Why Homeschooling?

As we prepare to start our first year homeschooling six kids, I find myself explaining our reasons over and over. Many people – while supportive of our decision – think we're crazy to take on SIX students AND a new baby. It sounds a bit crazy to me too, but I just keep telling myself that it will be important family time. Because the kids needs some quality time with us before we completely lose our minds.

We haven’t explained all of our reasons to the kids because…well…kids have a tendency to share too much information with their friends, and people get offended. We’ve essentially just said, “We think home will be a better environment for our kids.” Since we haven’t explained it all to them, I decided to find out what their impressions were. I found it interesting. The question was, “Why are we homeschooling this year?” Here are their answers:

• Austin: Because we’re not allowed to talk about God.
• Kristi: Because it’s more easier for school.
• Nathan: Because we had problems last year.
• Andrew: Because we had problems. (further clarification – bullying problems)
• Caleb: Because… I don’t know. I don’t have a lot of thoughts right now.
• Dale: Because we don’t like the school.

The true reasons vary from child to child, but (despite what Nathan and Andrew seem to think) none of the reasons have to do with misbehavior on our children’s part. We want to keep Dale and Andrew out of the mess that is junior high. The unkind kids they dealt with in sixth grade tend to become just plain mean by the time they’re in 7th and 8th grade, and those kids are particularly awful to special kids. Austin and Kristi both need shorter school days – they get so worn out that they can’t attend to school by the time lunch is over. We’re hoping homeschool will decrease the sensory input and make it easier for them to stay focused on their work without being exhausted. Nathan needs a different style of learning. He needs activity and hands-on learning – sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher just doesn’t do it for him. Caleb has always wanted to be homeschooled – he found the “crowds” in preschool to be overwhelming – a full classroom would be even more so. All in all, homeschooling just makes sense to us, and allows us the opportunity to teach them about God as we teach them about His world.

Nathan was playing with the self-timer on the camera – taking self-portraits. When you don’t have a brother around to give you rabbit ears I guess you just have to do it yourself!

I’ll try to keep you updated as the year progresses – it will be an interesting experience, I’m sure! As I’ve said before, there’s never a boring moment in Scrivnerburg!