5 Freedoms of Homeschooling

My husband and I have home schooled our children for the last 10 years. It has been a journey, but we have enjoyed the journey. I believe that our kids have enjoyed it. None of them have ever asked to be put in 'regular' school, so I guess they have enjoyed it. Here are five reasons our family has loved homeschooling.

Last year we were able to go on a family vacation with my husband's parents and his brother's family (they also home school) in November before the holiday rush.

1. We have the freedom to go at our own pace.
Every child learns differently. When you home school, you get to choose how quickly or how slowly you go over a subject. If your child has an easy time with English and a hard time with Math, you can balance your time with each subject.

One of our family trips that we scheduled during 'normal school hours'.

2. We have the freedom to choose our curriculum.
We have used several different curriculum over the years. We have liked some more than others. There has never been a time when we have been told which curriculum to use. I like being able to choose what our children learn (christian values) or don't learn (there are no monkeys around here).


3. We have the freedom to choose our schedule.
We loosely follow our county school's schedule. If we decide to go on vacation during the normal school year, we can do that and just go a week longer in the summer. We have never started our school year before September so that means we usually go to the end of May, but that's the way we like it. If our work doesn't get done before three, then we do it after three. We allow our kids to sleep late (we are all night owls in our house) and it works for us. Freedom to choose our schedule is probably one of my favorite pros of home schooling.

A ladies conference we were able to go to because we have our own schedule.

4. We have the freedom to learn the way we want to.
When we went to Disney, we visited the Hall of Presidents. That was my favorite history lesson ever. Working with our hands, learning to take care of a home and the outside of the home is as good of a lesson as working in a work book. Book learning is great, but hands on learning is great too and shouldn't be discounted.


5. We have the freedom to control our environment.
I love the fact that over the past 10 years, our children have avoided so many sicknesses that they would have picked up at school. I love the fact that our children have avoided seeing and hearing a lot of things that we never wanted them to see or hear. I totally understand that they will see and hear it some how and some where, but I am thankful that they have not been bombarded with the nastiness of the world.

One of our 'Fun Friday' expeditions.