I often mention homeschooling on this site, and as a result, one of my most frequent questions I get is how to homeschool. So, I figure that as many people have e-mailed me, probably even more of you have questions. So, I figured that I would write a series for you guys about homeschooling. Even those of you that don’t have children, or are not considering homeschooling still might learn something from this series. For those of you that do homeschool, I am sure that others would love to hear your stories as well. I know that homeschooling can seem daunting at first, but it is really so much fun, and it is amazing to watch your children learn. I think that the more people are aware of homeschooling, the better.  I am going to write a series of posts about how and why I started homeschooling, and list some resources that might be helpful for those of you that are considering homeschooling.

My Story Of Why We Started Homeschooling:

Our first daughter went to public school from Kindergarten through Second Grade. I was working at the time, and we were trying to figure out how to afford for me to stay home with our kids. I actually went to nursing school during this time, so that I could work for 3 days a week, and homeschool on the other days. We started really saving money and cutting back on our expenses, and as a result I was able to keep cutting back on my hours at work until I could stay home fulltime with my kids.

When we first began homeschooling our daughter, I was SO EXCITED and SO SCARED!! I knew that my daughter’s education was solely in my hands, and this was a big responsibility.

The “bad” reasons we started homeschooling:

We had quite a few reasons for taking her out of school. When she was in Kindergarten, her second week in school, she was attacked by a couple of fifth grade boys on the school bus and ended up in the hospital. We immediately pulled her out of that school, and she started in another school. That school was aware of what had happened, and probably scared to death that we were going to sue them, because we and they knew that there was a problem with those boys, and they had reassured us that they would not be anywhere near her. We had been to the school numerous times in the first 2 weeks because of different things they had done to her. They had promised to let us know if the boys were going to be on the bus again so that we could get off early from work and pick her up by car instead. However, on the day that she was attacked, when she tried to switch away from sitting with them on the bus, she got in trouble and the principal called and left a message on my answering machine that she had tried to switch seats, and would be punished. (They had been bullying her for the 2 weeks prior, and we had been to the school multiple times as they took her lunch, ripped her notebooks, shoved and hurt her etc. Nothing like what happened on the day that she ended up in the hospital, but still . . .) A 5 year old girl should really not be assigned to a seat with 2 ten year old boys. I know they did it because they were trouble makers, and I guess that they thought they would behave with an innocent little girl beside them . . . but that was a REALLY bad idea on their part. She was actually in the seat behind the bus driver, who said that he was not aware of the attack. And, the attack was really bad, and she had to go to counseling for a long time after that occurrence. (That is all of the details that I am going to provide about what happened for my daughter’s sake. It was a shocking & cruel incident that no one should ever have to go through, and few people have, especially a five year old child.)

At her new school, there was another instance where a boy attacked her in the second grade at the end of the year, and that was it for us. We weren’t going to allow our little girl to go to school and get hurt. I know that you can’t shield your kids from everything, and that is not what we are trying to do, however, the things that she went through as a result of the school’s negligence will be something that she will spend the rest of her life trying to get over.

Those were the “bad” reasons that we NEEDED to start homeschooling. However, there were also quite a few reasons that we WANTED to homeschool that had nothing to do with what happened in public school.

The “good” reasons we started homeschooling:

We always knew that we wanted to homeschool even before she went to public school. It was just a matter of timing and finances as to when we would be able to start. These are some of the main reasons that we homeschool.

1. We can pace her education at home. Most concepts she gets very quickly, and we are able to quickly move through the curriculum. However, when there is a concept that she does not understand, we are able to keep working on that concept until she gets it.

2. She can have one on one time with a teacher everyday. I spend quite a bit of time with my kids during their homeschooling each day. I easily spend six to seven hours a day working with my kids. There is no way they could get that kind of attention in a public school.

3. I am able to control what they learn. We can go quite in depth on subjects that interest them. I can present their education from a biblical perspective, and teach them why we believe what we believe.

4. When daddy travels for a month for work, we are all able to go with him, and keep our family together which is a huge benefit for our family!

Some of the Biggest Benefits of Homeschooling:

1. I was pleasantly surprised at much much better I got to know my daughter. Before homeschooling, she would go to school. She would come home and work on homework until dinner. We would eat dinner and she would continue working on homework until about 30 minutes before bedtime. Really the only thing that we talked about during the week was school work. My daughter is a morning person. Now that she is homeschooled, she actually gets up and starts her schoolwork by 6:30 in the morning. This allows her to have her evenings free with her family. The relationships that our kids have with us and each other are so much richer because they have more time to be together.

2. Extracurricular activities: My kids have been able to participate in so many more activities than they would otherwise be able to participate in. At one point my daughter was able to do activities outside the house seven days a week for many hours each week. There is no way she could have been that involved if she was in public school. There simply would  not have been enough time, and we never would have seen her.

Those are just a few of the many reasons that I choose to homeschool my kids, and the reasons that we love it so much. I will tell you guys how we started, what curriculums we use and all the nitty gritty details in my upcoming posts. I hope that you guys enjoy the posts!!

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