A Homeschooling Adventure!

When people find out that we are homeschooling our children the standard reaction goes something like this 'Wow, you are brave' or 'What about socialisation?'.

Just to reassure everyone, we aren't not focussed on holding our children captive in our home, never to interact with people and never to form friendships we can't monitor at every meeting.

Our children have friends and are involved in many activities that invites building of friendships and team work skills.

We are not brave, in fact, quite insecure. Because homeschooling is 'going against the grain', until we have something measurable, there's no way of knowing if what we are doing is successful.

Questioning yourself and your methods is something that happens almost every single day in our home.

But that's not such a bad thing. Considering that it's your children's education on the line, you can be sure, working hard and considering what will be a best fit for your family is needed.

I have been looking at what other mothers have written in the past about the conflicts they have had about their homeschooling decisions and it's helped me understand things tremendously! 

We decided to homeschool our children for a couple of reasons, namely:

1. Bible based education:

- We wanted our children to have an education founded on the Word of God. 

2. Being our children's 'greenhouse':

- We want our children to grow up like a plant protected by a greenhouse (our home) and to go out into the sun (the world) when they are mature and ready to endure the heat of the sun. Some might say we are over protective, and yes, we do want to protect our children - I don't see anything wrong with this considering the atrocities that children have to endure at schools today.

3. Offering our children a flexible and relaxed schooling:

- We wanted our children to love what they learn, not just complete a unit of study just because they have to make a grade or keep up with a curriculum set by people who will never know my child as well as I do.

4. Academics:

- Statistically, homeschooled children do have a higher grade average than children who attend mainstream schools. Perhaps it could be that alot of homeschooled mothers doubt their abilities and work really hard for their children to be equipped, or maybe it is because children have individual attention that is altered to a level they understand. Either way, the proof is in the pudding - the children have higher averages and a broader knowledge base.

The reasons we have for homeschooling is by no means meant to offend anyone, but just offer enlightenment as to how and why we came to the conclusion that we are going to homeschool. Going to mainstream school is never out of the question, should homeschooling not work out for our situation, so our stance is not an arrogant one. We just trust that each and every parent has paid considerable thought as to why their children go to school and if it's the best choice for their family, as we have in taking the decision to homeschool.

I'm open to discussion, comment or even criticsm on one condition - that at the end of it all, please respect the decision we have made!

Lord bless!