Why I homeschool

Over the past few years of being in many different homeschool groups and communities I have had the pleasure of meeting many homeschooling families that knew right off the bat that they were going to homeschool their children. In the past two or three years I’ve even met many that were homeschooled themselves, on the same hand I’ve met many that were not homeschooled. Many parents have had bad experiences with a public or private school and on that pulled their children out . My husband and I have our own very long list of why we homeschool, almost always I feel assured and confident about our reasons, and you would think that after doing this for so long that I would be steadfast , right? Wrong… Because I have been doing this for so long I see my accomplishments and my failures, and there are days that those two statements overlap. I still to this day worry that maybe my children will grow up and hate my husband and I because they feel they didn’t have a normal life- as if any of us know what that definition means in this day and age. In being totally honest, I fear they will grow up and write a best seller about how I have turned them into unsocialized, uncompetitive adults, and how I ruined their whole life. While teaching in both a private and public schools, I understand that bad teachers are out there and they are real. Many people say to me that children need to get accustomed with dealing with other teachers and should have the experience of different teaching styles, even a bad teacher or two – and I agree to a point. However, I am way to much of a control freak or should I say anal to be able to do that at this stage in my life. My husband and I work hard to make sure our children feel loved daily. Everyday, Every book, Every subject. Everyminute , I work to make sure that they know how proud of each of them we are. They know daily that their education and success is my focus. I overlook nothing ( trust me at times they wish I did)but I am on point with them all. I know their strengths and their weaknesses, we cheer when they are doing well, we pray when things are not going as well as we would like. Above all I want to be there for every second, these years are so fleeting and they are gone before you know it. I remember my oldest at 6 trying to learn to read and now she is almost 27, time flies. So I want to slow down and enjoy every minute. I want my children to have a united bond as family but more so as siblings. Through homeschooling I want to instil a deep love for one another. I want them to build a relationship that allows them to appreciate each other cheer for each other in an honest open way. As a family my husband and I feel homeschooling is the road map to this being a reality. Now don’t let me play this all turns out well for I now first hand it doesn’t. My older set are still close but in their very own adult way now, I pray to learn from any mistakes that I made and try to give this set a fighting chance to sibling bliss early on. In 2012 I found out I had breast cancer and due to that my Ish and I relocated to Florida so that I could get into MOFFITT Cancer center. Due to this fact alone I was glad t be homeschooling. The children didn’t miss days and my struggle could keep a normal feel to the children at least for the school part. My faith is very important to me my faith holds me in times of fear and frustration . We’re Hebrew. We love God and are trying to love him more each day. We want our children to have a passion for our faith and be able to incorporate it into their daily lives and lessons. I hope their world view is one that is challenged while learning about other cultures and faiths, that the love of family and God will be at their base, thus always showing the love of God through our words and actions. I feel God is always working on my resume he is always calling me to another level , over the past few years through the cancer and the tears I feel a calling. Ugh. That sounds like the story of Eliyah, like God is calling me and I must answer. In fact a calling is how God speaks to us all. God is always calling me and in this calling he speaks to me. In my case, he wouldn’t let the homeschool horse die, even after moving and all the physical and health challenges. I was ready and had kind of made up my mind about closing the door on homeschooling too many times in the past two year to count Day after day, decision after decision, homeschooling was all that made sense. This is why we home school this is my story , my list. I f I were to think about it I’m sure there’s a million other little reasons as well. Do you have a story a list? Share your story or your list. We learn from each other