Do you have buddies who are toying with the idea of home education but have not yet made the leap? If you do, this is the show to pass on to them. Mary Ellen and Ginny discuss it all today, as they discuss Why NOW is the time to start homeschooling.

Show Notes:

Public schools are a disaster.

• NAEP Reading Assessment – ⅔ of students do not reach basic proficiency in ELA: ¾ in math.  
• Major universities have students taking remedial math courses. 
• The social environment in too many public schools can be toxic. Pronoun police, kindergarten drag shows, gay pride parades, and girls forced to undress in front of bio boys!  
• Often, schools ignore specific requests from parents to exempt their children from these programs.  Even if your local school is not that bad, it will certainly not help pass on your Catholic faith to the children.
• Catholic schools are few and far between and often beyond the means of many families.

You can tailor your curriculum.

• Is Junior a math whiz, even in primary years?  You can do 3rd grade with 5th grade math!  Does your daughter struggle to keep pace in her classroom?  You can move her down a level.  Or you can take longer to finish the school year.  Or you can get a special curriculum to meet her needs.  Virtually endless options for homeschooling
• Maybe your in-laws are immigrants.  You can add their native language to your school day.
• Is your child a high-performing athlete or performer? You can schedule your school day around practices, competitions, rehearsals, and performances.
• Does your family like to travel?  Pack up the books, and away you go.

It’s unnatural for kids to sit for long hours.

It is not even a little unusual today.  Little Johnny doesn’t sit still in class and has trouble paying attention.  It must be Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and school officials will often recommend medicating him.  BTW, school districts get more money for “handicapped” kids.

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder should be required reading for every family with kids.  Based on a true story from a 19th-century NY state, little Almanzo is given a yoke for his 9th birthday, which he enthusiastically uses to train oxen.  Before breakfast, he and his siblings care for the livestock; they collect eggs and haul water and firewood.  Then, they have a long walk to their schoolhouse, where they are thrilled to sit down for a while.  After the long walk home, they again care for livestock before even looking for an after-school snack.

Compare that with today’s school kids. They eat breakfast; most don’t even make their beds. They wait for a bus less than a block from their homes, sit on a bus, sit in a classroom and a lunchroom, sit on a bus, and come home—too often to play video games.

Homeschooled kids can be active for much of the day.  They can do chores, take lots of breaks between classes, and rarely have to work after regular school hours.  They live a much more natural life.

Let your kid be a kid!

Brick-and-mortar schools will always be there.

We now know that most homeschooling parents can do a great job. Homeschoolers routinely outperform kids in brick-and-mortar schools by almost any measure.

But things can happen – family illness, financial problems, sometimes we just can’t continue.  Here’s the thing – the schools will still be there if you want to change your mind. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Homeschooling Resources

Seton Home Study School

Seton Testing Services