6 Celebrity Parents Who Homeschool Their Kids

1. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith

This celebrity couple homeschooled their kids, Willow and Jaden, now stars in their own right, before opening a cooperative school with other homeschooling parents. Pinkett-Smith told Essence in 2005, The school system in this countrypublic and privateis designed for the industrial age. We’re in a technological age. We don’t want our kids to memorize. We want them to learn. 

2. Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt

This globetrotting couple often brings all 6 kids along when one parent has to be on location for a film. But thanks to tutors and nannies who teach the kids at home and abroad, they don’t have to worry about being marked absent. In 2011, Jolie told The Independent, I do think we live in a different age and the education system hasn’t caught up with our children and our way of life.

3. Mayim Bialik

Best known as the star of 90s show Blossom and for her current role on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, Mayim Bialik also holds a PhD in neuroscience, and is an advocate for attachment parenting and homeschooling. Of her choice to homeschool her sons, Miles and Fred, she told the Washington Times in 2009: For those who believe parents know their child the best, and that every child’s needs are different, home-schooling works. I think we have to do what’s best for the family, without judging others’ choices, and let the kids be the proof.

4. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes

7-year-old Suri Cruise was homeschooled until 2012, when her famous parents divorced. Cruise’s older children, adopted with Nicole Kidman, were also taught at home by the actor’s two sisters. In 2010, Holmes told New York Magazine, we homeschool Surishe has a teacher who is with her every day. We like the one-on-one education.

5. Erykah Badu

Hip-hop/soul singer Badu is a big believer in homeschooling, and teaches her three children herself. Of her son, Seven, Badu told Babble, by being home-schooled he learned how to learn- he learned how to solve problems in a nontraditional way.

6. Marcia Gay Harden

Not every homeschooling family will do so forever. Some parents homeschool for shorter periods, depending on what works for their kids and their family. An Academy Award-winning actress, Harden homeschooled her children for a year while filming on location in Los Angeles. In 2010, she spoke to Parade about the opportunity to homeschool her daughter, saying, Eulala is open to being home-schooled for a year, not forever. She’ll soon be 12 going on 13. I feel, not that I won’t have her again, but this is a special time to bond.

Did any of these famous names surprise you?