Why I Homeschool

There are many reasons we chose this path, the most important that my husband and I knew without a doubt that it was God’s will for our family.

My biggest fear when homeschooling, is not that I’ll fail to pass on the 3R’s or that my children will be societal empty-heads. My fear is that I’ll fail to make the education experience a rewarding one.

I want them to love everything about it.

To that end, I encourage learning without calling it “school”. Never fear, we do our allotted “schoolwork” but we follow creative tangeants all the time, and my girls are having so much fun they don’t realize that it’s “school” in its best form!

Yesterday, my oldest got up early so she could hurry through her cursive practice, math, spelling, etc. She’d packed her backpack the night before for a “morning adventure”…she prolonged her adventure so she could be a part of our “toddler school” and songtime, but then she was out the door. She had a blast, and even got to “play” archaeologist! She actually found two bones jointed together–and excitedly told me, “Maybe God wants me to be a Christian scientist someday!” (Smile) That afternoon she spent over an hour reading a book on backyard adventures that I’d conveniently picked up at the library our last visit. (note: get fun-looking educational books and leave them lying around to tempt curiosity!)

Last night, (who says school can only be done during the day?) my oldest worked feverishly on a flip book about North Dakota. She has a good friend that lives there and wanted to check out a library book about it. We’re turning this newfound interest of hers into this year’s geography project. My plan is to buy a big map of the USA and see how many post cards we can get from the different states as we study them/make flip books about them. As the post cards arrive we can tack them to the state on the map. Her flip book has self-illustrated pics of the state flower, a pic we copied of the state bird, another pic of the badlands, and one of Indians running buffalos off a cliff (historically, that’s how they hunted them). We’ve learned some fascinating things about ND. Did you know that lightening strikes can crack the ground open in the ND badlands which catches the underground coal on fire? That coal can burn for years, hardening the ground and turning it brick red…

The teacher in me wants to pipe up and suggest certain things, but I have to be really careful how I do so or it quenches her excitement. She takes it so much further when it’s “her idea”…

Another reason I love homeschool is the fun we had yesterday at the piano singing Wee Sing Bible songs with my youngest…an hour flew by as we did toddler activities together. We played a toddler version of “Simon Says”, “Follow the Leader”, sat on the floor with our feet together and holding hands we “rowed” to “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”. We read a dozen (literally) library books together, and sang a few hymns out of the hymnal.

Another wonderful homeschool day.