I thought it would be fun to list my reasons for homeschooling. Sometimes people ask me, “Why Homeschool?” I wrote these reasons in June of 2009, when I was doing preschool at home with Laynie. She’s now in 4th grade, and I’m updating the posts over the next few months, along with guest posts from my blogging friends in my ABC’s of Why We Homeschool Series. Enjoy!
Reason #1: Pace
We work at Laynie’s pace. If she’s struggling in one area, I can slow down and focus as much time as we need to until she “gets” it. If she grasps a concept quickly, I can move on and not bore her, or provide her with more extensive applications. She’s currently in 4th grade, reviewing phonics and spelling skills at a 3rd grade level, doing Math at a 6th grade level, and taking Science and Social Studies one interest-led unit study at a time (but generally following the Classical Conversations curriculum guide). I love the fact that her education is tailored to her ability, and pace of learning.
In public school, she would most likely be limited to completing grade-level material in a whole-class situation, and unless she’s on extreme ends of the achievement spectrum (either very low or very high), she’d be expected to do exactly what each other student is doing in the class, with little regard to her ability to move on or her need to slow down. In Laynie’s case, she is currently struggling in Reading (fluency) and Spelling (she still spells phonetically). She would most likely fail to keep up in a classroom setting, and would be placed in a lower-level Reading group. She would most likely begin to feel ashamed at her low Reading level, and would forget how talented she is in Math. Her love for Science would probably diminish as feelings of failure would take over. Her love of discovery and learning would be inhibited.
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| This kid. She’s in 4th grade now. Man, time flies. I found this picture in my blog’s archives from 2009. |
Homeschooling provides Laynie (and eventually my two younger children) with a personalized education, and she has a stronger grasp of concepts she needs to know before moving on to the next one. This results in a higher ability to retain what she learns as well.
To me, this is the Number 1 reason I LOVE homeschooling, and the first thing I say whenever someone asks me, knowing I used to be a public school teacher. How about you – why do you homeschool?
