8 Reasons to Celebrate Your Homeschool

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Everyone has their own reasons to be proud of their school.  Instead of feeling like an outcast or a weirdo when someone asks you if you homeschool, take pride.  Here are some reasons why…

1. It strengthens family bonds.  Sure my kids want to pick at each other sometimes. That’s part of having brothers and sisters.  It’s also part of learning to deal with others and normal life.  But when push comes to shove, my kids have each other’s backs.  I’ve seen it in action with playground bullies.  They love each other and (most of the time) they enjoy spending time together.
2. It gives you a flexible schedule.  Vacation at the beach in the fall?  Disney during non-peak season, anyone?  My husband doesn’t have a traditional weekend off, so we do school Tuesday through Saturday and get to spend more time with Dad!
3. Students can work at their own pace.  I was a classroom teacher for 10 years.  It is physically impossible to individualize education for 25ish kids and give each of them exactly what they need for each subject at all times.  No matter how good the teacher is, it’s just not human.
4. The world is your oyster.  It’s also your classroom.  You don’t have to be stuck inside the same 4 walls.  It’s much more fun to do science at the nature center or park, art at the museum or studio, and reading at the library.
5. Homeschoolers get to socialize MORE.  That’s right.  I said MORE.  The truth is that my kids go to all kinds of programs.  There they meet all kinds of kids of different ages.  We run into the same people a lot and make good friends.  We also meet new people, which helps us learn to be outgoing and have good communication skills.  They run into a wider variety of people in a school year than they would in a classroom.  (See “The world is your oyster.”)
6. You can make sure your children know how to be responsible citizens.  Yesterday I heard a public school teacher and mom say that since she didn’t get to spend as much time with her kids as she would like, she let them get away with more.  I don’t want my kids to get away with more.  I want them to know how to act.  I am not judging. Honestly, that is a large part of the reason I stayed home when we adopted our son–I knew I wouldn’t have it in me to be the mom I wanted to be at the end of the day if I taught all day long.  Teachers aren’t allowed to discipline their students like a parent would either.  So if they are getting away with things at both school and home, when are they becoming the people we want them to be?
7. You get to teach your kids how to think, not what to think.  When kids go to public school, they are taught how to sit quietly, fill in blanks with just one right answer, walk in a straight line, and go to the bathroom at a particular time.  That stuff is important for making school work–but it’s not real life.  Most of us work with real issues that require us to think on our toes, not fill in blanks.   Do you want your kids to get creative and color outside the lines?  Do you want them to learn to be leaders or followers?
8. You can teach your kids about what really matters.  Every subject points back to God.  God was the ultimate artist.  He was the consummate poet.  The order of science and mathematics was created by Him.  We read about Him in our Bibles.  We write about Him in our journals.  We sing songs about Him.  We dance with joy before Him.

Now who wouldn’t like a school that did all that?!

“Train up a child in the way he should go;

   even when he is old he will not depart from it.”  Proverbs 22:6

 

***FYI–I was raised in the public school and it does have some perks too.  There are always exceptions to the rule.  While we homeschool, we don’t judge those who don’t.