Q. Why did you choose to homeschool? I realize you live at a distance from your local schools and that you want to teach your children your religious values, but I wonder what else led to your decision to do this. Would you share your rationale?
A. I hope in answering this question my readers will give me the benefit of a doubt. I am listing the reasons WE homeschool, not the reasons I think everyone else should homeschool because I don’t think everyone should.
We are not against public schooling. It can and has worked for some children. It worked for me (for the most part). We are PRO-Education, meaning that whatever education options are available to us we will take the one that is the best for our children.
We prayed about our initial decision to homeschool, and continue to pray about the education of our children. They are on loan from One who knows them infinitely better than we do. Hopefully all parents are doing that and not just sending their kids to school or homeschooling them because of “tradition.”
This could be my answer in a nut-shell – it’s an answer to prayer – but I suspect you are wanting more reasons than that. =)
Researched Options
Both my husband and I were homeschooled for high school. Having experienced both public school and homeschool for ourselves we realized the benefits of homeschooling were much better than that of public schooling. When our children reached ‘school-age’ we looked at the educational options available to us. At the time we did not live far away from town and so public school was an option to look at. We weren’t very happy with the schools, so after praying about it, homeschooling it was! Now if we had lived in a larger city with other options like Spanish-immersion schools, Montessori schools, and even private schools we might have made a different choice.
Learning Styles
My kids get individualized teaching just for them. I am able to utilize their learning styles in my teaching to help them enjoy learning.
I’ve written a series of posts discussing different learning styles. I LOVED public school, my husband HATED it. We found after homeschooling our children that our varied experiences were largely due to differences in learning styles. Public schools for the most part (at least when we were growing up) are geared towards Linguistic, Read, Write learners. My husband is a kinesthetic/tactile learner. No wonder he always felt like he was dumb and stupid in school! All of the reading and writing made it harder for him to learn.
Moral Values
Traditional moral values of chastity, modesty, honesty, integrity, definition of marriage, hard work, etc are going
down,
down,
down,
and the rate seems to be accelerating. Our responsibility as parents to teach these to our children is not taken lightly (and I’m not suggesting that those who send their children to public school do take it lightly). We just feel we can do a better job when they are home with us all day rather than away from us for most of the day.
“The ultimate purpose of the adversary, who has great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time, is to disrupt, disturb, and destroy the home and the family. Like a ship without a rudder, without a compass, we drift from the family values which have anchored us in the past. Now we are caught in a current so strong that unless we correct our course, civilization as we know it will surely be wrecked to pieces.
“Moral values are being neglected and prayer expelled from public schools on the pretext that moral teaching belongs to religion. At the same time, atheism, the secular religion, is admitted to class, and our youngsters are proselyted to a conduct without morality.” (Boyd K. Packer. The Father and the Family)
Safety (Physically and Spiritually)
If our children were to attend public school now they would have two options to get there.
1) We take them in ourselves. It would take about 3 hours of driving a day dropping them all off and picking them all up. We can get most of our school done in three hours. What a waste of time!
2) Ride the bus, which comes around at 6:30am and drops them off at 4:30pm. Even the kindergartner would be gone that long. I have friends who are school bus drivers here in our school district. The weekly stories they tell me of what has gone on on the buses is enough to curl your hair. You can bet there is trouble when high schoolers are riding with children in kindergarten and 1st and 2nd grade. There is only so much the drivers can do while also driving down the road.
The junior high is notorious for the drugs and has had problems in the past with teachers being the distributors! The drug problem in our town in general is tough as it is the perfect crossroads for drugs to be transported to or from California, Utah, Idaho and Oregon – all within three to five hours.
This past week there was a fire at the high school. It was started by a student. You can’t walk the halls without hearing profanity, sexually explicit talk, or worse. I have been there during school hours, so have my daughters. We are not naive to what goes on.
“In many places it is literally not safe physically for youngsters to go to school. And in many schools (and its becoming almost generally true) it is spiritually unsafe to attend public schools. Look back over the history of education to the turn of the century and the beginning of the educational philosophies (pragmatism and humanism were the early ones) and they branched out into a number of other philosophies which have led us now into a circumstance where our schools are producing the problems that we face.” (Boyd K. Packer, Charge to the David O. McKay School of Education, 1996)
We have been told by many prophets past and present to “Stand in Holy Places.” In the bible dictionary it says “Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.” Our homes should be holy places and we should be there often.
“We unavoidably stand in so many unholy places and are subjected to so much that is vulgar, profane, and destructive of the Spirit of the Lord that I encourage our Saints all over the world, wherever possible, to strive to stand more often in holy places.” (James E. Faust, Standing in Holy Places)
‘Vulgar, profane, and destructive of the Spirit’ can certainly describe many public schools today. We choose to keep our children at home where it is more holy (if we are doing our job), and it is more difficult to become desensitized to the Spirit, where they aren’t constantly having to guard against Satan’s influences. To avoid getting burned you stay as far away from the fire as you can – not plunge yourself into the thick of it.
This is a given. Why would anyone continue to homeschool if they didn’t like it?
I love having my children all around me. I love the cacophony of noise, the shrieks of laughter, the tug and pull of “Mom, can you help me?” and “I asked her first!”
I love watching their faces when they understand a new concept, when sounding out words finally clicks, and even seeing the snarls when they are ordered to “Put the book down and go play outside.” {a phrase taken from my own childhood, given by my mother to me}
I love having our own schedule, learning what we want to learn, and having the time to focus on concepts that may be harder for my children to understand.
I love that we can start our school days with prayer and scripture study, and even the Pledge of Allegiance. And we can pull scriptures and words of the prophets into our learning and discussions.
There you have it, some of the reasons we have chosen to homeschool. Obviously some of those reasons I feel very strongly about, but again, I don’t want anyone to think I am against public school. My mother and my sister have been public school teachers. I have many friends who teach in the public school system here in our town. I have good friends who have prayed about their children’s education and their answers are to send them to public school.
I am pro-education, just wanting the best for my children, and for us that is homeschooling.
Very well said! I love how you made it clear that this is why YOU do it, and that it’s not for everyone. It really isn’t. I love homeschooling for all these same reasons.
Thank you, we homeschool and public school in the same household. Certainly not an easy way but the way that works for us.
Homeschooling was the most wonderful part of my mothering experience. I wouldn’t have traded our intellectual, spiritual, physical, and emotional growth for anything. One reason I continued full-steam ahead through some very difficult family tragedies were the words of Boyd K. Packer.
Perfect!!! Your reasons, especially the one about safety and spiritual desensitisation, are exactly the reasons we asked the Lord if homeschooling was right for us. I was very reluctant to do it, but when the Lord came back with a resounding “You should homeschool!” I listened. I LOVE homeschooling, and I am glad that I was backed into the proverbial rock and hard place which “forced” my hand.
Very well stated. And I think you succeeded in not offending anyone. Hard to do with this subject, LOL.
My oldest was in Public School for 5 years (#2 was in Grade 2) before the Lord finally made it clear it needed to happen NOW for us to homeschool.
I also agree it is not for everyone. I tell people all the time that they COULD do it, if they are inspired to. I am not amazing or wonderful that I DO. I just follow the promptings of an ever loving Heavenly Father and know that what He leads us in will be the best choice for all. I am so thankful He made that choice so very clear.
I am going to probably use your statement of being “Pro Education”. That makes it so much nicer to say.
I really enjoyed your point of view and your explanations. For us, because of where we live, we’ve done both private and public schools. I have homeschooled specific subjects during the summer and in conjunction with regular school. Middle school for my oldest was a social nightmare, but he’s just the type of kid that goes about his own business and ignores the rest. My younger isn’t that type, so a different school experience will be chosen for him at that age. I appreciate having the option to pray and choose what is best for our family.
Beautifully written!! Thank you for summing up the feelings of so many homeschooling parents, including me, in such a thoughtful way. I’m glad you included quotes by the prophets too. People are always asking me why we chose to homeschool, and I tend to get stuck after “it was an answer to prayer.” So thank you for helping me get unstuck. 🙂
How funny, I just did a post with the exact same title. Well it was a couple weeks ago and it’s a 2 part post.
Anyway, we have many of the same reasons and I love to hear how others came to the decision to homeschool. Thanks shop much for sharing. I love this post!
I really enjoyed reading your answer to this question. I think children’s education is such a personal decision, and yet, I love seeing how often the Lord brings us to the same point, even the path to get there is different. In the end, as long as we followed the Lord’s guidance, that’s what is most important, and I love how you so thoughtfully put that.
I enjoyed the quotes from Pres. Packer as well, I hadn’t read them before, so thanks for sharing.
I was at the Utah State capitol building yesterday trying to help an abstinence only bill for sex ed pass through the house committee. The thing that appalled me the most was the women on the committee who said they taught teenagers for 20 years and how important it is for teachers to be able to pull children aside and talk openly to them about sex.I just thought, “I am so glad you were not my kid’s teacher.”
I am finding that I really enjoy homeschool a lot. And I was against it until I tried it. Like you, I am pro-education and I want my kids to learn a lot. So I push academics pretty heavily. I never realized how satisfying teaching my own children would be. My favorite part is that I can move them along at their own pace.
thanks for this post and all the quotes. I’m in Idaho and there are many things to dislike about this state that is 20-25 years behind the times in many areas. In the public schools I’ve been in they say the pledge every day in every grade. One positive.
Thanks for sharing this! I’m just starting out with homeschooling, mostly because the Lord told us to, and for all the reasons you listed. I’ve been trying to put our reasons into words and you’ve inspired me to get into gear! I really love you blog! (by the way 🙂
I love reading other moms’ reasons for homeschooling. You stated things in a very kind, diplomatic, reasonable way. Very nice!
lovely post. Public schools in australia are still very good, mine go to a small local school.
I do worry about highschool and wonder if I could homeschool (I looked into it when I only had two children, but had another baby just as my first was starting school and just thought I couldnt do a baby and try and teach school)
I honestly DONT know HOW you do it. I struggle with homework in the evenings. I have two kids asking for help, a four year old wanting to get in on the action or whining about how hungry they are then the toddler has been known to climb all over the table and rip their homework up and scribble all over it.
It is crazy and I say to myself how would I ever have the patience to do it everyday, and I really doubt that my kids would listen to me. It seems a bit sad that I think my kids would pay better attention to another adult than to me… however I’m sure if we chose that path then the kids would eventually listen, but I’m scared I would stuff up their education than improve it!!
I just cant fathom teaching 9 kids at different levels. You are an inspiration!!
Oh How I wish I had the patience to homeschool my children. I agree with you on all of your bases for decision. I just worry so much that I would run out of “nice” with my boys. Way to go!
Good job Montse! Our feelings exactly. We have been homeschooling for about 19 years now, and I have to say I’ve had a lot of people tell me that they would homeschool but they don’t have the patience for it. If they saw me the first couple of years, they would know I didn’t have the patience for it either. It is something you develop and pray for as you go along and eventually if you work at it, it comes. I tried teaching my sister in law to read before I had my first child, just to help out my mother-in-law who was homeschooling lots of kids. I had now clue what I was doing and swore I would never be able to teach anyone how to read. I am now teaching my 9th child-a 4-year old daughter-how to read and it has been so rewarding to help each child learn to read. I get a little better at math each year because each year I am teaching the stuff over and over again (if I don’t know, I have to look it up in the instructions) and things are still “clicking” for me. It’s fun for me to finally “get” what my algebra teacher was trying to teach me. I also love to have my children around me and have more time to interact with them that I would otherwise have. Starting out with a devotional is a wonderful way to welcome the Lord’s spirit into our home and our lives. I love it!
My daughter Victoria Amille who is now a Surgical Technologist was homeschooled because I believed it was the best thing to do for her and she was always a very beloved daughter of heavenly father so thankfully she was able to stay at home and do her studies as a homeschooled child….she exceeded my expectations of what she could achieve. I thought it would be very difficult because I myself had trouble learning algebra in H.S. but she did beautifully thank the Lord and now she has a career that she can bless other people’s lives that is the divine purpose the Lord gave her to fulfill on this earth with his divine power.