I was originally going to bust some homeschooling myths, to go along with my previous post about homeschooling. But these lists abound on the internet. Instead, I changed over to reasons to homeschool. Perhaps you are on the fence and you are looking for confirmation about your whisper of feelings about homeschooling. It’s nice to be assured that you are feeling something for a reason and you want to make such a giant change with a purpose. Of course, there are many many reasons to homeschool, but these are the ones I see over and over again in new moms who are in the questioning phase.
#1-You love to spend time with your kids
Let’s be honest, this seems silly to list. Most parents would say they love to spend time with their kids. But so many parents today are also convinced that they shouldn’t have to spend ALL their time with their kids. But perhaps you feel different. Perhaps you like spending time with your kids and kind of loathe the day they will be gone most of the time. This could be an indication that you will make an excellent homeschooler. Because you spend all your time with your kids, instead of scheduling family days, you usually plan mom days out.
#2-You question how well your kids are learning.
You have had serious reservations about how much knowledge your kids are retaining in their current learning environment and you know that your kids are at least averagely intelligent. Even if you don’t feel totally competent to teach all the things, but you are willing to figure it out, you might be thinking about homeschooling.
#3 - You find yourself passionately caring about your children’s education.
Many of the myths of homeschooling revolve around kids not learning as much or not enough or not being able to get into colege because they lack some magic key that public school kids are given. But here is the secret: most home-educated kids have a parent that passionately cares about their kids’ education, in some form or fashion. Sometimes they prioritize other types of learning than book learning, like life skills, or survival skills. Sometimes, they prioritize the humanities (as we do) over a more STEM basededucation approach. But the thing in common is that home-educating parents care wildly about what their kids are learning and want it to be different from what the public sphere is offering.
#4-You describe your kids as outside the box
When your kids were young and you realized how quirky and fun they were, did you ever think about what a shame it would be to see that die when they went to school? OR have you already thought that, because you watched it happen before your very eyes? If you wish you could somehow bring the joy and wonder and creative spark back to your kids lives, you might want to homeschool.
#5-You want to have some more space or margin in your life
This is an excellent reason to consider homeschooling. If you are truly tired of running around and never having enough time to breathe, much less have fun with your kids, then homeschooling can be a great alternative lifestyle. Of course, I know plenty of homeschoolers who are still crazy busy, but at least then it is by choice, and not because of outside organizations dictating your daily schedule.
There are many more reasons you may want to homeschool your kids. If you find yourself questioning the standard expectations for kids these days and want so much more for them, then homeschooling could be your answer.