Homeschooling VS "Real School"

This is how school looks to me ;-)

There are so many benefits to homeschooling, I don't know why more people don't do it. It is better than going to school for so many reasons. If I could go back I would have started homeschooling sooner. My life has been so much better since I've started this and I have been a lot less stressed about school as well.

I would say homeschooling is the better option. I get more sleep than I used to when I went to school. I get up at around 8:45 while my sisters are up at 6:30. I am finished with school by one at the latest and that is with an hour hike break, a ten minute lunch break, and little 'I'm bored' breaks here and there. My sisters get home at about 3:15 and have to start on their homework, where as I am completely done for the day. They stress out over tests that they have a one day notice for and try to cram for it. I know about my tests weeks in advance and if I need an extra day to study I can take it and just take the test the next day.

This year my sister got a bad math teacher. As if math isn't hard enough to learn adding a horrible teacher to the mix makes it even worse. I am so glad that I don't have to deal with that anymore. I am my teacher. I do have a teacher for each of my classes and if I need help or don't understand something I can go to them. I no longer have to rely on them to teach me properly. I can teach myself the lesson for as long as it takes for me to understand it. If it takes fifteen minutes to read the lesson and understand it then I can go take the quiz over the chapter and move on. I don't have to wait an hour for the entire class to understand it, I can go as fast or slow as I want. If it takes me fifteen minutes then that is a waste of forty-five minutes at a "real school".

The amount of free time is almost too much. If you don't have a hobby and you want to home school then you will be bored out of your mind. I get one whole weekday off every week because it really doesn't take me five days unless I'm being really lazy. I am pretty sure that if I worked a little harder I could even have Thursday off. I love having the time to go to school and still do everything else I need and want to do. Before I would go to school and once I got home I would have time to do my hour or so of homework, my chores, eat family dinner and then it would be time to go to bed. I wouldn't have enough time to do anything extra. I would have to take my weekends and do the other things I needed to do like my laundry and cleaning my room. Now, I can go to school, do my chores, clean my room, and have hours of free time after that. It makes me so much happier to not feel like I have to rush and get things done in time before it's time to sleep. I can take my time to do things and I can read for four hours if I wish. My sisters have no free time and I just kind of laugh at them.

 I love that when I get bored of doing schooling work I can take a ten minute break to go read or do something a bit relaxing and then just go back to school. At a "real school" you're stuck there for eight hours learning whether you like it or not and whether you can process it or not. Sometimes, your brain just needs a couple minutes of rest and I love being able to take that. I used to come home from school not wanting to look at another math problem only to have twenty to do for homework. Now, I have no homework and sometimes I'll purposely watch T.V. while my sisters are stuck doing homework.

The one thing a "real school" has that homeschooling doesn't are other students around. I personally did not like to socialize with the particular type of people that are at my local public high school. They are the main reason I left. While my sisters are swamped with homework and complain about the school drama I really just want to laugh. My parents are always telling them that they could just home school and not have to deal with that anymore, but they say the same thing every time. "I have to have a social life." That is when I face palm. Really? You are purposely putting yourself in a more stressful position and putting yourself in a position do deal with other people being unkind to you just so you can social with your few friends. Honestly, when high school is over you will probably never talk to your friends ever again. I honestly could not care less about having a social life or friends because they will eventually move away and have a life and we'll never speak again. I'll admit that it does get a bit boring being alone all day, but I think it so worth it.

If you are contemplating switching to homeschooling I would strongly recommend it. I have never been happier and less stressed. If there is something you love to do, but you never feel like you have time to do it, then home school. Trust me, you will have plenty of time to spend doing what you love every day. I know this a better option based on my experiences. As long as you pick a good program and pick one that you'll like it will be worth it.