Why do you homeschool? What is your Homeschool Foundation?
It’s very likely you’ve been asked this very question, or maybe you’ve been asked in just a slightly different way: “Why are you homeschooling?” How have you responded?
I believe that having a solid answer—one that you’ve taken time to think through and feel confident about—is essential to your homeschool.
Although there are many days during your homeschooling journey when the day, life, the kids, everything is just right and you feel like supermom, there will also be days when nothing goes right. In fact, if it could go wrong, it did go wrong, and no one is around but chaos, you, and your thoughts of giving up.
Those are the days when you NEED your answer to why you’re homeschooling to be clear in your head. You need to be able to remind yourself why you chose this path.
If you don’t take this first step before you begin your homeschooling journey, it would be like building your house without laying the foundation.
It won’t take long before the storms hit and your house begins to crumble. You may be able to make repairs and keep it standing, but without the foundation, it will always be an unstable building.
Let’s figure out and solidify what those reasons might be.
There are hundreds of reasons why parents decide to homeschool. Maybe you know why in your head, but have never made those reasons concrete or haven’t talked about them with your spouse.
I bet you have a plethora of reasons as to why you homeschool or want to start homeschooling, but what I’m talking about here is a more solid, long-term statement—one that will last your children’s entire homeschool journey.
Brainstorming is a great way to get your brain working. Let’s brainstorm together.
Go grab a piece of paper and let’s begin. Do you have one yet? I want you to do this now with me. If you’re at all like me, “I’ll do it later” doesn’t always happen.
I homeschool because I want to have the freedom to:
These are just a few of my reasons, but if given time, my list would be much longer. How about you?
Maybe you’re not sure why—you just know that the private or public school system isn’t what you want.
That was me when I started homeschooling our youngest. She missed the cutoff date by two days! No school, public or private, would take her early. At four years old, almost five, she was mature for her age and already knew how to read. I knew she was ready for school, but no one would take her. So I started homeschooling her.
As each of my children became “school age,” I added them to our homeschool, and my reasons for homeschooling evolved.
It became a lifestyle for us, and we had no desire to do it differently.
My reasons for homeschooling went from necessity to a real desire and knowledge of why homeschooling was best for our family.
Do you have your reasons listed out? I suggest you take the top three most important reasons and make them into something that you can write out and remind yourself of.
Let’s work together to narrow down some of these ideas. I’ll use my small list as an example.
I wanted God to be the center of what we do every day. I wanted the freedom to be able to pray, read the Bible together, and talk about what God says about our attitude, behavior, and ways to treat others.
Time with them helped me be able to shape their character. Academics are important, but if I raise the best scientists, mathematicians, or entrepreneurs the world has ever seen, yet my children don’t know how to be the best spouse, parent, friend, or employee they can be, then I’ve failed. Academics are just a small part of their life.
None of these goals could be accomplished anywhere else other than in our home by the ones who love them most—me and their father.
I recommend that you take your Why We Homeschool statement or list and type it out, write it out, frame it. Put it on the kitchen fridge. Make a plaque and hang it on the wall. Whatever you do, make it visible.
It’s great if you can verbally tell others when they ask, but YOU are the one you’ll have to remind the most!
If there comes a time when your family experiences life changes and homeschooling doesn’t seem to be working and you can no longer continue, go back and look at your reasons for homeschooling. Talk with your spouse about how you can best educate your children without losing sight of your core reasons for keeping them home.
I hope that you take a little bit of time today and work on laying that solid foundation of why you homeschool.
Build your homeschool on a solid foundation and run back to it every time you have doubts.
Grab the 4 Styles of Learning FREEBIE here
Enjoying the Journey,
Michelle
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