Over the years, I’ve read or you’ve shared, so here is a list of at least some reasons why some families choose to homeschool!
- Freedom to choose curriculum that fits student/parent interests, learning styles, and pace of learning and avoid curriculum that is a waste of time.
- Opportunity to learn new things together – an expression of life-long learning (rather than parents graduating and not going back to look at school subjects again).
- Parents can (and should) care more about the child’s education and direction in life than a classroom teacher, even if he or she IS a caring, good teacher and friend of the family.
- More time to develop stronger relationships within the family (e.g. with siblings or a parent who normally works after-school/evening hours).
- Time to learn personal and family values, morals, beliefs and/or special interests, for example,
- Opportunity for intensive/focused sports training (or arts, etc.)
- Opportunity for family travel and field trips/off-site learning
- Flexibility of scheduling “school” around family vacations, business or missions trips, times of grief and other life changes.
- To have more time to teach the Bible and/or integrate moral and/or spiritual principles into academic subjects.
- Safety concerns at other school options (e.g. bullying, environmental hazards, negative peer pressure).
- Healthier meals at home; more choice as to how money is spent towards education (e.g. clothing/special shoes or uniforms, clubs, fees, food days, and fundraising versus family vacations, homemade hot lunches).
- There may not be a “local” school if family lives in a very isolated place.
- Inflexibility and offensive material: A teacher and/or educational materials may be teaching perspectives which are offensive to the family’s values, alternatives to that teaching might not be available in the classroom, and/or the student’s views are not tolerated in class discussions or assignments.
- Compromising influences: A classroom teacher may or may not actually care much about the students or “like” them; it may be “just a job”. But even if a teacher cares, teachers can feel they need to go along with whatever the board or peers tell them to do even if that means they compromise their own values where they would agree with the parents, out of fear for job security.
- Medical reasons (e.g. severe allergies, frequent treatments/hospitalization, recovery/rehabilitation, low immunity, fatigue).
- The local school might not teach certain practical skills that the parents desire their children to have the time to learn (e.g. homemaking skills, home maintenance skills, farming, environmental care, specialty skills courses in the high school years).
- The local school might not teach certain academic skills that the parents believe are too important to neglect (e.g. phonics, spelling, handwriting, mental arithmetic skills, science labs, instrumental music).
- One-on-one tutoring or a small group environment, often results in helping a student who learn and retain more than average students in a large classroom environment.
- Often it is easier to handle special needs of some children in a home environment rather than with a school caregiver.
- More opportunity for balanced communication between people of all ages, peers and adults, rather than primarily just the student’s own age group.
- More opportunities for being outdoors.
- Allows more time to develop entrepreneurial and practical work/career skills, especially in teen years.
- One or both parents may really love teaching, and for some this is also their chosen career with formal training. Parents can simply want to teach their own children at home, at least for some of the growing years, to teach their own, not just other people’s kids.
- Just because they think homeschooling will be fun! ♥
These are all good reasons to consider the option of homeschooling!
If you’re on the way to beginning your homeschool journey, check out this post (linked soon) for an overview of how to do that. 🙂
(This is an update to the original post in 2019.)