I have a secret to tell you and that is I thrive at this time of the year. Call me one of those weird homeschoolers, I don’t mind, but I love cold weather. My brain goes full throttle ahead.
It might sound like a contradiction, but I also take time to muse about my homeschooling journey.
I am ever so grateful to have the privilege of homeschooling my children. Don’t get me wrong, I am human and go through certain days where I feel it is more like a burden.
When I feel that way, I normally write down something to remind me of the privilege. It is easier as you homeschool longer because each year gives you more positive things to simmer on.
40 Reasons I Homeschool
By sharing publicly a few of the reasons I homeschool not only sears this in my mind, but I hope it lifts you up too. Homeschooling should be contagious and I want you to keep having a bad case of it.
Listed in no particular order.
1. I want my sons to have a spiritual relationship and that is my privilege to do.
2. My sons can focus on their own education, which is their responsibility and to not be responsible for other kids in public school which are their parents’ responsibility.
3. I realized soon after homeschooling that my son is not the only gifted and talented kid. Plenty of gifted children exist in the homeschool world and their interests can be fed in a way that is good for them without giving up their childhood.
4. My sons can exercise first in the morning like they enjoy doing. Now only if I can do that.
5. My sons don’t have to read poorly copied papers from one book as a reader, but I can have as many living books as I can stuff into my home.
6. I never have to kiss them good bye in the morning.
7. If a curriculum or schedule is not working, I don’t need the principal’s approval to change it. Just do it and move on.
8. We can buy better made school supplies and not have to break them in half to share with other kids. This actually happened to us when Mr. Senior 2013 went to part of Kindergarten public school. Of course the teacher explained to me that this was to help with fine motor control by having to grasp a smaller crayon. If that was the case, why didn’t I break them at home and they keep them separate at school?
9. We never collected enough soup labels to help out with the playground at school or library either one.
10. We love peanuts and because we have no allergies here, we can roll around in them at my house if we want to.
11. I can count my all day house cleaning day as a Home Economics 101 course.
12. Because the world IS our classroom, my sons have a no holes barred attitude toward education.
13. Because the Bible is our best copywork source, history and science resource, I won’t give this up in favor of education for the masses.
14. Because my kids are square pegs, I won’t force them to fit in round holes.
15. Because I would never give up our all day reading days, or all day history days, or all day science days, or all day geography days.
16. Our lunches are more healthier, not to mention taste great. Even peanut butter and jelly tastes better at home.
17. I don’t have to schedule conferences with the teacher.
18. Because the on-site campus policemen don’t have to escort my sons to the bathroom for fear they may be beat up or bullied. Yes, this happened to a friends of ours and it has taken their son quite a few years to recover, but the emotional damage is deep. We all hug them each time we see them.
19. Because any day can be declared a school holiday.
20. I want my children to learn to be community minded, and avoid learning mindless acts like standing in line. Too, do you ever raise your hand when having conversations with other adults?
21. How does that quote go? “I homeschool because I have seen the village”.
22. Because I wanted my kitchen filled with growing crystals, and can grow mold on purpose, and want my refrigerator filled with all kinds of future science projects.
23. We don’t have to wait on the rest of the class to catch up with us and because we don’t care what the other kids are doing if we don’t want to move on.
24. Because I want my kids socialized in the truest sense of the word and not adopt what the world tries to burden us with.
25. Because I want my children to love reading and I can change our schedule on a whim to feed that habit.
26. Because my husband wants time to influence my sons to grow up to be capable, responsible, loving, hardworking, and spiritual men. Its hard to do that when they are apart for 8 or more hours each day.
27. Because teaching about not using drugs and reserving (yes I am going there) *sex* for when you are married is our responsibility as parents. I won’t leave that up to a person whose life may or may not model Bible based thinking.
28. Because regardless of a person’s belief system, I want my sons to respect and love other people. It is our job as parents to live that every day and not just say it.
29. Because once I teach a skill to my older sons, they can model and teach to my younger son. This equals more time spent together as a family.
30. To teach subjects that I am not well versed in, I can hire as many excellent and caring private tutors as I want to. I consult only my budget and not have to wait weeks or years to change my educational budget and get approval for supplemental activities.
31. Because I cannot even begin to imagine what our day would look like if we could not spend as much time on hands-on as we like to.
32. Because learning is not about sitting at the computer all day with a virtual school, but it is about getting outdoors and learning about the creation around us.
33. Because our homeschool has gone way beyond academics and we have made life-long friends who cannot ever be replaced. We are overflowing with the blessings of their loyal friendship.
34. Because it is easier to teach children to read than the public school would have you think. Ten to fifteen minutes each day wrapped up in a blanket on the couch with living books and you will have a life-long reader that you have to command to put down his book to finish his math. Oh and a few cheetos and some chocolate milk doesn’t hurt either.
35. Because my goal in high school was to not simply have my sons graduate but to have an introduction to college level courses. And, you want to ask about testing to see what they know?
36. Because as a teacher, my obligation is not to learn how 30 other kids learn best, but just how my children learn best. This equals a hidden, but gratifying joy because I can learn right alongside my children. It is hard to infuse this feeling in a new homeschool teacher until she is actually teaching her children. It is just surface talk until she is infected with the art of teaching.
37. It my sons’ privilege, responsibility, and delight to learn. I am not raising passive sit back and let the teacher tell me what to do kids. They are learning independence and not dependence from an early age.
38. Because when it comes to studying our favorite subjects like history and geography, we can arrive at at history destinations via a family vacation. We can eat, drink and dress the culture and come away with an appreciation of the true value of any culture and not accept what a few pages in a textbook tells us.
39. Too, if you want to know what my sons know about a subject, I can show you our stack of 20 or 30 books on one subject for our unit study and compare with your few pages in a textbook. So testing fear is conquered because I realize standardized testing is a tool that if not wielded right by the holder can be abused. It’s true when those signs read “To avoid personal injury, select the right tool for the job.”
40. And, lastly because it works!
I shared a few things that rolled off the top of my head and I will be printing this to go in my planner.Also, you’ll love grabbing some go juice from these articles!
- 4 Undeniable Reasons People Hate Homeschooling (I’m Keeping It Real)
- 7 Homeschool Lies I Want to Tell My Younger Self
- 6 Things I Won’t Regret After Homeschooling 16+ Years
- When Homeschooling is Not an Overnight Success (Is it Worth the Risk?)
What about you? What reasons keep you getting up in the morning with a can do spirit?
Hugs and love ya
