Why We Homeschool - It's What We Do

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Welcome to Week 1 of the Virtual Homeschool Fair, hosted by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts and Minds. This week’s topic is Why We Homeschool.

As I began to think about this topic, I remembered that I have written about this before. You can read the reasons that my husband and I chose to homeschool. We came up with this list of 12 reasons at the beginning of our homeschool journey. I shared the list almost 8-1/2 years ago at the beginning of our seventh year of homeschooling. That means that we are now in the middle of our 15th year of homeschooling!

Our reasons are still valid, and I think that all the outcomes that we hoped to achieve by homeschooling have been realized, at least to some degree. We have

Taught from a Christian worldview.
Been able to customize the education of each child.
Spent more time with our children, and they have spent more time with each other. Our two older children have developed very sweet and special relationships with our two youngest.
Successfully graduated one student and will graduate our second student in May.

However, the reason that we homeschool now is because we’re homeschoolers – it’s what we do.

When we embarked on our homeschooling journey, we were convinced it was what we were called to do. It was never an experiment or something we were going to try. We were committed to giving it our full effort. As a result, we’ve persevered.

Has every day been easy? (Has ANY day been easy?) Absolutely not!

Have I wanted to quit? Yes, I have called my husband in tears asking to send one particular child to school. More than once.

But here’s the thing. Homeschooling is not just a big part of our lives – it affects every part of our lives. It has become part of our identity. We look at everything as a possible educational opportunity. I am always thinking about different ways to teach things, how better to schedule our days, and the best ways to organize our increasingly enormous stash of books.

Are there valid reasons for some people to quit homeschooling? Absolutely!

Should all Christians homeschool? I cannot be presumptuous and be the voice of God in this area. I do think that all Christians should seek God’s guidance in schooling decisions.

Are we going to homeschool all of our children all the way until graduation? I don’t know the future, but I will assume that is what we’re going to do until there is a compelling reason to change the plan. Eventually we will be done homeschooling though, and I am sure it will be a huge adjustment for me.

As I look back at the last 15 years there have been a lot of changes in our home. We’ve added 2 children to our family. We’ve moved. My husband has switched jobs – twice. We’ve changed churches and participated in a wide variety of activities. But one thing hasn’t changed.

We homeschool.