Why we homeschool?

Robin left a comment - in case you saw it - thanking me for sharing with her why we homeschool. She is writing an article and is asking for homeschoolers to give her input. Here is her blog if you care to comment.

link to Robin's blog

I did want to share what I had written about why we homeschool. Her question centered on what do we tell our children when they ask why they are homeschooled. Here was my answer.

My kids haven't asked but they do know why we homeschool - as we have talked about it. We have been asked by others why we homeschool and often my children will give the answer. It is not just one reason but several that all add up to a way of life for our family.

1) We are Christian and believe that in the public schools they have taken God out. We believe that this is sad and that God should be a crucial element of our family, our life style and our schooling. So public school is not a consideration for us but we would have been okay with private school.

2) Further note on the public schools - they are unsafe in the area we live - gangs, violence, drugs, weapons. Very, very bad. Not a place to send an adult much less a child. Even the public schools out in the suburbs around here have issues. Many of my friends who have kids in public schools spend much of their time undoing the bad behavior learned in the school environment.

3) While private school was a consideration in the end we didn't do that. My children know why too. My oldest was in a private school for Pre-K 4 and was constantly in trouble. We thought we had a very badly behaved child until another mom (bless her heart) who was a special ed teacher in her job but just had two children in the class - told us that the problem was the teacher. She didn't challenge my son. Then she pointed out the boards (everything in preschool is on the bulletin boards). He was the first one done with all the accomplishments and many times the only one up on certain boards having completed those tasks. He was BORED.

4) Additionally, the teacher also didn't understand him - she would tell us that he couldn't count to 20. Well, my son at 4 was 'exact' in his language. If you asked him 'can you count to 20?', he would tell you no. Now if that was all you asked that was all you got. But his no meant - no I can count to 200.

My oldest was advanced in his skills but the schools didn't deal with this well. He tended to get bored and then go astray. So he was constantly being punished. He had to stand in the corner alot. (I kid you not!) And one day after getting a note (again) that he had misbehaved - my husband asked him why - and my son said "I don't know why I am so bad." And that was it - right there for us and schools. It wasn't that his behavior was bad but that the environment was set up in such a way that he now was made to feel like a bad person.

If the child is middle of the road in skills, schools can work out but if the child is on the high end or the lower end of skills - schools tend to not be good and it can have a very negative affect on how the child views themselves. It is also my personal opinion that we tend to drug many of these children so that they can sit still for long periods of time.

Further, just moving a child ahead isn't always a good solution. My son was very small for his age and if we moved him up a grade - we believe he would have been picked on. The runt of the class - so to speak. Socially, he was still at his age level. It is not always good to move a child up.

5) After we started to homeschool, we realized that it is a lifestyle. We love being able to incorporate our vacations with our learning. When we were studying the start of our country we went to Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown. When we were studying Lincoln we took a trip to Springfield, Ill. We are able to incorporate more hands on learning and less 'sit at a desk and be bored' learning. I have all boys - they tend to dislike lots of workbooks and love hands on learning. They want to be busy and active.

6) We can do lots of things that are now being cut out of the schools. We can include things like art and music. Many times these are the programs that get cut in schools due to budgets.

7) In schools they teach to the test. I don't -- at all. So we learn for the sheer joy of learning. We also are able to cover science and other subjects in such a way as I feel comfortable - we believe God created the earth - it didn't evolve and we teach science from that perspective. So I don't teach to cover what is on standardized tests as I don't agree with the worldview of the test makers.

For all these reasons and more - we homeschool.

My children do know why we started down this road and why we are staying on this road.