6 Problems You Will Avoid

After homeschooling for a while, I forget about the problems we no longer have.  Then I get around  friends' kids and am reminded how peaceful our lives are compared to theirs.

1. Peer pressure
Group think has always been strong in schools, dictating the proper clothes to wear, the way to look, and the toys that kids "must" have.  Because my kids aren't exposed to that every day, they don't put much energy into making sure their clothes/makeup/electronics are up to par.  Instead, they make decisions about what they like and are interested in.  When I get around other kids I'm shocked at the strength of the shoulds-in-order-to-be-good-enough coming from them.  By contrast, my kids seem to have a strong sense of being good-enough just in their own skin.

2. Age peers are only peers
In schools, the kids one year (or less) younger are WAY younger and the kids one year (or less) older are WAY older.  The only real peers are those who are exactly their same age.  Of course, that dynamic exists no where else in the world except in the schools.  In fact, in the working world, our children will suddenly be working with people decades older and younger who will be considered their peers.  Homeschooling prepares them for that reality. 

3. Late night surprises
When we first started homeschooling there were some things I was so happy to leave behind, especially the 9pm, "oh, I need a dozen cupcakes tomorrow, sorry" while pulling out a crumpled paper from their backpack. Yep, I don't miss that.

4. Lack of self-direction needed in college and adult living
Colleges are increasingly noticing that homeschoolers are much more successful than their schooled peers, regardless of academic level.  I think one of the major reasons is that homeschooling requires children to learn self-direction.  In the school environment, a child can just follow the flow of traffic and keep up — move when the bells tell you, turn in work when the teacher tells you, take the class your counselor tells you.  But in homeschooling, there is no, or little, flow of traffic to follow, so children have to learn how to do something just because it needs done. 

5. Teachers misunderstanding or not following directions (IEP)
My operating assumption was that teachers were required and did follow such formal documents as IEPs and parental instructions on food.  That may be the rule, but I hear from many that it is not the practice. My adopted children have attachment disorder and a key part of their healing is that sweets come only from parents.  My daughter's counselor reports that many parents have problems with teachers violating that rule by giving children candy as incentives.  Others I talk to scowl about teachers scoffing IEPs and failing to follow any of the provisions their special needs child requires. 

6. Siblings who don’t like each other
When I was younger I saw siblings who treated each other more like enemies than friends.  I thought, my kids will never be that way!  And then they went to school.  The taunts amplified and the cold shoulder hardened.  And then we started homeschooling.  After a few years I realized that all that aloofness was gone and my children were each other's best friends.  They were their play mates at "recess" and their buddies on field trips.