Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Why do we homeschool?

Its so hard to answer that question! Its like asking a fish why it swims Or asking a brain surgeon how he preformed his last surgery and expecting a one sentence answer! People just arent ready for all that seemingly innocent question opens you up too!
We have always felt led to homeschool since our first child was young we knew that homeschool was the way to go for Him and any future kids.
We feel that we should put the Lord first in all that we do and that living the gospel should be our first priority. Homeschooling allows us to do that. Our attempts are imperfect of course but at least we CAN attempt it.
Homeschool also affords us the opportunity to introduce worldly things to our children when we feel they are ready and in the appropriate way.
In public school children are grouped together by age and taught in an artificial environment. Homeschooling lets our kids learn about real life by participating in it. We also feel that being around people of our choosing, who we feel are good honest examples for our children will help them to grow into the type of people the Lord would want them to be.
Spending much of our time together instead of spending most of it apart strengthens our family in a world where the family is attacked and weakened at every turn.Our family relationships are stronger because we work together, learn together, play together and live life closely connected.
In todays society young men are often left without good male role models. Because we homeschool our sons they can spend quality time with there Dad more than they would if they were in public school.
Each year we make goals for our homeschool. They typically consist of things like "So and so know how to do X,Y and Z by the end of the year. Or so and so improving in A,B and C by the end of the year. This year our goals have been different. We want our children to LOVE learning.
We want them to have a curiousity for the world around them. We want to provide our children with the resources they need to answer the questions they have.
We want to show our children examples of honesty, integrity,faith and loving kindness.
We want to raise children with true values who can think for themselves.

2 comments:

Tristan said...

I was just thinking about this! I saw Molly at the library yesterday and it came up. She has a 7.5yob and mentioned how many evening activities they have this week. I said that was yet another perk of homeschooling, we control our schedule instead of the public school sending each family member in different directions. AND that we can do a lot of those "after-school activities" during the day and STILL have evenings for family time.
I never know what to say when asked about why we homeschool, but have started asking if they want the short answer or the long one! The short one is we prayed about it and it's right for our family. The long one lists all the reasons and perks. :) Great post!

Anonymous said...

What more it there to say but...Amen.