7 Reasons Why We Choose To Homeschool

7 Reasons Why We Choose To Homeschool

Choosing to homeschool our children was a decision Ben and I made before we even started having kids. And even now that we are homeschooling seven (yes – SEVEN) children, we still wouldn’t send them to traditional school for all the money in the world.

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7 Reasons We Homeschool

1. Scheduling Flexibility
2. Protection from Bullies
3. Curriculum Flexibility
4. Learning as a Family!
5. Child-led Learning
6. We are in Control
7. Being Together is Awesome!

When people find out that we are a homeschooling family, we tend to get one of two popular responses. The first response is usually something along the lines of, “Wow, I could never homeschool my kids!” and the second response is a resounding “Why?” Sometimes the why’s think we’re crazy, and sometimes they are just genuinely curious. Why did we decide to homeschool our kids?

That’s a good question.

The answer is never short and sweet

Ben and I have dozens of reasons why we choose to homeschool. Honestly, even making this list won’t cover ALL of the reasons we choose this life. And the answer I give people on any particular day tends to change according to my mood and their attitude.

1. Scheduling Flexibility

I am not an organized person. Reading through this blog should show you that. Schedules are not my friend, and routines are not my strong point. I’d much rather spend my mornings leisurely getting through our school day, as opposed to spending my mornings in a mad rush to get all these kids up, dressed, fed, and off to school before the bell rings.

Makes for a much happier mommy! Not to mention the fact that we have the flexibility to travel more. We can do school in the car, at grandma’s house, or at the zoo and still have perfect attendance. Win, win!

2. Protection from bullies

I’ve got one kid in particular who is a natural target for bullies. Ben was a target of bullies his entire childhood. I myself spent my middle school years as a target. Keeping my children at home allows me to guard them and protect them while they’re young and vulnerable. Homeschooling gives them a good, safe environment for developing their self-esteem.

3. Curriculum flexibility

Our goal is not to have our kids pass some magical exam. Our goal is to help our kids grow to become successful, contributing members of society. Because our goal is so different from that of most public schools, we have greater flexibility in what we study.

For example – instead of staring at a math book all day, we can build a treehouse or a playground set while studying math. Instead of reading about historical monuments in a book, we can travel and see those places in person.

Nicole has a passion for horses, so when learning to read, we focused on horse books. Learning about the body of a horse and how to work with a horse totally counts as science. Learning how much to feed a horse and how to build a barn for a horse uses math.

Spencer went through a pretty intense lego phase so a lot of our math and reading lessons revolved around legos. He even did a research paper on the history of legos. And you know what? The kids enjoyed learning because they were learning about things that interested them!

4. Learning as a family!

We can learn WITH our kids – Ben and I love to learn. As a homeschooling family, we spend a good chunk of our time researching interesting topics. Schooling my children at home just gives us one more excuse to spend our time studying and learning interesting things, instead of doing boring tasks, such as dishes and laundry

5. Child-led learning

Our kids can focus on studying what they’re interested in, rather than what the school board thinks they should be interested in. Brick and Mortar schools spend their days learning how to pass an exam. X number of hours must be spent in each classroom and on each topic in order for it to be considered a successful day.

I believe that if my kids can master a math topic in 15 minutes, then they shouldn’t be subject to 90 minutes of math lecture time followed up by 60 minutes of math homework. If mastery takes that long, then fine, by all means, take that long. But if mastery only takes 15 minutes, then anything else is just a waste of time.

6. We are in control

Homeschooling offers our family protection from the political agendas of others. Unfortunately, we live in a time where our politics have lost the moral high ground. Without turning a homeschool and life-learning blog into a political post, let’s just say that the things being taught in schools nowadays go against some of our family’s very core moral beliefs.

Rather than spend the evenings trying to reverse what our children learned at school, we decided to just keep them at home and teach them correct principles from the start. We believe our children are stronger for it.

7. Being together is AWESOME!

We are crazy about our kids! This is not to say that people who don’t homeschool their kids don’t love spending time with them – ABSOLUTELY NOT! But I’m one of those mothers who can’t even go out on a date without missing my babies.

I’m crazy about my kids, and although some days they literally drive me crazy, I love being around them and I miss them something terrible when they’re not with me. Does this make me crazy? Yes, I do believe it does. But it also makes me happy, and it makes my family happy, and that’s what matters most.

This list barely scratches the tip of the ice burg of reasons why we homeschool. The list goes on and on and is ever growing, ever-changing. At the end of the day, homeschooling is what makes us happy. It works for us, and that’s why we do it.

What reasons do you have for homeschooling? What makes you consider homeschooling? Comment below!