How To Choose the Best Schooling Option

There are many schooling options from homeschooling, to public school, to charter schools. How to choose the best option for your family.

School children in a line facing the camera

There are so many concerns surrounding education. Do you homeschool? Private school? Public school? What are the benefits and drawbacks to each? How do you decide what to do?

These are not easy questions, and there is no one right blanket answer.

As your children get older, the parenting questions get harder and the answers become more personalized.

With the babies, I can pretty easily and accurately say, “For your 3 week old, waketime should be between 30-50 minutes, with most babies liking about 40 minutes.” This is true no matter where you live and what your culture is. It is true no matter what your values and goals. Your community has no impact on this.

When it comes to older children, however, the questions do not have simple and universal answers.

Should you homeschool or send your child to homeschool? I don’t know. I can tell you what we have decided for our family and why, but I can’t tell you what you should do for your family.

Some of you know what you want to do without a doubt. For others, it is a difficult question to answer.

This week, we will have a series of posts to help those of you wondering what to do–and even what to ask yourselves.

Tuesday will be a guest post on Charter schools written by a mother whose children attend a charter school. Charter schools are similar to private schools, but they are publicly funded. Read Is a Charter School Right for Your Child?

Wednesday, I will discuss public schools. Read Is a Public School Right for Your Child?

Thursday, we will have a guest post on homeschooling from a homeschooling mom. Read Is Homeschooling Right for Your Child?

What About Preschool?

The first decision you will face educationally is preschool. Not all families who send their child to school decide to send their children to preschool, and not all families that homeschool do preschool from home also.

I already have a post that addresses this topic, found here:

Is Preschool Necessary for Academic Success?

Conclusion

As we discuss schooling options this week, please feel free to share your own decisions and reasoning for your schooling choices. Please do keep it respectful–there is no need to “bash” one form of education as you discuss what you like about your own choices. The goal of this week is to be helpful to parents who are deciding what is best for their families. 

Related Posts

Best school option pinnable image

4 thoughts on “How To Choose the Best Schooling Option”

  1. Sounds great! I can't wait to read about the different perspectives. We still aren't sure what we are doing next year for kindergarten. My daughter, Lacey, is doing transitional kindergarten this year & I did a post on it that might be helpful to anyone who is struggling with that decision. http://www.twostorycottage.com/2012/08/transitional-kindergarten-one-moms.htmlIt was tough because our daughter is a mature, independent, rule-follower. Our biggest issue was length of day. ( A full 7+ hours for kind.)Congrats on your sweet baby & I look forward to the posts this week.

    Reply
  2. I am a private school teacher myself and a new mother of a 3.5-month old. Thankfully childcare works out wonderfully with my husband and parents and he's only in a day-school once a week from 9am-3pm (I work 9:30-2:30). I'm a big believer that every child is different, but so is every school district! We bought our house specifically because it's in a good school zone and he will be able to go to public school when he gets to Kindergarten. I also think that PreK and Mother's Day Out programs are really helpful for children to attend even before they're 4 years old (and have seen the importance as a teacher). In our case, since my husband and I both work (thankfully with pretty flexible jobs in Education) these social/educational experiences will also be necessary for childcare purposes, but as a teacher I believe in them either way. I know everyone's situation is different, but no matter what homeschool/school situation, a good quality education with high standards of moral behavior AND academics is KEY to me. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Thanks for your thoughts ladies!Erin, our sate is still half-day Kindergarten and I am so glad! I know they talk about going full day often. I hope it doesn't happen.

    Reply
  4. Thank you for the inspirational thoughts you wrote here. It is excellent to know that there are some people that can associate themselves to this issue. For everyone else, I advise that they take the time to read this.Buy Coursework Online | GCSE Coursework | Science Coursework | Statistics Coursework | Sociology Coursework | UK Coursework Writing | Research Paper Writing

    Reply

Leave a Comment