Why Homeschool

I have written on why we have chose to homeschool many times, but when I was invited to write a post for the Carnival of Homeschooling at Why Homeschool of course you know I couldn’t resist.

The question asked is why did I choose to homeschool? There are many reasons why we chose to homeschool Selena, some of these were reflections from the experiences we had with the older children when they were in public schools before we began to homeschool them. While I realize we need a public education system, and that not everyone can or desire to homeschool, I truly would like to see our schools improve in the education that they give our children. I guess that could be considered the number 1 reason we chose to homeschool. I have a very hard time when I see children who are clearly older then Selena yet they struggle to read, write, and do simple math, it makes me question just what is being taught in our schools.

I know when I pulled my older children out of the public schools and began homeschooling them some of the areas they were struggling in became the true light bulb moments. They discovered that learning was fun, exciting and something they truly wanted to engage in. We discovered fewer tears, less stress, and each child began to gain a desire to hit the books and to learn. I discovered for myself, there was so much less stress trying to keep up with what the schools required, what the teachers expected, and what my children’s peers were influencing my children with. Our home became peaceful, just like it was before they began school.

We have researched our public schools here where we live, since it is a different school district from where the older children went to school. While I know some wonderful teachers, I see the deficiencies in the children over all. I see them limited to what type of books the teachers want them to check out of the library, poor writers, and a large degree placed mainly on sports and the being the best to fit in. I do not agree with teaching per the test, and never did like the grading system. I could go on and on in this area, but instead I will just say I see our schools as broken.

I want Selena to truly have the desire to learn. She has been a sponge to learn from such a young age, and we just continued to present the materials for her. She is advanced in so many areas compared to many Kindergartners in the public school system, that we truly feel to put her in public schools would crush her full desire to learn. We have also started to learn her learning style, and to be honest I do not see a classroom setting being able to provide for her learning style. We have had many of her doctors recommend not putting her in the public school system, as it would be setting her up for boredom, and break her spirit.

As we have been going through the parenting bible study at our church, we are always hearing from the other parents, comments about children in the public schools:

• Kids can be so cruel, especially girls, starting as young as Kindergartners.
• I can’t believe the language my child is learning in school, and it’s not the language being taught in the class.
• The bullying is such a huge problem, we had to move our child to a different school district.
• My child informed me they needed a certain pair of shoes because every other child has them.
• I am so afraid of even letting my child walk to or from the schools for all the creepy people who hang out around the schools.
• There are so many bad influences, drugs, sex, the list goes on and on.

The list continues to grow, each week that we sit and listen to the comments these other parents make. As we hear these type remarks it just reinforces to us that homeschooling is the best for Selena. We can’t protect her from the entire world, but we can sure see that her desire to learn does not get squashed from the very start.

As I have watched Selena socializing with other children, she shows such stronger social skills already at her age. She doesn’t make fun of the other children, she is able to get along with and play with any child no matter what the age difference is, or she can be in a room of all adults and be as happy as a lark. We’ve all heard that parents are a child’s first teacher, well I feel that the parents are a child’s number 1 teacher throughout their childhood and young adult hood. What they see, hear, and are taught in the home will go with them a life time, what they see, hear, and are taught by their peers, will last until they get in trouble. Does this mean that we will always be Selena’s only teacher? No, of course not, she will always have other adults in her life, Sunday school, dance, music, sports coaches, or whatever else she chooses she would like to try.

We believe that children naturally have the desire to learn, and given the right atmosphere, resources, and support, their desire to learn will stay alive. We feel and have seen some very successful homeschoolers excel in life, college, and in their careers. Life is not a piece of cake, it does come with good and bad times, it deals us tough choices, challenging times, there is always some competition within normal life, but we feel God has equipped us as Selena’s parents, well in our situation grandparents, with the best knowledge of who Selena is, and the insight of how to teach her how to get through all these things life throws at her with her head held high, grace, and most of all honor for her fellow man. While many might say it takes a village to raise a child, we are the village, we are the ones who can equip her with knowledge, passion, love, and all the things she will need to be who she is meant to be or all that she desires to be.

As I said early on we respect what our schools are trying to do, what the teachers are trying to teach, but we also know that our education system is broken and there doesn’t really seem to be any one answer as to how to fix it. With that in mind, we believe our home is a better classroom then one that has 35+ students to one teacher, where we can address Selena as a whole person, answer all the questions she has about the world around her, and not just pass her off as one more student sitting behind a desk.