Why we homeschool...

     The three questions I get most often about homeschooling are: 1) What made you decide to homeschool? 2) Are you going to do it all the way through high school? and 3) How do you do it with multiple kids/ages?  So today I thought it would talk about why we homeschool and what made us decide to do it.  I often get flustered when someone asks me that question because I feel like I don’t have a good enough answer.   The short easy answer is that I believe it is what I am suppose to be doing. It just feels right.  That might not be the answer people are looking for though. 

     Eight years ago when my oldest child was 3 1/2 years old all the moms with kids her age were talking about registering for preschool.  These where moms from dance or MOPS mostly.  I would get asked what preschool I am going to send her to, or if she was going to start in the fall.  I didn't know what to do, to me it didn't make sense to send her to a preschool when I was a stay-home mom and could teach her all that stuff, but seemed like that was what everyone was doing.  I questioned it.  I was expressing my anxiety over sending her to school to another mom at dance when she suggested homeschooling, she had homeschooled her sons for several years.  Up until that point I honestly didn't know that homeschooling was a real thing!  I remember once my husband jokingly said “we’ll just homeschool her” when she was a baby and we were talking about one day having to send her to school, he was totally kidding though, we hadn’t known anyone at all who did it.  As soon as she told me about it I got excited. It was a Thursday, I immediately started looking up things online about homeschooling and that evening I went to a local christian bookstore and found a homeschooling book.  I knew immediately thats what we were going to do. I prayed that my husband would be on board.  By Friday evening we decided “YES! We were going to homeschool!”  I felt such peace over the decision and have never questioned it since. 

     Of course, over the years I have added to my list of reasons why we continue, I tend to not be too open about them publicly though because I would never want to sound like I think that those who aren't homechooling are doing something wrong.  Which I absolutely don't think.  My closest friends don’t homeschool, that’s the beauty of motherhood, there are so many different ways to do it(this motherhood thing) and we are all doing it right as long as we are doing what we feel is best for our family, even if it is completely different from the mom next to us. Homeschooling is certainly not for everyone.  

     Here are a few of my other reasons of why we stick with homeschooling even when it isn't easy: Testing, we don’t do testing, my kids learn because they want to be smart, to know things, figure things out, not so that they can pass a test.  I like to be on our own schedule, we do schoolwork when other kids have snow days but then we take the day off and go to the zoo or park when its nice out.  Some years we have had more of a year-round schedule so that we can have an easier school load during times of morning sickness or having a new baby.  We get up and start our day on our own time not around when the bus comes. I’ve never been one to just do what everyone else does without questioning it, so homeschooling just fits my personality well.  I love being the one to hear the excitement in their voice when they are learning about something that is fascinating to them, or being the one that works through a concept with them and seeing it finally “click” for them.  

    Another big reason I love homeschooling is how it promotes and establishes sibling bonding, they would be away from each other for so many hours of the day if they were in school.  What’s more, I like being around my kids all day, yes, of course there are times when they drive me crazy (that's the reason a mom's night out can be much needed!) but they are mine and I truly enjoy having them home.