The Evergreen State has seen one of the biggest homeschooling booms in the country, with proponents calling it “The Homeschooling Miracle in the Pacific Northwest.” While the national average of children enrolled in home education grew by about 27% between the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 school years, Washington’s rates jumped a staggering 43%. This translates to an additional 9,000 students who are now enrolled in homeschooling since 2019 in Washington alone. If you were on the fence about homeschooling your children in Washington, rest assured you will be able to find a community of believers and home educators in your area willing to guide you along this important journey!
As more parents find themselves dissatisfied with the public school system in their area and overwhelmed by the cost of private schools, many are turning to homeschooling as a way to direct their child’s upbringing and education practically and affordably. Others, however, are uncertain that homeschooling is the answer for their family, due to several popularized, but unfounded, concerns. Below we offer our thoughts on each of these common critiques.
- Concern #1: “It’s too hard to teach my child. I don’t know enough. I’m not a teacher.”
Many parents have no background in teaching before beginning their home education journey. Luckily, incredible strides have been made over the past decade in homeschooling curricula, where parents simply guide their children through the course material, rather than teaching from their own knowledge base. Many parents often wind up learning alongside their children! Sonlight and ChristianBook offer grade-by-grade curricula packages to get you started on your homeschooling journey.
Home-educated children receive specialized attention, fewer distractions, far less time studying, and courses tailored to their interests, making learning more enjoyable and engaging. Parents can customize learning to their child’s soul and natural curiosities. Parents know their children best!
The results speak for themselves. Take a look at the statistics below, provided by the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI):
- The home-educated typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests.
- 78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools.
- 87% of peer-reviewed studies on social, emotional, and psychological development show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in conventional schools.
Homeschool parents do not have to be trained teachers to educate their children properly and effectively!
That last statistic about the “social, emotional, and psychological development” brings us to the next critique:
- Concern #2: “Homeschooled children are not socialized enough.”
Children are only as socialized as their parents allow them to be, homeschooled or not. Additionally, introducing a component of socialization to homeschooling is not as difficult as some may think. There are countless co-education opportunities and homeschooling communities in Washington that families can get involved in. These communities offer not only friendships and socialization for the kids, but valuable support, experience, and wisdom for the parents from other homeschooling families. As the previous statistic noted, homeschoolers are typically more emotionally and socially intelligent than conventionally-schooled children!
“While opportunities to participate in sports were more limited in the early years of the homeschool movement, today the situation has improved dramatically,” one homeschooling resource notes. “Many communities now allow homeschool students to participate in public school sports. And in areas where homeschooling is strong, co-ops often offer organized sports leagues and competitions in science, band, choir, chess, spelling, debate, and forensics so kids can learn discipline, goal setting, and sportsmanship.”
Homeschooled children arguably have more opportunities for extracurricular activities and socialization, thanks to the time saved through home education!
“According to NHERI, 13 out of 15 studies on social skills also showed positive results for homeschoolers compared to public school students,” the news station KHQ in Spokane reported. “In some cases, home education helped develop better social cues and skills than those who attended public school.”
- Concern #3: “Homeschooled children will miss out on school experiences such as homecoming, football games, pep rallies, etc.”
While this may have been true a decade ago, countless homeschool groups now offer “traditional” school activities like homecoming dances and sports. “Traditional schools don’t have a monopoly on social events and clubs,” the writer noted. “Homeschool co-ops, churches, and other civic organizations often hold similar events, including special activities like father-daughter banquets that public schools don’t sponsor. Moreover, many other opportunities—like 4-H, FFA, and scouting—are available for students from every educational setting to learn important life skills.” (emphasis added)
Homeschooling is what you make of it – it’s a “choose your own adventure” form of education that opens the door to countless opportunities that many kids in public and private schools don’t have.
Perhaps most importantly, homeschooling allows the natural bond between parents and children to strengthen and grow. When kids are away from their parents for 30+ hours a week in traditional schools, it inhibits that natural bond from developing. Above and beyond anything a child may learn in school, the sacred bond between mothers and fathers and their children, as ordained by God, is the most impactful part of a child’s upbringing, and a large predictor of a child’s future success. In homeschooling, parents are in a position also to protect their child’s soul from Woke ideology and raise up children who fear the Lord.
Here at FPIW, we are Strategic Partners with the Christian Homeschool Network of Washington, Christian Heritage Home Educators of Washington, and Parent’s Rights in Education.
If you’re interested in learning more about the homeschooling movement in Washington and how FPIW is protecting parental rights, please sign up to become a DEFENDER today!
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