I've homeschooled for 30 years and have some opinions, but they might not make people happy

Schools are starting back (even though it's still summer to my way of thinking) which means there are a lot of people asking about how to start homeschooling. I just counted and this year will be my 31st (and final) homeschooling year. I have a lot of opinions and a lot of experience with which to back up those opinions. 

1. Homeschooling is not traditional school and trying to make it look like traditional school is a quick path to frustration, burnout, and general insanity.

2. You can homeschool successfully with a library card. Full stop.

3. The vast majority of online schools, programs, and curriculum publishers don't really care much about your child, just your dollars, and they're willing to use fear to sell their product. 

4. Homeschooling is not a program to enroll in. We call that public school. 

5. Elementary aged children (and probably older) should not be learning online. It is not developmentally appropriate and could actually do harm. 

6. Actual homeschooling will take effort on part of the parents. If you want some other entity to educate your child, enroll in your public school. 

7. If you don't know something, you will learn it along with your child. You just have to stay a lesson ahead. 

8. If your excuse for purchasing a full curriculum or online program is that you don't know how to teach the subjects your child needs, first question the whole traditional method that caused you to believe this, and second, see homeschooling as a way to redeem your own inferior education.

9. If you believe the earth is flat please don't homeschool your children. (Yes, people, this needs to be said.) Or if you do, please call whatever you're doing something other than homeschooling. Perhaps "conspiracy programming" would be a better descriptor. 

10. If you are taking more than three hours a day to get through the formal academics portion of your day, you need to figure out something different. Homeschooling is incredibly efficient. Even when I had 8-10 children learning at home, we were done by lunch.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I would argue that no learning ever really happens after lunch in public school. The rest is just babysitting
8/15/2026 11:48 PM
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