why do you homeschool?

[whiskeywife]

I'm new to this forum so forgive me if this has been asked a million times, but I'm curious as to why others homeschool.

 

For us, my husband is in the army and we recently moved here. DS went to the on post school for the last two months of last year. He literally did nothing! He watched a lot of movies and sat outside watching teachers vs. students playing baseball, but no learning. He was very annoyed at the other students and how obnoxious they were. He started volunteering in the office during lunch just to get away from the other kids. We had talked about homeschooling and his experience just made the decision that much easier.

 

So what about you?

[gardenmom5]

I'm new to this forum so forgive me if this has been asked a million times, but I'm curious as to why others homeschool.

 

For us, my husband is in the army and we recently moved here. DS went to the on post school for the last two months of last year. He literally did nothing! He watched a lot of movies and sat outside watching teachers vs. students playing baseball, but no learning. He was very annoyed at the other students and how obnoxious they were. He started volunteering in the office during lunch just to get away from the other kids. We had talked about homeschooling and his experience just made the decision that much easier.

 

So what about you?

 

I'm in a district that makes Newsweeks top school list. my adult children went through public school. Some teachers were great, others chose the wrong profession. I got tired of dealing with bad teachers, and even worse school administrators. I got tired of awful curricula that the district chose - even though OTHER parents in OTHER school districts were SUING their districts for using them.

 

when dudeling was born, that was it, he'd be homeschooled. Now he has been diagnosed SPD, and it being evaluated for ASD. I watch him, and public school would have been a disaster for him. I can choose curricula appropriate for how he learns, and I can choose the style of curriculum. (I like classical.)

[laughing lioness]

A lot of it has to do with freedom.

[Dolphin]

For us it is academics and safety.

ds is a small 4th grader. He is a sensitive kid and we worried about how that would affect him. At 14 (we plan on sending him to public HS) He will have the tools to deal better with that side of thing.

 

The number 1 reason was that our school publishes what the Kindy kids will be learning each month. DS would not learn anything new until February, they have to "equalize" the kids. I don't want my children "equalized"

[WeeBeaks]

My oldest has a severe peanut allergy and ADHD. He went to an early learning center at 3 (I worked). He had 2 peanut exposures in 6 months, one of which when the staff GAVE him a peanut butter cracker despite all my telling them of his allergy. After the ER twice and them being able already to handle his ADHD at 3, we brought him home, thinking we would just keep him home until he was old enough to deal with his allergies.

 

Homeschooling worked so incredibly well we just kept going with him and the other kids born after him. It meets his educational and emotional needs perfectly. It was just never on our radar before, and I'm glad what was the answer to a particular problem for him became a great part of our family routine.

[MtnTeaching]

A lot of it has to do with freedom.

 

Wow! :iagree:

 

I was going to say - because of ADHD, dyslexia, the ability to experience people, places and things other than a classroom, some bad teacher experiences, missing my kids and wanting to be with them.

 

But, when it boils down to it - Laughing Lioness said it far better than I could. It is having the ability to experience something that I did not. It is having the ability to move beyond the cookie cutter, to discover things about themselves that doesn't come from someone always telling what to think, what to do, how to do it. To travel the road less traveled.

 

The trend that the public schools seem to be taking rubs me the wrong way. Why do we all have to know exactly the same thing, in exactly the same way, at exactly the same time. We do not all learn the same way. We have gifts and interests that are different.

 

As Laughing Lioness said: It is the freedom.

[simka2]

Allergies, adhd, impulse disorders, speech therapy (that was not being dealt with in PS, even though we had an IEP) frequent moves, not being dependent on a "good"ps location, and accelerated learners. Not all the same kid, but it was my oldest and one twin so we went ahead and pulled the other twin as well and it didn't make sense to send the youngest without the siblings. Plus, by then we had really grown to appreciate the lifestyle it afforded us.

[Pamela H in Texas]

We started off because I thought it would be best for my children to get an individualized academic experience. My hubby was homebound for one year and thought the socialization aspects of it may be positive. Over the past fifteen years, the number of reasons, some big and some small, have multiplied.

 

At one point, I used to answer this question with the above and then add, "We simply believe that homeschooling is better academically, socially, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, and family wise." Talk about wrapping it up in a neat little package! It is so impersonal though.

 

Why I homeschool? My kids can live in the real world and I can enjoy their experience with them. Whether we're talking about phonics, counting, reading Shakespeare, algebra, Hinduism, space, Zimbabwe, biology or anything else under the sun, I get to watch the light go on, have the neat (and sometimes hard) discussions, etc. In time, I still, like everyone else, give up some of that as they start learning various things from people more knowledgeable, interested(/ing?), etc. It just wasn't at 4 or 7 or 11 (except a college course at that latter age).

 

A big reason to keep kiddos home? I get to parent full time, all day every day. I *like* raising my children. I don't want a 40 hour per week break from them. I want to be with them, enjoy them, and give them what I believe is an important foundation in life.

[Abeille]

We're homeschooling so my 7th grader won't be bussed into a failing, inner-city school (17% suspension rate, high teacher turnover, gang problems, and test scores generally 25 points below the state average). We're new to the area and naively thought our dc would be eligible to attend the reasonably good schools that are only half a mile away from the new house.

 

We've afterschooled for years, but this time round we're choosing hs out of necessity and I'll admit I'm somewhat reluctant. The plan was for me to go to nursing school in January, but that looks impossible now. However, I believe that all things happen for a reason and I feel blessed to have the option of keeping my dc home. I've picked out some great materials, and it's going to be a wonderful year!

[acurtis75]

Originally the reason was our desire to provide s solid biblical foundation before sending her off on to the world. I used to wonder why people sacrificed their desire for a moral foundation by sending their children to school to get a "good education". Then I read wtm and realized that school isn't providing a good education anymore so being well-educated personally and providing that same education for dd was added to the reasoning.

 

Now after doing it for a few years I would probably put freedom at the top of the list. I can't articulate it better than laughing lioness but I would say it's freedom of time, freedom with curriculum choices, freedom from negative cultural influences in the ps environment and many other things.

Edited October 12, 2011 by acurtis75@yahoo.com
iPad autocorrect

[anneofalamo]

TIME (linked to blog and our decision to come home again)

my kids went to school from 8-3:30 and had 2 hours of what I deemed "filler" homework. We are a very active in church and community family and this made for the stress zone of before dinner time and I hated it and so did the kids.

We home school, and school is done by 1pm (for my part) they have reports and research but that is done from 1-3pm.

Dinner prep is all of us and enjoyable, hubby comes home to clean house, warm dinner and we enjoy that time.

♥♥TIME-I can't ever get it back! ♥♥

[OnTheBrink]

I started hs-ing my son because public school completely sucked the love of learning out of him; he'd become apathetic and depressed. I hs my dd because I didn't want the same thing to happen to her. She's never been to ps.

 

But, along the way, I've enjoyed the freedom to customize my dc's education to their interests and I've loved the fact we can move at our own pace, slowing down for difficult concepts and speeding up through ones easily mastered.

[brendag]

A lot of it has to do with freedom.

 

:iagree:

 

I didn't think about Homeschooling until I started hearing about what their kids were going through in school. The only decent school close to us is on a lottery system and to be honest, once I looked into it, it seemed that the focus was on testing. No thank you!

 

My kids are only 4 so we are just starting, but I love seeing the excitement they have when while they are learning. I love the instant feedback I get and how I can go over something until they truly understand.

 

Brenda

[momacacia]

DHs reasons

 

Family harmony/relationships

Spiritual input

It's what his parents did to him after 3rd grade ;)

 

My reasons

 

Academics

Spiritual growth

Integrated learning--maybe some schools do this, but I haven't seen one yet

Opportunity to be exposed to more simply because there is less wasted time and more time to learn

Teaching to learning styles

Love of learning

I want my kids to have "the best of everything" and if we get close to my vision of homeschool, we will be close to that

Cuddling and reading

[creekland]

I'm homeschooling to provide better academics than my guys could get at our local "average" public school. I'm also afterschooling my youngest who insisted on returning to the ps for high school.

 

Homeschooling worked well for my two oldest. We'll see how afterschooling works for my youngest.

[MrsJewelsRae]

I really have no idea what the public schools are like in our area, I've never looked into them. We live in a small town and I suppose the schools are fairly run of the mill, never heard anything bad about them. Our first thought was that it seemed too young to send our tiny children off to a building full of strangers because of all a sudden they were deemed "school age". Partly for religious reasons- there are a lot of things in schools that I do not want my children to learn, or at least not for many years. Partly for social reasons, forgive me if I don't think a group of same aged peers raised by people I don't even know is the best way to become socially well rounded. ;) We like the freedom it gives us to be flexible. I can tailor my methods and curricula to each of my children. I hate busywork and homework! We can take a day off when we are sick or the weather is just too fabulous to stay cooped up indoors. My kids don't know 14 different (inappropriate) words for each body part, they don't know about sex (at 9 and 7 it's hardly necessary yet!).

 

I also read "Protecting the Gift" by Gavin DeBecker, and WOW! I am too afraid to send my littles to school. I'm very protective, I cannot imagine them being in that huge building full of people I don't know and hundreds of children, some of whom are raised in horrible homes and exposed to harmful things. What if my dd had to go to the bathroom? Do they seriously just go alone!?

 

Lastly, for my youngest, if I didn't have all the other reasons I already do- he has been diagnosed with multiple anaphylactic allergies that I am not willing to trust others to handle.

[Hypatia.]

DS1 would have missed the K cut-off in our state by two days and I knew he would have been bored (and then entertain himself by irritating his sisters) if he had waited another year. I didn't consider public school, just slipped quietly into homeschooling. Now a couple years have passed and DD1 has started K at home also. It just seemed the natural progression for us, I didn't see a need to put them into public school.

[NorCalMom]

1. Faith - spiritual growth

2. Family - building strong relationships

3. Academics

4. Time

[Crimson Wife]

We started HS by default when we moved to the Bay Area in July 2006 and couldn't find a pre-k opening for my oldest. 6 months later, HS was going well and our elementary school search was not. So we decided to continue on for K. I quickly became a convert to the HS lifestyle, but DH remained skeptical for a long time.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

because we don't trust that my ds will be safe in the city schools here-county schools are better but we don't live in the area where he could attend the county schools....and I think that with his issues he gets better attention/better one on one education at home......

[Embassy]

I love to teach and it made no sense to me to spend my days teaching other children while my children were taught by someone else. I want my kids to love learning and sometimes that is hard to encourage in a typical school. Academics are important to me as well and as a homeschooling mom I can provide access to/teach subjects that a school cannot.

[twoforjoy]

I always liked the idea of homeschooling, probably because I found school really boring.

 

We live in Detroit, and public schools here weren't an option for us. We couldn't afford any of the private schools we'd have considered. We tried a charter school, but it wasn't a fit for my DS (who is academically advanced but has the energy and attention span of the little kid he is). I also just didn't like having him in school all day, then doing homework, then having to go to bed early to be up for school the next day. It seemed like we rarely saw each other.

 

So, we started homeschooling. Now that we're doing it, I mainly keep doing it because I like having DS home and he likes being home. I mean, I do think I can provide them with an excellent education, but when you get down to it, we do it because we like it.

[Munchkins_mama]

This is our first year homeschooling and the main reason I brought them home was time. My oldest was getting on the bus right after 8, and getting home at 4. After that was homework, karate, dinner, playing outside with friends like a kid should, and who knows what else. We never saw her. :(

 

My K'er has some social delays. Everyone said I should just send her to school and she would figure it out. I thought that was cruel and possibly permanently damaging to her sensitive heart so I fought to keep her with me for at least another year. She is academically just fine, but she is a little 'weird'. I think she is great. <3

 

I don't know if this will be a long term thing or not. We are still working out the kinks. I was afraid the kids would drive me insane, and some days they really do, but over all I am really enjoying having them with me all the time. :)

[Lolly]

God made me.

 

 

 

 

No, really, He did.:tongue_smilie:

[mamatohaleybug]

I homeschool because it's the absolute best thing for my daughter. Her emotional health, her physical health, her academic health all have improved since I pulled her out of PS. She has a lot of "stuff" going on due to a congenital brain malformation and PS, even with an IEP (a lame one), did NOT meet her needs at all. After 2 years of special needs preschool, regular ed K and regular ed 1st grade she was a mess in all ways except academics. Homeschooling has allowed us to meet ALL of her needs and see her academic skills increase, too.

 

I also homeschool because it's best for our family. We have much more time together, less stress on our schedules, more fun, more cuddles, more vacations and complete control over what she is exposed to.

 

I also homeschool because I enjoy it. It gives me direction and focus. It's a bit of an obsession. :tongue_smilie:

[Love HSing]

My oldest missed the cut-off date for Kindergarten and was more then ready to start. I got the idea from my sister (she was homeschooling her dc). I was already a SAHM and had nothing to lose ;). Now that first year didn't go as well as I wanted (I also had a 2yo and a newborn), I loved everything about homeschooling; The time, academics, family and faith, So I continued with it.

 

Now it's all those reasons, plus I cannot imagine sending them all to school now! (juggling all the teachers, homework, etc) and my step-kids mom love it because if they were in ps she wouldn't get to see them as much (all day Monday & Friday every other week).

[coffeefreak]

Today, I have no idea why.:glare:

 

 

However, on a good day, I homeschool for so many different reasons, they're too numerous. Somewhere along the way, what started off as homeschooling for Kindergarten because dd could not enter the PS system (September B'day), turned into because we want our kids to have a Christian Education. It then evolved to, we want our kids to have a better education, and, somewhere along the way ended up as, "THIS IS OUR LIFE.":001_smile:

 

And that's the best answer I have.

 

Blessings!

Dorinda

[BigMamaBird]

I was very anti-homeschooling till we worked with our church's Youth Group. It was heavily made up of homeschool kids and they were just so much fun to be around. You could tell there was something different about them in a very good way. We decided that we wanted kids who turned out like that and started researching it before we even had kids.

 

Family togetherness, choice of educational materials, the ability to weave our faith throughout our daily lives, all the great friends we've made, opportunities we wouldn't have if they were in a brick and mortar school are all factors.

[LMD]

Lifestyle.

[NanceXToo]

I enjoy being with my kids and not missing out on so much of their childhood.

 

I enjoy allowing them the opportunity to experience more of their childhood in a more hands-on, interest-led, interesting, real-life way without being shut up in a classroom for the vast majority of it.

 

I like being able to do what we want to do, when, where and how we want to do it.

 

I like being able to choose a curriculum that is more hands-on and fascinating and well-rounded than a typical test-driven, cookie cutter, public school education.

 

I like the idea of living life rather than spending years and years and years "preparing" for it.

 

I don't like how the public schools are failing academically, focused on nothing but standardized testing, don't give kids time or opportunity to make choices and follow their interests and go at their pace, barely give them any arts or recess and so on, and then send them home with homework cutting into family time on top of it all. I don't like the "socialization" received there (which is sorely lacking around here in elementary school when kids have silent lunches and 15 minute recesses which are often taken away as a punishment for talking too much in class, and which can be an absolute nightmare come middle school with peer pressure, bullying and so on).

 

Mostly- we've just been having fun and enjoying each other and our freedom to do our thing. :)

[KDoty]

I wrote about why we homeschool here: http://sonshineclassicalacademy.blogspot.com/p/our-reasons-for-home-schooling.html .

 

I typically have a hard time when asked coming up w/the right words to tell people so I wrote about it and send people there when they ask ;).

[Jyniffrec]

I met a family with 8 children who homeschooled. They were the loveliest people I had ever known (and still are). I saw the things they did together and the learning that went on and knew I wanted my family to be like that.

 

I also believe that a lot of my time was wasted in school. The yearning to learn was sucked out of me by the second week of every school year. I never could understand why way back then. Now I do and I don't want to do that to my kids. (Although I do have one thriving in ps, much to my amazement and chagrin. :001_huh:)

[nukeswife]

We're also a military family (Navy) but our journey with homeschooling began when my oldest son was in 1st grade. He went to PS for K in the district I graduated from in WI. It was all day K and he LOVED it, he had an awesome teacher (this was her first class ever so she wasn't burnt out or bitter like many of the others) Then we moved to VA and he went to "One of the best elementary schools in the city" well he got a bitter teacher that was angry she got pulled from 5th grade because there were so many 1st graders. She didn't like teaching 1st grade and didn't like my son because he was the new kid and "didn't seem to understand how things work at this school" he came home in tears almost daily so at spring break we pulled him out since we would be moving in a month anyway. Then we got to FL and found out there was only another 2 weeks of school left and didn't like the looks of the schools we had to choose from, so decided to keep him home. The year went remarkably well, he loved school again, and my dd was even wanting in on the action. We decided homeschooling would fit our military lifestyle better than PS, so we would continue it for the long haul. We're so happy we did that, my oldest is now in 7th grade here at home and still loves school and is doing pretty well. My dd was recently diagnosed with binocular dysfunction and some other eye issues so being able to homeschool while having to do vision therapy has been a blessing. My youngest loves that mama is his teacher and can't wait to have school time each day.

 

Well that's my story, I know it's a long one.

[kwickimom]

Time- I get to spend as much time as possible with them. They get more time to play, have fun, delve more into hobbies, and interests....

 

Influence- I want God and family to be their main influences, not 30 other kids their age.

 

Academics- I think one on one, hand tailored curriculum with Bible influence, will help my kids have a better foundation to work with in the "real world" than ps.

 

We live in a small town and have good schools, but I feel HS'ing is better for my family.

[WIS0320]

For our family, I decided I didn't like our county's math curriculum and early language arts philosophy. I wanted my child to learn solid math skills and be exposed to phonics and grammar. I also thought that the social studies curriculum was watered down and presented in an incoherent and completely out of context way. 40 hours per week away from home at age 5 seems extreme to me and possibly not in the best interests of the children.

 

I started believing that we would re-enter school by the end of elementary school but now I am not so sure. I do enjoy having my children with me and seeing them learn and grow. We'll evaluate on a year to year basis to make sure each of the kids is in their best educational environment but if being home is best then (gulp) I am now willing to rise to the occasion and provide a quality education at home. That being said, anything past 5th grade terrifies me but I've got a few years to prepare before we get there.

[awisha.]

Boy Bullies :glare:

 

I never thought when we put DD into Prep (K) in Feb this year, that she would end up being bullied physically and verbally by boys HER age.

 

I decided to pull her out of school life completely and HS (ignoring DH's concerns of 'socialisation' etc) because I didn't want to take the chance of her being bullied at a different school.

 

I don't want my princess to grow up thinking it is considered socially okay or normal for boys to hit and degrade girls.

 

I am a HS convert now and there is no way at all that DS is going to school.

 

DH says the children have to go to High School, but I have 6+ years to change his mind :D

[Aquinas Academy]

Academics.

I have a very long list of reasons, but that is number one.

[LuvingLife]

My mom homeschools us for better safety, or Faith, and to get a better more well rounded education. I have learned more from being at home thank I ever could have in a classroom in a brick and mortar school.:D

[Heidi]

I homeschool because:

 

1. I'm a glutton for punishment. :banghead:

 

2. My kids are so adorable I couldn't stand not to see them for 8 hours a day. :001_wub:

 

3. Because I'm a snob. I believe I'm giving my kids a better education than they would get at public school. :cool:

[joannqn]

Academics.

 

I was teaching my daughter to read at her request, and threw in some math for fun, while DS was going to special ed preschool for speech therapy. The school sent home newsletters every month that included a description of what each grade was learning. As the year prior to kindergarten progressed, I realized that my daughter had already covered all of the kindergarten and first grade curricula. When the school refused to talk to me about her placement, I figured I'd just keep doing what we were doing.

[tristangrace]

In no particular order, my top four reasons:

 

1) Time with the kids. Now, many (most?) days I feel like I am going ever-so-slightly insane because I am not getting enough time AWAY from the kids, but nevertheless, I would not be satisfied with being with them only a couple hours in the evening (after from dinner/homework) and on weekends.

 

2) Efficiency of education--cutting out the commute time, the waiting-in-line time, the other-kids-are-faster/slower time, etc.

 

3) Flexibility--both with time and curricula.

 

4) Having the opportunity to re-educate myself.

 

There are a lot of other happy by-products of homeschooling, but the four above are the main reasons.

[5LittleMonkeys]

I pulled my dc from ps mostly because the this school (I emphasize this because I believe there probably ps schools out there that try to maintain individuality) was turning my dc into cookie cutter replicas of every other child within those walls. My oldest was a good student and advanced. Instead of giving her more challenging work they gave her a tutoring job because they "didn't want her to get too far ahead of the other students". My second oldest was falling farther and farther behind due to the fact that she just wasn't ready developmentally for the work. Instead of working with her and giving her work appropriate for her skills they just kept pushing her on to the next concept and the next without her really mastering anything. They "needed her to keep up with the other children". Dd8, who was in K at the time, was doing fine...I wasn't happy with all the sight words but I was doing phonics at home to counteract. Mostly, I just missed her horribly! It killed me every morning to send her out the door, and she didn't want to go either. Additionally, my older dc had come to hate reading because of the accelerated reading program the school was doing, and I couldn't stomach the amount of pointless, mind numbing homework that was sent home everynight and weekend.

 

I wasn't happy with my relationship with my older dc and I was seeing behavior that I knew needed to stop. I felt that the longer they were in ps the farther apart we were growing, and I noticed others opinions and values were taking the place of those that were important to our family.

 

I love having my dc home with me all day everyday, and I love that they are getting to be close to one another. I'm proud of the relationship that I have been able to cultivate with my dc, and I'm proud of the people they have developed into since being home and away from peer pressure. I enjoy the impromptu discussions we have, the fun that's generated from just being silly with each other, and the camaraderie and team work that I see everyday. We feel extremely lucky to be able to live according to our own schedule.

 

It excites me to see them being able to pursue passions and discover interests that they wouldn't have chanced upon if they were gone all day. The dc that struggled the most in ps has blossomed into an amazingly creative child; spending a huge portion of her day in artistic endeavors. It's been about 3 years since she was in ps and I'm starting, just this year, to see her realizing that she CAN succeed in core subjects. So much of the crying and whining has just stopped and she has been initiating learning and creating her own assignments. Such a huge difference from 3 years ago. My two younger school age dc have been given the chance to spend a huge amount of time in creative play and learning through exploration. I believe the younger ones, having never had the full ps experience, will truly have a love of learning. I've also had a taste of being the one to teach them something monumental and of great importance. There is nothing quite like that first moment, after months and months of practice, when they pick up a book and read it. The huge grin, wide open eyes, and shouts of "I read that WHOLE book!" is such a payoff!

 

My dc are grateful that they are able to have their curricula chosen just for them. It makes them feel that their opinions, likes and dislikes are important, and creates a better atmosphere of cooperation. However, they also learn to be gracious and come to a compromise when they know it is for the greater good. Such as a subject they don't necessarily want to do but is required, or a program that is more affordable. It's important to me that they have a say in the direction their education takes, and that they learn from an early age how to take ownership of it.

 

I want my dc to look back on their childhood and be of the opinion that they had an amazing one. I want it to be memorable and for them to think on it as a time when they were able to revel in being a child. I'd love for them to look back and remember long lingering days filled with playing, art, reading, exploring, music, adventures and family. I also hope they are able to remember being able to really explore what type of a life they would like to have as an adult, their interests, their morals and values, possibly remember it as the time they discovered a lifelong passion.

 

So, that's why I homeschool.:D

[WishboneDawn]

With 8 years in it's mostly because this is what we know. *shrug* School would be weird and a big upheaval to our family life. But it's also about academics and yes, about me getting a second chance to learn some of this stuff. :D

[nono]

I'm a middle-aged corporate burn-out. If my kids went to school, I'd have to get back in the rat race. Nooo thanks.

 

Oh, and because dh and I decided before even having children in our family that we'd do so.

 

Etc.

[jar7709]

#1 reason: Because I can give my kids what the local schools can't. I can personalize my gifted DS's curriculum to his level, and at home he won't get the "problem child" label. At the same time, my eager-to-please DD won't get lost in the crowd.

 

Bonus reasons:

#2: I get to spend my time with them! They are such interesting people, I can't wait to see what they are going to do next.

#3: We are a scienc-y family. When I saw that the long-awaited and well-hyped weeklyy "science" lesson DS's K class was 15 minutes long and consisted of having a live worm in the classroom and observing that it doesn't have any legs--that was the day I realized a lot of things about the public school and the local community.

[NorCalMom]

...and yes, about me getting a second chance to learn some of this stuff. :D

 

:iagree: This too!

[kalanamak]

Academics.

[chepyl]

1. Academics - DS missed the cutoff date for Kindergarten last year by 3 weeks. He was already reading at a 2nd grade level and could do basic addition and subtraction. He had completed 3 kindergarten basic skills books. I thought I would HS for a year, then try and test him into 1st grade....by the end of last year he was ready for second grade work. Plus, we had a great year and DS wants to be at home and I love our extra time together.

 

2. Time - I teach dance 4-5 nights a week. I would never see my son if he went to school. He would go at 8:30, I would pick him up to drop him at home as I go to teach. I get home around 9 some nights. He would need to be in bed. I really like my kids :) I want to see them. :D

 

3. Flexibility - We have musicals 4 weeks out of the year, 2 of those fall during school. We spend ridiculous hours at the theatre. He would have to miss a full week, or go to school exhausted, or I would have to have a babysitter until midnight every night. It is best to just take a week off from school, stay at the theatre, and then let him sleep in the next day.

 

4.

[Jilly]

I wrote a post about my homeschool goals a while back, and I think it explains why I homeschool. :)

[coffeefreak]

I have those days. :cheers2:

 

Thanks! AND IT'S OVER!:party: