Why do we home school?

Well, why don’t we home school?

It might be easier to list the reasons that we don’t have for home schooling.  We don’t home school as a knee-jerk reaction to some negative experience with public or private schools.  We don’t home school because we feel pressured to do so by family, friends, or our church (yes, there are people who do).  We don’t home school because we think we are better that those who don’t.

So why do we home school?

Well, I’ll start at the beginning.  We sort of backed into home schooling.  We didn’t go into it with grand ideals or lofty goals.  We were just trying to do what would work best for our family.  (And really, isn’t that what it all boils down to for almost everyone who home schools?)  Our original plan (as much as we had one) was to enroll our kids in the school run by our church.  I taught there for a year, and I think that it would have worked out well for us, too, had we stayed there.

Around the time Matthew turned three, we moved away from that area.  We settled in to our new community and met some people at our church who home schooled their children.  (My sister had also started home schooling her children by this time.)  It just seemed like a good fit for us.  Matthew was already reading, and I knew that he would be bored if we waited until he was old enough for school.  So, I bought a math book and a phonics workbook and jumped right in.

As the years have gone by, we’ve accrued some reasons for home schooling. We do want to provide our children with a Christ-centered education, because we do not believe that it is possible for education to be neutral.  We do want to tailor our children’s education to suit their needs as individuals who have different strengths and weaknesses.  We want our children to grow up under our guidance.  We want them to grow up together with a close relationship that we missed out on with our siblings.

Although we had a somewhat inauspicious start in home schooling, the reasons that we have continued are really all the reasons that we at the beginning even if we hadn’t thought them all out.

Do you home school?  If so, what are your reasons for home schooling?