Top 10 Reasons My Homeschool Grads Like Homeschooling

I’m excited to start posting my Top 10 Lists every Tuesday, even if I’m a few weeks late.  Before you read on…have you subscribed to our blog?  All you have to do is enter your email to the right and you’ll get our free activities & guides.

This week’s Top 10 list was very easy.  All I had to do was ask my kids and here’s what they had to say… in no particular order.

This surprised me a bit, but I’m glad my kids saw the flexibility we had while homeschooling.  They did get to pick a wide variety of topics to study, based on what was interesting to them.

When the kids chose their studies, we worked together to determine the best way to learn – projects, research, reading oral presentation…

We traveled A LOT when we homeschooled.  When we lived in Idaho, we could take off a day and go skiing.  Or, leave for a long weekend. Or, take a vacation whenever we wanted.

Since we exhibited at homeschool conventions, we traveled across the country. I always tried to find something fun to do before/after the convention.  Our first trip was to a show in Atlanta, so we spent a few days in Destin, Florida.  The beach, the dolphin boat tour and the relaxed days were a great way to start our book show adventures over 10 years ago.

We also incorporated our lessons into our vacations. Instead of just reading about a place or battle, we got to go see where it took place and imagine what went on there.

We participated in a variety of activities that had after-school practice.  By the time afternoon practice rolled around, we were completely finished with their school work.  We could concentrate on sport or music or whatever practice they had.

Since we could do our own activities in the afternoon (play with friends, sports practice, other lessons), we were “motivated” to finish our school work quickly.

We didn’t worry about homework in the evening.  You may wonder if we really studied hard enough if they finished so quickly.

Mom’s answer: I guess they did because my oldest got her college degree in less than 2 years and my other 2 have made the deans list at Texas A&M several times.

Hands-on projects were so much fun & educational.  We integrated art into a variety subjects, including making a vase from tiles (Greeks), painting a teepee (Indians) or watercolor classes (Art).  For Science, mom hired a pre-vet student one summer to dissect animals with the kids once a week.  Even though in elementary school, we had a blast.

More time to spend as a family and develop life-long relationships.

We realize the public school has an agenda or worldview that does not incorporate our Biblical worldview.  We are thankful to study subjects from a Biblical worldview.

Interestingly, this was a reason my kids said they would homeschool their own kids.  We also want to give my kids a strong, Biblical foundation. This starts when they are young. Homeschooling allows us to instill this foundation in our children when they are young, so they can be lights on a hill when they grow up.

Although we did not sleep very late, we did have the freedom to sleep late when we needed.  I see the school bus coming down our street at 6:30am and I’m so sad for those kids.  My kids could sleep until 7 or 7:30am.  This was especially helpful during our high school years when they got home from a basketball or softball game at midnight.  Their public school friends had to get up early & be at school before 8, but we could sleep a little later.

Since we are older, we now see the importance of controlling kids’ social interactions.  This is especially true with young kids.

Kids should eventually be salt and light in the world, however we also want our children to have a chance to be children.

There are so many things (even in 1st and 2nd grade) that a child is exposed to in school (ie: bullying; inuendos; cussing; disrespect of adults; etc.) that we would like to homeschool my children at that age so that we can give them a strong foundation. Kids also need time to be innocent children and not worry about all the things that adults struggle with.

We can’t tell you how many field trips we’ve enjoyed…so many!  From volunteering & lobbying at the State Capitol to the zoo, museums, and more.  We loved them all and mom loved the fact they were learning.

This allowed us to get to know other kids, socialize and learn from other adults. Each mom was able to use their expertise and teach a class that all of the kids could benefit from.

I’ll finish with this one because it will lead into next week’s Top 10 list.

Even though we bucked alot at having to read all the time, we really appreciate the fact that you had us read – it gave us a love for history and learning. We are fascinated with history because it was
presented in a way that was more than “dates and dead people.” There
were intriguing stories and lessons that we learned through
studying history.

What are your kids favorite reasons to homeschool?

Please leave a comment.

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