Homeschooling on the Rise

Christina Miranti enrolled her son Jacob in public school for the first two years, switching him to homeschool during second grade. Eight-year old Jacob returned to a public elementary for the third grade.

“Jacob really looked forward to going back to public school,” Miranti said. “It’s good for him to see children his age since he is an only child.” Though Miranti runs a child care program out of her home three days a week, she and her husband Paul decided that being around those three children for only part of the week was not sufficient to meet Jacob’s social needs.

“There are many, many, many advantages to homeschooling,” Miranti said. “There is great joy in teaching your own child through everyday things that you do-money management, household responsibility, caring for animals, respecting others and many other things. Of course the other subjects are in there, too.” Miranti said that she would often teach math while grocery shopping with her son or teach him measurements while they cooked in the kitchen.

“I definitely got to spend more time with Jacob than ever. I really don’t find many disadvantages to homeschooling,” she said.

Miranti said Jacob made the switch from homeschooling to public school smoothly, with few social glitches. Even students who switch to public at the high school level can adjust socially and build healthy friendships. Kristen Gustafson, a nineteen-year old freshman at Anderson University, was homeschooled from first grade through middle school, switching to a public high school.

“Adjusting to high school was easy for me,” said Gustafson, who attended band class with other students at public school for five years during her homeschooling. “I had a lot of friends there already, because I met them in band or at church youth group.”

Though Gustafson appreciated her time at a public high school, she still said there are advantages to homeschool. “You can pretty much work at your own pace on assignments,” she said. “And you still get to go on field trips-especially if you’re involved in a home school group through a church.”

Seventeen-year-old Renee Ramsey, attended homeschool for twelve years before coming to a small Indiana-based university. “All of a sudden I had to get up and get dressed in the morning for and 8 o’clock class,” she said. “I had to take extensive notes, and answer to a professor who was not my mother.”

Though she said the adjustment to college was huge, Ramsey said she never felt her homeschool background left her socially deprived. “I was deeply involved with music, taking private voice for 3 years, and performing with other kids my age in the Indianapolis Children’s choir for 7 years.”

“The only con to homeschool was having to spend so much time with my parents,” Ramsey said.