Well, it's available resources about building and delivering an effective curricula across subjects and time. I have found a number of homeschooling resources, but the best organized efforts tend to be from religious perspectives (not surprising). We're not religious. My being an atheist and my wife being best described as irreligious (doesn't identify with a religion and puts approximately zero thought into the question) means much of that religious perspective is unwanted and is something I would consider detrimental. That I do seriously consider homeschooling should also make it evident that I reject public schooling as a good option; there are a number of reasons but your question implicitly assumes that to be true so I'll just restate it for others.
We do have relatives that have successfully homeschooled and I have seen groups that do their homeschooling together (homeschooling isn't necessarily about sitting at home by yourselves). So it's resources/support targeted to delivering a well-rounded homeschooled education, it's finding sufficiently like-minded others with whom to share the effort in a small group setting. With sufficient resources I could likely solve the time problem.
Absent that, we're looking at private schools for our kid. We'd probably just do this, but it's not a cheap alternative.
Yes, there are a lot of reasons to homeschool. And I don’t want to undermine your idea, but the vast majority (by far) of people that homeschool do so because of disagreements with secular education. Public schools are an increasingly politicized issue, likely the dominant factor in the recent uptick of homeschooling, and I think saying it is not possible to hold an opinion on the issue one way or the other is a bit too reductionist of reality.
I think in coming decades, homeschool might be the more sought after education for families that are able to afford it (which will be sad for public schools). It makes sense to allow kids more leeway in what they study and apply, especially with how available knowledge is on the internet (eg. Khan Academy and Wikipedia). Literally just playing Wikipedia races to get from one topic to another is probably more productive than some history or science classes.
I do wonder though how you managed to get enough socialization time with other people. Scheduling that seems like a massive pain unless there are also a lot of other families homeschooling nearby and in the same age group.
As with all things in life, you get out of it what you put into it. Dedicated homeschoolers will often partner with other like-minded families for social experience and group work. Some do it to give their kids a heavily religious focused education, but not always.
One major benefit to homeschooling is the (potential for) constant focus- kids arent going to get lost in a room of 30 other kids with no personal attention or assistance; they aren't going to be sneaking out behind the shop to hang out with the rough crowd for a quick smoke, or bring vodka mixed with orange juice in a juice bottle in their backpack.
That isnt to say that they cant find ways to get into trouble, but with less pressure to fit in, they may find less reason to act out.
Of course, homeschooling is goung to have a hard time replicating the large groups with social pressures that schools have, so transitioning to, say, a large university or even the final years of high school may be difficult without preparation.
I have seen varying degrees of success along all of these spectrums, and would be reluctant to make any sort of blanket statement about "better" or "worse" without having a lot of insight into what local public schools are like to compare against.
Edit: for example, the public school where i grew up was great. Some public schools near where I live now are fundamentally rotten; black highschool students have a 30-something percent proficiency in either reading or maths, while white students fared marginally better in the low 60's or upper 50's... And these numbers are going down, not up, since earlier in the decade, in spite of it being a very left-leaning city with lots of talk over the years about improving education.
Homeschooling can be a great option but it's not feasible for everyone, esp. those without the time and/or resources to be able to do homeschooling. It's still important to look at public education critically to look for ways of improvement since there are many that rely on public education as one of the, if not the only, available source of group education in their communities.
We're planning homeschooling. We're religious (none of the above), but planning on exposing children to math and science at an early age, using Socratic dialogue to ferret out poor reasoning, teaching skepticism...
Sometimes homeschooling is just better because the public school system isn't very good.
I was homeschooled k-12 and my recommendations are much more nuanced.
1. Homeschooling is an enormous investment both in time and money. Not every family can afford to do it.
2. Done incorrectly homeschooling can have an adverse effect on the child. (See point #1 about the investment). On the other hand done properly it an escape route for families who may have no other way out. I would not be where I am now without the advantages of my homeschool education.
To do it well you have need a few components:
1. You need at least one parent who is able to focus on the education. It takes planning and preparation. In many cases this could mean that a family loses all or part of one of the parents income.
2. You need a good support network. Your child will need interaction with both other children but also other adults who are not their parents.
3. To get the most out of it you need to tailor the education for each child.
The benefits can be huge but it's not a slam dunk for anyone. I'm glad the option exists for those who will get no other better outcome though. Not every public school is equal. And homeschooling can sometimes be an overall financial win compared with private schools.
I know a lot of people whose experience was not as good as mine though so I include a lot of caveats when someone asks me if it's a good idea for their family. It's not something to jump into blindly.
I was homeschooled and I credit much of my success in life to it. It taught me to think logically, taught me to honor my parents, taught me the value of tradition, morality, spirituality. It taught me the value of hard work, of loyalty, of kindness. It kept me out of vices that many of my public-schooled friends and peers got pulled into.
In my experience, homeschooling can create well-rounded, upright people at a ratio above traditional schooling. It insulates kids from many of the extreme elements and moores of society. Homeschooling is an excellent tool to pass on values from one generation to the next.
Lack of socialization is indeed a problem. Homeschooling parents need to make a big effort to get their kids in homeschooling groups and co-ops, youth sports, etc.
I have three kids myself now, but we send our them to private school rather than homeschool. What stops us from homeschooling is, my wife didn't feel like she had the skills to homeschool. She's not a teacher and feels she doesn't have the patience for it.
Gonna need some citations on homeschool effectiveness (not written by homeschool advocates) because in my experience, I knew 1 parent that actually was knowledgable and engaged enough to provide the kind of teaching you are talking about. I have known several that homeschooled for religious reasons or "scared of public school and couldn't get into private school" reasons and the kids were clearly educationally behind.
It's really difficult because a lot of the resources and groups are created by and supported by this very religious group that homeschools.
There is still a very wide margin though. My wife was homeschooled because she did gymnastics at a fairly high level when she was young and so scheduling was easier for her that way. Her older sister wasn't homeschooled hardly at all though.
Because the experience public school provides is an exceptionally low bar considering class sizes/ratios, commuting to and from school, etc. Also, we can pour resources into our kids public schools can’t or won’t. The data also shows homeschool outcomes to be at parity or superior to public school outcomes. We only have two kids though, and my partner is a stay at home parent. We also rely on Modulo, among other resources, for structuring education delivery.
Read "The Well-Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer. It is written with only a hint of religion, so a secular homeschooler will still get a lot out of it. There are vast lists of resources in the book from kindergarten through high school. The book emphasizes a "classically based" curriculum. This means different things to different people.
My oldest is in Kindergarten and we are homeschooling her. You didn't mention your opinions on religion, but you will find that most of the complete curriculum are made by religious organizations. Although we are moderately religious, we use a completely secular curriculum, The Calvert School. See homeschool.calvertschool.org. We used them largely because they are an "umbrella" program approved by the stte of Maryland(where they are located and where I live.) We are happy with them so far. They are one of the more expensive programs out there but there is a lot of value in the materials they send.
If you are located in a state or school district that makes homeschooling difficult also consider joining the Home School Legal Defense Association. We have not had any problems(our county seems to be okay with homeschooling) but others in our state are not so lucky.
Home schooling is one of those topics where there seems to be a huge difference between theory and practice. The theory is great: You're the parent. You are motivated by educational outcome. You believe your children can get a better education than at public schools. You have the time, patience, and resources to do a better job at home. The outcome is better-educated kids who get to skip the (admittedly terrible) abuses of the public school system. For some homeschooled kids, the above is actually what happened. You'll find all their glowing reviews of home schooling in the comment section below.
In practice, at least in the USA, it's different. By and large (with exceptions, obviously), you are motivated by religious separatism. You are not worried about the quality of the education, but the content. You see the public school system as uninvited ideology and home schooling as a loophole you can use to avoid it. The outcome is worse-educated kids who skipped entire subjects and are not even remotely prepared for higher education.
My wife's "moms groups" are always pushing homeschooling, and the sales pitch is never the quality of education. It's always that you can avoid those nasty topics like sex ed and evolution and that you can use the Bible in all your classes. More recently, during and after COVID, the pitches also included avoiding "political indoctrination". I know multiple actual families who pulled their kids out of public school for religious and ideological reasons, but nobody who did so with a legitimate intention of providing a higher quality factual education. Obviously they exist and a few are posting here, but I'd be shocked if those were even 10% of cases.
I'll never forget this clip[1] interviewing a homeschool family, where the poor kid looks mortified that she doesn't know even basic 2nd grade math, with her mom smugly laughing about it. These products of home schooling are not posting their success stories on HN.
I think there are many different experiences of homeschooling and I think for some they do develop strong peer groups without it becoming just a private school. One of the main arguments for home schooling is that done properly schooling will take less long as you can focus on just one or two kids and thus there is time left over for extracurricular. On the other hand as somebody who was home schooled I wouldn't do it with any kids I have. I think what made it bad was that both my parents are introverts.
The amount I've grown socially in the last couple of years of college really makes me annoyed at myself for missed time.
Hey tokenadult, are you homeschoolers for primarily religious reasons, or primarily non-religious reasons? If the latter, please consider writing up a blogpost or a comment here about your experiences, what works/what doesn't, what's your view on the "but won't they lack social interaction", any regrets etc.
(I don't mean to offend you if your reason is religious by the way; it's just that I suspect not many people here will share it).
I'm a fresh parent, living in a country where homeschooling is lawful, but very difficult to arrange, and viewing with dismay some of my options a few years down the line.
I am considering homeschooling. My main motivation is that I really hated school and so did my wife. And I didn't learn much after 6th grade. Most of the school work I did was a waste of time. I don't want to waste anyone's time or mine (even though I'll end up spending more time). And I think I can offer a better education. It's nothing to do with values, intellectual curiosity, or schools being rotten to the core. I think schools can be fixed, but they're dysfunctional currently.
I mean it greatly depends on the quality and dedication of the parents doing the homeschooling.
I never considered it for my kids because our public schools are pretty good, and I did not feel I had the experience or resources or time to do any better. But some people have more of a passion for it and find answers to those issues.
I'm sure there are kids who are poorly homeschooled, but your anecdote does not meany anything in the big picture. Shall I tell you about all the public-school kids I met who ended up flunking out of college?
As someone who was homeschooled for most of my childhood, I would say the results of it are as much or more of a mixed bag than public schooling is. It depends largely on how much time and energy the parents pour into it, and it's very easy for them to not be doing enough even if they have intentions otherwise.
Additionally, homeschooling has a tendency to produce adults who lack real world experience and perspective due to the unavoidably sheltered nature of such arrangements. This is something that has taken me many years to overcome to become a functional person, and if I'm being honest, is still a work in progress even in my mid-30s. It's not something I'd want to saddle any potential children of my own with.
We do have relatives that have successfully homeschooled and I have seen groups that do their homeschooling together (homeschooling isn't necessarily about sitting at home by yourselves). So it's resources/support targeted to delivering a well-rounded homeschooled education, it's finding sufficiently like-minded others with whom to share the effort in a small group setting. With sufficient resources I could likely solve the time problem.
Absent that, we're looking at private schools for our kid. We'd probably just do this, but it's not a cheap alternative.
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