Why I Chose to Do This

The last post was a way of getting to the point of why I’m glad I decided to homeschool. It’s not one of the first reasons, just one of the first rewards.

If I were to enumerate the reasons why I decided to homeschool they would go something like this:

1. I was a stay at home mom who wanted to do intentional learning activities with my kids. Like I’ve said before education is one of my passions and there are so many great learning activities you can do after reading a great picture book. So, we did many of those when J was two and three.
2. J’s third year I decided to focus on things that might help him to eat. (He’s a super picky eater.) I decided to have some fun with one new food each month…stories, crafts, cooking, etc. It turned into a whole curriculum for pre-school. We had so much fun with that.
3. J wanted to learn to read when he was four. (I mean he smacked his finger on the page of the book and said, “Mom, WHAT does this word SAY!?”). He knew all the letters and their sounds. I just needed to teach him to blend them together. Just a few weeks later, he read his first phonics reader. Essentially, he is a natural learner and I spotted that in him.
4. Knowing how to read already, having a finely tuned memory, adding, reciting whole videos, correcting his parents’ sentences when we mis-spoke… What…was I going to put this child in Kindergarten? That would be a waste of time.
5. I knew several homeschooling families by this time. I ENJOYED talking to their kids. Teens in other school settings had a very hard time talking to adults (and, yes, I was around them on the youth staff at a church). I also was impressed that the homeschooled Jr. High and High School kids had a good sense of who they were. They weren’t floundering with IDENTITY. These families had their quirks to be sure because we all do, but the result of their efforts was impressive to me. Plus, I found out that all the mothers actually DID have college degrees (Sheesh, I was naive about homeschoolers).
6. By the time J was Kindergarten age it was highly evident that learning how to behave in a social situation would not happen for him within the confines of a social situation, if that makes any sense at all. Some kids can go into a class and just figure out the structure, pecking order, and expectations. Not, J. He would have demanded that the class become his. And his demand would have been loud, disruptive, obstinate and even violent. I couldn’t put a teacher through that and I couldn’t detract from the education of 15 other little children like that. He was my responsibility and I decided to keep him home and ease him into social situations as he could handle them.

So, that in a nutshell is my list of reasons for why I decided to homeschool. You might note what’s NOT there. Since beginning five years ago I have added on some other reasons. I’ve also seen some good benefits emerge, that have turned up as reasons on other people’s lists. But these were things that I didn’t know would happen, so I can’t call them a reason, because then I would be taking credit for the blessing God chose to give me.

Next: Reasons Why I’m Glad I Made This Choice