I appreciate this article, but to me it felt insincere without addressing the cost (edit: not only hard costs!) associated with homeschooling and addressing how working parents make this work. I’d love to hear from families with two full-time working parents, how they navigate homeschooling.
I did talk about the cost in our interview. We were a single income family with one car and relied a lot on the library. It doesn’t have to be expensive.
Julie, how do you recommend approaching this for a two-income family? Can you share what it looks like when both parents are working? Can you share where in the article this is referenced? I cannot locate where it talks about the cost to families individually in today’s numbers.
She didn’t include it in the article. I was just sharing that I did address it in the original interview. It’s difficult to home educate as a solo homeschooler if both parents work full time during traditional school hours. But I have seen couples swing it—one parent is a nurse who works 3 12 hour shifts, other parent works from home—that kind of thing.
I worked as a freelance writer/editor while homeschooling and eventually as a business owner. Homeschool support groups can help you brainstorm ideas for your particular family
Hi Olivia. I just want to jump in here because Julie and I are friends, have spoken at events together and have very similar stories. Like Julie, I started a business (Beautiful Feet Books) as a homeschooling mother of 4 that became successful enough that I had to devote a lot of non-homeschooling time to it. It was stressful at times, my closets were a mess, and I did feel like someone always needed my attention–familiar emotions for any working mother. But it worked. Of course, it made a difference that I was able to work from home. For mothers working outside the home, I have seen many succeed at it by adjusting their work schedule, enrolling their kids in hybrid schools that meet 2-3 days per week, and having partners that take on some aspect of education that they enjoy. Like Julie says, when you view education more as an adventure in life, (and not occupying a desk for 8 hours), all kinds of opportunities open up!
Not to mention the cost to (usually the mother’s) career trajectory and long term objectives, which can have a major impact on sense of self apart from the role of mother. For all the very real work homeschooling is, it is rarely looked upon as something you ought to put on a resume for a professional career role later down the line.
I did step away from a federal consulting career to first stay home with my kids & then to homeschool them. I actually found that I came more into my own as a homeschooler than I had in my previous career. I had more flexibility in my schedule & could incorporate interests like photography into our days. I also got involved in our non-sectarian statewide homeschool organization which led me to getting involved in advocacy work and I worked with amazing people doing positive things. I began writing & speaking & also worked as a coach at Brave Writer. I truly came into my own as a person through my homeschooling experience (both kids are college graduates and off on their own).
That’s not to say that it’s right or would be fulfilling for everyone. But I found that I was able to find time to explore my own personal development & interests as I helped my kids explore theirs. I very much had (and have) an identity & life outside of my kids.
One other comment: I often recommend that women in particular keep one foot in the door of their career path. Parttime or maintaining a license—this can be a way to keep yourself emotionally grounded as well as creating future opportunities when homeschooling is over.
My best employees are homeschool mothers. I call them the great untapped employee resource—quick learners, self-motivated, capable of meeting deadlines and taking feedback. A true treasure.
Oh, Amen to that! I homeschooled my four sons for many years and I don’t mind saying, I have always been a very valued member of any team. (I’m pretty sure we crossed paths back in the day on TWTM boards in the early 2000s, btw!) And I worked part time through most of my time homeschooling (started homeschooling my oldest in 2004, started working part time [for Ree Drummond] in 2007, became a wedding photographer 2010-2017, was working full time in mass communications when my last homeschooled (they were mostly doing online school at that point) kid graduated, and after a major effort successfully got into tech/UX (but then unfortunately was caught up soon after in mass layoffs—and the fight to get back to that earning potential again has been absolutely brutal and as yet, unrealized). All to say, it has been incredibly difficult moving up the career ladder as I had put my own college degree on hold more than once over the years (1995 Freshman, 2016 Sophomore, 2023 Graduated! 😅). The lost income/retirement is barely quantifiable (probably because I’m not a math person 😂). And the cost to, for lack of a better way to put it, my sense of self when all the schooling wound down, was a far greater toll than I had ever really imagined it would be. I am very much a “work-oriented” individual so I looked at homeschooling as a true job that I would simply never get paid for. Is it paying dividends? 100% yes. Are they ones that I can retire on? Not really. 😅 And that’s ok. But we are not wealthy people so the long term financial cost is not as easily absorbed, if that makes sense. My husband is a former minister turned social worker. He has gone back to school for his second masters degree. Life isn’t a straight line. (How boring are straight lines anyways?!)
Don’t get me wrong, I would homeschool again if I was starting over but, looking back, there are definitely things I would do much differently in terms of my own career development, knowing what I know now.
I just think it’s important for people to consider those costs, particularly the ones that can’t be calculated in dollars and cents.
I totally see what you're saying. Homeschooling is definitely more heavily relied on by mothers and there are so many women who have worked long and hard for their careers and so many who have dreams and goals they don't want to give that up. I think that's totally valid and I didn't particularly feel like Elise was saying it was the right choice for every family. Of course there will be people who can't or just don't want to homeschool. Likewise, choosing to stay home is a valid choice for any parent (father or mother) who has the financial ability and chooses to do so. In today's world so much weight is put in having "success" in the form of a career or professional achievements but I think it's such a personal decision that there's no right answer for every family. To your point, though, there are costs associated with those decisions and they are absolutely worth considering in these conversations.
100%. I’m not sure where I’m missing the costs to the family, but I cannot find any mentions of how much it is. If you’re going to really consider this, you’d need to understand what the hard costs of the materials are of course as well as impacts to income, 401K, insurance, etc. I’m making some assumptions that the working parent requires the only car in your family most weekdays, so the application and cost looks vastly different depending on your location and access to public transportation, and thus access to library or shared resources.
I was thinking the same. This article does such a good job covering so many facets of homeschooling, but leaves out the cost. The time to do it and materials required are out of reach for many families. Some states offer financial support for materials, but many don't.
I’m a home-educating mom of three who chose home education twenty years ago for many reasons. While it’s certainly not always easy, it’s been the greatest adventure for our family. The freedom we’ve enjoyed to travel the country and learn along the way has been incredibly rewarding. Our kids have rich friendships, meaningful community involvement, time to pursue their unique passions, and strong critical thinking skills that have been nurtured by their out-of-the-box education. They’ve never taken a standardized test because they don’t have a standardized education. Julie Bogart’s Bravewriter programs have been a much-loved part of our learning for the past ten years. Bravewriter even offered a Taylor Swift “lyrics as poetry” class that my teenaged daughter and I had so much fun taking together! Our kids loved reading books like “The Small and the Mighty” by Sharon McMahon and then traveling to hear her speak on her book tour in 2024. We stayed in a historic hotel, visited our state capitol, goofed around for hours at the Museum of Illusions, and enjoyed a shared experience as Sharon spoke about the ordinary Americans who changed the world in their own small ways. Education with fun, laughter, and exploration built right in!
Our educational journey has had plenty of speed bumps, but it’s been navigated with love and curiosity. Our oldest started his own business (a franchised tourist map) when he was 16 and he’s now a successful, happy, independent almost-twenty-year-old. Our middle son is graduating this year and our daughter will be two years behind him. It’s been the adventure of a lifetime for all of us and I’m grateful to have had the freedom to choose what works best for our family.
As someone who experienced homeschooling, public school, Catholic school, and private school in my education, the one I would recommend least is homeschooling.
Americans are increasingly shying away from the expertise of trained professionals - in the way we educate our children as in many other ways - and I think it's one of the more dangerous expressions of populism.
I tend to agree. I knew enough about myself to chose high-quality, well-vetted homeschooling materials when I did homeschool for two years, but some of the material available is frightening in its populism and ignorance. The lack of oversight in testing for academic rigor is concerning to me
I enjoyed reading this article and I feel like it touches on a lot of the current homeschool/public school dynamics, debates, and feelings.
I would like to add a dynamic into this article and that is of the military family and homeschooling.
As someone who never, ever thought she would be homeschooling, we ended up homeschooling for educational stability due to our frequent moving and travel associated with our life. When you move from state to state, you can see the differences in the education quality across each one.
Homeschooling, and state residency (in this case, Florida) supported programs that allowed us to keep resources streamlined, have allowed our children to keep their education consistent through deployments, PCSing, and travel.
Parents are not qualified teachers. You are piling a teacher relationship into a parental relationship; why? Many kids may not get the socialization they need. Cheerleading, swimming, chess club, chorus, guitar, Bunsen burners in science labs. School assemblies. Charity drives. So many things missed when kids don’t go to school. I know public schools are “co-teaching” by allowing homeschoolers to participate in sports. I think homeschooling parents are abandoning the public schools; this is antisocial and maintains a separateness in the country. Private schools and charter schools already do this and so does homeschooling. The regulation is of homeschool is known to be spotty.
Divisiveness in schooling from pre k? Maybe that’s part of the problem in the country.
I appreciated learning more about a world I knew little about, especially the distinction between families who arrive at homeschooling pragmatically versus ideologically.
But I kept waiting for a section that never came: the economic reality. The families profiled here have a parent who can stay home, the education to feel confident teaching, and resources not available to everyone. What about households where both parents work (or there’s only one) just to keep the lights on? I’m doing some research now about the economic reality for the average American. About half of families can’t face a $500 emergency without borrowing or selling something. How could someone in that situation take time off work to care for their kids full time?
I also couldn’t help thinking about my own education. I love my parents, but there’s no universe in which either of them could have taught me as well as half of my public school teachers. Not everyone has a Julie Bogart at home.
One small quibble: the article cites that “41 percent of homeschoolers are non-white or non-Hispanic,” and that stat does appear in the cited source, so fair enough. But drilling into the actual data, of 1,773 students only 303 were non-white AND non-Hispanic—that’s 17.1%. The 41% figure counts anyone who is either non-white OR Hispanic, which means it includes white families from Hispanic backgrounds as part of the “diversity” stat. That’s a pretty misleading way to frame racial demographics, though the blame lies with the source rather than this article.
I appreciate the artice, I could never ever homeschool. If there was Walking Dead pandemic and sick zombies were everywhere, there would be my kids on their way to school. I for sure admire people's patience and skills to do it. I have 0 of both.
I thought the same about myself--that I would have zeroooo patience for homeschooling. When we were forced to consider it, I was surprised to find I actually liked it a lot. But teaching one of my kids math was bad. So bad. So, sooo bad, I wonder what my neighbors thought was going on. When I felt nostalgic for homeshooling the summer after our second year and questioned my decision to send everyone back for some good old socialization (we had no co-op) and some professional teaching, I did one--just one!--math worksheet with That Kid and was all, "NOPE! NO! BACK TO SCHOOL WITH YOU IMMEDIATELY!" And she's alive today because of public school!
LOL! We homeschooled for a few years, and after getting a bit of experience with it, I would often say "homeschooling is definitely not for everyone... it's not even for us some days." ;-) I'm grateful that we had the ability to do it when we had a need for it, and we had some very cool experiences with it, but it was haaaaard!
I really appreciate the attention this article brings to homeschooling for the sake of a child’s whole education vs homeschooling to (more or less) shelter or control.
Perhaps I read it with a different lens, but I didn’t particularly feel like Elise was trying to insinuate that homeschooling was right or realistic for every family but simply pointing out that it is on the rise and why that is. I think absolutely there is a level of privilege or sacrifice that is involved in that choice but I also think it can be a both/and situation. There is a growing number of families deciding to homeschool because they feel like the current curriculum by their local schools (which will greatly differ depending on location) isn’t best serving their child AND there are parents who can’t or simply don’t want to homeschool and will continue to send their children to public schools.
I understand the compulsion to feel like when someone is doing things differently than someone else then there must be a “right” or “wrong” way, but like with SO many aspects of being a parent (Natural or epidural? Gentle or authoritative? Swaddling? Sleep training? Baby led weaning? Screen time? and on and on and on…) this is just one aspect that will vary greatly across the board depending on SO many factors. Could it be explored in more detail? Sure. But I think this is a great look at big picture why more families (who can and desire to) are making the decision to try homeschooling for themselves while also breaking through the stereotype that homeschoolers are conservative, traditional “bible school” families.
I'm a SAHM in Utah and was a firm non-believer in homeschooling until COVID. I took my three children out of school over fears of backsliding and educated them at home out of my own pocket with several purchased programs (all offline, per my choice). It was an extremely interesting two years--we had no homeschooling co-ops, so it was just them and me. I LOVED reading them books that dovetailed with our history studies and taking them on field trips around our greater community. I HATED the isolation, made worse with COVID. I also discovered my youngest had not learned any math in the dual immersion program she'd begun the year before (which is typical, and they usually catch up within a few years), but she was not thriving and we reversed course, so I had to teach her 1st grade math before we could begin 2nd grade. It was an incredibly enriching, exhausting two years. My girls are now in 12th, 10th, and 7th and thriving back in public school. Our district allows a hybrid experience with some classes via public school and some via homeschool, which is a good alternative for those who wish it.
HOWEVER: in our church congregation, there was a family that homeschooled all of their children in a way that raised serious alarms. There were eight children, teens to a baby. None of them could read. They all had speech impediments to the point that they were virtually unintelligible. They also would come to church unwashed and with noticeable body odor, which made it challenging for them to integrate with their peers. One of the boys had behavioral problems so severe, he was routinely hospitalized. And both parents claimed to have had TBIs from their time in the military, and it was clear to outsiders they, too, were struggling with cognition. The entire situation was a major crisis, and they were flying completely below the radar of any government educational institution. In another part of our state, a little boy being severely abused by his dad and stepmom was removed from school in spite of numerous red flags raised to CPS by school employees and eventually died from abuse and neglect. Again, there was so little oversight, he was able to fall through the cracks. I firmly believe in some kind of official oversight to prevent this type of situation from happening so frequently.
Seeing this article was like looking in a mirror—the story of our family. I was a public school teacher for many years pre-pandemic, with an MA in Pedagogy. All our kids were in mainstream schools as well. I was a true “never homeschooler”. The pandemic hit, I happened upon Susan’s book, began to change my perspective on education in general (it was a long pandemic so lots of time to think lol), and we unenrolled our kids from their schools. We homeschooled thru lots of ups and downs, I found Julie and Bravewriter (love you Julie and so do my kiddos!), found a community of homeschool families, found a LOT of homeschool pessimists and heard a LOT of negative homeschool comments (Julie, your Thanksgiving article was a boon to my nervous soul!). We were on a single income living in an expensive city so we made the decision to uproot and relocate to a rural town. We are now back to dual income but it took determination and sacrifice and viewing other ways we could use our skills to generate a paycheck. My spouse and I now operate a beef ranch; a complete 180 from our former careers, and we enjoy it immensely. Point being, I’ve observed many people see dual working families as a barrier to entry for homeschooling, but there are so many ways to make it doable. For us it involved some difficult choices and cuts, but every September our kids are offered the choice between rejoining mainstream school or continuing to homeschool and they have, at this point, always chosen to remain in our home to learn.
On a final note, I will flag that remaining open minded about homeschool truly is a kindness even if it is not for you. Homeschool families regularly get thrown snowballs of negativity and stereotyping and, while most adults can shoulder those comments about “weirdness” or “missing out on social aspects”, our kids cannot. It is damaging to them mentally. Please keep those predatory questions to yourselves in the presence of kids! Homeschool is not for everyone, we get it. All we ask for is the acceptance that is is for some of us. ☺️
What a beautiful story of leaning into change for your family based on how needs and priorities shift throughout life. Thank you for sharing! I agree, Julie Bogart’s influence is making an enormous difference in the world of home education (and beyond!). Cheers to forging a new path and being open to how that path will wind and change in the years ahead! ❤️
I often tell people that if my kids had been homeschooled they most likely would have never learned math or science. I just wouldn’t have the patience. One thing that I think needs to be considered in saying that public schools are failing families is to look backward at the standardized test boom that exploded from “No Child Left Behind”. I’m in Texas and the $$$$ spent on these tests is ridiculous. It also pushes the classroom to be a test preparation venue, rather than a learning and exploring one. Teacher’s salaries are tied to testing success. If we want thinkers and problem solvers, this is not the way to get there. What is successful in homeschooling seems to go back to the idea of improving the mind, not just training it.
I think you’re spot on. One of our motivating factors in deciding to home educate was precisely what you’re describing. I was in college in the teacher education program when the No Child Left Behind legislation and the extreme standardized testing were being introduced. I realized halfway through college that I didn’t want to be employed as a teacher under those circumstances so I switched my major. When it came time to decide how to educate our own kiddos, we envisioned a more robust, tangible education for them than what was being offered in our public schools and that’s how we decided on home education.
My eldest is homeschooled because he has Long Covid. He’s in 11th grade and essentially does an online program.
My second is in public high school but misses one day a week due to chronic pain caused by covid.
My third is in a private Catholic school and also misses about a day every other week due to weakness and fatigue. I keep #3 in the private school because it’s a community. A lot of our community go destroyed in the pandemic and it’s a stable place for her. She would probably be great homeschooled.
I’d love to see more data that includes children who have been disabled by the pandemic.
I'm a big advocate of public schools and believe that when properly funded , they can be quite effective in teaching the kids of our nation. The choice to homeschool is ok with me but it ,too, must be regulated ,just as public schools are to maintain consistency in education which will lead to students becoming productive citizens of our country. i.e. people who pay their taxes, are law abiding and can contribute the making of a more perfect union in our Democratic Republic.
I have seen these trends reflected in my own state. Like others, I was waiting for mention of the kind of families that can afford this today. In my community, it's the well-off ones. The money they are draining from the public education coffers through my state's voucher program is further disadvantaging low-income families in a state that already dramatically under funds public education.
While I absolutely know homeschoolers who are far from wealthy and I am guessing some people are unaware of the possibilities for homeschooling on the cheap while both parents work…you are probably right that homeschoolers skew more wealthy and that the current system we have results in a dynamic where the more kids leave public school the more those still there are disadvantaged. This is a system issue, not a homeschooling families issue, as it is reasonable to expect families to choose an option that works for their children over one that doesn’t. It isn’t that families need to stop homeschooling (besides the fact that they just won’t), it’s that we need to change how education is funded. Though I homeschool 2 of my kids, I feel strongly that it’s important to that public schools offer a robust education available to all.
I would completely agree. I see the same thing in my state. The rich get richer. I know that many homeschooling parents are not "rich" but they do have advantages that many low-income families do not.
I’m a home-schooling and public-schooling mom of 4. I have 1 kid at a public middle school, 2 homeschooling and 1 in preschool part-time. I have a masters in International Educational Development and a pretty comprehensive understanding of school systems internationally and domestically. My children have been schooled at home, at traditional public schools and at charter schools as I take it year by year and kid by kid. This article touched on a lot of facets of the educational landscape in the US today. What I would add is that it’s not just parents becoming more aware of additional options and considering them more, it’s also the education system failing to meaningfully adapt to a changing world. Our system has remained largely the same for decades, with the exception of many districts now replacing much of their “analog” learning with screen-based learning (often to the detriment of that learning). Meanwhile, what students need from an education to be prepared for their future has changed drastically. To be clear, I blame teachers little for this. It is my view that teachers are largely trapped in a broken system that doesn’t adequately support them (low pay, high demands, little freedom, etc.). These are difficult, but solvable problems, and I hope the burgeoning homeschool scene will motivate the powers that be to get that ball rolling. In the meantime, I am grateful I have the ability, confidence and resources to homeschool my children as needed.
"These are difficult, but solvable problems,".... You hit the nail on the head with those 6 words. And the sooner we get out of our corners and stop our hand wringing and start working out solutions the better off we will all be.
I speak from that large country to the north of you. We share many of the same problems and challenges, just on a much smaller scale.
Living in a voucher state makes it hard to consider homeschooling from a neutral lens. I can’t help but worry that the rising number of homeschooled children coincides with a conservative push for the devaluation of education generally.
I appreciate this article, but to me it felt insincere without addressing the cost (edit: not only hard costs!) associated with homeschooling and addressing how working parents make this work. I’d love to hear from families with two full-time working parents, how they navigate homeschooling.
I did talk about the cost in our interview. We were a single income family with one car and relied a lot on the library. It doesn’t have to be expensive.
Julie, how do you recommend approaching this for a two-income family? Can you share what it looks like when both parents are working? Can you share where in the article this is referenced? I cannot locate where it talks about the cost to families individually in today’s numbers.
She didn’t include it in the article. I was just sharing that I did address it in the original interview. It’s difficult to home educate as a solo homeschooler if both parents work full time during traditional school hours. But I have seen couples swing it—one parent is a nurse who works 3 12 hour shifts, other parent works from home—that kind of thing.
I worked as a freelance writer/editor while homeschooling and eventually as a business owner. Homeschool support groups can help you brainstorm ideas for your particular family
Hi Olivia. I just want to jump in here because Julie and I are friends, have spoken at events together and have very similar stories. Like Julie, I started a business (Beautiful Feet Books) as a homeschooling mother of 4 that became successful enough that I had to devote a lot of non-homeschooling time to it. It was stressful at times, my closets were a mess, and I did feel like someone always needed my attention–familiar emotions for any working mother. But it worked. Of course, it made a difference that I was able to work from home. For mothers working outside the home, I have seen many succeed at it by adjusting their work schedule, enrolling their kids in hybrid schools that meet 2-3 days per week, and having partners that take on some aspect of education that they enjoy. Like Julie says, when you view education more as an adventure in life, (and not occupying a desk for 8 hours), all kinds of opportunities open up!
Not to mention the cost to (usually the mother’s) career trajectory and long term objectives, which can have a major impact on sense of self apart from the role of mother. For all the very real work homeschooling is, it is rarely looked upon as something you ought to put on a resume for a professional career role later down the line.
I did step away from a federal consulting career to first stay home with my kids & then to homeschool them. I actually found that I came more into my own as a homeschooler than I had in my previous career. I had more flexibility in my schedule & could incorporate interests like photography into our days. I also got involved in our non-sectarian statewide homeschool organization which led me to getting involved in advocacy work and I worked with amazing people doing positive things. I began writing & speaking & also worked as a coach at Brave Writer. I truly came into my own as a person through my homeschooling experience (both kids are college graduates and off on their own).
That’s not to say that it’s right or would be fulfilling for everyone. But I found that I was able to find time to explore my own personal development & interests as I helped my kids explore theirs. I very much had (and have) an identity & life outside of my kids.
One other comment: I often recommend that women in particular keep one foot in the door of their career path. Parttime or maintaining a license—this can be a way to keep yourself emotionally grounded as well as creating future opportunities when homeschooling is over.
My best employees are homeschool mothers. I call them the great untapped employee resource—quick learners, self-motivated, capable of meeting deadlines and taking feedback. A true treasure.
Oh, Amen to that! I homeschooled my four sons for many years and I don’t mind saying, I have always been a very valued member of any team. (I’m pretty sure we crossed paths back in the day on TWTM boards in the early 2000s, btw!) And I worked part time through most of my time homeschooling (started homeschooling my oldest in 2004, started working part time [for Ree Drummond] in 2007, became a wedding photographer 2010-2017, was working full time in mass communications when my last homeschooled (they were mostly doing online school at that point) kid graduated, and after a major effort successfully got into tech/UX (but then unfortunately was caught up soon after in mass layoffs—and the fight to get back to that earning potential again has been absolutely brutal and as yet, unrealized). All to say, it has been incredibly difficult moving up the career ladder as I had put my own college degree on hold more than once over the years (1995 Freshman, 2016 Sophomore, 2023 Graduated! 😅). The lost income/retirement is barely quantifiable (probably because I’m not a math person 😂). And the cost to, for lack of a better way to put it, my sense of self when all the schooling wound down, was a far greater toll than I had ever really imagined it would be. I am very much a “work-oriented” individual so I looked at homeschooling as a true job that I would simply never get paid for. Is it paying dividends? 100% yes. Are they ones that I can retire on? Not really. 😅 And that’s ok. But we are not wealthy people so the long term financial cost is not as easily absorbed, if that makes sense. My husband is a former minister turned social worker. He has gone back to school for his second masters degree. Life isn’t a straight line. (How boring are straight lines anyways?!)
Don’t get me wrong, I would homeschool again if I was starting over but, looking back, there are definitely things I would do much differently in terms of my own career development, knowing what I know now.
I just think it’s important for people to consider those costs, particularly the ones that can’t be calculated in dollars and cents.
I totally see what you're saying. Homeschooling is definitely more heavily relied on by mothers and there are so many women who have worked long and hard for their careers and so many who have dreams and goals they don't want to give that up. I think that's totally valid and I didn't particularly feel like Elise was saying it was the right choice for every family. Of course there will be people who can't or just don't want to homeschool. Likewise, choosing to stay home is a valid choice for any parent (father or mother) who has the financial ability and chooses to do so. In today's world so much weight is put in having "success" in the form of a career or professional achievements but I think it's such a personal decision that there's no right answer for every family. To your point, though, there are costs associated with those decisions and they are absolutely worth considering in these conversations.
100%. I’m not sure where I’m missing the costs to the family, but I cannot find any mentions of how much it is. If you’re going to really consider this, you’d need to understand what the hard costs of the materials are of course as well as impacts to income, 401K, insurance, etc. I’m making some assumptions that the working parent requires the only car in your family most weekdays, so the application and cost looks vastly different depending on your location and access to public transportation, and thus access to library or shared resources.
I was thinking the same. This article does such a good job covering so many facets of homeschooling, but leaves out the cost. The time to do it and materials required are out of reach for many families. Some states offer financial support for materials, but many don't.
Another option is to look for schools with an IB program. International program that teaches critical thinking.
I’m a home-educating mom of three who chose home education twenty years ago for many reasons. While it’s certainly not always easy, it’s been the greatest adventure for our family. The freedom we’ve enjoyed to travel the country and learn along the way has been incredibly rewarding. Our kids have rich friendships, meaningful community involvement, time to pursue their unique passions, and strong critical thinking skills that have been nurtured by their out-of-the-box education. They’ve never taken a standardized test because they don’t have a standardized education. Julie Bogart’s Bravewriter programs have been a much-loved part of our learning for the past ten years. Bravewriter even offered a Taylor Swift “lyrics as poetry” class that my teenaged daughter and I had so much fun taking together! Our kids loved reading books like “The Small and the Mighty” by Sharon McMahon and then traveling to hear her speak on her book tour in 2024. We stayed in a historic hotel, visited our state capitol, goofed around for hours at the Museum of Illusions, and enjoyed a shared experience as Sharon spoke about the ordinary Americans who changed the world in their own small ways. Education with fun, laughter, and exploration built right in!
Our educational journey has had plenty of speed bumps, but it’s been navigated with love and curiosity. Our oldest started his own business (a franchised tourist map) when he was 16 and he’s now a successful, happy, independent almost-twenty-year-old. Our middle son is graduating this year and our daughter will be two years behind him. It’s been the adventure of a lifetime for all of us and I’m grateful to have had the freedom to choose what works best for our family.
As someone who experienced homeschooling, public school, Catholic school, and private school in my education, the one I would recommend least is homeschooling.
Americans are increasingly shying away from the expertise of trained professionals - in the way we educate our children as in many other ways - and I think it's one of the more dangerous expressions of populism.
I tend to agree. I knew enough about myself to chose high-quality, well-vetted homeschooling materials when I did homeschool for two years, but some of the material available is frightening in its populism and ignorance. The lack of oversight in testing for academic rigor is concerning to me
I enjoyed reading this article and I feel like it touches on a lot of the current homeschool/public school dynamics, debates, and feelings.
I would like to add a dynamic into this article and that is of the military family and homeschooling.
As someone who never, ever thought she would be homeschooling, we ended up homeschooling for educational stability due to our frequent moving and travel associated with our life. When you move from state to state, you can see the differences in the education quality across each one.
Homeschooling, and state residency (in this case, Florida) supported programs that allowed us to keep resources streamlined, have allowed our children to keep their education consistent through deployments, PCSing, and travel.
Parents are not qualified teachers. You are piling a teacher relationship into a parental relationship; why? Many kids may not get the socialization they need. Cheerleading, swimming, chess club, chorus, guitar, Bunsen burners in science labs. School assemblies. Charity drives. So many things missed when kids don’t go to school. I know public schools are “co-teaching” by allowing homeschoolers to participate in sports. I think homeschooling parents are abandoning the public schools; this is antisocial and maintains a separateness in the country. Private schools and charter schools already do this and so does homeschooling. The regulation is of homeschool is known to be spotty.
Divisiveness in schooling from pre k? Maybe that’s part of the problem in the country.
I appreciated learning more about a world I knew little about, especially the distinction between families who arrive at homeschooling pragmatically versus ideologically.
But I kept waiting for a section that never came: the economic reality. The families profiled here have a parent who can stay home, the education to feel confident teaching, and resources not available to everyone. What about households where both parents work (or there’s only one) just to keep the lights on? I’m doing some research now about the economic reality for the average American. About half of families can’t face a $500 emergency without borrowing or selling something. How could someone in that situation take time off work to care for their kids full time?
I also couldn’t help thinking about my own education. I love my parents, but there’s no universe in which either of them could have taught me as well as half of my public school teachers. Not everyone has a Julie Bogart at home.
One small quibble: the article cites that “41 percent of homeschoolers are non-white or non-Hispanic,” and that stat does appear in the cited source, so fair enough. But drilling into the actual data, of 1,773 students only 303 were non-white AND non-Hispanic—that’s 17.1%. The 41% figure counts anyone who is either non-white OR Hispanic, which means it includes white families from Hispanic backgrounds as part of the “diversity” stat. That’s a pretty misleading way to frame racial demographics, though the blame lies with the source rather than this article.
Thank you!
I appreciate the artice, I could never ever homeschool. If there was Walking Dead pandemic and sick zombies were everywhere, there would be my kids on their way to school. I for sure admire people's patience and skills to do it. I have 0 of both.
I thought the same about myself--that I would have zeroooo patience for homeschooling. When we were forced to consider it, I was surprised to find I actually liked it a lot. But teaching one of my kids math was bad. So bad. So, sooo bad, I wonder what my neighbors thought was going on. When I felt nostalgic for homeshooling the summer after our second year and questioned my decision to send everyone back for some good old socialization (we had no co-op) and some professional teaching, I did one--just one!--math worksheet with That Kid and was all, "NOPE! NO! BACK TO SCHOOL WITH YOU IMMEDIATELY!" And she's alive today because of public school!
LOL! We homeschooled for a few years, and after getting a bit of experience with it, I would often say "homeschooling is definitely not for everyone... it's not even for us some days." ;-) I'm grateful that we had the ability to do it when we had a need for it, and we had some very cool experiences with it, but it was haaaaard!
This made me laugh. Thank you!
I really appreciate the attention this article brings to homeschooling for the sake of a child’s whole education vs homeschooling to (more or less) shelter or control.
Perhaps I read it with a different lens, but I didn’t particularly feel like Elise was trying to insinuate that homeschooling was right or realistic for every family but simply pointing out that it is on the rise and why that is. I think absolutely there is a level of privilege or sacrifice that is involved in that choice but I also think it can be a both/and situation. There is a growing number of families deciding to homeschool because they feel like the current curriculum by their local schools (which will greatly differ depending on location) isn’t best serving their child AND there are parents who can’t or simply don’t want to homeschool and will continue to send their children to public schools.
I understand the compulsion to feel like when someone is doing things differently than someone else then there must be a “right” or “wrong” way, but like with SO many aspects of being a parent (Natural or epidural? Gentle or authoritative? Swaddling? Sleep training? Baby led weaning? Screen time? and on and on and on…) this is just one aspect that will vary greatly across the board depending on SO many factors. Could it be explored in more detail? Sure. But I think this is a great look at big picture why more families (who can and desire to) are making the decision to try homeschooling for themselves while also breaking through the stereotype that homeschoolers are conservative, traditional “bible school” families.
I'm a SAHM in Utah and was a firm non-believer in homeschooling until COVID. I took my three children out of school over fears of backsliding and educated them at home out of my own pocket with several purchased programs (all offline, per my choice). It was an extremely interesting two years--we had no homeschooling co-ops, so it was just them and me. I LOVED reading them books that dovetailed with our history studies and taking them on field trips around our greater community. I HATED the isolation, made worse with COVID. I also discovered my youngest had not learned any math in the dual immersion program she'd begun the year before (which is typical, and they usually catch up within a few years), but she was not thriving and we reversed course, so I had to teach her 1st grade math before we could begin 2nd grade. It was an incredibly enriching, exhausting two years. My girls are now in 12th, 10th, and 7th and thriving back in public school. Our district allows a hybrid experience with some classes via public school and some via homeschool, which is a good alternative for those who wish it.
HOWEVER: in our church congregation, there was a family that homeschooled all of their children in a way that raised serious alarms. There were eight children, teens to a baby. None of them could read. They all had speech impediments to the point that they were virtually unintelligible. They also would come to church unwashed and with noticeable body odor, which made it challenging for them to integrate with their peers. One of the boys had behavioral problems so severe, he was routinely hospitalized. And both parents claimed to have had TBIs from their time in the military, and it was clear to outsiders they, too, were struggling with cognition. The entire situation was a major crisis, and they were flying completely below the radar of any government educational institution. In another part of our state, a little boy being severely abused by his dad and stepmom was removed from school in spite of numerous red flags raised to CPS by school employees and eventually died from abuse and neglect. Again, there was so little oversight, he was able to fall through the cracks. I firmly believe in some kind of official oversight to prevent this type of situation from happening so frequently.
Seeing this article was like looking in a mirror—the story of our family. I was a public school teacher for many years pre-pandemic, with an MA in Pedagogy. All our kids were in mainstream schools as well. I was a true “never homeschooler”. The pandemic hit, I happened upon Susan’s book, began to change my perspective on education in general (it was a long pandemic so lots of time to think lol), and we unenrolled our kids from their schools. We homeschooled thru lots of ups and downs, I found Julie and Bravewriter (love you Julie and so do my kiddos!), found a community of homeschool families, found a LOT of homeschool pessimists and heard a LOT of negative homeschool comments (Julie, your Thanksgiving article was a boon to my nervous soul!). We were on a single income living in an expensive city so we made the decision to uproot and relocate to a rural town. We are now back to dual income but it took determination and sacrifice and viewing other ways we could use our skills to generate a paycheck. My spouse and I now operate a beef ranch; a complete 180 from our former careers, and we enjoy it immensely. Point being, I’ve observed many people see dual working families as a barrier to entry for homeschooling, but there are so many ways to make it doable. For us it involved some difficult choices and cuts, but every September our kids are offered the choice between rejoining mainstream school or continuing to homeschool and they have, at this point, always chosen to remain in our home to learn.
On a final note, I will flag that remaining open minded about homeschool truly is a kindness even if it is not for you. Homeschool families regularly get thrown snowballs of negativity and stereotyping and, while most adults can shoulder those comments about “weirdness” or “missing out on social aspects”, our kids cannot. It is damaging to them mentally. Please keep those predatory questions to yourselves in the presence of kids! Homeschool is not for everyone, we get it. All we ask for is the acceptance that is is for some of us. ☺️
What a beautiful story of leaning into change for your family based on how needs and priorities shift throughout life. Thank you for sharing! I agree, Julie Bogart’s influence is making an enormous difference in the world of home education (and beyond!). Cheers to forging a new path and being open to how that path will wind and change in the years ahead! ❤️
I often tell people that if my kids had been homeschooled they most likely would have never learned math or science. I just wouldn’t have the patience. One thing that I think needs to be considered in saying that public schools are failing families is to look backward at the standardized test boom that exploded from “No Child Left Behind”. I’m in Texas and the $$$$ spent on these tests is ridiculous. It also pushes the classroom to be a test preparation venue, rather than a learning and exploring one. Teacher’s salaries are tied to testing success. If we want thinkers and problem solvers, this is not the way to get there. What is successful in homeschooling seems to go back to the idea of improving the mind, not just training it.
I think you’re spot on. One of our motivating factors in deciding to home educate was precisely what you’re describing. I was in college in the teacher education program when the No Child Left Behind legislation and the extreme standardized testing were being introduced. I realized halfway through college that I didn’t want to be employed as a teacher under those circumstances so I switched my major. When it came time to decide how to educate our own kiddos, we envisioned a more robust, tangible education for them than what was being offered in our public schools and that’s how we decided on home education.
My eldest is homeschooled because he has Long Covid. He’s in 11th grade and essentially does an online program.
My second is in public high school but misses one day a week due to chronic pain caused by covid.
My third is in a private Catholic school and also misses about a day every other week due to weakness and fatigue. I keep #3 in the private school because it’s a community. A lot of our community go destroyed in the pandemic and it’s a stable place for her. She would probably be great homeschooled.
I’d love to see more data that includes children who have been disabled by the pandemic.
I love the way you write, Elise.
I'm a big advocate of public schools and believe that when properly funded , they can be quite effective in teaching the kids of our nation. The choice to homeschool is ok with me but it ,too, must be regulated ,just as public schools are to maintain consistency in education which will lead to students becoming productive citizens of our country. i.e. people who pay their taxes, are law abiding and can contribute the making of a more perfect union in our Democratic Republic.
I have seen these trends reflected in my own state. Like others, I was waiting for mention of the kind of families that can afford this today. In my community, it's the well-off ones. The money they are draining from the public education coffers through my state's voucher program is further disadvantaging low-income families in a state that already dramatically under funds public education.
While I absolutely know homeschoolers who are far from wealthy and I am guessing some people are unaware of the possibilities for homeschooling on the cheap while both parents work…you are probably right that homeschoolers skew more wealthy and that the current system we have results in a dynamic where the more kids leave public school the more those still there are disadvantaged. This is a system issue, not a homeschooling families issue, as it is reasonable to expect families to choose an option that works for their children over one that doesn’t. It isn’t that families need to stop homeschooling (besides the fact that they just won’t), it’s that we need to change how education is funded. Though I homeschool 2 of my kids, I feel strongly that it’s important to that public schools offer a robust education available to all.
I would completely agree. I see the same thing in my state. The rich get richer. I know that many homeschooling parents are not "rich" but they do have advantages that many low-income families do not.
I’m a home-schooling and public-schooling mom of 4. I have 1 kid at a public middle school, 2 homeschooling and 1 in preschool part-time. I have a masters in International Educational Development and a pretty comprehensive understanding of school systems internationally and domestically. My children have been schooled at home, at traditional public schools and at charter schools as I take it year by year and kid by kid. This article touched on a lot of facets of the educational landscape in the US today. What I would add is that it’s not just parents becoming more aware of additional options and considering them more, it’s also the education system failing to meaningfully adapt to a changing world. Our system has remained largely the same for decades, with the exception of many districts now replacing much of their “analog” learning with screen-based learning (often to the detriment of that learning). Meanwhile, what students need from an education to be prepared for their future has changed drastically. To be clear, I blame teachers little for this. It is my view that teachers are largely trapped in a broken system that doesn’t adequately support them (low pay, high demands, little freedom, etc.). These are difficult, but solvable problems, and I hope the burgeoning homeschool scene will motivate the powers that be to get that ball rolling. In the meantime, I am grateful I have the ability, confidence and resources to homeschool my children as needed.
"These are difficult, but solvable problems,".... You hit the nail on the head with those 6 words. And the sooner we get out of our corners and stop our hand wringing and start working out solutions the better off we will all be.
I speak from that large country to the north of you. We share many of the same problems and challenges, just on a much smaller scale.
Living in a voucher state makes it hard to consider homeschooling from a neutral lens. I can’t help but worry that the rising number of homeschooled children coincides with a conservative push for the devaluation of education generally.