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Sarah
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The general thought out here among my local hs companions is that they home school because they are keeping their kids out of the culture and the schools are terrible (not that it is a bad reason). MOST of them end up sending their kids to the local Catholic high school after burning out on homeschooling. It is often said that home schooling is not ideal and if only there was a GOOD school that was CATHOLIC, they'd enroll their young kids in a heartbeat.
This idea being constantly declared lately has begun to drag me down. Now I wonder, why am I doing this? Is it just because I'm hiding from the culture? When I first jumped on board with the homeschooling idea, it was because it seemed a better way to learn. Parents could tailor the curriculum to suit the child who progressed as his own pace. Now that I have small children and have spent every single year schooling on the couch either sick with pregnancy or nursing a baby, I wonder if I haven't fallen into that same mindset that is talked about locally here. Am I settling for a less than ideal situation? Would I jump on a better alternative, too?
I'm at a point now that I need to clearly make a mission statement and some decisions. WHY AM I DOING THIS?
Here's your chance to share your philosophy. Why are you homeschooling? (share your thoughts, even if your answer is the same as someone else's). If there is already a thread that has done this, please let me know.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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Lisbet
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I don't have much time, so in short, I'm doing this because God has called us to it, it's not a negative reaction to our public schools or our culture, it's because it is how we are called to grow this family. Otherwise I'm sure I could not do it.
__________________
Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
Josephine born 6.11.12
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Patty LeVasseur
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Sarah,
Why do I homeschool? This is a great question and I think that every year of the last 10 years that I have homeschooled I would give you a different answer.
I started to homeschool because it made perfect sense to my husband to not spend all that wasted time in school. As my children have gotten older I have seen a benefit I never expected. Because my children are done with their school day sooner, they have more time to read and because of that they know all kinds of things they wouldn't know if they spent their days looking at textbooks and their evening still looking at textbooks. I wonder if this isn't part of why homeschool children generally do so well on tests and not because their mother's are horrible task masters. 
It has also made it possible for our family to spend far more time together. My husband spent ten years in the Marine Corps and had a crazy schedule. He never would have seen our son even when he was just in half-day Kindergarden. Now my husband is working full time and going to school full time. It has made it tough to have him spend time with the children and I know if they were in school it would be impossible. My children also have great relationships with each other that they wouldn't have if they were in school. Now don't get me wrong, I spend the day saying things like, "Stop touching each other." or "Leave your sister alone." But they are all really close.
My children are also involved in hockey and it is a difficult sport to play if you live in the South far away from a big city. We spend a lot of time during hockey season traveling. So we homeschool throughout the summer and are more flexible about the amount of work that gets done when hockey is keeping us busy. So I guess I would say "flexibility" is another reason we homeschool.
I also really love all the wonderful books and unit studies that I learn about here and I would feel kind of funny doing those by myself at home. 
__________________
Patty
mom to four blessings
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JodieLyn
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I think our first and foremost reason at this time is schedules.. my dh is a firefighter.. during fire season his days off may not be Sat/Sun.. if he even gets days off. And then he's home 24/7 during the winter when there's no work (about 2-3 months)
pretty much the total antithesis of a school schedule
When my dh is home, we can have a weekend, when my dh can get time off for traveling, we take a break and go, when my dh is home during the winter he joins in the teaching as well as taking more breaks for us to just play and be a family together.
There is NO school except homeschool that can give us that.
The bureaucracy of the schools is mind boggling.. we moved a lot when I was growing up.. at one school when I was in 8th grade, those of us at the top level of math went through "8th grade math" in one quarter, passed the final test and were working on our own in Algebra (too far from any high school to go there for just one subject).. we moved and there I was having been getting B's and C's working only with other children in Algebra.. approx. 1/3 of the way through.. but it was the schools decision that it would be "too hard" to expect me to catch up to the high school class.. where there's a teacher to ask for help, where every other student already had learned what I was doing and could also help.. what did they think I'd been doing??? Too many occations to be named where doing my best wasn't allowed.. even had one teacher tell me that a child my age can't write like that and so I must have plagerized the report I'd turned in. I was in 9th grade and she suggested that I had taken the content of my report from a professional review.. and I got a D on that report. Excellence was never encouraged if it took you beyond the range that was expected.
So there were problems I'd seen from being in schools that I did not want to repeat for my children. Not to mention the labeling and push for drugs for certain characteristics.
brb
Kids had been occupied and then the little guys got in a tweedle beetle battle (no apparent purpose) and one needed a diaper and the bread timer went off and I needed to start the oven.. don't you love how those things happen all at once.. anyway I posted so that I wouldn't get any "helpers" losing my post.. and came back now to edit.
because I definately wanted to mention that while it wasn't when we decided to start homeschooling.. the 9th Circuit Court ruling that basically says parental rights stop at the school door would make me VERY leary of turning the education and safety of my children over to others. (that ruling is being petitioned to be heard before the Supreme Court, btw)
Oh and on the schools not looking for excellence.. those children who don't learn the way the schools teach, get labled and learn expectations about themselves that I would hate to see.. My oldest daughter would have faired very badly in schools that mostly teach phonics.. basically being labled by herself (as well as other kids) stupid.. and reading being a struggle and the associations of learning to read being frustration and failure. Instead here at home.. we backed off, found something that could work, worked in time increments (as little as 2 minutes at first) that kept frustration from being overwhelming and yes she learned to read later but she LOVES it.. and doesn't think badly of herself at all over the process.
__________________
Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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stefoodie
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different reasons, but every year the list grows longer.
- travel - hubby travels a lot for work, and we like that we're able to travel with him
- flexibility - we school year round, so on some days when life calls for us to take the day (or week, or month) off, we do so
- family unity - this is the best way we've found to keep our kids' hearts close to ours. we've put our eldest school in private secular, public and Catholic school, and we still believe homeschooling is our best option.
- money - we cannot afford to put all our kids in what we know as quality schools in the area (the monthly for each child roughly = our mortgage!) OTOH i would rather spend our money on material that's best for them than send them to the "free" public school.
- religion - we have been called to opt for this lifestyle so that we can pass along our faith to our children in a way that's not possible if they were elsewhere. hubby and i were raised Catholic and growing up we kinda took our faith for granted; we want our kids to understand and appreciate what being a Catholic really means
- health - our kids have issues like allergies, and i cannot imagine how their diets would be like if they were in a regular school setting.
- protection from the culture of death - yes, this is a reason for us, although we don't try to shelter the kids 100%; we do try to filter as much as we can
- physical safety - too many horror stories have put this fear in our hearts; though it's not our #1 reason for homeschooling, it was one of the major reasons why we began homeschooling
- mom is a control freak, i'm embarrassed to admit  - now that i've seen what homeschooling can do for a child i don't think i can ever leave the day-to-day decisions (what and when and how and why my children learn something) to someone else
- we know our kids best -- we know best how they learn, what their interests are, their weaknesses, etc. and therefore we have the unique ability to decide what books, curriculum, etc. to use for each child -- no "one size fits all" in this home; most of the stuff we use is tailored to each individual child's need and capability
- our kids love the freedom of homeschooling!
- i really really enjoy lighting that fire, like all the other 4real moms here
- i really really love that i can hug my child/children anytime i want
- i love teaching/helping a child to LOVE learning
- time flies too fast; already i have a 15-year-old. time with my kids is just too precious a commodity to let them be away from me for so many hours in a day. they'll be gone soon enough.
- both hubby and i were raised in environments/culture where education was/is #1 -- grades, popularity, awards, etc. were very important, sometimes to the detriment of the child -- since we started homeschooling we've come to realize that #1 on the priority list is for us to get ourselves and our kids to heaven; it's well and good if the kids are successful accdg to secular standards but if they're not? as long as they know and love their God and do His will, we're okay with that.
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stef
mom to five
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lapazfarm
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We homeschool because...
We LOVE it, it is FUN and a beautiful way to learn.
I LOVE being with my children.
I LOVE teaching and learning alongside my dc.
I LOVE books and sharing that love with dc,
We LOVE the flexibility of time, materials, methods.
I get to share our LOVE of God and the Church any time!
I guess you could say we do it for LOVE!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Willa
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| Posted: Sept 08 2006 at 9:33pm | IP Logged
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I like your list, Stef.
Our reasons are multiple, too.
If schools were a buffet and you could just pick and choose for your kids, I wouldn't have a problem with them. But the way they are set up now, they are such time-stealers, particularly family time stealers. Once they have gotten ready for school, been gone for six or more hours, come home and recuperated and/or gone to after-school activities, done homework and other school-related projects, there is just no time left to be a family.
The moral problems play into it, but I think that the sheer time away from home and family influences actually contributes to the moral problem. It was probably much different when schools were very localized and community based and took up less of the year, and the teacher was explicitly expected to support and further the community's values and wisdom.
So our key reason or "hinge" reason is TIME -- and how my husband and I want my childrens' time spent. We like academics that don't take any longer than needed for the children to learn; time in the family circle; time to put character ahead of convenience and efficiency; time to pursue interests and time to think and ponder; time to build family traditions and jokes and conversations; time to practice our faith and practice the presence of God.
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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hylabrook1
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Hmmm... I could go on forever about why I homeschool. The reasons for starting have not changed, but as we've gone on more reasons have become clear.
There are so many things that need to be addressed in raising children that are not addressed in an insititutional school setting, or are addressed but not in a way that I find appropriate and don't want my children "dealt with" in that way. I guess I'm talking about character issues, teaching children about how they should regard others and why. These are matters that I think are ultimately spiritual in nature and of course the school is not going to be committed to my spiritual perspective. So many things that they DO attempt to address with the children are actually, in my opinion, fairly intimate in nature and I don't want a person who is not intimately involved with my children attempting to interact with them on those matters. I'm not just talking about s*x education, but about "what were you thinking when you said or did that; this is a more appropriate way to approach situations like that one" kinds of things, which I feel so often involve things which deeply and personally touch a child's heart. Someone who does not truly know and care about the child should not be the one giving guidance of that sort on an ongoing basis. I guess what I'm saying is that so much of child rearing happens in the course of education that I don't feel comfortable having someone else perform that role in my children's lives.
Then, of course, there is building family relationships, which gets entirely too interrupted by having everyone somewhere else and involved in their own track in life. There is also the reality that when children are out of the home all day they don't develop the same sort of appreciation of what home and family are, and I want my children to really *get* that.
Those are the major reasons I see for homeschooling.
Peace,
Nancy
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Sarah
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Thanks for sharing. It is really great to hear all this.
Also, I hope I didn't make it sound that pulling out of the culture was a bad idea. I, too, will list that as one of my reasons. I guess I meant that it can't be the only reason to home school (for me).
Keep posting!! 
__________________
Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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TracyQ
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Sarah,
The reason I homeschool is very simple....because God asked me to say YES to it. He called us to homeschool our children, and asked ME very specifically to do it. At the time, I didn't really know why, and didn't necessarily even agree with it. My GOAL, my plan was to be a mom with many children, loads of them! And I was going to be on the PTA, and eventually, to be the PTA President! That was seriously one of my goals!  (I now have only 3 children (due to many reasons though I'd love more  ), and homeschool! )
The reason for that, is because it was my plan to be very involved in our children's education, no matter what the cost (time, sanity, whatever ).
When our oldest was in preschool, we had to decide where we'd send him to school, either our parish school, or the public school. As I prayed about it, and thought about him getting on a bus, etc., I realized that wasn't an option, for the first few years, I'd take him to school, whatever school that was. We were more thinking the parish school was our choice. But there was a tugging at my heart, and I couldn't figure it out. I really felt uneasy, and had no peace about sending him anywhere. And trying to determine where that was coming from was the most difficult part of it.
My sister in law was homeschooling, and we were the most outspoken about it, how we felt they'd be *ruining* our nieces and nephews (though we didn't phrase it that way thankfully ). I began to research that option, even though I felt horribly inadequate for it, and didn't even necessarily agree with it, based on the social aspect. The *picture of school* in my mind was more of my education, remembering the good things, and things I loved about it.
So I prayed, and asked the Holy Spirit to speak to me, and tell me certainly what He wanted. I really had a difficult time. I cried out to God, *OK, if YOU want me to homeschool, then you have to SHOW me in no uncertain terms that this is YOUR choice!* It really wasn't mine yet...it wasn't in my heart to do it yet.
So that morning, when I prayed that, I was sitting and reading a devotion by Blessed Mother Teresa (my hero). And I began to think about how much she's sacrificed for others, especially little children. And I thought, *If SHE, a petite woman full of the love of the Lord could sacrifice SO MUCH for these little children, who she didn't even bear, how much more can I sacrifice for MY/OUR children who the Lord did allow me to bear, and love so very much as His gift to me?* My heart began to change that very morning.
Yet, I STILL questioned God, and it was getting very late to make a decision. We really needed to get the paperwork in, and let his teacher know what our decision was.
I was really crying, so confused that morning. It was time to go pick Jake up from preschool, and so I prayed again, Lord, I need a sign (this is only one of two times I've ever asked the Lord for a sign between He and I....I don't ask often). When I went to pick up Jake, we picked the kids up in a vestibule, and the teachers would bring the kids to us. I went, the same as I had done ALL YEAR long. I would talk to the other moms, and it was really nice. I remember the feeling I would have when I'd see his precious face coming around the corner every time I'd pick him up.
This day, I did the same as I had all year. I stood in the vestibule, and for some reason, I must have been a been early, because I was alone without other moms this time. And as I waited, I looked up on the wall by the door. And there on the wall was a picture. And my heart lept, and I gasped! It was a picture of Blessed Mother Teresa (a drawn picture like a cartoon) and there around her were a bunch of children. She looked SO happy, and full of the love and joy of the Lord, and full of love for the children. I could hardly contain myself as moms filed in, and as I saw Jake. I honestly wanted to cry with joy. Right there and then, I said, *YES Lord! I will say yes to you, because you ask it of me.* Simple as that.
Now this was at the end of the year. I'd picked Jake up there dozens and dozens of times, and had NEVER noticed that picture.....not once. And it was the most different picture I'd ever seen before. And I've looked and searched, and haven't been able to find it since. 
So that's my story of why I homeschool......because He asks me to. He asks me to say YES, like Mary did with no questions. He asks me sacrifice my time, my energy, my sanity sometimes, and my love for my children. He asks me to sacrifice ME. And I say YES every year, because He asks me to. 
There are tons of great rewards, the reasons I could list here (more family time, more tailored learning to the children, more time for them to develop interests, etc.). And every year, He gives me glimpses of the fruits and rewards of my labor. But last year, in our 11th year of this journey, He gave me the REASON He called us to homeschool through a very amazing thing someone said to me......
*Tracy, your goal is not to prepare them for college, it's to prepare them for HEAVEN!*
And that's the reason we homeschool! 
Doing that, requires so much sacrifice. It requires me to be on my knees every single day (especially in the high school years), because sometimes the FEAR can be paralyzing! But FAITH and TRUST require a *Mary-like YES* from me every single day. THIS is hard! THIS is difficult. THIS can be excrutiating sometimes because of fear, weariness, and exhaustion.
So every day, I get on my knees (figuratively, I have bad arthritis ), and I give our day to God, and say, *Jesus, I trust in YOU*. I know that because of YOUR promise to me, and my YES to you, that you will equip me, our children, and our family with everything we need in this world, as we prepare for YOUR Kingdom beyond. Let us always please you in all we do, say, and think, and let us always CHOOSE to do Your will.*
It's funny how now I'm more involved in our children's education than I ever intended to be, no matter what the cost, (time, sanity, whatever ).
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Willa
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TracyQ wrote:
| The reason I homeschool is very simple....because God asked me to say YES to it. He called us to homeschool our children, and asked ME very specifically to do it. At the time, I didn't really know why, and didn't necessarily even agree with it. |
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That was very beautiful, Tracy.
I know that I originally started homeschooling after I started going to weekly Adoration. God put the opportunity for that weekly hour into my life and then through that gave me the strength I needed to try to start. Before that, I had been too afraid of my inadequacy. After that, the fear didn't go away.... but the certainty that God was asking for this, was stronger.
A similar thing happened when my oldest was in ninth grade and SO MUCH ELSE was going on. There was no way I was going to be able to give this bright kid the academics that he obviously would benefit from.
Again, I called out to God and got the answer that this whole thing was about something more than "best educational options", at least in the way the world means it.
Both those times, God blessed my attempts....
Not to say that it's always wrong to put children in school or that it takes more faith to homeschool; just that it was very clearcut that this is what God wanted for US and that He doesn't need us to have a perfect set-up. No set-up is perfect, as Janet said. But I do know you don't need lots of money, a wonderful education, or endless time or patience to homeschool even through the high school years.
__________________
AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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Sarah
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Ladies,
Thank you so much! A week later here and I feel a lot better about homeschooling. Had a bad week last week.
I have really spent the week thinking about why I am doing this. I have come to the conclusion that I really do love homeschooling.
While I do value keeping this kids out of the negative popular culture, I also love that I can design things for them individually, that we can take longer to really study something in detail, and that we have the freedom to come and go as we see fit for our family.
My goal this year is to really turn off those negative people that hate homeschooling and are constantly pointing out its faults and complaining. I have realized how focusing on the bad can really effect the good.
There is no perfect situation, but for us now, I cannot imagine doing anything else.
__________________
Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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Cheryl
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Tracy,
I just want to tell you that your story gave me chills (and it's hot in here). It was so beautiful.
__________________
Cheryl
Wife to Bob ('97)
Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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mom2mpr
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Since I saw this post originally I have thought of what would be on my list for why I homeschool-it has changed over the past few years. I am writing this mostly for me(tee hee)...
Relationships-between my family members. Ds and Dd are 5 years apart. If ds was in school they would be two only children, rarely having the chance to interact. When my parents visit, or other family for that matter, we can take time to do neat stuff and get to know them, we don't just take the kids to the bus. Dh can work hard(and late) and still have some time with his dc--not much with me but oh well, for now We can get to know families of children they will play with and can feel comfortable, or know when to limit exposure. That was a big one since ds went to Nature Camp this summer and exchanged phone numbers with a few kids. I was stressing what to do if one of them called to play, I don't know these kids or families at all. None called and ds hasn't asked to call them
whew!!
Our Faith-I had such a rotten CCD experience and learned so little as a child growing in the Catholic church. I then went to college in the south and was totally unprepared to defend why I went to the church I did. It was VERY hard. I want my kids to have it easier. Even if they leave the faith when older(which I pray does not happen but I do not have total control) at least they know it and knew it first!
Academics-I have the following mantra, especially lately ,"you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink." I know when ds is not with me, not getting it, etc. A teacher with 30 kids has no idea who is with her and who is not. I lead and if he is with me it is so beautiful, if not, we come back to it another time. I know what we need to work on and what he knows. I so enjoyed CAT testing him this year and watching him answer questions and knowing which were testing issues and which he did not know. Giving him up to his own devices and motivations(which is seriously lacking lately)will not be good.
That is it in a nutshell and I will now print this off for future refernce
Anne
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Erin
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Sarah,
Simply put, I feel called to do so. I want my children to be immersed in their Faith, I want them to emerge from their schooling years with a solid understanding of the Catholic Church's teachings and a heart still intact for Our Blessed Lord. I'm evening the odds that they, I pray will continue to practise the Faith when they leave home.
At times I've tried to imagine where would I send them if I had to and the answer is no-where. Nowhere could I send them and feel confident that they will not have their love of Our Lord jepardised. I KNOW that this is what God wants us to do. On thosedays I always come back to that fact, when I weaken and have fantasies of booking them into a school I know I can't do it as God imprinted on my heart that I was to homeschool my children. He imprinted it even before I met dh that I was to homeschool. Before my children where conceived I knew it was what I was to do.
I want the best for my children and no-one is going to do a better job than me
I love them more and understand them better than any teacher would.
Besides I'm selfish, I don't want to miss out on the joy of teaching them to read, to be the one to help those 'lightbulbs' go on. I want to be able to follow their threads of thought in our discussions. My time with them is so short and I want to savour it all.
I know that some may send their children to school as they have to for various reasons. But it is hard to be daily bombarded at a young age and emerge with your Faith intact, particularly in the teen years. I know, I attended a Catholic highschool and by grade twelve only two of us practised out of a class of 100!! I swore I would never put my children under such pressure.
Sarah, another question is why do we continue to homeschool. Often many hsers start out with a reason or reasons as to why they start. But often the longer you continue to do so the longer your list grows as to why you continue.
__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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Leonie
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We homeschool for family life - we find we build better relationships when we spend more time together.
We are unschooly because of educational reasons - I think its a great way to keep up learning passions.
All of this helps to build us in the faith - especially me, as a convert. I wrote about this on our blog awhile ago.
Blogging about why we homeschool ends up serving as a guide for my questioning days.
__________________
Leonie in Sydney
Living Without School
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ALmom
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| Posted: Sept 16 2006 at 1:45am | IP Logged
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God wanted us to is the bottom line. Why he wanted us to homeschool includes all the things mentioned above in the other posts and one other that I am aware of now-He wanted me to learn my faith better! This is probably the most surprising one of all to me, but sometimes I think homeschooling was much more important for my salvation than for our children's salvation.
But there are also probably many other reasons that will unfold over time and in eternity if I'm not too busy rebelling. It has been a marvelous journey - even when I am pouting about it. My dh is so funny. Once when I hit that very common - gee I cannot do this, lets send them to "" name the school (public or private, even another homeschool cover that offered co-op classes but not from the Catholic perspective), my dh would look at me and say OK, exactly what courses do you want them to sign up for - and then we'd go through the list - math - well I really don't need help teaching math yet. What about His. - well I don't want them learning history from the point of heroic Luther battling those terrible Catholics - hum. Well, .... English - well, it is so much a matter of the heart and I just want to guide them on that one. We'd go through all the subjects and then I'd realize we were right back where we started - at home!
Janet
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: Sept 16 2006 at 10:37am | IP Logged
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This thread is so enlightening...so many different reasons and yet the same one that unites us all: traveling heavenward! Thanks, Elizabeth for putting it so beautifully in your 4Real boards intro. And thanks, everyone for sharing.
We homeschool because we feel God has asked us to do this. We know God will give us what we need to get through times of challenge (like right now, for us) and give us more happiness than we can measure in the end.
Because the primary reason for homeschooling is that we feel we've been called to homeschool by God, we will stay faithful to our calling in a way that I think other (secondary) reasons might not inspire us to do so.
Kinda' like begining NFP. (Or for those who don't use NFP, like completely trusting God with your fertility no matter the circumstances)...we start out with different reasons for doing it, and "bloom" over time. The process transforms us to the point where we couldn't imagine our lives without it and our focus changes. Even in the frustrating times, God is always very good.
Hope you have a better week soon, Sarah!
__________________
Kristine
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Why do you home school?
