Tuesday 16 October 2012

Top 10 reasons why I am homeschool

A few weeks ago I had Sarah guest post on the ten things she loved about homeschooling. At the time I promised a view point from me. Well here it finally is.

Some of them are similar but for different reasons.
1. For example she likes to sleep in. Well yes we do sleep in later than we would if she would be in public school, however, I still like to start at a decent time. What I like most is the fact that we can adjust this if need be. For instance she dances late on Tuesday and Thursday and on Wednesday nights she has youth group until late. This means often on Friday mornings I let her sleep in later to allow for her body and mind to rest after three late nights in a row.

2. I love the fact that she can work where she is comfortable. Lately it has been on the floor stretched out or under her desk. It doesn't bother me as long as she is working and learning.

3. We often listen to music. This is particularly nice as I have a large selection of worship music that we enjoy listening to. I have a rule though that there is no TV until 2 pm. this way it helps keep her focused on school work and not just rushing through so she can watch a favorite program. This year she is usually finding something else to do and TV is rarely on.

4. We can school anywhere. As long as we have wifi for us anyway as most of her work is done on the computer. However we both have laptops and I have an iPad so we are pretty portable. This is great during dance festival season when we are never home. :)

5. She can work at her own pace. If she is finding something particularly challenging she can work on it longer and on the flip side is she completely understands something she can fly through it. This is great for her in math. She is learning right where she needs to be. She is not pushed through or getting bored if she is rocking it out. This is also vastly helped her grades. It is amazing what happens when you have the time to take to understand the work.

6. She is learning how to be her own person without fear of judgement. She is a very happy exuberant young lady. Most of her friends are into make up, boys, ...  She is mature enough to know that she doesn't need any of that stuff to be wonderful.

7. I can teach her more of the bible. I will be honest and when we first decided to home school this wasn't a big deal to us. I knew that I would be teaching her some but this wasn't the reason we decided to home school. However this year I am finding out how wonderful it is. She is learning more about what God wants. Currently she is SOAPing through James and really enjoying it.

8. I get to bond with her. Last year (our first year homeschooling) was rough. She was frustrated, I was frustrated and we spent a lot of time arguing. It was hard for me to give up "my" time alone during the day and to be with her pretty much 24-7. However, although we have had some challenging days this year, it is becoming more special to get to know her on a different level. Now I get sad when I think that she might be back in public school next year.

9. To take the odd day off and know that we will be just fine. We decided this year that as long as she is caught up or ahead that we would take an extra day off a month to just do whatever. We knew we didn't have to make up for it another time. Do homework some time to make up for it. In September she just chilled and relaxed. We watched some TV we had PVRed.

10. One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the freedom and the flexibility of it. If we need to take a day off because of sickness, or an appointment we do. We don't worry about trying to play catch up or get stressed that she is not working on what she should that day. We can just roll with the punches so to speak.

Now for an extra one.
11. This is my all time favorite reason we homeschool. Because of her. We do it because of what a difference it is making in her. Her grades are way better. Her confidence is strong. She is not getting bullied. She is free to think for herself. It is turning both her and I into better people.

I am linking up today with Angie


4 comments:

  1. Congrats on the courage it must have taken to first "do" homeschooling. It seems so daunting to me to even consider it. But like you said in #11 it's all because of her! and that makes it worth it all:)

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    1. It was really scary in the beginning. I was really worried that we would clash as we are both fairly headstrong and to be honest in the first year we did. We have now seemed to hit our grove after we both gave in and met in the middle. :) And yes she is what makes it worth every second. I will home school again in a heart beat.

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  2. This is a great list - and I'm nodding along with a few of yours :)

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    1. Thanks Aurie. Both hubby and I were raised in public schools as well as our two boys. However I am so happy that this is working for us, right now.

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