People consider homeschooling for a variety of reasons. Not all of these decisions may apply to you, but I thought you might be interested to learn the reasons my family has chosen to homeschool our kids:

1. Homeschooling is something I’ve always thought about. My parents discussed it when I was younger and have said they wished they’d done it with me. I figure the worst that could happen would be that it wouldn’t work for us. But I could at least say I tried. This could be true for you too! You never know until you try.

2. I’m going to have support. This is a big deal to me (and should be to you if you’re going to homeschool) because it’s hard to do things on your own sometimes, especially with children and/or education. I know I’ve received support from my family and that some of my family members are even willing to teach the kids things that I might not know anything about. I’ve also gotten involved with a local homeschooling co-op group that I can already tell is going to be a good place for my kids–and me! The kids will get to interact with some new friends while also learning a little something from the parents who take turns teaching lessons. I will get to interact with some other homeschooling parents and probably learn something as well!

3. It seems like a daunting task, with all the homeschooling curriculum choices, programs and philosophies that are available, but I have faith that we’ll be able to find something that works for us. The beauty of homeschooling is there are no strict guidelines that say “you must use this set of books.” You can pick and choose what works for you and your kids. The Internet can be a great resource to help you find reviews of homeschooling products, businesses that sell the materials you’re looking for or websites that will help you connect with other homeschooling parents. I also found our homeschooling co-op through a simple Internet search.

4. I want my kids to be able to branch out and explore the things they’re best at or that interest them. In public school, I think the teachers are often under so much pressure to cover everything they’re required to cover that there’s not enough time for the kids to focus on topics that interest them or those in which they excel. For example, if we’re studying history and a particular famous person interests my child, we can spend extra time learning about that person and his life. We can take field trips to local businesses to learn from them and even just learn lessons in our everyday lives.

5. When someone told my son last year that he was coloring “wrong,” it shocked me! I am a sensitive person (which can be good and bad), but I just couldn’t stop picturing that happening to him over and over again at school. That’s not to say that I want to shield him from everything. I know I can’t. I just feel he should be able to express himself, and I feel that school sometimes stifles children’s creativity. (And come on…he’s four! He’s supposed to scribble a little!) It reminded me of when I was in college and we were supposed to write a paper about this short story we’d read and what we thought the author was trying to say. After we turned in our papers, the professor kept me after class and said I needed to redo my paper because my opinion was wrong. How can my opinion be wrong?! It’s my opinion. That doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong for you; it’s what I think. I wrote what I thought the author was trying to say (which is exactly what the professor told us to do). But what the professor actually wanted was for us to write exactly what the textbook said. It was very frustrating. Not everyone learns from copying words out of a textbook!

6. Most of the schools in our area (and around the nation) are struggling financially. I am not saying it’s their fault, but it has led to programs being cut, teachers being sacked left and right, and failing test scores. I’m not a huge fan of required tests, but I do think everyone should learn basic skills. And if the test scores are showing that the students aren’t learning those basic skills, something is wrong. I hate to see good programs that inspire creativity, like music and art, being removed from the schools. If you’re homeschooling, you don’t have to worry about programs being left out.

7. Our Christian beliefs are important to us. We hope to teach them to our children through our lives, via our church and in our homeschooling. Traditional public school probably wouldn’t encourage them, and I think the only place they would be able to take classes on the Bible would be at a private or Christian school. We don’t have either of these in our area. If you homeschool, you can incorporate your beliefs into your classes and lessons–no matter what they are.

I hope these points have helped you understand what made us choose homeschooling. As I said, all of these reasons may not apply to you, but maybe they’ll help you out if you’re still trying to decide. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Shay lives in the cornfields of Indiana where she is both a happily married stay-at-home momma of two and a writer. She is relatively new to homeschooling and writes a blog called Wonderfully Chaotic. You can read more about her, and our other volunteer bloggers by visiting the Our People page.