10 Reasons Why We Decided to Homeschool

We’re halfway through our first year of homeschooling and wow, what a fun experience this has been!  I have had several people reach out to me and ask “What made you decide to homeschool?” – I think the fact that I’m a former teacher makes people extra curious as to why I chose this route. So I thought I’d write up a post sharing some of the reasons why we decided to homeschool.

Big, fat, disclaimer before we begin:

My decision to homeschool does not make your decision to send your child to public/private/charter/whatever school wrong.  This post is not meant to say that my choice is “better” or that if you aren’t homeschooling then you don’t love your child or any other such nonsense.  This post is written primarily for two people: those who are considering homeschool and are wanting to hear from another homeschoolers or those who do not homeschool but are just interested in hearing another perspective.  And also partially for myself so that when I’m having a bad day or doubting my decision I can come back and read this to remind myself of why we chose this path!

I have friends who send their kids to every sort of school.  I have friends who have changed paths of their schooling type over the years.  I have friends who have some of their children in public or private school and homeschool others.  It’s not one-size-fits all.  And I’m not judging your choice if it’s different than mine.  Each family has different priorities, different personalities, different desires, and that’s what make us all unique.

Alllllll that to say…don’t read this list feeling like if you chose or choose the opposite that I think you’re a bad parent.  This is just MY list of reasons for why we chose this type of schooling, your school choice and reasons behind it will be different.

Whew.

KInd of a bummer that I have to say all that but man, it’s rough in the parenting world!  So often people feel like if someone does something different than them that it’s a direct attack on their parenting decisions and they get super defensive.

So on to our reasons.  Here are, in no particular order, the main reasons why our family decided to homeschool.

1. Sheltering

I 100% realize I can’t shelter my children forever.  I can’t keep bad things from happening to them, I can’t keep them from hearing things (I mean, they’ve picked up stuff just from other people at our own church that are things they aren’t allowed to say at home or things I’d prefer them not to hear) and bullying can happen anywhere.  However, I want to delay it as long as I can and I feel like I have more control over that if we homeschool.  Five is such a young, impressionable age.  I was a public school teacher – both high school and elementary school.  And the things my students knew or included in their vocabulary or brought to school or tried to search on the computer…heartbreaking.  And scary.

2. Flexibility

Michael travels some for his job and I travel some with Young Living; homeschooling means the kids can easily go with us on trips because we aren’t bound by the school schedule.  We were able to go on vacation in September (the off season and the perfect time to go, in my opinion) because it works nicely with Michael’s schedule and we have the flexibility to do that thanks to homeschooling.  Also, Michael is off on Fridays – homeschooling means the kids get to be with him on those days.

I don’t have to worry about taking them out of school for appointments or weddings or funerals or church functions or any variety of things.  We can do school on the weekends if there are things during the week that we want or need to get done.  We can do school in the summer when it’s too stinking hot to play outside.  The flexibility is wonderful.

3. Time freedom

Homeschooling, especially at this young age, doesn’t take long at all.  Typically only about an hour of our day is spent doing sit-down instruction.  That leaves the rest of the day for play, for exploring other topics, for going outside, for resting (because 5 year olds can definitely benefit from having a rest time every day even if they don’t nap!)

4. Play

This one follows the last point nicely.  I firmly believe, and many experts agree with me, that play is the work of childhood.  Children learn through play.  And by homeschooling, which frees up a huge amount of time that he’d otherwise be in school, Hudson gets to spend so many hours a day playing.  Building Legos, playing pretend with Parker, taking random pieces of cardboard and creating things from his imagination, playing outside, tumbling around our living room floor.  So much playing.

I’m going to veer away from my list for a minute to tell a story.  As I’ve said, I was a public school teacher.  I taught high school math and then later I was an elementary librarian.  Fresh out of college of course I was super idealistic: “Obviously ‘traditional’ school is the best.  Homeschoolers are weird.” etc.  I began teaching high school math and while I was definitely shocked at things my students dealt with in their lives and the things that I had been totally sheltered from when I was in high school, I didn’t really consider homeschooling.

Then I became an elementary librarian.

I don’t think I’d actually experienced a day in an elementary school since I was an elementary student myself until I was finishing up my masters to get that library degree.  So my views of what elementary school looked like were just my own memories from the early 90s.

My, oh my, how things have changed.  When I was in kindergarten I didn’t even go a full day.  Those kids at my school who did go a full day had a naptime in the afternoon.  We had centers where we spent a lot of the day playing.  Yes we did reading and math and all that but we also played a ton.

These kids that I saw as I was venturing into the realm of current day elementary schools?  They sat and did book work.  There was a lot of sitting.  And time on the computer practicing standardized testing.  And no centers.  And no naps.

It was a huge, eye-opening shocker to me.  And I think that was the first time I started to consider homeschooling my future children.

So yeah, I got a little off track there but the opportunity for my kids to play is really important to me.

(and I know a disclaimered at the beginning but I feel a need to say this here: I did not say all of that to be anti-teacher.  I love teachers and have mad respect for them!  I know there are so many amazing teachers out there who do incorporate play into their classrooms.  I taught with wonderful teachers who made learning fun for their kids!  But I also know they are as frustrated as me, probably more so actually, at the way curriculum and standards and testing have changed over the years and that there is so much out of their control.)

5. Specialized topics

I love that with homeschooling if there is a topic that Hudson is interested in we can take that and run with it.  We can stay on that interest for a long period of time and really dig in.  We can tie what we’re learning across multiple subjects.  And in fact this applies not just to topics the kids’ are interested in but things I’m interested in, too!  For example, I LOVE the Olympics.  And I’m so excited to be able to use the Olympics as a huge unit study when that rolls around this summer!

And in addition to academic topics there are a lot of things outside of what’s taught in the traditional classroom that I want my kids to learn!  Doing yard work, cooking, taxes, budgeting, yard work, car repair, caring for babies, interacting with adults and the elderly, so many things I want my kids to be able to do when they leave my house and I love that I can make this part of their education.

6. Individualized instruction

This was such a hard thing for me when I was teaching – there was just no possible way that I could tailor instruction to each child!  One year when I was teaching high school I had a small class of 14 and I was able to do so much more with them but even then, 14 is a lot!  And that same year I had a class of 38, yes thirty-eight!, students.  We could barely even fit in my classroom much less have time for me to really dig in with each child.  And so I completely understand that a teacher can’t do that.

That was another huge draw to homeschooling.  If Hudson is picking up a concept easily then we can move quickly through it and onto the next thing; likewise if he’s struggling a little we can slow down and work on it until he’s got it mastered.  If he or I get frustrated we can stop and pick back up later.

And that goes for more than how fast he’s learning something.  He can also get up and run around if he needs a break, we can go outside while we learn.  He get to move.  I feel like a lot of reason so many kids are medicated these days is that little boys (and girls too, but more so boys) are expected to sit still for long periods of time and that is HARD for them.  They need to run and play and wiggle and be outside and the traditional classroom is not conducive to that.

7. Sibling Time

So many times I look at Hudson while he’s playing with Parker or interacting with Everly and I think “If he were at school every day, he’d be missing this!  And they’d be missing him!” and that thought makes me so sad.  I love that my kids are getting to spend so much time together.  I hope that creates a lifelong closeness and tight knit friendships.

8. Religious Reasons

We’re able to center our homeschooling around God.  Bible stories, Bible facts, memory verses, church songs – these are all part of our instruction each day.  Michael and I can also decide how and when our family wants to handle teaching issues like evolution and reproduction and many other topics that align or don’t align with our values.

9. Being involved in his education

I love that I’m getting a front row seat to what Hudson is learning.  I’m getting to see him learn to read.  I know which math facts he has mastered and which ones he struggles with.  I hear him sing his history songs and sing them along with him.  We are learning together (I’ve learned more geography during these past few months than I think I ever learned when I was in school!).

I also get to decide on the curriculum we use.  While that can be a little overwhelming and scary (there are so many great options and what if I make the wrong choice?!) it’s also really wonderful.  For example, a hands on, manipulatives-based math program was important to me so I chose one that had those qualities.  A language arts program that taught phonics versus sight words was important to so I picked one that fit my desires as well.  And if a curriculum isn’t working for us, we can switch and find something that does!

10. Money

While homeschool would be more expensive than if we had sent Hudson to public school it’s cheaper than sending him to a Christian school. We most likely would have gone the Christian school route so homeschooling saves us money there.

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This wasn’t an exhaustive list of reasons, but it covers the main ones that helped us make our decision!  I hope if you’re considering homeschooling or just want to learn more about homeschooling in general that this was helpful for you.

Some other posts you might like:

• What we used for homeschool preschool
• The homeschool kindergarten curriculum we’re using
• Logic of English Foundations A Review
• RightStart Math Level A Review