Why we are choosing to homeschool...

Why we are choosing to homeschool...

1) We feel that we can best teach our own children according to the bent, personality and learning style/capability of each;

2) We feel that we have the best interests of our children in mind always, in education and all things;

3) We feel that our children are like plants, who will bear awesome fruit once trained, protected, girded up, and loved to maturity, at which time they will be able to handle the "elements" on their own; but, we do not want to expose them to the elements before they are properly trained and prepared...by us;

4) We feel that the social and spiritual well-being of our children will be best served by training in the home, in church, in extra curricular activities, and at their charter school enrichment classes; we feel that socialization by varying ages under our supervision is better for our children than socialization by twenty + other five (or six, or seven, or eight...) year olds whose backgrounds, lifestyles, influences and values are unknown to us;

5) We do NOT feel that everyone should homeschool or that those who choose not to homeschool are inferior in any way; we feel that our decision is very personal and very much directed by our own personal convictions and guidance from the holy spirit; we are open to future changes in these convictions;

6) We feel that the range and breadth of curriculum and homeschool support networks is an amazing blessing offered to this generation in a way that has never before been available, and we look forward to taking advantage of it all;

7) We are blessed to know many homeschooling families personally, some of whom have been very successful in raising well-adjusted, amazingly intelligent and charismatic homeschooled children, including Ivy Leage University grads; we will glean knowledge, inspiration and resources from them all!

8) We have known some families who have been unsuccessful in their homeschooling endeavors and we are blessed to glean from their experiences as well;

9) We look forward to a time when our children can be salt and light in the world, but they cannot do this without preparation and a solid foundation; when we feel they are ready, we will send them out, and prayerfully, we will have prepared them in a way that allows them to be the most salty bright little lights possible.

Finally, I just want to say to all those who are reading this and still question, criticize, or seek to disparage our decision, please do your own research. There are countless studies coming out these days about the success of homeschooled children academically, professionally, spiritually, and socially. They are, as a group, scoring higher on standardized tests, above grade level on average at every stage in every subject, getting and staying married and committed to their families, more often obtaining higher educations, generally much closer to their siblings for life, much less likely to be involved in gangs, drugs, pornography, or criminal activities...and the list goes on.

As a product of public education, I have nothing bad to say about it. As a child of public school educators, I know there are excellent teachers out there. As the wife of a public school educator, I know that there are teachers who care and are working their tails off to make a difference and teach effectively.

But, this knowledge also affords us the basis for a logical decision (I think) to provide our children with one on one (well, four) teaching (instead of one on 20 or 30.) It gives us insight into the challenges that exist in today's classrooms, which we can avoid at home.

For instance, if our children don't "get" something right away, we can review it until they get it. If they do get it right away, there is no reason to dwell on it, we can move on! There are not twenty something other students to consider.

And finally, one of the books I recently read mentioned this: the one constant complaint among teachers is that they wish parents were more involved in their students' education (and life in general). We are just taking that one step further and becoming the most involved parents there could possibly be. :)