There are probably as many different reasons to homeschool as there are homeschoolers.
Some parents (ourselves included) deliberately choose to homeschool from a sense of conviction. They view it as the best alternative for passing their values on to their children. Or for tailoring an academic program to an individual child’s abilities and interests. Or for protecting their offspring from potentially harmful influences.
Some parents turn to homeschooling as a last resort. All other educational models they’ve tried have failed, and they’re hoping to get better results by taking charge of their child’s schooling themselves.
Some parents opt to educate their children at home for convenience. Their kids are involved in competitive gymnastics, have roles on a television series, or are involved in some other time-intensive endeavor. And homeschooling frees up time for these other pursuits.
Some parents are forced into homeschooling by circumstances. Military duties or missionary assignments necessitate frequent moves, and teaching their children at home lends consistency to their academic training.
My Family’s Reasons for Homeschooling
Whatever the reasons that lead them to consider homeschooling in the first place, many families are finding it to be a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow together. While I can’t speak for all homeschoolers, I can share some of the factors that contributed to our own decision to homeschool. These include:
ACADEMICS
What’s the first thing we do when a student struggles to learn in a traditional classroom? When he fails to keep up with his class? We pull him out and give him a tutor or an individualized course of instruction. Homeschooling just cuts to the chase. It skips a step and goes straight to the one-on-one tutorial method that has for centuries shown itself to be the most effective and efficient means of imparting knowledge.
By homeschooling, a mother can make sure her child masters the material before he moves on. Or she can advance him early if he grasps it quickly. There is no need to hold one child back until the rest of the class is ready to proceed, nor to rush him ahead before he is able. Students are not required to stay lock-step with peers in every subject.
SOCIALIZATION
One of the questions home schoolers are frequently asked is, “What about socialization?” Critics are convinced that students who do not spend eight hours a day in an age-segregated classroom will not learn how to relate to others.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The objection they raise touches on what we consider another wonderful advantage of homeschooling: not only does homeschooling help protect children against the negative effects of peer pressure, but it allows parents greater influence over their children’s choice of friends.
Like most homeschoolers, our children regularly spend time in the company of others. They socialize with neighbors, church friends, team mates, etc, and are comfortable interacting with both young and old, not just their age-mates. They participate in church fellowships, group sports, co-op classes, and community service projects. However, none of their extra-curricular activities are allowed to dominate the family schedule or rob siblings of the opportunity to become one another’s best friends.
FLEXIBILITY
In homeschooling, there is no need for “busy” work. Since material can be covered one-on-one in a fraction of the time it takes to teach an entire classroom, students have time to delve more deeply into those subjects that pique their interest.
Many of us school year-round, thus avoiding the need to do so much review and relearning each fall. This leaves even more room for hands-on learning, field trips, and enrichment projects.Homeschoolers enjoy tremendous flexibility. They are able to travel off-season, participate in mission opportunities, volunteer in the community, take part in grassroots political campaigns — the field is wide open.
In high school, students can maximize their school experience by taking CLEP exams over what they’ve learned at home or by enrolling in dual-credit courses at the local junior college, thus racking up college credit before they even graduate.
WORLDVIEW
There is no such thing as a neutral or unbiased education. Every teacher in every classroom in every school on this planet holds to certain pre-suppositions, and those pre-suppositions will dictate how all those teachers will cover every subject they teach.
As Christians, we look to the Bible as our absolute authority. Our faith provides the foundation upon which the rest of our knowledge rests, and we examine every idea we encounter in the light of Scripture.
The responsibility for a child’s spiritual education rests squarely on the parents’ shoulders. Deuteronomy 11:19-23 instructs us to diligently teach our children and to discuss with them our values and beliefs throughout the day.
Although I’ve known parents who’ve managed to fulfill this injunction despite the fact their children spend the majority of their time in a conventional classroom, schooling at home certainly makes it more convenient to speak of these things “when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”
Growing up, I was blessed to have had several teachers who were also strong Christians. I am grateful that these men and women allowed their faith to inform their teaching and am thankful for the effect they had upon my life.
I know there are still many dedicated Christian teachers today who have an overwhelmingly positive impact on their students, even within the public school system, but the system itself is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity. Textbooks are rife with revisionist history and atheistic humanism, and it takes deliberate effort on the part of a parent to counter it. If we must invest that much time and energy in monitoring what our children are learning anyway, it seems more practical to us to just teach them ourselves in the first place.
The results have confirmed homeschooling was the right decision for us
These are the reasons my husband and I started homeschooling, but the results are what keep us homeschooling. By results, I don’t mean high test scores and college scholarships (although, by God’s grace, our children have been blessed with both). By results, I mean the relationship we enjoy with each child, as well as those they enjoy with one another. I mean the character we’ve seen God build into our own lives and the lives of our kids. I mean the compassion, the responsibility, the willingness to serve others, the devotion to God.
We keep home schooling because we love our kids, we love spending time with them, and we love the opportunity we’ve been given to know them on a level that might not have been possible if they spent the majority of their time out of our care.
All these things, taken together, are the reason we believe homeschooling is the best choice for our family. If you give homeschooling a try, you might discover it’s the best choice for yours, as well.
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Hi Jennifer!
I was wondering if you could give a young homeschool mama some advice 🙂 My son is 7 and in first grade and school has become quite the challenge the last couple months. He has decided school is “ridiculous” and learning is “dumb” and a “waste of time”. It takes us the better part of a day to just do phonics/spelling and math because he either refuses to cooperate or messes around during our lessons. He is very smart and on the very rare days he applies himself and cooperates he just flies through his lessons. From the time he was little my husband and I have been amazed at what he can remember, learn, and do. He wants to know how everything works and is constantly creating, building, and replicating things. Because of this I tried picking fun and hands on curriculum. And it was going good until a couple months ago and now he just refuses to do anything. A few things I’ve tried: giving him a break (but that just made things even worse when we picked it back up); not allowing him to do anything until his school work was finished. I’ve also had to give consequences a few times because of disrespect. I also have a 4yr old and almost 2yr old and I know they are feeling neglected because I have to spend so much time trying to get their brother to finish his work. Would you have any suggestions??
Thanks,
Jamie
Sorry to have taken so long to answer your question, Jamie. It has been sitting at the top of my inbox for months now.
I hope your son has decided school is worth his time now. In my experience, when kids complain that their schoolwork is dumb, it is either because they are bored and need something more challenging, or they are struggling and need more review. Oftentimes, when one subject comes very easily for a child (for my kids, the “easy” subject is usually math), they tend to get discouraged by any subject that requires more work (such as reading or spelling).
Using hands-on curriculum is a great start, but some subjects are still going to require more work than others, and learning to buckle down and do the work is part of their education. I recommend praying that God will give you wisdom and discernment. Don’t try to replicate what goes on in public school classrooms by assigning unnecessary busy work, but do give enough structured practice in things like spelling and math drills that he truly masters the material.
Also, avoid giving children access to digital devises — even educational software — too early. We noticed that screens had a way of short-circuiting attention spans and demotivating offline learning when our older kids were little. When we put away the tablets and laptops and went back to analog learning, their attitudes toward their lessons (as well as toward their parents and siblings) improved immensely.
If your son still thinks school is ridiculous or a waste of time, yet spends any portion of his day watching YouTube or playing video games, I would recommend cutting off access to digital devises cold turkey until you see positive change consistently maintained for several weeks or months.
Thank you for sharing your report card idea.
I’m new to home schooling this year to a 4th grader. We took him out of public school mid year because his ADHD could not be treated with medication and he was getting in trouble for not paying attention and failing in a lot of his work.
I was terrified at first but as the year has come to a close I love the progress he’s made.
Thanks also for your words of encouragement .
Your so welcome, Trisha. It makes me happy to hear of the positive progress you’ve seen with your son. That’s one of the beauties of homeschooling — you can tailor your days and studies to fit his needs and abilities. Keep up the good work, Mama!
Do you think a person must have good organizational skills to homeschool?
No, but the longer you homeschool, I think the more improved your organizational skills will become. 🙂
What about Christian school?
I think Christian schools are a great option in some circumstances, but tuition can be very expensive, and the structure still splits the family up more than I personally prefer.
Hey Jennifer, what about the downsides of homeschooling? Care to share some and how y’all address them? Thanks!
I’ll admit it, Anthony — my first reaction to your question was, “Downsides? What downsides?” About all I could come up with was the fact that, thanks to homeschooling, my children won’t have any of those wonderful, when-I-was-your-age-I-had-to-walk-two-miles-to-school-in-a-snowstorm-uphill-both-ways kinds of stories to tell their kids, like my own father used to tell me. So I googled “downsides of homeschooling,” and found this article, which seemed to be a pretty fair assessment. But I’ll put that topic in my blogging idea file, and if I think of anything more substantial to add to the list in the future, I’ll do so.
Great site! Just a quick comment–it should be “to pique one’s interest” (rather than “peak”) when talking about what children can learn in their extra time.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention, Sarah! I corrected it immediately. I really do know the difference between those two words, but I obviously didn’t catch the misuse before hitting publish. I’m a little OCD about grammar and punctuation, so I always appreciate it when folks let me know of any mistakes that slip through. I even found two more typos just now while hunting down that one. Ughh!
I love this! My husband is going to dental school with Beth and David, and I think this page will soothe his worries. I was homeschooled and have been preparing all my life to homeschool my kids! Thank you for all your organization work- it’s a great resource for Christian homeschooling 🙂
Thanks, Jessica! Is your husband first year also? If so, I can certainly relate. My husband and I married before he ever finished his undergraduate degree. It’s hard, but doable. I’m so glad we didn’t wait until he’d finished medical school before getting married (or starting our family).
I think this website is SUPER!! Thanks for sharing your experience.