Why We Choose Homeschooling

Jenny/ May 16, 2020/ Family Life, Thrifty Homeschool Mama Tips & Tricks

Homeschooling is a big buzz right now with many parents thrust into what they thought was not an option for them. And invariably some will like it, some will love it and some will hate it. Its human nature I suppose. Some will decide this is definitely the path they should have taken all along and others will pray for schools to open back up. Then there are the middle ground ones. The ones who liked it but feel SO inadequate or incompetent. And that’s who I’m really addressing this article to!

New to homeschooling? Check out Homeschooling for Beginners!

Why do I love homeschooling?

First things first, why would you even consider choosing to do something like this? After all, you’re not an “expert”. Hahaha, yes you are! You’re your kid’s expert! You’ve spent their entire life learning about them. You know when they’re happy or sad or are struggling. Sure you might not know how to teach reading but guess what? You CAN learn! See none of this “academic” stuff is beyond you. Just like doctors don’t come out of the womb knowing brain surgery you can grow and learn right along with your children. And so what if there are some gaps or areas you just don’t get? Public school doesn’t eliminate that! We all have gaps or we would be equally learned in all fields. And I hate to break it to you but that’s probably not really humanly possible.

Anyway, you love your child wayyyyy more than a paid teacher. Cause guess what? You do this for FREE! No teacher is going to lay awake at night planning how to finally get through to this child she loves with all her heart. I’m not saying teachers don’t care, because many do. But its really not possible for 1 teacher to love all the children she teaches like you love your own children. Can’t happen. Sorry..end of story…

So get past the lack of training and first realize that God gave you this child and He will equip you to teach them. Does that mean you never have to seek help? Absolutely not! We all need help at some point but in my opinion it should be help that empowers the parents to teach their own children, be it speech therapy or some other special need. You can learn!. And there are absolutely fantastic resources out there for homeschoolers! Your children can have a fabulous education and it can cost pretty much as little or as much as you decide to spend! How AWESOME is that?

Homeschooling brings tremendous FREEDOM to a family. They don’t have to check with schedules to know if they can go somewhere they simply pack up and go. And if you can’t fathom how great this is just imagine no getting your kids to school on time or making sure someone is there to pick them up or be at home when the bus drops them off. And my kids LOVE the freedom they have with homeschooling. My sons literally feel sorry for their public schooled friends and they’re some of my biggest advocates. I actually feel bad for the kids sometimes when they are complaining about how they hate school and the awful teacher they have and my son chimes in with ” I love being homeschooled. We go outside and play all day when we want to.” 😬 Cause its true, we do! Yep we get in all our required subjects and hours but we do a HUGE portion of it outside. What’s not to love about that?

Then you also have this incredible ability to really tailor your child’s education to nurture them! My children would wither up and die in a public school environment. My husband did! I did “great” and despised every minute of it. I actually got into trouble for reading books after I finished my work because it looked bad to the other kids😳 I would NEVER punish my kids for reading on their own ESPECIALLY after their other work was done! Anyway my poor homeschooled kids won’t deal with that and I’m glad of it.

My kids fight and argue sometimes and drive me completely bonkers with that but they’re really great friends. Would you believe my 2 boys still like to snuggle up and hear naptime stories? They’re 9 and 6 and completely BOYS but they still like to hold my hand and kiss me goodnight. They don’t think its sissy to tell me they love me or disdain their siblings because they’re younger. Its awesome and another amazing reason we chose to homeschool. Do they fuss? Yes! Do they argue? Yes! Do they sometimes pick on each other? Yep, but it gets nipped pretty darn quick. They don’t use hurtful words to describe each other and even though one son has a speech delay he’s NEVER been made fun of because of it! Try having that happen in public school where you can get made fun of your shoes aren’t the right brand! No thank you! Not for my kids! You don’t have to put up with trash to become an emotionally healthy adult. Thats ludicrous!

Now I could go on and explain that we chose to homeschool because primarily we feel its a scriptural obligation and we do. So that’s another HUGE reason. I guess I’d have to say the biggest reason we homeschool. Did you know we talk about God and His works all day long? No I don’t mean we read the Bible all day. Though we do try to begin each day with it! But we talk about Himamd bring Him into our lives when we discuss His attributes and care in making Creation or His will for our lives and how He wants us to treat others. We have DEEP discussions about relationships and purity and marital fidelity. A lot of those things would be completely missed out on if my kids were gone 10 hours a day. And would they ask me? I wonder. I know they’d be exposed to wicked, unspeakable things in grade school. Grade school people! The first time I heard people describe porn I think I was about 7😤 and I can assure you I came from a very conservative home. But I went to school with kids who looked at their parents porn magazine. Make no mistake, if your kids play in the sewer they will get filthy and it happens every.single.day. to good kids from good homes. But it DOESN’T have to be that way! Its completely avoidable!

In hindsight the complete reason we chose homeschooling…

We’ve been doing this a few years now. Our oldest is 9 and I’ve been “homeschooling” since he was 4. Of course really I’ve been homeschooling since he was born. See, we’ve found homeschooling is really just an extension of our parenting philosophies. Just like we never thought our kids needed to go to preschool to “socialize” or required a special “baby food” we couldn’t make we also just felt we were completely equipped to train them academically.

And the really AWESOME part is…we enjoy it! Oh, I’m not trying to tell you there aren’t frustrating moments or that we don’t get ticked off at each other. But we enjoy each other as a FAMILY. We do the laundry as a family, we do schoolwork as a family and we cook as a family. And while we do enjoy outside interaction and friends we carefully choose them with our children’s best interests at heart.

So, if you’re on the fence about continuing homeschooling I would so much encourage you to do so. Its a TREMENDOUS blessing that you and your children will not regret! And don’t forget, you’re NOT alone 🙂 Reach out to the awesome community of homeschoolers!