Anecdotal homeschool experience

While the discussion over on JCecil continues to bring in negative anecdotal comments about homeschoolers, I thought I’d share some of my experiences with older homeschooled students.

I know one family of 8, dad was in skilled trades and mom was a homemaker. They homeschool until high school. Their oldest child did fine when he entered high school in the 10th grade. He graduated and went on to college, has recently finished and is now joining the military for officer’s training. Their second son graduated from high school and entered the military immediately and is training for special ops. Both are doing well and enjoying their training.

Another family of 3 children homeschooled through high school. Dad owns a small business and mom was a school teacher. Their oldest was a gifted musician and in fact, when our parish needed an organist, he took that temporary position as a high school senior! This required that he play 3 masses per weekend, one of which was with the choir. He also attended choir rehearsals and separate cantor rehearsals. He was compensated for this work and when he gave his senior organ and piano recital, many members of the choir and the parish attended to wish him well. He is a college sophomore majoring in organ performance. His little brother also finished high school at home and is attending Franciscan University.

I know many contemporaries of my son, who are continuing their high school education at home. Some of them supplement that education by taking some classes at their local public high school (if the school district is enlightened enough to allow that). A local Christian high school also invites home schoolers to attend their science and math courses. Several kids in our homeschool group also take college classes for high school and college credit beginning in the 11th grade.

My own son is attending the local public digital academy now. He has had no problem fitting in socially or academically. A high point for him was being admitted into the academy’s advanced art class and he just recently did a recreation of a Salvadore Dali work on the wall as a mural.

While one of the comments alluded that homeschooling after the early elementary years might be bad for the kids, I haven’t seen any evidence of that for my own children, and of course the commenters didn’t provide any either.

Yesterday, my two homeschooled sons, 6th grade and 3 rd grade, helped me with a wedding at our church yesterday. The 6th grader served the mass. My 3rd grader ran errands, told Father when we were ready to start and also gave cues to the organist. I think they handled themselves well, the bridal party and the guests seemed to appreciate what they did and it was another good experience for them. So I guess I don’t understand this fear that homeschooled students are somehow not going to be able to face the world because they’re so sheltered… that just hasn’t been my experience in my family or with my local homeschool community.

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