Why Homeschool? 9 Great Reasons from 6 Homeschooling Moms

About a year after our little girl turned a year old, I started to look into homeschooling and the reasons to homeschool. A year since my research started, I still occasionally ask myself, “Why Homeschool?” I’ve been reading up on facts about homeschooling. I’ve generally been doing a lot of research and I see all the pros and cons to homeschooling that are provided in the media. I suppose what no one reckoned with was the possibility that homeschooling could become compulsory rather than an option. Now, parents who never considered homeschooling have had to look into what it is and how to go about it when you have no choice. 

It took me a while to realize that homeschooling was not what I had imagined it to be in the first place. Homeschool is not always a matter of letting your child pick what they want to learn today. It involves more structure than that. Homeschooling is the same education that school-going kids undergo. They just happen to be able to do it in other places apart from formal school settings. 

I still ask myself “why homeschool”. However, more and more, and with recent events that every single person in this world is aware of, I am starting to ask myself, “Why not homeschool?” As the world returns to some semblance of normal, you might be one of those parents who are starting to ask yourself the same question. As you continue to consider the options, see 9 arguments in favour of homeschooling from 6 homeschooling moms. 

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9 Reasons why homeschool is the way to go for some families

1. It’s the physically healthier option

The recent pandemic would explain why homeschool is the best decision for some families. Your family may have been homeschooling previously anyway because you felt that it meant better health for all of you. Moms, you know how tough it can be for the kids to bring home all manner of illnesses from school at crucial points of the year when you need your strength the most. 

In case you’re wondering how you’ll ever build up your child’s immunity if they’re not in school, don’t you worry. Contrary to what you may think, it’s next to impossible to shield your family from all germs so there’ll be other ways to boost your kids’ immunity.

“We chose homeschooling because I was pregnant and now have a newborn. With weak immune systems in our house, we didn’t want to take the risk…Now that it’s been a few months and I’ve seen my oldest progress more quickly than when she was in school, I’m wondering why we didn’t start homeschooling earlier.” – Jacqueline (Mom Money Map)

2. You get to choose what your kids are taught…to some extent

You have more control of not just how your children are taught but also of what exactly it is that they’re getting taught. As you’re doing the teaching, you see what exactly is in their syllabus, what is essential for them to know in order to write and pass their exams, and which information is not necessary. You can choose to remove that information which you think goes against your values as a family. 

“…we wanted to be able to decide what our kids were taught based on our family’s principles and (as they got older) what my kids wanted to do in life and not on what the government thought they needed to know.” – Raia (Raia’s Recipes)

3. You do not want anyone else raising your kids

Some people choose to homeschool because sending your child to school elsewhere is essentially putting the responsibility of raising them into another person’s hands. If you do not trust that person or that institution, homeschool may be the comfortable option for you. 

“We…chose to homeschool because we really felt that our children were given to *us* to parent, teach, and raise. We didn’t like the idea of giving them to people we didn’t really know for the majority of their childhoods.” – Raia

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4. You want to be able to control the negative social influences around your child

It’s a lot harder to be aware of the negative influences around your child when they’re being educated outside the home. They’re spending the majority of their day outside your home and are therefore just naturally getting more outside influences. If it’s mostly negative influence they’re getting at school, you may prefer to homeschool them to limit that. 

“The majority of the schools where I grew up were ridden with gangs and violence (I grew up around Chicago). I didn’t want my children to have to be a part of that. Not to mention the other, more normal, negative peer-pressure. That’s not how to raise an emotionally stable, healthy human.” – Raia

5. You want to preserve their innocence

Of course, as your children grow up, they become more aware of themselves and of the world. As in the previous point, negative influences could cause them to grow up too quickly but simply socialising with other people who do not hold the same values could also cause your child to learn things long before they know how to handle certain types of information. 

“I wanted my children to have a childhood for as long as possible. From there on out it was easy, if it extends their childhood, great, if not it’s not for us!” – Luschka (Diary of a First Child)

6. You want to spend their childhood with them

We are only getting busier and busier as a society. It’s getting harder for parents to spend as much quality time with their children as they would like. Most of the time, that’s because they simply can’t afford to. If it’s something that you can financially afford to do, you may decide to homeschool your children in order to be able to spend more of their childhood with them. 

“Our family chose to homeschool because I wanted to spend my children’s childhood with them…” – Lacy (Catholic Icing)

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7. Homeschooling offers you flexibility

Homeschooling affords the flexibility in terms of being in control of your time as a family. 

“… it allowed our family the flexibility of creating our own schedule.” – Lacy

“…we’ve continued homeschooling…because we like having a flexible lifestyle that allows us to travel (in normal times) and plan our days how we like, which is great since I also run a business from home full-time.” – Rebecca (Busy Mom Smart Mom)

8. You want the freedom the homeschooling affords your kids

Some parents do not like the idea of their child being confined to an institutional environment for so many hours in a day every week. 

“I didn’t want my kids behind a desk for 7 hours a day…” – Lacy

9. Homeschool is the mentally and emotionally healthier option

I think this is in some ways closely related to points number 4 and 5 above. When your children are homeschooled and you have more control over what they’re consuming mentally, you are able to make sure that they are consuming what they can handle. You know your children best. 

“I started homeschooling my kids after my daughter completed preschool and I realized I could teach her the same things at home without the awful separation anxiety she was going through…” – Rebecca

“We choose to homeschool because it was what my child needed, pure and simple. His older brothers had thrived in public school, but kindergarten hit my youngest like a brick wall. He cried nearly every day and made little progress. While homeschool had never been something I had wanted to do, it was what he needed, and I was surprised to find, once we started, that I loved homeschooling too.” – Gale (Imaginative Homeschool)

Do you homeschool? If so, why is homeschooling the best option for you?