I’ve never heard you’re music before, but I’ve been listening to it and must I say WOW! I love it, it’s very messageful and relaxing. I’m so glad I found it. I am now an official Shaun Groves fan. Take care.

- A New Fan

We homeschool as well and are taking it one year at a time. I especially like what you have to say about the mistaken notion that school is the world.

I think that for my family, we actually have more opportunities and more time to serve others as a family than we would if my child were in school. Most of my daughter’s friends are in public schools, so it’s not as if she has no way to influence them and live out her faith toward them as she grows (she’s only 6) outside of a school setting. Serving and showing grace to others is an important part of our curriculum for our kids. We’ve also interacted with quite a few non-Christians in our homeschooling group who I never would have met otherwise.

There is no shortage of ways to share God’s grace. We aren’t all called to do it in the same place or in the same way.

I’ve got my eldest in the public schools.  I know that I wouldn’t do a good job homeschooling, even though many of the aspects of it appeal to me.  But of all the points raised here, the one about teaching the tests concerns me the most.  These pervasive benchmarking tests are overtaking the public schools.  More and more, even the best teachers are absolutely strait-jacketed by them and that does concern me.  I think that we’re only starting to see how much these tests are going to dominate public education, and while I want accountability and standards as much as the next person, I don’t think that we’ve got the right way to accomplish that.  Saving our kids from those things seems to me to be one of the more compelling arguments for homeschooling right now.

In terms of kids learning in an hour . . . yes, of course.  But in my 1st grader’s school day, she gets and hour or more of physical activity, PE and recess.  I admit that’s probably more than I would get her outside.  She gets taught art techniques I don’t know.  She gets taught music--and I can barely carry a tune in a bucket.  As well as many other things.  The question is, does the school make that bad of a use of her six hours?  Would I do better?  In first grade, I’m content.  When we get to the point when she’s spending a week straigh filling in bubbles with a #2 pencil, we may need to reconsider.

I was homeschooled all 12 years, and am now in college, where I will complete my program in 3 years instead of 4 (thanks to dual enrollment during homeschooling) and save about $11,000.

I loved this post because it reminded me of all the good things about homeschooling that I loved. Sure, as one of the most outgoing people you’ll ever meet I often hated it, but now I am glad my parents stuck with it.

My mom was an elementary teacher before she taught us, so her teaching skills certainly weren’t lacking.

I think my favorite thing about being homeschooled was the love of learning that it placed it me. Like you said, learning isn’t confined to a classroom--it happens everywhere. And I know for my family, that was best facilitated by homeschooling. It sounds like for your family it is too.

Question for you though: Since you do homeschool, and then you also are gone touring, how does Becky get breaks? Does it ever get to be too much? (That might be too personal, and if it is, I rescind the question)

i am 22 and was home schooled my whole life, being enrolled in high school for music classes only. Homeschooling was something i HATED, but looking back, i think it actually worked out very well. i was able to be in 6 musical ensembles at one time, and if i were too exhausted to think about getting up at 7 the next morning, my mom let me get up at 9. School only took as long as i needed it to, so if i already knew something, i’d take its test and move on. i needed to take Algebra II for two years because it was beyond me, and home schooling allowed me to do that. My relationship with my mom is now also one of my best. People ask if i’d home school my son, and it’s hard to say. If he asked me to home school him, i definitely would. If he were being dragged down academically i would also think about it. But i think i’ll start him out in public school, as my husband is pretty much against homeschooling: he thinks it’s crazy weird! He also blames the fact that i’m a bit of an introvert on homeschooling, though it really is just my personality, as my brother is extroverted. There are facets of the “real world” that caught me by surprise when i started going to public high school and were difficult to deal with, but i’d imagine that to be true for most of the kids starting high school. Interesting post, though. More power to you for trying something that is still very much looked-down upon. The more cool people like you that home school, the more it will be respected!

good conversation.  I just want to point out that ‘dual enrollment’ in college courses is not exclusive to homeschool students.  Most public HS have a system where their HS seniors get dual credit with a local college.

Homeschooling ROCKS! I don’t know if you remember me or not from from Hope Covanent Church in ND, but we have five kids in our family and my mom homeschooled my older sister from 3rd grade through graduation and my sister turned out fine! LOL. She is also homeschooling me in tenth and one of my other sisters that is in first.  I don’t know if you are familiar with ABEKA or not, but that is the curriculum that we use! I hope you have a wonderfully blessed day!

Hillary, if you read above I come off against homeschooling. Mostly, in my opinion, most parents can not offer to their children what a public or even private education can. Although there are positives and benes for both too.

I will however comment that I was in a “Christian” school through my H.S. career. I too used ABEKA and this will be the only time I take a hard line on this or any other blog about a curriculum. ABEKA and the few others they used at my christian school were week at best!
Hillary I’m not attacking you. Words on a page always come off different then I feel I’m typing them.

A positive! ABEKA however is the best curriculum out there for Christian Schools, which is the very reason my wife is attempting to write curriculum now for christian home schools and private schools to use.

My wifes educated opinion about Abeka is: “it is only skills based, and leaves out critical thinking components. It uses mostly workbook materials and lacks hands on approaches.”

To end… Unfortunatly my wife is the more mature Christian in her thinking and she relayed this thought to me as we talked about this post. (And yes this doesn’t apply to all, it does apply to 99% of OUR friends we know)

Cont…
Shaun you spoke about going to the grocery store, and playing at the park as being a part of the world. Yet isn’t this actually a sheltered life where the world does not get to engage us and see us living out our faith? It is our (wife and I) opinion related to our homeschooled friends that they have greater crisis of faith when they leave the homeschools/christian schools. They tend to be the weeker christians and their faith has not been tested as much.

Now with all the negative facts I’ve just given you my wife and I are thinking of homeschooling. Why? Because aat age 2.5 my boy is already past all the marks of a kindergardner. I can’t
afford ivy league schools so I must rely on my wifes education to keep my boy streached.  Take care you all.

I am a single woman with no children. However, some of the most impressive and intelligent children I have met over the years have been homeschooled children.  And I am always most impressed with their high level of self confidence and above average social skills. But I do think much of the success in H.S. has much to do with the level of consistantcy and commitment the parents are willing and available to make. Also, keeping a disciplined and structured (but flexible) schedule helps prepare these kids for the real world. After all.. most people in the real world can’t sleep in till 10.