3 Reasons to Consider Homeschooling

The truth is that homeschooling is not about making your children into college professors or religious robots.  Parents that homeschool do so for a myriad of reasons. Religion, academics, and morality are just a few. These reasons may not even be the most important for some homeschoolers.

Homeschooling is a way of life. Now, you may have heard that before. It is true non the less. Those families that choose to homeschool open themselves up to a world of possibilities that are not available to their public school parent peers.

The first and most important in my opinion, is time. Your family schedule is completely open. You, as the parent, decide what is important to your family and can fill your schedule with activities that reflect personal beliefs and goals.

Another key advantage to homeschooling is religious, spiritual, and moral freedom. I have heard many parents that are concerned with images and content in media. If your children are in PS (public school) it is very difficult if not impossible to censor exposure of "negative" media they get from peers and staff. PSers have to use the time they have with their kids to combat these concerning influences. I'm not only writing about religious influence, but also about things like sex, lying, drugs, disrespect, and their like.

I'll be the first to admit that I might err more on the side of sheltering the kids and my husband is more on the side of more exposure. Most of the time we meet in the middle and the kids are exposed to things that are age appropriate (or slightly above). I will also readily admit that being around other homeschooled families does not mean your child will never hear, see, or pick up negative things. My children have had a few very interesting experience with other homeschooled children. The difference from PS is that I have the immediate opportunity to help my children sort through these sometimes difficult situations and guide them back to our family's core beliefs.

The last of the three reasons to homeschool is freedom of curriculum. Every child is different and in my opinion deserves a certain amount of individual attention in their studies. Take my two precious ones as examples:

My son at four-and-a-half was ready to read. He asked me to teach him and we worked 15-20 minutes a day until he was reading on his own. By five years old he was reading level 1 readers. My daughter on the other hand could not be bothered to remember a letter we worked on for several days at four-and-a-half. I took a break and started again with letters at the age of five. Again she wasn't ready. We started yet again at five-and-a-half and that is when she was ready. She started learning letters, began to write everything, and slowly started reading. She is now almost six-and-a-half and reading sight word cards and phonics books.

Without the freedom to tailor my homeschool curriculum both of my kids would be miserable. My son would not be challenged enough and my daughter would not be given the creative outlets that have helped her develop in her own time. I doubt that this ebb and flow of accelerating and slowing down will stop while I homeschool. Homeschooling allows us to adjust to the students current abilities and prepare them for when they hit the gas and speed through a semesters worth of work.

Homeschoolers also get the unique opportunity to choose curriculum that upholds family beliefs and values while still catering to the child's interests and ability.

How important are Art, Music, and PE to your family? These subjects are virtually disappearing in PS. If your child loves these subjects or has a particular aptitude you can make sure that their lessons are filled with these creative outlets.

Imagine you have a child that is certain of their career path. As a homeschooler you can allow her to pursue studies that are needed in that career. She uses her time to sign up for a community college course (our cc allows kids as young as 13 with a parent), internship, or volunteer in that field. Perhaps this time she spends pursuing her goal teaches her that this is the right path and she can then focus on her career more in depth than before. Maybe this time teaches her that she is not passionate about this career choice. Better to find out now then after spending a year and thousands of dollars in college.

So these are my top three reasons to consider homeschooling. There are as many reasons as there are homeschoolers. What are your top three?

happy homeschooling
-Michele