What are the greatest reasons to homeschool? There are many and we couldn’t list them all, but here are some of our top five reasons that are honest and real.

Reason 1: Homeschooling Provides Tailored Learning

Your content, your approach –

One of the greatest reasons to homeschool is tailored learning. Who doesn’t want a learning experience tailored specifically to their individual needs, strengths and weaknesses? There is a reason that private tutoring has always been popular and effective. When done correctly, homeschooling can provide your child or children with the most individualized and specialized learning they will ever experience and provide some of the greatest homeschool opportunities as well.

Education is such a general term, how can homeschooling be so specialized? Because in public schools and in the broader work environment, there is a one-size-fits-all mentality. It’s also lately, from my public school experience, a type of environment that caters the curriculum to the lowest common denominator. Meaning if your class of 30 students has 15 or more that can’t do multiplication, then you go back to teaching the basics of multiplication, even though the other half of the class may know how to do long division.

Where homeschooling shines –

This is where homeschooling shines and excels compared to peer counterparts. Tailored learning may sound complicated or overwhelming. However, remember that you know your child’s needs best and it is not as scary as you may think. From the time they wake until the time they go to bed, as a homeschool parent you see every strength or gap in what your child knows, and you can engage with it. This is the honest truth to homeschooling, you know your child the best and can do the greatest for them.

Our middle son who is now 8 years old and has ADHD has never enjoyed writing of any kind and the other subjects, we are lucky if he completes the full page of math most days. Staying on task is a huge deterrent to his learning success. So over time we have modified his schedule, his worksheets, his activities and even his learning parameters as a whole.

The environment matters…

While a public school teacher, I found very quickly in my large class of third graders that learning took on many forms, shapes, sizes and NOISES. I often had my students sprawled out all over the classroom, on the beanbags, in the corner, feet propped up on a chair, in a rocking chair or on a carpet square. Some were chewing gum, some were drinking their water bottle, others were humming and clicking a fidget spinner.

Learning takes many shapes and sizes-

The point is, learning takes on many shapes and sizes. Do you think every classroom my son would encounter would adapt to his constant need to fidget and hum? I doubt it. Though there are some exceptions in the public and private school sector, the majority expect quiet sitting at a desk with pencil and paper. Our son is the complete opposite of that and you may find your child is too. With homeschooling, we have been able to modify what he learns, how he learns it and even when he learns it. Incorporating the dry erase board, notecards, audio recordings, highlighted worksheets, mnemonic devices and fidget spinners are just the tip of the iceberg for our son.

Tailored learning means many things in homeschooling…

What does tailored learning really mean then? It means picking any curriculum you feel best for your child’s needs and learning style. It means finding the math, reading, history, writing, spelling, bible curriculum that fits your parenting style, family beliefs and level of your child. And the best part is, it can always be modified, changed, or just plain thrown out if it doesn’t work.

Will a public school toss out a math text book and start a different curriculum in the middle of a school year just because a few students failed their tests? No, but you can if you want and your child may just be better for it.  That is the beauty of tailored learning in homeschooling, you can always adapt, learn, change, grow and modify at any time in any place. The greatest reason to homeschool is the ability to modify.

Reason 2: Flexible Schedule

Who doesn’t want to wear pj’s all day?

This year alone has taught our family that the homeschool schedule is a lifesaver. Between funerals and illness, our children had a very disjointed school year. While we go year round so we can get our required state hours in, others may go a regular school year like public schools. Regardless of the timeframe, one of the greatest parts of homeschooling is having a flexible schedule, both in the day to day and the year to year. We found ourselves doing school in the evenings, on weekends and on some holidays this year because our summer was filled with unexpected traveling, late nights and many back to back illnesses that kept us all behind in chores, schoolwork and extracurricular activities.

Your schedule, your flexibility, your time….a great reason to homeschool

If we add up all the time we were in unexpected emergencies this year, our kids would have been out of school almost three full weeks. They would have never caught back up. But with homeschooling, we could catch up within a matter of days. The flexible schedule allowed us to incorporate both formal and informal learning throughout the days of the week and improvise with oral quizzes, journaling and other methods to get the material completed.

Every family, every different kind of schedule-

For some families, a flexible schedule allows them to be out of the house all morning running errands and going to sporting events etc. and do the homeschool work in the car, on the road or at practices. For another family we know, they work second shift, so they all sleep in and then do schoolwork from 4pm until 11pm. Their kids are older and they enjoy it. I have yet to find a public or private school that has classes available from 4 in the afternoon until almost midnight. Not even college affords us that luxury and flexibility to that scale.

Every family I have met has a different schedule to meet their individualized family goals, some with hands on learning, some with chunked time and others with a fluid hour to hour schedule. For us, a checklist provides us that flexibility to have our children work through it, check in, work on it, take a break and then come back to it in the late afternoon to finalize material and fix it.

One of the greatest reasons to homeschool is that it is truly flexible…

What does a flexible schedule really mean? It means making your learning experience and teaching life part of the everyday. It means creating a new meaning of learning and time. Choosing when you teach and how you teach and even where you teach is all up to you. And it can change depending on the season of your life, the ages of your children, or the needs of your family. One of the greatest reasons homeschool is beneficial is that the time is yours and you can do what you want with the time you have to make it successful and beneficial for you child or children, no matter what.

Reason 3: Biblically Based Biblical Resources

Your truths, your beliefs

While some schools are trying to bring back biblically based curriculum, the majority of schools do not offer bible based resources and won’t ever. Most families we know, including ourselves, chose to homeschool in order to incorporate the most fundamental and core truths of the Bible into the everyday aspects of learning. From math to science to reading, homeschooling has from the beginning of its history been biblically based.

For us, a major concern was the upwards trend to teach socialism and evolution in school. By homeschooling, we were able to quickly find curriculum that matched our core beliefs and taught that God created the Earth, he was part of history, influenced leaders and changed the core principles of the way of life for America and around the world.

Some of our favorite biblically based curriculum is the Apologia science series. Every chapter incorporates the beauty of wonder of God’s creation, guiding the student through the known and the many unknown aspects of our ever evolving and changing world. I truly believe there is no other place that our children would get a strong and reinforcing Biblical approach to most subjects in their day to day. It is one of the greatest reasons to establish a strong homeschool environment.

So what is the greatest reason for biblical resources in homeschooling?

It’s great because if you are like us, as many homeschooling families are, they want a solid, Godly approach to the world around us. Even if not exceptionally intentional, on a smaller scale, homeschooling provides resources that teach your child or children that God is in everything and is part of your everyday world and gives them truths to the creation of the world, teaching them to follow Him and for our family, we need every piece of extra help we can get to reinforce the love of God in our everyday broken world that they are growing up in.

Reason 4: Builds Family Unity

Your family, your love

Nothing builds strong family ties like being stuck together all day every day in the everyday grind of life. While some days aren’t the greatest, there are also many days that make it all worthwhile. For our family of five, it can be a train wreck filled with mess, chaos and fighting. I mean, three boys, what can you do? Right?

However, unlike many families that may go almost eight hours in their own world with their own schedules, rarely seeing each other until home for dinner, our family is all together all day and in each other’s business. It has its pros and cons. There may be more conflict, but that also leads to more conflict resolution. As soon as the arguments or disagreements flare, there’s a safe environment to work it out. Sometimes together and sometimes with parental intervention. The point is, every family has their disagreements and with homeschooling, you can get to the root of the issue rather quickly and that can teach a healthy sense of conflict resolution skills that are lifelong.

Closer bond, sharing life-

Our boys probably have a closer bond and relationship with one another than many families. While any family would sacrifice for the other, there is something very different in the aspect of homeschool life. You aren’t just growing up together, you are living, learning, sharing everything from the time you wake until the time you go to bed. When they are doing schoolwork, they may help eachother or they might distract one another. They learn their environment and their boundaries. When they are bored and aren’t sure what to do, they may ask one another to play a board game or read a book together.

One of the greatest reasons to homeschool is being with family…

This is the environment we have created, intentionally but unintentionally. Family can be your greatest friend or your greatest enemy. We don’t know what life will bring in the future and sometimes life goes in unexpected directions but one thing we want to solidify in our children’s lives is that family is important and vital. Family means the people on your side and with you through thick and thin. Homeschooling has provided us that beautiful and deeper connection to being a tight knit family and valuing that familial connection.

Whatever the journey, wherever you are in homeschooling…

…homeschooling is great, challenging and rewarding all in one. It provides the flexibility and accountability that every family needs. Teaching is a lifelong journey. With the right resources and goals, you can make it your own. We have found that homeschool has the greatest reasons and ways to instill biblical truths into our children while building wholesome, lifelong relationships.

We wouldn’t have it any other way. Again, who wouldn’t want to teach all day in their pj’s if they could?