Why I Started Homeschooling by Vickie England

Wow, I have never really thought a great deal about “why” I began homeschooling. I know many years back my husband and I jokingly discussed it. He is a teacher in the public school after all and one my high school daughter attended at that. When my oldest son graduated high school, I looked at him and really wished he had learned more “life skills”. I also had that moment I think most parents have where you try to relive 18 years in just a few moments and you just try to think of anything you may have missed teaching them only to realize it wasn’t so much the “things” you wanted them to grasp so much as the time you wanted back. At the time of my son’s graduation, I had a daughter getting ready to enter high school and two in a little Christian school in our town. My daughter attended her first year of high school and really didn't seem happy there. We let her finish the year in hopes the next year would go better for her. During that summer we were made aware that the Christian school my two younger children attended may be closing and we were faced with putting our daughter at the time starting 3rd grade into public school where she had never had that experience before. Also our youngest was to begin kindergarten. They were anxious and one of their main concerns was being able to continue their bible classes. We made the decision to home school our two youngest and I was nervous! I continued with the curriculum they were both use to at the Christian school and that seemed to work well. I had a mix of responses from family and friends about the news I was homeschooling. Reactions ranged from very positive to very negative. I tried to answer every question thrown at me as to “why” we were doing this. I found quickly that I didn’t have all of the answers to their questions so I prayed. I prayed for wisdom to teach my children and for wisdom to answer people’s questions and how to handle the negativity I quickly found came with the territory. 

My oldest daughter’s school year began and she was increasingly becoming more discontented in the school setting. She asked us to take her out and home school her. I was a little concerned with jumping in to highs school homeschooling, but I believe if we are called God equips us for the job. So just a few weeks into her 10th grade year, we began homeschooling her. I was shocked at the amount of negativity I received from that decision. Somehow people were now ok with homeschooling the younger two but had issues with me homeschooling my teenage daughter. We heard it all from, you will ruin her chances for college, where will she meet friends and everyone suddenly became interested in my 16 year olds love life, where will she meet boys?? Really, that was an issue! I had to hear how she would miss dances and proms and all the social skills that would make her a well rounded and “normal teen”. God really helped me to have the answers and I did have a lot of family support. We have also found support in the home school group we joined. We still get slack from many who really didn't understand homeschooling but the negative comments do get less as there are other things to come along to get their attention off of us.
My kids score great on end of year assessments, and we love the freedom of homeschooling. Most of all I know that when I am faced with these last three graduating and facing the world on their own, I will have a different view than I had with my son who attended public school through graduation. He received a good education and is doing well, but I will look back on these ones I have to teach today and one graduating this year, and I can say I spent time ON them and time WITH them. I think that is what I missed most with my oldest son, the flexibility of saying ”hey, lets go catch some bugs today”, or just spending a rainy day reading and jumping in some puddles and knowing that I have the choice to do those things and include them into my kids education. Now that is what I look back at and wish I had that time with my oldest who is now out on his own.
I am happy to announce that today we are planning to begin a new year of homeschooling with a 2nd grader, a 6th grader and a High school senior! All very well rounded and well socialized.