In a word: Yes.
Homeschooling prepares you academically. Absolutely. I had a chance recently to sit down and chat with my siblings about our experiences with homeschooling.
Mortarboard
My older sister attended a private Christian school -- at great expense to my parents -- and demanded to be homeschooled when she discovered that she had not been taught about centrifugal force by sixth grade and we remaining siblings (around Kindergarten) had just discussed it at length at home.
My younger brother said he hated homeschooling because, as an extrovert, he was alone at home once us older children had moved on. But even he, who had drifted in an out of traditional classes and homeschooling, admitted that he was prepared academically.
My younger sister shared how much she hated her traditional school experience in high school. It was a terrible fit for her and the pain from those four worst years of her life lingers to this day.
Me? I've written about my high school experiences (both positive and negative), my reasons for going to a public high school, why that may not be a good fit for you, and the general overview of what it's like to transition from homeschool to public school. If you want to know more, read those posts, follow the links. I'll not reiterate all that here.
The point I want to remind us of today is this: Homeschooling is an excellent option from an academic standpoint. As we chatted, the theme that surfaced over and over again was that we had learned how to learn while homeschooling. And this set us up beautifully for both further education and life (with its constant opportunities for learning).
I was reminded of the time my mom realized just how terrible of a speller I was. With homeschooling, no problem; we simply shift a bit to focus on that and move forward (you can read more about that in Step 5 of my post How Do I Fit in All the Subjects for Homeschooling Each Day?).
My younger brother mentioned that he had missed Algebra in the shuffle, and so was lost when he was automatically placed in Geometry when he got to high school. But even here, for as frustrating an experience as that was, he did great.
Why?
Because homeschooling prepares you academically by teaching you how to teach yourself, how to learn, and that while you will always have gaps in your knowledge this is actually an opportunity.
Does homeschooling prepare you academically?
Yep.
...at least, to the degree any resource/tool can do anything for you. Ultimately, of course, you have an incredible impact on your children. And your children have to be involved. Labels do little; activity is what powers results -- though it does not guarantee them. So perhaps the question in this post itself is misstated.
Can my child be prepared academically via homeschool?
Yes. A thousand times, yes!
And the beauty of homeschooling with a curriculum you and your children love is that when you love to learn, your children find joy in the life-long process of learning. Education, then, is not about filling seat time, making grades, or passing tests. Homeschooling becomes about learning, learning how to learn, and learning how much more there is to learn in this wide world we have the opportunity to impact.
And, friends, it doesn't get better than that.
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Pseudo-Dad
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