When to Homeschool?

I recently moved from the city to the country. The schools being only one of the MYRIAD of reasons I wanted to raise my kids in a more rural environment. Well now that I have moved, I have realized that things are just bad everywhere. I am considering homeschool for my children at some point, I am just not sure at what point exaclty. I feel that they need a basis of people interaction and independence in order to learn things aside from your basic curriculum and school is a good place to build that foundation, but at what point should I remove them?
I have this thought: I would like to take them out and homeschool them in the 6th through the 8th grade, then let them have the option to attend high school.
That way they have 3 good impressionable years in which I could teach them a lot, and I feel that middle school is a very troubling time for children these days, I think that many self esteem and anger issues arise at this point in a childs life and I would like to guide my children through that myself. Subsequently, going into the 9th grade they would be far ahead in their studies and having only had a 3 years hiatus, would not feel absurdly uncomfortable in the normal public school environment. High school can be very important for kids, they learn alot aout themselves in that time. I dont know, any thoughts on this...Oh, My son is 8, my daughter is 7, and then I have a 19month old boy as well.

Minerva said:

I recently moved from the city to the country. The schools being only one of the MYRIAD of reasons I wanted to raise my kids in a more rural environment. Well now that I have moved, I have realized that things are just bad everywhere. I am considering homeschool for my children at some point, I am just not sure at what point exaclty. I feel that they need a basis of people interaction and independence in order to learn things aside from your basic curriculum and school is a good place to build that foundation, but at what point should I remove them?
I have this thought: I would like to take them out and homeschool them in the 6th through the 8th grade, then let them have the option to attend high school.
That way they have 3 good impressionable years in which I could teach them a lot, and I feel that middle school is a very troubling time for children these days, I think that many self esteem and anger issues arise at this point in a childs life and I would like to guide my children through that myself. Subsequently, going into the 9th grade they would be far ahead in their studies and having only had a 3 years hiatus, would not feel absurdly uncomfortable in the normal public school environment. High school can be very important for kids, they learn alot aout themselves in that time. I dont know, any thoughts on this...Oh, My son is 8, my daughter is 7, and then I have a 19month old boy as well.

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I don't know the requirements for your state (as far as ages for schooling), but you can find the laws for all 50 states at hslda.org. I've been homeschooling for almost seven years, now. We did two years, second and third grades, in California. My husband passed away at the end of my daughter's third grade year and we moved to Indiana. She spent one semester in public school (one of the biggest mistakes I've made as a parent) for fourth grade. The teacher let her get by with a lot of things that she wouldn't have gotten away with with me. Then, I taught Spanish for a semester in a private school when she was in sixth grade. She spent a semester there for that.

You can ask pretty much any homeschooler (there are quite a few here: me, Nineveh, Poly, Knight, etc...) about the "S" word. :chuckle: Our children get plenty of socialization, more than most public schooled children, in fact. I know that my daughter (now in 10th grade) can easily get along with all age groups. I don't have to worry about her being bullied or being a bully. She not only has neighborhood friends, but she has friends from church, homeschooling friends, and friends that she's met from TOL (ShadowMaid, Elaine, and Christine).

I would say that if you are seriously considering homeschooling, don't give yourself a time limit. Or, make your time limit be as long as you see good things in your childrens' behaviour and education.

My son, now age 25, was in a Christian school from pre-k through 2nd grade. I felt like I was throwing him to the wolves when I could no longer afford to send him to Christian school. There were extenuating circumstances that I won't go into here but if I had it to do over, I would have home schooled him. Children grow up so fast and we only get one chance to do the right thing. Befoe you know it, they will be young adults and you will wonder where the time went. If you home school them you will have more time with them than most parents and I think that is a good thing. I seriously doubt you will regret it.

King Frog said:

My son, now age 25, was in a Christian school from pre-k through 2nd grade. I felt like I was throwing him to the wolves when I could no longer afford to send him to Christian school. There were extenuating circumstances that I won't go into here but if I had it to do over, I would have home schooled him. Children grow up so fast and we only get one chance to do the right thing. Befoe you know it, they will be young adults and you will wonder where the time went. If you home school them you will have more time with them than most parents and I think that is a good thing. I seriously doubt you will regret it.

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POTD! :first:

I took my daughter out of public school after 3rd grade and homeschooled her til last year, she's in 10th grade this coming year. I only regret not starting her earlier. In Indiana you don't have to be a teacher or have a degree you just have to notify the state that you are pulling the kids out of school. Between church and homeschool assoc. we were involved in, again, she got more socialization than public schooled kids. She is smart, gets good grades, has a good head on her shoulders & is on the honor roll all year long now. I wanted to keep homeschooling her because like King Frog said, your kids are only young once and you miss out on so much when they are in public school all day. We grew closer and I learned a lot from schooling her too. You have all kinds of options available to you. Good luck with what ever you decide!

I wish I would've been home schooled.

I won't go into the details of all the things that I did wrong in school, but it's sufficient to say that I went down a lot of wrong roads. The teachers in a public school (and many private schools) are just too busy to give each child the attention and correction that he needs, or they've been teaching so long that they're too tired to care. I've seen a lot of both.


Sending your kids off to school every day really adds to the feelings of separation from your parents in the teen and pre-teen years. This contributes to feelings of abandonment, fear that their parents don't love them, and most commonly that their parents don't understand them. I'm not saying that kids want to be with Mom twenty-four hours a day, but sending them off for 6-8 hours a day is a significant portion of their young lives.


As for social skills, have you met any home schooled kids? The kids I've met from home schools are outspoken while being respectful, knowledgeable without being boastful, and polite to the point that I feel a little embarrassed that I don't always behave that well. It's much better for a child to learn their social skills from you and those you approve of than from random kids at school and teachers who are just trying to make it through another day.


I know that I'm not any kind of authority on home schooling, but you've gotten response here primarily from the home schooling side of things and I wanted to give you a little perspective from somebody that went to public school. The only things I ever got from public school were a poor education, low self esteem, poor influences, and bad habits. I should also note that I went to a school that is considered to be one of the "best public schools in our area."


In summation, it is my opinion that all parents should teach their kids at home in a loving environment. Never send them to public school, even for one year, to learn social skills. It is the parents' responsibility to teach their kids, by lesson and example, and to keep them from the irreparable damage of sending them to the wolves at such a young age.

You might check out this thread.

Go for it!

Go for it!

If your situation permits it, I'd start them right away.

We homeschooled our kids all the way though high school. One has finished college now, one is still in college, and the oldest has his own technical consulting business and is kinda finishing college as he gets the time.

I wouldn't worry about the socialization thing...you will find other home schoolers and support groups and they will get plenty of that. Personally, I think socialization is over-rated anyway.

The only negative for us is that I have always had just a middle-class income and since my wife went all those years without working, we are now in a crunch to get ready for retirement (we're in our mid-fifties).

However, if we hadn't home-schooled, I doubt if we'd have this neat family rock band!

Thanks for all your responses! One thing I might add is that we live in the middle of the country. We have a caution light, a thrift store, a couple gas stations and that's really it. We don't live in a city where there are a lot of other homeschoolers to gather with, there aren't museums and organizations and places to get together with others doing this. That is why I feel like I want them to develop some social skills. While we were in the city I was more than APPAULED at the things they were hearing from other children, among other things about the school envirionment that I did not care for. Now that we are in the country, there is a huge difference, however, it still isn't perfect. And even if the children in the schools were, the system is absurd in my opinion, and will only get worse.

I was homeschooled for the last few years of high school, because I was ill. My younger brother only went to public school for about 3 years I believe. I have seen both sides of the fence in other words. Being where we are really makes a difference in this decision though. Any more thoughts?

We lived in the country for part of the time as well, but you may be out farther than we were. A 30 minute drive would bring us to "civilization" (i.e., supermarkets), and about an hour would get us into Dallas where we had access to museums, zoos, other home-schoolers, etc.

Are you one of those families who is so far out in the country that you need to drive TOWARD town to go deer hunting?

swanca99 said:

Are you one of those families who is so far out in the country that you need to drive TOWARD town to go deer hunting?

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:rotfl:

There is a town about 30 minutes away, but there isn't much to it! Museums, zoos, real civilization.......about 2 hours away.

Minerva said:

There is a town about 30 minutes away, but there isn't much to it! Museums, zoos, real civilization.......about 2 hours away.

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Two hours seems like a long way to go, but would the children really have more opportunity to go to the zoos, museums, etc. if they were in public school?

swanca99 said:

Are you one of those families who is so far out in the country that you need to drive TOWARD town to go deer hunting?

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That sounds a lot like my area. :chuckle: The nearest big city is Cincinnati. And, that's about fifty miles away.

Jadant said:

:rotfl:

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Yep, you jest keep own lafin at us cuntry folk! Jest cuz we have ta take owr clothes down to tha crik ta warsh em whenst they get rurnt, don't mean we aint gud as you! I'll get paw ta *** after ya with tha sawed off if'n you don't qwit it! :neck: :cow:

I was raised in the country, though I live in the city now. I was really just laughing at the phrase itself, I've never heard it put that way.

Me either, it was funny. :chuckle:

Hey Minerva! You might get a kick out of a couple of my neighbors. They have about fifteen deer heads on the living room walls, a stuffed trophy turkey in a glass case in the corner of the living room, a stuffed boar in the living room, and several mounted fish (all of the huge) on the living room walls.

Moving here from California seven years ago, I just about had a heart attack the first time I walked into their house. :chuckle:

My dad has a bunch of deer heads, a red tail squirrel, a bobcat (full body), moose antlers (they are huge) he's about to get a rattle snake done, not sure if he still has the fish, the centerpiece for the outside patio table is a huge mesh of deer antlers, On christmas we hang christmas balls on the deers ears to look like earrings and put shiny garland on as a boa, the bob cat wears a santa claus hat noid: did i just say all that)

Minerva said:

My dad has a bunch of deer heads, a red tail squirrel, a bobcat (full body), moose antlers (they are huge) he's about to get a rattle snake done, not sure if he still has the fish, the centerpiece for the outside patio table is a huge mesh of deer antlers, On christmas we hang christmas balls on the deers ears to look like earrings and put shiny garland on as a boa, the bob cat wears a santa claus hat noid: did i just say all that)

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:chuckle: Rednecks live on!