People decide to home educate for a variety of reasons. I personally came from a background in education. I worked in a variety of settings with both school agers and in early childhood education as a preschool teacher and director. During my own education and work journey, I had the opportunity to learn and study in depth how children grow and develop. I also had the opportunity to observe a variety of educational settings and approaches.
One thing I heard over and over is how important social and emotional skills and parental involvement are to a child’s overall success in school and life. Children are whole beings. They have physical, emotional, and intellectual needs, and their education must meet all three of these aspects. You can not separate them into parts and only educate their minds for five or six hours a day and expect it to go well. The best schools understand and embrace this and actually try to make school as homelike as possible.
So if I have the ability to offer my children “the real thing,” the thing all these high end schools are trying to imitate, why would I NOT want to do that. At home children can seamlessly integrate social and emotional development, life skills, and all other aspects of personal development into their learning. What’s more, I recognize that my children are learning all the time, and I can make the most of it. There is no “learning time” and time that is not spent learning for any child. Every child begins learning each day the moment they wake up and keeps learning until bedtime. You might even say they learn as they sleep!
Before I go any further I’d like to clarify that I did not make the decision to home educate on my own. Now my three older children are either teenagers or in the case of my third, getting close to their teens, I feel it is important to involve them in the process and to make these decisions on an individual basis. My oldest is homeschooled because she has chosen this path for herself. Right now my second oldest has chosen to attend public high school. My third child who is a little younger is also involved in the decision to homeschool, but I took an active role in encouraging her. With my youngest who hasn’t even reached “school” age, while I’m planning to home educate her I am also open to changing my plans based on her needs as she grows and develops.
This leads me to the heart of why I choose to home educate. Children are not all the same, and because of this they need to be educated as unique individuals. Home school is an awesome way to tailor your child’s education to them as a person, but it is also possible that for some children, school is going to be a better fit. Some children’s needs may even change as they grow.
If you are trying to decide if homeschooling is right for you, or if you know you want to homeschool, but need help defending your family’s “why.” I have put together a guide that literally walks you through the process. This is the guide I looked for when I started homeschooling several years ago and since I couldn’t find anything like it, I went ahead and made it myself. This guide will help you develop a powerful mission statement for your homeschool, and walk you step by step how to plan and carry it out.
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