Beck - Heart Full of Free Why homeschool? Not sure if its for you? Keen to know what’s good about it? I never thought I would end up homeschooling Marcus. But here we are, 4 years later, and it is one of the best decisions I ever made.
People choose to homeschool their children for many different reasons, and it’s not for everyone. Personally, I am not a fan of our children being forced into an education system that does not cater for individuals. Plus I feel the entire system is a bit controlling, removing freedoms from a very young age.
Our experience of the education system was not the most positive. And when you see your child thrive when you homeschool them you know that you’ve made the right choice. I thought I would share our experiences with school, why I chose to homeschool, and the benefits it’s had for us.
1. Not Learning in The Classroom
The first reason for us to leave the schooling system was that Marcus simply wasn’t learning in the classroom. I knew he was intelligent enough, but his school reports and school work didn’t align at all with this. I then noticed that other friends’ children who went to the same school were “falling through the cracks”. These kids were so behind in certain areas they couldn’t catch up and needed outside tutoring. And the teachers had not addressed this. It was swept under the rug. And I wonder how much that occurred because these teachers didn’t want to take responsibility for failing these children.
Once I started teaching Marcus in a way he understood, rather than the way he was supposed to, he starting producing amazing schoolwork the he is very proud of . And work that I am (and still am) very pleased with.
2. The First Terrible Teacher
The second reason for us to leave the schooling system was the irreparable damage done to Marcus’ self esteem by teachers.
He has a terrible teacher in prep. She picked on him, and always told him off even if all the other children in class were acting the same. She felt he had ADHD and asked me to go and get him checked (which I did). But it was simply a 5 year old acting like a 5 year old. Calling out in class. Wanting to be seen and heard by the teacher.
This teacher eventually sent him to the principal for sticking his tongue out at her when she told him off. Who sends a 5 year old to the principal for sticking their tongue out?This punishment seemed to be a little bit extreme for the crime. And honestly, the principal was also a little confused by it all as well.
By the time we were mid way through the year, Marcus no longer wanted to go to school because he knew he was going to get in trouble. This was prep and this was his first experience with school. No matter what he did, it was going to be wrong. Even when he took carrots for “fruit snack” he was told off, and advised he needed to bring fruit.
3. The Second Terrible Teacher (Worse Than the First)
His second bad experience came with his teacher in Year 3. She was similar to the prep teacher, and picked on him. This teacher had clear favourites. She would tell him he was wrong when he wasn’t. The other child was always believed over Marcus when there was an issue. She always dismissed him as a liar.
This teacher had a reward system called “Star of The Week”. Each week she would give a certificate to one child each week for something positive about them. After every other child in the class had received this reward, the teacher announced to the class that not everyone would get the reward, and some children might get it twice. Obviously, Marcus was beside himself and so upset when she said this. She had made it very clear that he would not be getting this award. And she made it very clear to him that she did not like him one little bit.
After he came home and told me, I took it up with the teacher. I was absolutely astonished that she thought it was okay to damage a child’s self esteem like that. And that she couldn’t find one positive thing about Marcus. The next week he received the award, but he knew it was only because I had made her do it.
And I’m going to be honest here, I hate to think it, but I also believe she disliked me, and took it out on Marcus.
4. Not Fitting the Predetermined Stereotype of a Perfect Student
There is still a preferred type of student that teachers reward in the classroom. Those who are different, or don’t fit the stereotype are made to feel less important and less smart than those that do. Unfortunately, this can cause long term emotional damage to children. Damage that once done, can not be undone. We trust these adults every day to look after our children physically and emotionally, and they were completely letting us down.
Marcus used to cry about going to school. He was actually depressed and suicidal at the age of 8 years old. That was not okay with me. And the only way to prevent it happening was to take him out of the environment. There was no way I was going to forced my child to go to a place everyday that made hime feel like this.
Taking Marcus out of school and homeschooling has improved his self esteem dramatically. I can never undo the hurt and damage done by those teachers. The way they abused their authority. But I can make sure that it never happens again by homeschooling him.
I also just want to add that we also had some really brilliant teachers during Marcus’s time at school. Unfortunately, it only takes one to do damage, and in our case we had two.
5. Bullying
Bullying was also an issue at school. On the school bus, going to and from school, was one of the worst places. Marcus’ would get bullied daily, not only on the bus, but also in the playground. Not one adult staff member of the school stepped in to help or to prevent it from occurring. When Marcus complained, he was told to either sort it out, or the children were reprimanded, and then they would go back to their original behaviour knowing there was nothing the teachers could do.
I know Marcus’ experience doesn’t even come close to comparing what some other children have gone through. With one in 4 children being bullied at school, this is an issue that still needs to be seriously addressed and one that many parents are taking into their own hands.
6. The School Drop Off & Pick Up
How much do I hate school pick up and drop off!! Anyone else? The traffic and the lack of consideration by other parents makes for one of the most frustrating and unsafe environments. I don’t think anyone should have to deal with that kind of stress, its worse than peak hour on the freeway! And I am yet to see a school that actually considers traffic management and parking in any shape or form. Marcus did end up catching the school bus for a while, but unfortunately that exposed him to an unsupervised bullying environment, so it was a lose-lose situation for us.
It might seem small, but I can’t tell you how much I love the fact that homeschooling means I don’t have to deal with that traffic on a twice daily basis.
7. School Holidays
School holidays are no longer an issue. One of my pet hates is the high prices of travel during the school holiday period, plus the crowds!! For a single parent, it made holidaying quite difficult to afford, if we could at all. And then everything was so crowded. I just wanted to go away and relax.
Plus, being told by the school and the education department that my child needed to attend school every day. And if I wanted to go on a holiday during school term having to ask them for permission. And then waiting for them to decide whether or not they would grant me permission to holiday when I could afford it.
Sorry, this control over our time and freedoms really started to annoy me. And this control meant I was also forced to pay more for any travel I wanted to do. So now we homeschool and I have the freedom to travel whenever I want (never during school holidays). I don’t need to ask anyone for permission and I can travel when costs are lower saving us money. Plus, we can take our school work with us. Or to be honest, not, because when we homeschool, we have plenty of time to get school work done, which means more free time.
8. More Time Off
Homeschool has provided so much more free time for Marcus. He has actually learned more, because it is a one on one education. And he completes his work quicker during the day – meaning more time off for him. This year, we have completed our work for the year by the end of October, with 8 weeks off, ultimately only working for 33 weeks of the year. And this is not 8am – 3pm days either These are 10am – 2pm days. A normal school year runs for 40 weeks, so thats an extra 7 weeks of time off for Marcus to just be a kid, and explore life.
Plus if you are having a bad day, and the work doesnt get done, it just gets done the next day. No missing out or falling behind the class becaues of sickness.
9. Less Expensive
I’ve found homeschooling to be cheaper than school. It all depends on how you do it. I found once I’d pay for the school administration fees, excursion fees, school uniforms stationary, books and any other additional things they ask you for money for – (there is always something), attending school was quite expensive. And this was public school – which is supposed to be free, but realistically, not even close.
Homeschooling simply can be as cheap or as expensive as you want. For me, it is much cheaper financially than the outlay for public school each year.
10. Freedom to Choose What Your Children Learn
Homeschool allows me the freedom to choose what I teach Marcus. Okay this is a big one for many people, and also one for me. When we send our children to school, not only are they being taught a curriculum, which may or may not be relevant to their needs, but they are also been taught values. And I often found that not only was the curriculum a bit ridiculous – why would a 9 year old need to learn about business – but also the values taught through this system went against my value system and the one I chose to raise my child with.
As much as we still have to work to the curriculum, we can gloss over the bits that bore him (and me) and concentrate on the bits he finds exciting and interesting.
The other good bit is that we can get outside more. We can work out in the sunshine, learn in the garden or while taking a walk on the beach. It’s a win win in my opinion.
11. Teaching Religion & Spirituality
I also know a lot of the homeschooling community hold a Christian faith. I guess so that their religious beliefs can be taught, which they are not in a public school (for obvious reasons that can be difficult with children of all different backgrounds). This was always a hurdle for us looking for ideas to teach as many homeschooling resources included a Christian element. As much as teaching my son a Christian religion was not a reason for us to homeschool, being able to teach and learn about our spirituality has been an added benefit. Not everyone is religious and has a religion, but for us, our spirituality is actually one of the main sources of our mental health, and something we like to embrace every day.
There are many reasons that people homeschool, and these are the main reasons we do. For us personally, homeschooling has only been positive and we are so happy with the choice we made.
