By Joseph Woodard

Many young moms, deliberating their options for educating their kids, may sense that their five- or six-year-old is not quite ready for the hurly-burly of the public school system. Yet, if they consider educating their child at home, and then talk to committed homeschoolers, they may come away feeling like they’d be facing an unclimbable mountain, twelve years high. They can’t quite imagine that they have the energy or skills for that long, long climb, and they’re afraid that they’ll have to climb it alone.

However, recent academic research shows that, these days, parents really can and do make their schooling decisions one year at a time — as they should. They’re responding to the changing needs of their children, changing family circumstances, new opportunities for instruction, or new problems at their local public school one year at a time. No surprise, if parents are responsible enough to consider homeschooling, then they’ll also be attentive to all the changing circumstances: their kids’ anxiety or curiosity about other kids, the arrival of a new baby in the house, an affordable new private school or homeschool cooperative, or a new plague of middle-school ‘mean girls’ or post-modern ‘gender studies.’

In his recent article in The Journal of School Choice (2024), sociologist Albert Cheng documents this revolution in his “Year-By-Year Primary and Secondary Education Histories of Homeschooled Individuals.” He finds constant movement between the various educational options. 

At the dawn of the homeschooling movement in the early 1980s, when it comprised less than three percent of the population, sociologists would divide the new homeschoolers into “ideologues” (mostly Christian) and “pedagogues” (mostly “crunchy” progressives). Most of these were committed to an uninterrupted, twelve-year climb through their child’ s hand-picked curricula or unstructured exploration. Given the simple fact that children’ s needs and the family circumstances change over time, this may have been a less-than-optimal attitude.

Now, however, the homeschooling population has grown, in any given year, to over ten percent of Americans and five percent of Canadians. It’s no longer branded a ‘fringe’ option. Further, there’s been tremendous growth in both pre-packaged home curricula and the range of ‘intermediate’ options (like co-ops, blended, or charter schools). Finally, brick-and-mortar schools, private and public, are more accustomed to seeing kids come-and-go, even part-time. So, private and public schools themselves are more accepting of moving between the options.

What Do the Numbers Say?

If parents launched their kids into homeschooling in grade one, and then carried on until graduation (the 1980’s assumption), they’d be evenly spread over the 12 years, roughly 8 percent per year. But what did Prof. Cheng discover? In any given year, roughly 40 percent of students had been homeschooled for just one or two years, and another 9 percent for three or four years. At the other extreme, 11 to 17 percent studied at home for the full 12 years. So at least four-fifths of ‘ever-homeschooled’ students have at least some experience in private or public educational institutions.

But what’s most interesting? It is not the case that all these families start in grade one and then gradually drop off, leaving only the ‘committed’ 10-20 percent for the whole duration. Instead, homeschooling can begin at virtually any time over the 12 years, for whatever personal reasons. For example, 5 percent of the ‘ever-homeschooled’ began in grade four — for whatever reasons. Through 12 years of schooling, in any given year, anywhere from 8 to 17 percent of those now homeschooling were starting that year and not homeschooled the year before. About 18 percent start homeschooling in junior high (middle school bullying?), and 26 percent in the high school grades.

At the other extreme, nearly one-third — 33 percent — of students homeschooled in grade eight then stopped in grade nine, possibly due to desire to participate in team sports, science labs, or advanced calculus classes. So, 26 percent start high schooling in grade nine and 33 percent stop? Obviously, that transition from junior to senior high is a moment of serious re-evaluation of the options. Fortunately, moving between the options is now almost seamless.

“One lady recently had to take her child out of school, due to a measles outbreak,” says veteran Alberta homeschooler and homeschool facilitator Colleen Lowther. “For a month-and-a-half she did the schooling, her family loved it, and so did she. So they just kept on. It doesn’t always work that way, but most often it does.”

Why Does This Matter?

Why should all this be of interest to nervous young mothers deliberating their toddlers’ future education?  Because they aren’t deciding for the rest of their lives, but only one year at a time. And there’s not much difference in the effort required, on the one hand, by a moms’ reading-and-arithmetic group, versus, on the other hand, constantly having to intervene for your child with an overworked or apathetic teacher in a crowded classroom.

Only a mom can decide what’s best for her child, the child she understands better than anyone else, better than the supposed experts.

Two-fifths of homeschooled kids begin in the first two grades for broadly two reasons, says the veteran Lowther. With younger kids in an age group, moms often “pull them out, just to give them time… When they catch up, they do fine, but if they are left in the system, they’ll be labelled as slow learners.” On the other hand, “some kids are very quick and advanced well beyond the pace of grade level programs,” she says. “Parents pull those kids from the classroom, because they’re obviously bored, tuning out, and may cause problems.” In those cases, parents “bring them home and challenge them with more appropriate materials.”

In both cases, the public schools are “focused on everybody marching through the grade level for the child’s age,” she says. But these days, there’s plenty of packaged curricula for teaching either basic skills or advanced subjects, and there’s lots of advice online. If and when the children positively want to try public school again, they can. The 10-20 percent of families who stick with homeschooling most often discover that it’s much more satisfying and enjoyable.

“Moms today are just so creative, they see what goes on in the school system is so limiting, and they want to do more with their kids,” Lowther says. “They take them out and explore all kinds of activities, going well beyond what they might experience in a formal classroom.”

Other surveys show a boom in homeschooling with exceptional needs children. Public schools generally won’t challenge these students, so they’re just being ‘cared for’ or warehoused, Lowther says. “I remember one family with a daughter who had severe cerebral palsy, and with her parents’ help, she was way ahead of her age group. . . I’ve seen lots of examples like this, moms taking special-needs kids home and bringing them far beyond what they’d ever achieve in the system. It’s remarkable! Nobody loves kids more than their parents, and love motivates higher learning.”

The Higher Grades?

Why do families start homeschooling later? Some reasons are dramatic: “I’ve worked with missionaries who were out in the field, homeschooled their kids, and just checked in periodically from abroad,” Lowther says. Or sometimes the whole family will take a sabbatical. “There was the doctor who wanted to travel the world in a sailboat for a year. They went as a family, and the major focus of their schooling was the places they visited around the world.”

On the other hand, “some kids have special gifts or talents, and homeschooling gives them the time to develop their gift. One girl I knew was such a great singer, her parents homeschooled so she’d have the time to develop her fabulous voice, and she ended up going to junior high in [country music capital] Nashville!” Young musicians and athletes often travel the world, and homeschooling is an option for many of those parents. “I had a student who was such a great classical pianist, he was touring Europe at 12 years old.” But those are the very rare exceptions.

Most families start homeschooling later, simply because the public system is failing to meet their children’s needs — failing to educate them.

Junior high boys especially can get burned out or turned off by formal academics. And peer pressure — nasty peer pressure — has much greater influence, when their studies and the entire system are really boring for young men.

“I’ve seen parents begin homeschooling their young men in order to motivate them in practical ways, with skills they love, that affirm their masculinity — mentorship opportunities in mechanics, welding, carpentry, or other skills. They maintain their academic studies, but they’re now learning what really excites them. The flexibility saves the spirit of these young men, so they go on to do great things, rather than drop out.” 

The public schools’ ‘dirty little secret’ is the enormous amount of time they waste in ‘herding’ students, trying to keep two or three dozen very different kids all moving at the same set pace through a rigid curriculum. Yet, by the middle school grades, self-guided homeschool curricula need only general supervision from mom, and the day’s assignments are usually done before lunch.

This frees up the afternoons for fun and profit, so there’s a growing trend of homeschooled teens, seeking out informal apprenticeships at independent bakeries, garages, or carpentry shops. Lowther’s own homeschooled son took a small engine repair course at the local trade school, then ran his own lawnmower repair business in his free afternoons. He went on to earn a university business degree and his Chartered Accountant certification.

“The common theme for most parents is, they want freedom from the government telling their kids what to learn and how to learn it” — government training them to be sheep. “But what they might not fully appreciate: they also free their kids from [juvenile] peer pressure, and instead cement their family relationships and their relationships with adults in general.” As we now have abundant evidence — young men with downcast eyes and limp handshakes — so-called ‘peer socialization’ renders them helpless in relating to adults. 

Why Do Some Stop?

Sometimes, Lowther says, parents stop homeschooling, due to a change in the family situation — a divorce, death in the family, or economic issues.

“Sometimes, if they’re not supported by their husbands, moms feel overwhelmed with the responsibility of educating their kids, and they just need a break,” she says. In the ‘80s, when homeschooling was more ‘fringe’, moms might fear they were ‘ruining’ their kids, “but these days, with the school systems being so bad, they have to know that they’re doing better than the public alternative.” Today, homeschoolers are everywhere, and “positive relationships in the homeschooling community can really help here.”

Sometimes parents find a better homeschooling alternative, like a co-op, learning pod or blended program (in provinces allowing them). Or they find a spiritually friendly and affordable private school. “For many families, this is an ongoing, year-to-year evaluation,” she says.

Regarding the middle school-to-high school transition, “some parents who want their children to meet postsecondary entrance requirements will build up a portfolio of their school work” — and universities are increasingly favouring homeschooled students, for their motivation and learning. “But the other alternative is to put their kids into a formal program in the higher grades, just to get the marks recorded.” This can be done full-time in a high school, she says, but it doesn’t have to be. There are adult learning centres or community college advanced placement courses, where students can interact with instructors in ‘real-time’, for science labs or complex mathematics.

The transition to high school can be a watershed, Lowther says. “Sometimes parents just need to simplify their lives, or they sometimes feel the high school years are just too challenging to do on their own.” But that decision most often rests with the students. In at least one case, Lowther knows, a young woman who was doing very well at home decided to go into the local public school, just because she knew she could ‘ace’ it and get a sterling diploma transcript. She did, and in the process, surrounded by miserable students and vulgar teachers, she enthusiastically affirmed her parents’ decision to homeschool her in the first place.

“My experience is, most people don’t quit homeschooling. What happens is, they tentatively start, and they learn and get better at it, then they enjoy it.” Lowther said, “And pretty soon, they wouldn’t give it up, or do it any other way. This is much truer today, because there are now so many options. What’s more of a challenge these days is tailoring the options to the needs of their students and their family.”

Causes for Confidence

Young moms will naturally feel anxiety about even attempting to homeschool, first, because they lack the confidence that they can do it, and second, they may worry their family can’t survive financially without a full second income. But given the wide range of educational options, and the growing opportunities to move between them, year-by-year, just experimenting with homeschooling can promise the recovering sanity in their family lives.

It’s no secret that the contemporary, two-income family is a pressure cooker, with the vast majority reporting moderate to high levels of stress. With both parents commuting to long work days, sleepy-eyed kids are rolled out of bed early, then slotted into before-and after-school care, which can feel chaotic and stressful. After a ten or eleven hour day away from home, they arrive back late — but who was supposed to get them today? Either parent has picked up fast food or packaged cuisine, so what was once the family dinner has also become chaotic and stressful. Trying to keep up with homework and school activities becomes chaotic and stressful. Managing the piles of laundry becomes chaotic and stressful. 

The children, surrounded by their equally rootless peers, ‘just got to have’ the right clothes and expensive devices to fit in. Their school ‘friends’ are total strangers. So after months of stress, the family blows any savings on an all-inclusive coma at the beach. Then ‘rinse and repeat’, year after year. There must be a better way.

With homeschooling, parents can take charge of their days and raise their children themselves, instead of dropping them onto an assembly line.

Having mom at home generates a thousand little savings, like healthy meals from scratch ingredients, prudent shopping, and free community recreations. Vegetable gardens, sewing, yard care, and babysitting become part of the children’s routines. Internet marketing has generated an explosion in home industries, from handmade soaps, candles, and textile art to prepared dinners — purchased by stressed, two income parents.

Homeschooling moms ‘can’t do any worse’ than the public schools, it’s commonly said, and all the statistical outcomes bear that out (see the CCHE summary of the 2020 Harvard Conference). But home or cooperative schooling isn’t simply the ‘least bad’ option. After eighty years of government control, the public schools have become propaganda mills, churning out emotionally stunted junior bureaucrats, rather than self-motivating, innovative free citizens. And, as homeschool facilitator Lowther said, 

“Nobody loves kids more than their parents, and love motivates higher learning.”

The old ‘one-room schoolhouse’, with parent-led boards, nurtured their students’ literacy and numeracy, but focused on their moral and civic virtue, with literature like Aesop’s Fables, Homer’s Odyssey, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, Utopia, Huckleberry Finn, the Bible, and Shakespeare’s plays. They were confident that graduates who could think were quite able, later in life, to teach themselves any necessary academic or professional skills. Homeschooling families have proven that true. Yet, ‘nurturing the whole person’ has long vanished from the public schools. 

So by now, homeschooling’s unexpected reward for young moms, themselves the victims of ‘progressive education’, is reading with their kids all the classics they were robbed of — like the beautiful Wind in the Willows or hilarious House at Pooh Corner.  “As they become more confident, parents discover it’s not really a sacrifice,” Lowther says, “but truly enjoyable.” 

Joseph K. Woodard earned a BA at University of Alberta (Pol Phil), MA’s at Dalhousie and St. John’s (Great Books), Greek and Latin diplomas at Berkeley, and a PhD at Claremont. He invested fifteen years as an academic (Bethany, Brock), fifteen as a journalist (Alberta Report, Calgary Herald), and eleven as a tribunal judge (Citizenship Canada). He has helped his wife, Kathy, raise ten children with homeschooling and parent-run school start-ups, and always taught adjunct at independent high schools and colleges. He writes for websites like The Imaginative Conservative and Public Discourse, serves as director of research for the Canadian Centre for Home Education, and moderates Great Books seminars online with Angelicum Academy.