More Homeschool Myths Debunked

Homeschoolers are smarter...humm, there are a couple of ways to look at this. There are incredibly smart children that homeschool, or attend private or public school. Homeschooling itself does not make kids smarter (God does that). As homeschoolers, our children can concentrate on a subject as long as they need to thoroughly understand it or complete the lesson and move on. I have read some wonderful family testimonies of children graduating highschool at 14 and college at 18 and making straight A's. It does happen. Homeschool children generally do score higher on standardized tests than public school students. I think they can focus better on the task at hand and not have worries about other things. But thats just my thought. But homeschooling doesn't mean you won't have learning challenges and difficulties. I've had 2 children attention problems, 2 that struggle with multiplication facts and 1 that has difficulty with spelling. But before anyone comments and says the public school could help them...know this, they were there for 5-7 years and it didn't help. The stuggles have lessened with homeschooling not gotten worse.

Homeschool families are perfect. NOT! Don't know where this one started but I don't know any family that is perfect. We generally get along better with each other than other folks but its because we are together all the time and we have learned to get along. If you watch the "Kids by the Dozen" or "18 Kids & Counting" shows on TLC, keep in mind its not realtime, the shows are taped and edited.

Homeschool children are all well-behaved and respectful. Generally, I think this is true. We do tell our children before group field trips to act respectful, listen, etc. Unfortunately, if any kids don't behave on a field trip then that tends to label all homeschoolers as rowdy. As a family, a number of times when we are out in public I've had people ask me if we homeschool. This has specifically happened 3 different times at National Parks. When we answer yes, they nod and say we thought so. This is followed by "they are so nice and they listen when others are talking."
However, I have also seen some real stinkers who are homeschooled. Children are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. My adorable 13 year old used to throw some huge temper tantrums. And by huge I mean kicking, screaming and rolling on the floor fits when she was 2 or 3 years old. If she was gonna pitch a fit, she did it right, nothing halfway for this child. Praise the Lord, that didn't last too long but it certainly was challenging at the time!