Why We've Decided to Homeschool

Any who know me are already shocked at the title of this blog.  Yes, after much discussion, we've decided to make the enormous jump to homeschooling our brood of awesome little circus freaks.  We very much feel that it is the best option for our family at this time.  Here are some of the reasons why we've made this decision:

We want more family time.  Our kids are growing up so fast and we're missing so much!  My husband works over an hour away from our home (usually a 1 1/2 hour commute each way) and so he's usually gone for more than 12 hours each day.  He leaves before we get up and gets home just in time for dinner.  Then there's about an hour of family time, then bedtime routines.  He usually gets no more than ONE HOUR of quality family time with our 4 kiddos each day.  That's just not enough - for our girls or for him.  We've talked through many options - changing his job, us moving closer to his job - neither of which are options for us right now.  If we homeschool - we can shift our schedule to be able to stay up later and spend more time with Daddy.  I also have to confess that I miss my girls when they're at school all day.  I feel like I'm missing out on so much with each of them and I would love to be more of a part of their every day lives.  We also want them to be able to spend more time together.  It's incredibly important to us that our girls learn not only to love each other but also to like each other!

We want a more well-rounded and challenging education for our kids.  My kids are capable of so much more than they are currently learning in school.  My oldest is an enormous reader and loves history, but in school she seems to be more bored than interested most of the time.  We want her to be able to learn at HER pace (which is a bit faster than average) and in keeping with her personality.  We also want to be able to teach her from a Christian perspective, and to teach her things she isn't able to learn in public school - like Biblical History or Music Theory or even Greek (her suggestion, not mine). 

That's really it.  I know that some will disagree with our choice and that's okay.  It doesn't have to work for you to work for us.  I sincerely hope that we'll find acceptance and encouragement along the way - but if we don't, that's okay too.

We're just getting started on this Homeschooling journey - it's a bit scary and overwhelming, but I know that eventually I'll get the hang of it (at least I hope so).  I've been searching for curriculum and reading every bit of information I can get ahold of - mostly from sites like www.thecurriculumchoice.com and www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com along with several others that are truly fantastic resources.  There are so many resources out there - I'll test some out and then let you know what we think later.

But for now...

To those who are on the Homeschooling journey ahead of me - I hope you don't mind if I ask tons of questions over the next several months. 
To those who are just starting the journey with me, I hope we can encourage each other.
To those who think I'm completely nuts - I hope you'll continue to love and encourage me anyway.