Are you looking into homeschooling as an alternative choice to the school you are currently attending but your parents are not quite on board? One of the first things you need to do during your journey to becoming homeschooled is trying to convince your parents. Everyone has a reason for wanting to homeschool, and all of the reasons differ. I made the choice to homeschool in 2019, but I had to go through the process, and was successful in convincing my parents. I went through these specific steps, and they worked, so I am going to share my insights with you.
I have put together a 5 step process to successfully convince your parents to homeschool you. Here it is!
- Reflect – Why do you want to homeschool?
- Research – Find out everything to know.
- Personal info – Create your own information through surveys, and tallies.
- Prepare – Get your presentation ready.
- Talk – Time to talk to your parents!
There are many little tips within these main steps that you should follow. Keep reading if you want to find out what to do for each of these steps, and hopefully this will convince your parents to homeschool you.
Reflect Why you Want to Homeschool
Before you do anything, the very first thing you need to think about is why. Why do you want to homeschool? What makes it appealing to you? What made you think of homeschooling in the first place? Maybe you want to try something new, or the school you are at has been causing you too much stress. There are so many different reasons to why people want to try homeschooling instead of going to a conventional school. And conventional schools are not the right fit for everyone. You need to have a valid reasoning, and have been thinking of homeschooling for a little while now. You can’t all of a sudden decide you want to homeschool because of one bad day at school.
A suggestion would be to write down a list of all the reasons you have not been enjoying school. Or you could write down all of your reasons that you want to homeschool instead. This way you can look at your reasons, and see if they are enough to convince your parents. Make sure that homeschooling is what you really want before you continue through the next few steps. Give the idea of homeschooling some time to sink in, and make sure that you are making the right choice.
Do your Research
There is so much to know before you bring up homeschooling to your parents. It is good to do your research before telling them because they will see that you have learned a lot about homeschooling, and they will hopefully see that you really want to try it out. Some things that you can learn about in your research are stats about homeschoolers and success.
You can learn about how homeschool schedules work, or the many different types of homeschooling and learning approaches. Some of the types include, unschooling which is where students do not follow any sort of curriculum, they simply learn through everyday life activities. There is structured homeschooling, which is where parents teach their kids in a structured approach, so they are following a basic curriculum. There is online school, where students are enrolled in courses online that follow the basic curriculum. The last one I will talk about is worldschooling, which is where families are traveling and the kids get to learn from the world and be educated through travel, and experiencing and trying new things and cultures.
So you will need to discuss all of these types of homeschooling to your parents, and decide together which one would best suit your family. You can even do a bit of everything instead of choosing one specific learning approach.
Maybe find out exactly how homeschooling works, how you can register as a homeschooler and what the requirements are. You might even find that homeschooling is illegal in your state or country, so make sure you check out the rules and regulations before you become set on a specific type of homeschooling. If you live in the United States, homeschooling is generally legal across all of the states, with some regulations. In Canada, homeschooling is legal, with certain requirements depending on the province you live in. In Europe homeschooling is illegal in quite a few countries, but there are about 9 countries where is it legal. (Do you live in Europe? Check out my list of homeschooling laws in Europe.)
The next thing you should do is get the curriculum of your school district. If you look up your school district and then type curriculum, you should be able to find the curriculum for each individual grade. Then you can choose your grade and look at the curriculum requirements, just to have a general idea of what students in that grade will be learning. Then you can start thinking of project ideas based on the subjects students your age would be learning in conventional school.
Don’t forget to research the benefits of one on one learning. One on one learning is super beneficial in many ways, and it is a huge reason to why some parents want to homeschool. One on one learning is considered the best type of learning for children because they have a chance to learn at their own pace without the class moving on without them, or them waiting for their peers before moving on. Plus students are at all different levels for different subjects and one on one learning gives them the opportunity to go more in depth about the topics that the one student is interested in.
Stats and Fun Facts to Know and Tell your Parents
- Homeschooling is becoming more and more popular world wide. In the United States homeschooling is at a growth rate of 2% to 8% each year, whereas public schools’ growth rate is only 1.7% each year.
- Homeschoolers have been proven to be more academically successful than public, catholic and even private schools.
- Students who were homeschooled have a higher college graduation rate of 66.7% for a 4 year degree compared to students who went to public school who’s graduation rate is 58.6%.
- Homeschooled students have an average GPA of 3.45, and conventional schooled students have an average GPA of 2.69.
- A study done by NHERI (National Home Education Research Institute) that included almost 12,000 homeschooled students, proved that homeschoolers do better in most areas of study. They measured 5 academic pursuits and the homeschoolers scored around the 84th to 89th percentile. The public schooled students who were measured, scored at around the 50th percentile.
- The Home School Legal Defense Association did a huge research survey of a group of 7,300 adults who were homeschooled, and a group of adults who went to conventional schools. Here are some of the survey results. Around 71% of the homeschooled adults regularly participate in community activities like volunteering, but only 37% of conventionally schooled adults participate in community activities. The final section was called “enjoyment of life” 73.2% of the homeschooled adults found life exciting and 47.3% of the conventional schooled adults found life exciting.
To find out more statistics and information about homeschooling, check out some of my other posts on my homeschool category page.
Create your own information
If you really want to convince your parents, make your own research. They will see that you have really put a lot of time and effort into learning about homeschooling. There are lots of different ways you can make your own information and stats.
One easy way is to do a survey, depending on what your reason is for homeschooling. For example, if you are homeschooling because you find that your school is way to stressful and causing you anxiety problems, make a survey with a bunch of questions about school and stress, and send it to your friends.
I made a survey about the amount of homework that high school students get, because I was getting way too much from my high school, and it was causing me anxiety problems. I sent it to everyone I knew in high school, and my results proved that most students find that conventional school causes too much stress, and students spend over 2 hours each day on homework. I did this during my process of convincing my parents to homeschool me, and it did help them realize that I was serious about trying this new style of schooling.
If you know any homeschoolers you can make a survey to send to them, and to send to your conventional school friends. Then you can compare results and find out which of them have more time to do activities they are interested in, and more. You could compare answers for questions like; how much time do you feel is wasted in your school? Do you enjoy the type of school you are in? Do you feel like you fit in, in the school environment you are a part of? Even if you don’t know any homeschoolers, there is probably a facebook group of homeschool parents in your area, and you can send the survey to them.
Another things you could do to help convince your parents to homeschool you, is to convince them that you spend a lot of time in your class doing nothing. It is true that in most classes a lot of time is wasted from students getting distracted, messing around or from the teacher having to explain things three times in a row. It is not anyones fault, but it is nearly impossible not to waste time when you are in a class full of 25 students who are all at different understanding levels, for different subjects.
To create proof, or information on how much time is wasted you can keep track. This is another thing that I did when I was in high school, and I think when my parents saw the results it really helped them realize how if I were to homeschool I would be able to get through work a lot quicker, and more productively. I suggest you measure how much time is wasted in each of your classes. Keep a little sticky note on your desk, and each time your teacher has to explain something for the second time, or when there is a random irrelevant conversation going on, or if class starts late because the teacher is busy, write it down. I discovered that in most of my classes there was at least 20 minutes wasted out of 80, and sometimes 40 minutes would be wasted on irrelevant things.
Any small bits of information you can gather from your own experience, or from surveys can help your parents see how homeschooling could benefit you.
Prepare your Presentation
Before you talk to your parents about you wanting to be homeschooled, you should prepare a presentation. You want all of your information to be organized, and make sure that you have all of your points and research in your presentation. When you finally come to present your idea to your parents, you should have a nice presentation prepared so they know right away that you put a lot of effort into it. Some suggestions for your presentation are to create a slide show, so a PowerPoint or Google Slide presentation would be good, so then you can add images and point form information.
Make sure to include your research facts, and have a section for questions and discussion. There are many different styles of homeschooling, and you should also ask yourself what type of homeschooling would you like to do out of all of the ones you have researched. Then you can explain to your parents the specific type of homeschooling you are interested in. Make sure you mention all of the different learning approaches in your presentation though.
Talk to Your Parents
You have gone through all the steps above and you now have all the research you need to successfully convince your parents to let you homeschool. You should have a good presentation ready, some facts that are in favour of homeschooling, and lots of information in your head. Make sure you read all of these steps within the talk to your parents section, before you go and talk to your parents.
Find a good time: Ok so now you are prepared to talk to your parents about you wanting to be homeschooled. But before you bring out your presentation, you will need to find the right time to talk to them. Timing is everything! You don’t want to bring up this topic when your parents are in a bad mood, because there is going to be a higher chance of them saying no, and not wanting to listen to your presentation. Try and find a time where they are most willing to say yes, so preferably when they are in a good mood.
Stay open minded: Once you have found the perfect time to talk, tell them to stay open minded about homeschooling in general, because they can’t shut down your ideas until they have heard the entire presentation.
Stay calm: Stay calm during the talk, you want to show that you are mature, and getting really upset over your parents saying no to this idea you just sprung on them is not super mature. It will take time for them to warm up to the idea, so make sure to give them some space while they are making the final decision.
Understand their concerns: Your parents will probably have at least a few concerns about homeschooling you, especially if they don’t know anyone who is homeschooling. Make sure you are understanding their concerns, and answering all of their questions and reassure them that you know what you are talking about. But of course homeschooling does have its cons, so you need to keep that in mind too, but hopefully your parents will see all of the pros and realize that they most often outweigh the cons.
Make a pros and cons list: What better way to help you make a decision than a pros and cons list. Go in a pattern, so write down one pro, then one con, and make sure you have your parents participate. Then discuss the pros and the cons, and see which side outweighs the other. You can talk about pros and cons in many different areas like academics, free time, independence, community and socialization, type of learning etc.
Some pros for homeschooling to keep in mind are the one on one learning, more freedom and control over what you learn, more independence, the success rates, less anxiety and stress, and being able to get more sleep.
Talk about activities you could improve at and spend lots of time on if you are homeschooled. Make a point by saying something like “I have not been able to spend much time composing songs this year because school has made me too busy, but imagine how many songs I could write if I was able to work on it as part of my curriculum. Saying things like these will show your parents the types of problems you have with conventional school.
Homeschool groups: Talk about the homeschooling groups in your area. Make sure your parents know that there are others nearby that are homeschooling too. Sometimes it can be a little overwhelming to go into something alone when you don’t know anyone doing the same thing as you, so for your parents to have an idea that they would be able to meet others who are also homeschooling, that might help them throughout the first year of homeschooling.
Give examples: Give your parents some examples of successful homeschoolers. There are lots of very successful homeschoolers out there, but I don’t necessarily mean famous homeschoolers. For example, there is this homeschooler named Eva who started a website and blog when she was 16 called http://teensgotcents.com/ where she wrote about money and savings tips for teens, and it became so popular that she started making money off of it. Homeschooling gives students the opportunity to create something of their own, like a business or blog, which is something that they can put on a resume.
Give reassurance: Your parents will want to see that you will make it through your first year of homeschooling without getting upset with them. Think about it, when they are helping you with your homework, do you get mad at them because you don’t understand? Your parents will probably remember things like this, and think that you won’t be compatible with them. It can be hard having your parent as your teacher which is something you should keep in mind. So give your parent reassurance, and prove that you will listen to them when they are acting as your teaching. And next time that you get help with your homework, be calm, and don’t take it out on your parents if you can’t understand.
You should also prove that you can be an independent learner. Your parent who will be your teacher will want to see that they won’t have to do all of the work, and teach you all day because they’ll need a rest too.
Time: It will probably take some time for your parents to come to a decision, so be patient. They will need to discuss alone, and spend their own time researching, before they make their final decision.
*Tip: Have projects in mind for what you will do during your homeschool year. Because you have researched the curriculum, you have a general idea of what you would be learning in school, and you can use that curriculum as a base curriculum for homeschooling. So think up some really cool projects that you would want to do, but also ones that you could do independently. If your parents see that you have already thought of a few projects that you can do on your own and still learn, they will see that they won’t have to do all the work to plan out your projects and curriculum.
Compromise: If none of this works, you can still try to slowly bring up the idea a few times again, but if the answer is still no, try to make a compromise. You could compromise on doing online school, because that is in between homeschool and conventional school, or you could compromise to finish off your school year, and then give it another thought. Or maybe you could choose to look into going to an alternative school instead. There are lots of compromises you could make, that will hopefully still give you a chance at trying out homeschooling.
I really hope that all of these steps helped you convince your parents to let you try out homeschooling. This worked for me, but my parents were open minded from the start which helped. Even if these steps didn’t work for you, you are still learning about homeschooling, and educating your parents about the topic so that they might see it differently, and maybe one day they will be more open to try it out.