Why Do You Homeschool? The 1st Step In Homeschooling

Why do you homeschool? This is one of the most important questions you forget to ask yourself when it comes to homeschooling.

If you are following the framework for figuring out how homeschooling works, you’ll start with your homeschool “why”.

Why is your “reason” for homeschooling so important?

“Why” is what will get you through the rough days, sick days, stress days, and the crazy days. Trust me, you will get all of these, let’s just hope they don’t gang up on you and you end up getting them all in the same day!

It is like a lighthouse in a stormy sea. It will help you overcome all the challenges you face when you are homeschooling by keeping you focused on what is really important.

Therefore, your “why” or your reason for homeschooling needs to be solid.

Disclosure: I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Why Do You Homeschool?

Did you know the reasons people choose to homeschool are as varied as the homeschooling families themselves?

Our journey personal homeschool journey began because my pre-schooler knew how to read and write at age 4. This was a problem because, at that time, public school classrooms were filled to the max with one teacher handling all the kids.

The teacher was worried my son would be bored and lose his love of learning because he wouldn’t have the help needed and would be stuck learning stuff he already knew.

When she suggested homeschooling, I thought she was out of her mind! No way did I have the patience for that! Can you relate?

We started homeschooling for that reason. But we kept homeschooling for over 14 years because we fell in love with the homeschool lifestyle.

10 Reasons To Choose Homeschooling

Many families begin their journey to homeschooling for different reasons, here are 10 of them:

1. To develop a love of learning
2. To build self-worth
3. For safety reasons, to be free from bullying,  & violence
4. To have more time as a family
5. To work “school” around your schedule
6. Freedom to choose what to study/when to study
7. The chance to learn from life-outside the desk/box
8. To be life learners, independent thinkers, problem solvers
9. To develop social skills with all ages
10. Build strong character traits

This is from a quick Google search that resulted in 1,920,000 results. (Here, here, or here for example posts) Even Google agrees, why is important. 

Did any of the above sound familiar to you?

Do not be surprised if your reason for homeschooling changes, or is more complex than a single sentence. It should be. It’s your life!

Why I Homeschool:

If you have followed any homeschooler you will note that homeschooling is not the easiest path to take. You might ask why I bother in the first place.

After all, putting them on the shiny yellow bus in the morning and not worrying about record keeping, book return dates, extracurricular activities, and curriculum choices would be so much easier! Some days, trust me that yellow bus looks pretty darn good!

Unfortunately, when the yellow bus rumbles by my house at 7:15 AM, my monkeys are still sound asleep or just crawling from their beds. I’m still in my pj’s drinking coffee, and no one needs to see that! Guess that’s out of the question. 🙂

Ask any homeschooling parent why we bother, and you will get a different answer. From me, you will probably get a different answer every time you ask. Why? Because the reason changes daily, sometimes several times a day.

The Ever Changing Reasons:

For instance, when I hear of children taking guns, drugs, and knives to school- I homeschool to keep my children safe. I live in the country, where these things “don’t happen”, but they do. This is one extreme.

The other is when my children are sick and would traditionally be kept home. Instead, we get to watch educational videos, play memory work games, math games, explore art, listen to music and reading. We end up covering almost a full day of school even when they are not feeling well. The other extreme.

Two very different reasons, two very different situations.

Most often I homeschool because I truly love every single moment of it.

From the research to correcting the work.

From the trips to the library, aka our second home, to failing at science experiments and learning anyway.

From the flexibility to add in things I feel are important to getting rid of programs that are just not working.

From the freedom to choose what to study, and  when to study,  to the amount of involvement and say my children get in the matter.

Homeschooling Magic Moments

One of the blessings of homeschooling that I am not sure I could live without, now that I have experienced it, is that “magic” moment, have you had one yet? Even if you don’t homeschool, you have probably experienced it.

It’s the “click”, the click when they learn something new and they just get it!

They get so excited, the eyes beam so bright-LOVE IT! That moment is like their first word or first step, so proud! They are so amazed at what they did, all on their own with a little guidance from you. That’s the “magic”!

Because I homeschool, I get to experience these once in a lifetime moments, all the way though.

The first time fractions made sense, after days of frustration, watching video’s, and still not “getting it”. Then “click!” Magic!

The first time they correctly found a country on a map, or learned a new word in a new language, or figured out coding all on their own-click!

Those are the moments that make it worth it, that is my personal why.

And sometimes…I homeschool because that means they get to sleep until noon when needed, or it means we get the park all to ourselves!

Why Do You Homeschool Your Kids?

Why you homeschool is very important. It’s the foundation and motivation for what you do. It will see you through the dark days and light.

It will also change from time to time. That is why I like to reconsider why I homeschool at the end of each school year.

Take time to consider and write down why you homeschool. Feel free to share below, to encourage others. We love to hear from you!

Take care,

Jen

PS. If you are working mom who wants to homeschool her kids, I want to let you know it can be done. Read how you can pull off this crazy life that you want.