May. 15, 2006 - Why we homeschool???
I thought I would blog about this question. I have been asked this over the last 5 years. I want to write them down so I can refer to them when I am feeling down about my ability to teach.
Why do we homeschool our children?
1) We homeschool because we feel this is our responsibilty. It is not the gov't responsibility to teach our children. It is ours!! Here are the scriptures we use to back this up: Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Matthew 22:21 (we use this to show that our children is given to us by God
2) We homeschool to instill independant thinking in our children instead of cookie cutter thinking. We also want our children to have a love for learning and at the same time to have a very good education that is Christian instead of Secular.
3) We homeschool our children to protect them from physical, emotional and most of Spiritual harm. There are scriptures in Proverbs that we can read about children left to themselves. Spiritual harm is what concerns us.
4) We homeschool so we can teach them things in our own time not the gov't. We will teach them about things that should only come from us.
5) We homeschool to teach them the truths.
6) We homeschool to protect them from ungodly teachings.
7) Most of we homeschool because we LOVE our children very much.
8) We homeschool to train our children to become responsible adults in the future. We are raising them to become leaders of their generations in the future. We want them to be independant of gov't help.
We homeschool for religious reasons first then academic reasons. We feel we can give our children a much better education at home and a much better spiritual education at home. We feel we can better protect them from harm here at home.
What about socialization, some would ask? Why is this a worry in most people who question why we homeschool? I am not worried about socialization. We give our children many opportunities for that in a protected environment. We have a select families that we trust. This is very few families. There is an age limit on this for us. It also depends on the child's maturity level and spiritual level. My oldest son has spent the night with two different families. My other son hasn't spent the night with anyone yet. He is not yet mature enough to go. We belong to a homeschool group where they have many opportunities to socialize with other kids (of ALL ages!!). My children are involved in activities in church. My oldest is a buddy for special needs parents night out. What a great education my oldest is getting from being a buddy. He was a buddy to two autistic children at the same time. The adults and leaders were very impressed with his ease of budding up with them. They told us that he stuck to them and didn't go off to talk to friends (he had many friends there) unlike other kids that were buddies there. I think socialization is not a problem for us. We limit and provide that as time goes on. It is funny how socialization and socialism sound alike and I feel that both go hand in hand such as what Jennifer Ig. stated in her article in the Old Schoolhouse magainze. If you haven't read it, go READ IT!!! It is a must read for all homeschool parents.
I have many more reasons but what I listed hit the nail on the head I believe. If you have reasons for homeschooling that is not listed in my article, do post your reasons in the comment section. I look forward to hearing what your reasons are!!
Blessings~
Holly
