8 Reasons Why We've Decided To Try Homeschooling

I can honestly say that this is a post I never expected to write. Until recently I had zero desire to homeschool my kids. My oldest has been attending the Catholic school that’s attached to our parish and the plan was for my middle son to start preschool there next year. We’ve had nothing but a positive experience and absolutely love the community there. But a few months ago, almost out of nowhere, the idea of homeschooling slowly started to enter my mind.

The idea really took hold after a discussion with my husband about his upcoming career change. He’d decided it was time for him to leave his job in the Army and pursue his dream job as a real estate agent. I was excited for him, but that also meant he would be giving up a secure paycheck. Which made me start to worry about our ability to continue to afford Catholic school tuition.

For various reasons sending him to public school was not an option. So we could either continue to send him to Catholic school and hope that we could make the tuition payments, or I could homeschool him.

Being the obsessive researcher that I am I dove headfirst into learning everything I could about homeschooling. I spent countless hours watching youtube videos, reading blogs, reading research studies, and exploring seemingly endless curriculum options.

All of this time spent learning everything I could about homeschooling just solidified that it seemed like the right path for your family to take. So in a few short months I went from thinking that homeschooling was an absolutely crazy idea to being excited about becoming a homeschooling mom!

While I could probably list off dozens of reasons why I feel like homeschooling is the best choice for my family there are 8 that really helped solidify the decision for us.

1. I’m sick of school dictating our schedule

Ever since my oldest was born we’ve been on tight schedules. When I was working I had to get him to daycare by 6 am. When I stopped working I had to get him to therapy by 8 am every morning. And now it’s getting him to school by 7:40 am. This means everyone in the house is awake early, nap times for the little ones revolve around school pickup time, dinners feel rushed and bedtime is strict because everyone has to be awake early in the morning.

And it’s only going to get worse next year when my middle son starts preschool, with my youngest only 1 year behind him in two years I’ll be going back and forth to the school three different times during the day 5 days a week! I want our family life to revolve around what works best for the family, not be dictated by school pick up and drop off.

2. I want them to develop a real love of learning

Kids are naturally curious and want to learn. But being forced to sit in a classroom all day and only learn a few subjects which might not be very interesting to them can really dampen a kid’s love of learning. The idea of being able to incorporate student-led learning into a homeschool curriculum sounds like an amazing way to help nurture that natural curiosity and continue to foster a love of learning.

3. Because there are things that are more important than test scores

So much of what kids are taught in school revolves around standardized testings, which really limits the subjects they learn and the depth of those subjects. I want my boys to be exposed to a large scope of subjects and ideas even if those things will never appear on a standardized test.

4. To allow my boys to be boys

All three of my boys are full of energy and very physical. They constantly need to run, jump and wiggle. If they don’t have an opportunity to get that energy out they have trouble listening and following directions. Which isn’t compatible with sitting in a classroom all-day and is already becoming an issue with my oldest.

5. To Spend more time in nature

We’re blessed to live in Colorado, on the front range of the Rocky Mountains. We have almost limitless options when it comes to outdoor activities. Homeschooling will allow us more time to get out there to explore, learn about, and appreciate nature. It will also give us the ability to do things on weekdays and off-hours so we can avoid crowds.

6. to give specialized help to my oldest

With my oldest having high functioning autism there are times where he needs a lot of one on one attention during the school day. Really though the grace of God he no longer needs to attend daily therapy, BUT he still has areas of struggle and understandably his teacher can’t devote a lot of time to giving him the one on one attention he needs.

He has trouble understanding idioms and takes things literally. He also has trouble understanding something that doesn’t seem to follow logic (things that fall in a gray area). Being able to give him one on one attention during the school day gives me the ability to work with him on those seemly small things now so we can avoid bigger problems as he gets older.

7. To build a stronger family culture

My boys are so close in age (5 1/2, 3, 19 months) that right now they all get along really well. But I know that once they are all in school in different grades with different friend groups that will probably not be the case. I want my boys to build a strong relationship and I want our family to be core of their lives not their peer groups, teachers, and coaches.

8. To help my boys develop life skills

As a mom, one of my biggest goals is to raise my boys to be independent and able to function on their own as adults (I think we all knew guys who went to college and didn’t even know how to do their own laundry). Taking the time to teach them life skills, cooking, and personal finance is a major benefit of homeschooling.

Although I’m sure that homeschooling won’t solve every problem I feel like it really will be the best thing for our family. I’m so excited to start this new chapter and for all the new adventures it will hold for us!

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