Why Homeschooling Could Be For You

First let me start with a short introduction my name is Jonathan McGowan and I am a single father of four young children the oldest of which just turned eleven. I am very active in the lives of my kids and realize the value education will play on the lives of all the children in the United States and the world. In my opinion as a parent who has used homeschooling for the last three years the public school system is broke and teachers are not held accountable for teaching. To explain that just a bit the fact that a teacher was able to get a degree does not mean they know how to teach if teachers were held accountable test scores would go up. For example why do great college coaches make more than history professor because they get paid for results and not just to show up?

As a concerned parent I tend to ramble on so enough about that, we could spend years debating why public schools system is broke and the many ways to fix it. That brings me to why I am homeschooling my children? The reason I started in this system of education was because after two years of first grade for my oldest daughter she was unable to read one word. I was getting good report cards and I obviously was not paying close enough attention the real progress she was making. When I asked her how she was doing her school work she said “the teachers aid would read to me”.  This blew me away and I started teaching her to read and started homeschooling the next semester. The good news is she now reads 145 words per minute with 92% retention rate.

The school my kids were attending is still using a copy machine to copy assignments while I am using the best tools available to teach my kids. I have a computer for each of my kids we access the best of the best teachers and software proven to get results and the best part my kids are involved in the whole process of learning and they are loving it.

Looking back it was not easy to decide to do homeschooling all I had when I started was the mindset of a father who was responsible for the education of his kids and public schooling was not getting the job done.  All I knew was I had the ultimate responsibility to ensure my kids were able to get the best education possible and I am committed and responsible to make sure that happens. Since I definitely do not have the time necessary to fix the educational system I will make sure my kids do not fall victim to it.

Finally after three years of being their teacher I have come to realize it is not as hard as I thought it was going to be. The freedom to learn is so empowering my son is already two years ahead in reading and math and scored 97% in the state exams. We can do educational field trips any time to anywhere and involve everyone one in it.  The process of involvement is the power of homeschooling everyone is part of the process Kathleen my oldest daughter loves working on site words with her little sister and in the process is reinforcing is learning and becoming smarter.

If you are considering this line of education for your kids feel free to contact me I am dedicated to our children

Thanks so much Jonathan

Tagged as: Home School, Homeschooling, learn at home