<p>I'm in the process of trying to convince my parents to let me use The Keystone Online School for my junior and senior year of high school. I guess some may not consider it to be true homeschooling and more of a private school.</p>
<p>Anyway, I would like to leave public school to do this for a few reasons. I have friends but really do not feel like socializing while I am trying to learn. People throwing things, talking, and getting the teachers off topic during class is extremely irritating to me. I dislike going to school in the first place (who doesn't?) but if I am there I want to actually learn and not spend ten out of forty minutes talking about my teacher's children or dodging paper balls that are being thrown across the room.</p>
<p>Secondly, because I want to enjoy learning. Maybe it's just a flaw of mine, but I hate being forced to do anything. It leaves me with no motivation to get out of bed in the morning. I feel like when college comes things will be easier in that sense because I am already doing EXTENSIVE research to make sure that my final choice is a school that I will enjoy going to. I just hate knowing that I HAVE to do something. I would love the freedom of being able to do my school work on the weekends, family vacations, night time, outdoors, etc. </p>
<p>I would like to homeschool because I feel like public school is not allowing me to push myself to excel and at the same time enjoy life. Do my reasons sound valid in your opinion? Why did you choose to be homeschooled or homeschool your child?</p>
<p>Your reasons are 100% valid. We chose to homeschool for many of the same reasons, except my boys had no trouble with friends at school. The education the school offered was just well below their capability. My oldest is now finishing up his freshman year at college and loves it PLUS has told us he felt more prepared than his ps peers. He in no way, shape, or form regrets homeschooling high school.</p>
<p>Middle son is finishing up his junior year here at home and is well, well above his peers. He also has told us he has no regrets and appreciates that we’ve allowed him to seek his own educational path.</p>
<p>Youngest son chose to return to ps this past year for 9th grade and we’ve let him (all of my boys choose/chose). He fully agrees that the education is lacking and, in some classes, behavior is horrid. BUT, he’s more social than the other two and stays due to wanting to be with his friends. We supplement his education here at home, but I have no grand ideas that he will be as well grounded educationally as his brothers. We’re still leaving it as his choice though. His career plan doesn’t require more than our ps can provide, but we will have to pay more for college for him since his scores won’t be high enough for much in merit aid.</p>
<p>Your reasons sound valid, but I might not have felt that way before I began homeschooling my kids. I went to public school; everyone I knew went to public school. I hardly recognized legitimate options beyond the typical structured school.</p>
<p>I ended up homeschooling both my kids about 7 years ago when we saw that S#1 was having problems related to being dyslexic and the school could not offer him any help.</p>
<p>You sound like a unique, motivated individual who would fare quite well as a self learner. Have your parents listed any specific objections? It may at this point just be a bit of a shock to their system, but they might come around in the end. </p>
<p>My S#1, 14 years old, also hates to be forced into things, although he is, in general, a very cooperative and helpful person! Early days homeschooling him were a struggle for me as I kept on trying to make him do all sorts of busy work. Once I got over that, he set an academic course for himself and now he does take on all sorts of endeavors that might not have been his first choice. He has developed the desire to expose himself to all sorts of information beyond that to which he is immediately drawn.</p>
<p>Anyways, I asked him what he would say to a friend who had the same question you posted. His thoughts-- try to convince parents that ps is limiting your potential. Mention that ps educates based on the average student, but the average student does not exist anymore than the average American family with 2.2 kids exists. By allowing you to pursue your own interests, you will be better poised for college courses and develop a better foundation for learning in general.</p>
<p>Thank you both!</p>
<p>I think that my parents are slowly coming around to the idea, but they do say that they don’t know one person who does homeschool and they don’t really see why I just can’t finish out the next two years in public school.</p>
<p>I know that I physically could, but I feel like I’m really only absorbing a few facts per day, and there’s a lot of time spent in school where I’m not learning anything. We spend 20 minutes walking around in between periods, 40 minutes in gym and then I have a free period every other day (where there is no other elective that I could have placed there) for 40 minutes. So for close to two hours, I’m not learning anything. I feel like being at home, I would be able to utilize my time better and expand my knowledge.</p>
<p>I live only a train ride from New York City, and I can just imagine myself taking the train in a few days during the week and going to a few museums to learn. I feel like there is so much out there to see, so why not see it? I’d also like to get a job and get more involved in community service, but when I come home from school I’m literally so drainded that I have no energy to attend meetings and such.</p>
<p>Homeschooling does seem like the right choice to me; I guess I just need to work on showing my parents that there are real people out there who do it and are just as, if not more, sucessful than public schooled students.</p>
<p>You may want to check out a book called The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn. It’s mostly for kids that are going to unschool but it points out a lot reasons why public school doesn’t work. It may aid you in finding a way to better explain the down sides of public school and why home school would be a better option for you to your parents. There are also a lot of articles on the internet about people who switched to home school and how well they are doing. Showing some of those to your parents might help them to see what is possible.</p>
<p>I don’t have any new advice to offer - just the support of another successful homeschooler. If you check out some of the admissions threads in this forum you can show your parents a lot of success stories. You sound well-suited to homeschooling and like you really have your act together. I hope you convince them.</p>
<p>You might want to find a local hs support group. Yahoo groups, ■■■■■■■■■■, facebook are all good places to look. If you are not homeschooling for religious reasons, you may want to search for a secular group. I’d familiarize myself with your state’s homeschool laws. Some states have truancy laws which would prevent you from being out during school hours on your own. Many active homeschool groups organize field trips though. If I was a parent in this situation, a major concern for me would be my child going from a supervised school setting to unsupervised solo day trips into NYC. But…I live out in the middle of Iowa. 
Maybe you already go into the city during school breaks.</p>
<p>I realize that few of us have actually answered the question posted in your title.</p>
<p>We started homeschooling for two primary reasons: 1 - the classes were not at his best level of learning and we could personalize, 2 - “lining up until everyone is quiet”, etc.</p>
<p>We have been thrilled with all of it.</p>
<p>GeekMom63, thank you! I can relate with the lining up until everyone is quiet thing and I am a high school sophomore! In my Spanish class, there are tons of kids who really just don’t care. They spend the period throwing coins, rubberbands, tinfoil balls, sandwiches, paper and even textbooks. The teacher turns a blind eye most of the time, but she sometimes pulls the “We just won’t do anything until everyone stops” and then we literally just don’t do anything for ten to fifteen minutes. It’s a true waste of time.</p>
<p>Trilliums, thanks for that info! I honestly have no idea what truancy laws exist in my state, but being that I live in NY and they are SO anti-homeschool I’m guessing there are some. Does anyone know where I can find those rules and does anyone know if I can hold a job during normal school hours?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Your Spanish class sounds appalling. Maybe if your parents really understand how bad it is they’ll be even more convinced?</p>
<p>
I just Googled “new york homeschool law” and got [NYHEN:</a> New York State Homeschooling Regulations](<a href=“http://www.nyhen.org/RegsSum.htm]NYHEN:”>http://www.nyhen.org/RegsSum.htm).</p>
<p>:) You’re going to have to become a good friend of Google in order to homeschool. :)</p>
<p>Your reasons sound similar to mine. </p>
<p>I choose to homeschool in 8th grade. I had been in public school my whole life. I was appalled at the behavior and discipline issues within my school. It was appalling and a toxic learning environment. I felt that I could do better without it all and wanted out. Homeschooling seemed to be the best option. </p>
<p>In 9th grade I took mostly online courses and was miserable. I was not diligent and did not enjoy anything about the experience. For me, this was not a good fit. </p>
<p>In 10th grade I started taking almost all of my classes at community college. The college has become a second home to me. I have my circle of nerd friends and they are so inspirational. I love being there to the point that I take classes year-round. My social life and love for learning are far beyond anything that I could have ever imagined. I love what I do and how I do it. </p>
<p>Good luck! It sounds like homeschooling would be a positive experience for you.</p>
<p>Thank you! I am going to share all of your positive experiences with my parents. I think that they just really don’t understand any aspect of homeschooling as it is rare in our area. My public high school is academically competitive but the people that attend it are all middle-upper class, and most parents really don’t care what their kids do. Our town is known as the “drinking town” by neighboring towns because there are literally 13 year olds getting drunk on Friday nights.</p>
<p>I dislike all of the busy work that we do in school. I don’t mind doing work sheets, etc. for homework but while we are in class for the short forty minutes, I would prefer actually learning from the teacher- not just being gven assignments.</p>
<p>I feel like using an online/correspondence program will give me an equal education, but due to increase happiness my grades and overall attitude will rise.</p>