This is simply a tip-of-the-iceberg list. There are so many wonderful reasons to homeschool. Here are a few from our family.
- Jesus: We homeschool because we are able to seek Jesus everyday with our children. We still mess up. It’s a somewhat sloppy, beautiful thing, that we receive as a blessing; pressing on and growing in Him, together.
- Flexibility: By homeschooling we are not held to the schedule set by a school. We homeschool year-round which affords us a continuous learning atmosphere. We take many travels and breaks peppered throughout our year (you can read about those here under roadschooling). We can plan our school time around daddy’s schedule. If he has days off during the week we can take advantage of that extra time with him too.
- Time: Huge, this time-thing is. We don’t get much of it; time is a gift. Our children’s childhood really is a short, short puff of smoke. For awhile I felt like I was missing quite a bit. The Lord impressed upon my heart to lay down my career and come home full-time. Time is why many homeschooling families highlight the significance of Deuteronomy 6:6-8.
“6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
All this impressing, talking, sitting, walking, and getting up together takes the investment of time. The day in and day out living the life of faith.
- Relationships: We value our relationship with our children. We like being with them, and they like being with us. Beyond us our children are able to cultivate their relationships with one another. In addition, the kids can spend time with Grandparents and friends who might otherwise be distant to them. My mom is very supportive of homeschooling. She invests her time and energy into her relationship with each child. Be it time at her mountain farm, horseback riding or ice skating, the children are blessed to be able to soak this time with her up!
- Shelter: I want to protect our children from being taught about pole dancing at the lunch table {true story from a reading friend}. I think it’s a good thing for childhood innocence to be kept in-tact to whatever degree it may. Which goes along with…
- Childhood: This is huge in my book. Childhood seems to have all but disappeared from our society. By 8-years old many girls have ditched their dolls for magazines and make-up. Boyfriend/girlfriend relationships are pushed, and even sought after. Where have all the children gone?
- Lifelong Learners: The goal of our homeschooling is not to raise Harvard alumni. Our goal is to teach our children how to learn. We want to instill a love in them for the Word, and all other great disciplines that the Lord designed. God is the master scientist and mathematician. Through home education our entire family is developing healthy habits of seeking information on various areas of interest.
- Exposure to the World: As a balance we know our children will be exposed to the world, and this revelation comes along with family guidance. They’ve seen the male cashier at Wal-Mart wearing nail polish and a dress. We’ve been to the beach and had to discuss how those ladies need to cover up their bodies because that is only for their husband when they’re married. Even alcohol, tobacco, abortion and kidnapping; all topics that we discuss as a family.
- Physical Safety: Keeping our kids away from drugs, gangs, profanity, violence, and bullies is a good thing!
- Courtship: Another aspect of life that my husband and I learned about late is courtship. What a beautiful idea that the Lord already has your spouse predestined for each person. No need to date around before marriage. I think that is a beautiful goal.
- Readiness and Individualized Curriculum: One of our sons was not showing signs of reading readiness until age-7 ½, however he’d construct clever creations for hours, and devoured any and all forms of tactile learning. Dress up, creative expression and dirt have been his required uniform. While another son taught himself to read at age-3, started carrying his own dictionary at age-4, and absorbs scientific and mathematical facts as his “child’s play.” Both are gifted and brilliant in their individual ways, and both have thrived receiving a custom education.
In the Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling facebook community I asked people to list some of their reasons for homeschooling. I nodded my head yes to every response. Here are a few of the comments. I love these people. 
- “To protect their minds from wrong teaching until they are strong enough in their faith to counter it!”
- “I could probably write a book with all my reasons! But the biggest is for my kids’ protection (spiritual, emotional and physical). Kids these days are exposed to things children are not prepared to handle, and forced to make choices children should never have to make. Innocence is so no longer valued in our society, so in order to preserve it as parents, the best thing we can do is to shelter and nurture them until they are prepared to handle the “real world.”
- “Fellowship with them, discipleship, training, life skills, example teaching, better academic attention, convenience with our military lifestyle, flexibility with our schedule in general. The list could go on and on…”
- “#1 reason so that my son has a place that has no restrictions on being taught about Jesus and to protect his mind spiritually, emotionally. To embrace every single moment of his journey. Having no restrictions on anything he wants to study. Most of all-embracing the lessons that the Lord is using my child to teach me ♥”
- “I have a degree in education and hubby teaches public school, and we know too much about what goes on there!!!
And we’re 100% with the rest of you!!!”
What are some of the reasons that you homeschool, or are thinking about homeschooling?
Linking up with The Better Mom, Welcome Home, Teach Me Tuesdays, Titus 2sdays, Domestically Divine, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Raising Homemakers, Works for Me Wednesday, Proverbs 31 Link Up.
Love your list, lots of unusual and very good reasons to homeschool. Funny I did a post at the end of last year and came up with 40 reasons. http://mother-mel.blogspot.com/2011/11/40-reasons-why-i-homeschool-my-children.html
I loved your reasons Melanie! The reasons really are endless!
I am totally with you on each one of those reasons, especially the Childhood one. I don’t know how many times I have had to tell my 9 almost 10yr old that it is perfectly normal for her to still play dolls and barbies or to have a pretend restaurant. She thinks because all the other girls she knows have cell phones and makeup that means she should too. I was blessed to have another homeschooling mother close by that we went to visit a few months ago and when her daughter took mine off to play she was shocked to see this 12yr old with all of her barbies and My Little Ponies among some of the available toys. When she asked the older girl whose the toys were she told my daughter they were hers and she still played with them. My daughter has since then seen that you don’t have to grow up so fast that being a kid can last awhile longer.
What a very tough and personal decision this is! I homeschooled last year and *I* loved it. My daughter, however, did not. She is in public school this year.
Actually, all 3 of my girls are in public school. Two of them have special needs and the services through the school (at least the ones we have) are incredible. We are very involved in the school, and I love it! For example, this morning we met with the District School Board to get an inclusive playground in the school. We met the school officials and they were all very supportive. My husband has attended other school meetings as a pastor to offer support as well. On March 21 I will go to the school and speak to ALL the kids about Down syndrome and send a little take home info sheet where I will share about our wonderful God and His great plans. So while I was disappointed we did not homeschool, I am so excited that our family can be a light in the public schools. While I am a huge supporter of homeschooling, I have come to recognize how important it is also for us to be involved in the public schools. If we take the light from the schools, what will happen?
But homeschooling is always in the back of my mind, because there are situations in which I would not hesitate to pull my children. For now, however, we are letting the light shine! And my kids are being lights as well! Just heard one of my girls sings all the time and she wants her teachers to hear, guess what she is singing? Yep, about God’s amazing love! And coming from a previous orphan wih Cerebral palsy, her teachers are listening!
I totally wrote my reasons for Home schooling today! Thank You for affirming them. So glad to find your blog.
Caite
http://caites-whispertothewind.blogspot.com/2012/02/homeschooling-thoughts.html
I have been making a mental list lately of my own reasons for wanting to homeschool our children and the protection of our children is a key reason for our decision. I’ve been reluctant to homeschool for personal reasons, but as our eldest gets closer to school-age am finding it extremely difficult to imagine sending her to a school where her primary influence–her daddy & me–will be replaced, or at least challenged, by a teacher & her peers. A 5-year-old needs her parents! Thanks for this excellent list and for the encouragement that your post gives. I thought protecting her was maybe not the best thing for me to do; I don’t want her to be totally unexposed to the real world. However, I like that homeschooling offers me the decision of WHEN, WHERE, and HOW to introduce topics that only a parent–not a school–should discuss.
Keri, yes, the world still comes at you and your family when you homeschool. People who say that homeschoolers don’t have experience in the “real world” are incorrect…there is no hiding. We are in the world, and as the Word says, not of it. Bless you as you seek the Lord on this for your family!
Excellent post! Love your reasons!!! I’ve posted a few of mine over at: http://slowlynatural.blogspot.com/search/label/why%20I%20homeschool Feel free to check them out!
Erika
Our three boys are in a private Christian school right now, but my heart has always been very open to homeschooling. As a matter of fact I am most likely going to be homeschooling my middle and youngest next year. My middle son (6) really struggles going away from the home to school, and learning for him is not easy. He is bright in so many marvelous ways and I am excited to help him grow in joy and confidence here at home. I’ve linked you up to one of my recent post about parenting / learning outside of the box.
Thanks for sharing your pearls,
Wen
Thanks for linking up, Wen. Blessings to you in Jesus name.
As a homeschool grad and now homeschooling mom I know from experience that it is a great deal of work that reaps many rewards.
I love 2nd generation homeschoolers!
I agree 100 percent with all of your points stated. What a blessing it is to shepherd our children’s hearts in the short amount of time we have with them. They truly are gifts from God and we have been given the most important jobs in the world and also the most selfless ministries unto the Lord! Thanks so much for sharing your heart! I wholeheartedly concur!!
I love your list! This is our first year homeschooling our daughters (they attended a Christian school previously), and it has been a wonderful experience.
When I realize how quickly my first child is growing up, how life is flying by at top notch speed, I long for more time to drink my children in… to watch as they dance outside under the sun, to plant the garden together, to snuggle together and read a book. That TIME with them is once in a lifetime and I am not willing to give it up. I want to keep my children’s hearts at home, not rented out to peers, sports, or other activities – and to do that, being at home with them is a huge first step. When I think of all the relationships I’ve had growing up – good “friends” and hurtful “friends”, and look back to see none of them remain… all the tears I cried over some of the pain they caused me with the usual catty girl behavior, all the time wasted with people I will never see again. And then compare that to spending our everyday bonding and building our most important relationships for life… siblings, parents and children, grandparents, and even cousins, the difference is vast. Keep them close, keep them young, keep them home… what a joy!
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I read this to my husband today… and maybe I read it outloud because I needed a reminder myself but he said “Wow, that sounds like our reasons almost word for word!” Thank you for being such an inspiration. It is such a blessing to find someone with the same faith-based belief system! Blessings!
The initial reason I decided I wanted to homeschool came to me when my oldest was a couple of weeks old. I realized I wanted him near me. I hated and dreaded the though of the fact that in a few short years he would have to leave me for 9+ hours per day, come home to do homework, eat supper, then go to bed. I would get to spend no time with him except on weekends! The next step was to convince my husband that homeschooled children turn out just fine. I did a ton of reasearch and educated myself and my husband on the history of conventional schooling, learning styles and capabilities in people, and much much more. It didn’t take long for our list of reasons for homeschooling to expand into much of what you have written.
We now have two little boys, aged 4 and 18 months, and bot my husband and I are not only passionate about homeschooling for our family but also about enlightening other people to the options that are available to them. We are more sure than ever about the fact that God has called us to educate our children. The only downfall: my oldest LOVES schoolbuses and always asks to ride on one. Guess we’ll have to take a field trip to the bus yard one day.
We actually considered sending our 8 year old to public school this year. Our older two are finished, plus as a foster family, she sees and hears all about the “fun” things the public school kids we have had get to do. She liked the idea of some of it, and I wondered if we were really homeschooling for her, or because that’s just what we did with our older kids. After long conversations, much prayer and thought, we all decided that the reasons haven’t changed, we just needed to really remember why we started this years ago. She has already learned things from her public school temporary siblings that she never should’ve heard about. She’s happy, we’re happy and now we have a renewed sense of purpose. Our little girl is smart, funny, caring and looks forward to Bible time- we couldn’t ask for more, and I honestly believe a great part of her personality comes from homeschooling. Thanks for these reminders!!
Love it
Thank you for this post!