5 Reasons We Chose to Homeschool

Have you ever looked at a homeschool family or heard of someone that homeschools and wonder why did they choose that route? I know I surely have. In fact, I have always been so intrigued by the idea of homeschooling that I’ve always had a ton of questions to ask families that homeschooled, but I never found myself brave enough to always ask.

What makes a family decide to go against the grain?

So today, I will bring to light 5 reasons why we chose to homeschool. While these reasons could go very in depth and bring to the surface more things, I plan to keep our reasons as simply put as possible.

Homeschooling isn’t for every family in today’s time and age. Due to the current pandemic, it has become much more popular, but that still doesn’t mean that every family has their heart set on the idea of it. I hope you know that the reasons that I will provide as to why we chose to homeschool are personal for our family and does not mean that your family should feel the same way.. This is a completely “to each their own” situation. There’s no judgment in which route you choose for your family and if you disagree with my reasons, that’s totally okay too.

So why did we choose to homeschool?

1). God. This is first and foremost the reason why we chose to homeschool our children. God placed this calling on my heart back when my first born was still in diapers. I instantly felt an attraction to the idea of it and the moms on instagram who did it. God placed this calling on my heart and it took a lot of prayer to get there. Our daughter did two years in public school before we chose to switch to homeschool and it was only by lots of prayer and confirmation from the Lord that I felt so confident in my decision. I believe that when parents are turned to homeschool their children, it’s because God is calling them there.

2). A Day Filled with Faith. We wanted our children to have a faith based education. While private school is wonderful, it’s a very expensive option that still can deter into other areas that may not match up with our own. Our children can still be exposed to things in any setting that we may want to prevent or delay. We wanted the freedom for our children to really dig into their faith; learn scripture; learn how God wants us to live and find freedom in following His word daily. In a public school setting, Jesus can’t be brought in (the faith has to be instilled on the off hours at home).

My daughter experienced this in the first grade when she brought a book to read about the true meaning of Christmas to her class and had to stop reading midway through the book. Her light was dimmed that day as she couldn’t understand how the book wasn’t allowed. We want our children to experience God in all of their work and in all of their moments. Their lights shouldn’t be dimmed. In a world where Jesus Christ is hidden and considered even offensive sometimes, we want to make him the focal point. “Man shall not live by bread alone, buy by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4

3). Because we can delay what our children are exposed to. I know the common misconception is that by choosing to homeschool, many parents are just trying to shelter their children. Well this is true in some ways and it isn’t true in other ways. There’s a lot that children seem to know these days and have access to (thanks to technology) and it’s our job as parents to be the firewall that blocks it. While I have no intentions of completely sheltering my children from the sin of the world, if I can prolong their exposure to it, then I can ensure their moral compass is aligned with Christ before they’re exposed. We have the ability to monitor the literature, media and conversations our children will come into contact with. We are educating them in a classical education style, which means we bring it back old school with our literature and history and we don’t bring in anything that can poorly influence us.

4). More time together as a family. I know this may seem smothering, but the average working mom only gets about 2-3 hours with her children every evening before bed time. As a homeschool mother, I’m getting all of their time and it allows us to nurture out relationships, grow, struggle and create so many priceless memories. As my children’s mother and teacher, it’s makes my their main influence; I’m not setting up to battle against their teacher who may have her own set of opinions, politics, ideologies, etc…

Is it hard sometimes to be together so much? Absolutely! But it’s the struggle in the middle of the pages that make the story so beautiful and will make the ending so special.

5). Providing a setting that works with them and not against them. Things have changed quite a bit over the years since I was in elementary school. Class sizes are much larger, crafts are almost never done and benchmarks and school test scores are all the rage. Often times the emphasis seems to be on the school's grade and not the individual child. We saw things change in our daughter last year in regards to school. The system in place didn’t seem to be favorable for us and we prayed and felt confident that homeschool would be right for our family. We can create a setting that truly caters to each one of our children and moves at their pace while focusing on their passions and strong suits and helps improve their areas of struggles. Seeing my child finally grasp something is an absolutely wonderful feeling.

6). Freedom. I’m throwing this in there as extra because it’s an umbrella term that covers so much. We have the freedom to travel for months on time and do our work while traveling; we have the freedom to be done our school work before lunch; the freedom for lots of nature walks; the freedom to learn through experience; the freedom to work on fractions in the kitchen; the freedom to praise God throughout our day; the freedom to move our body while learning without fear of a hyperactive label; the freedom to choose the reading material we want; the freedom to learn our socialization skills from real life situations with people of all ages at any time throughout the day; the freedom to be covered in paint and glitter all day, etc… We have so much freedom and it’s beautiful!

These are just a few of the reasons why we chose to homeschool. At the end of the day, the answer to the question is that this is where we felt God wanted us to be. He calls us to lead up His children and we felt this was where He wanted us at this moment in time. Considering the state of the world, I have never felt more sure about our decision (even on our roughest days).

Homeschooling is beautiful and if it’s ever on your heart for your family, just pray on it. It can be hard to choose something that goes against the social norm. All of us mothers just want what is best for our children - no matter how different that looks for each family. My reasons may not be as important to you or you may feel that you can still provide these things for your children in your own time outside of school hours and that is GREAT. I believe that if we just make our family unit strong and focus on God - we can all raise up warriors of Christ no matter what their education style looks like!

Sasha