I’ve been asked, probably a million times, why I homeschool my kids. But I’ve never really given a decent answer to anyone besides “because I’ve always wanted and dreamed of homeschooling, even before having kids,” which is true, but is incomplete.
Because there is more to that generic response. There are reasons behind why I want to homeschool and I have, finally, gathered my thoughts and written them down, for the first time, and sharing them now. Hurrah!
This is for all the curious people out there 😊.
Back when I first decided to homeschool, I didn’t know nor was even aware of any of the reasons I mention below. But when I entered the world of homeschooling, learning, and education, I discovered there is a whole world of benefits and/or advantages to educating children at home.
So without further ado. I homeschool…
Because homeschooling is discipleship
And every parent has the responsibility and duty to disciple their kids. It is not an option.
This is my main “why” for homeschooling and I have actually written a separate post about it where I explain homeschooling as an opportunity for discipleship and give other biblical insights as well on educating children at home.
I suggest that you read that first before proceeding to read the rest of this post.
Because homeschooling provides a custom-made or personalized education
We all know that every child is different and children grow and develop at different rates. Children do not hit milestones all at the same time. There are those who hit them early and those who hit them earlier. And there are those who learn fast and those who learn faster.
So why do we apply a cookie-cutter/one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to educating children? Moreover, why isn’t anyone challenging this convention?
Where each and every child is subjected to the same teaching method, the same benchmark and standard, the same curriculum, the same system, etc., all at the same time (segregated by age) regardless of a child’s developmental maturity and individuality?
It is like fitting a square peg in a round hole.
And it is quite unfair and a disservice to children, don’t you think?
The trouble with square pegs is that by forcing them to fit the system’s round holes, you end up damaging the peg, not the hole.
Fran Morgan, Ellie Costello
Homeschooling, however, offers parents the opportunity to customize or personalize the education of their children according to their strengths and weeknesses, developmental maturity, even their children’s personality and uniqueness, and make adjustments as needed.
The latter is important because it is one of the hallmarks of homeschooling, personalizing the education of your child and making adjustments as necessary. It is not a cookie-cutter style of learning because in education, one-size does not fit all.
Because I want my children to be given full attention when they struggle with a lesson
Ask any teacher and s/he will say that giving attention to each and every child is just impossible in a class setting.
But if my child struggles with a Math concept, for example, I want to be sure that my child understands a lesson well before s/he moves on to the next. In other words, I want my child to be given complete attention and make sure s/he is taught well.
Homeschooling makes this possible because homeschooling is basically tutoring, i.e., teaching an individual or a very small number of students.
If you will notice, after-school private tutoring has become a trend, which, in my opinion, is because parents know that their kids can not and will not receive complete attention in a class and they want to ensure that their kids catch up with what they’ve missed or, at the very least, reinforce what they have learned in school.
Because they know that one-on-one attention is necessary to teach a child.
Honestly, I cannot imagine sending my children to school and still needing to hire a private tutor or tutoring them myself after school at home. That’d be double use of my resources—time, effort, money. I’ll just homeschool instead.
Because in homeschooling, I can give my children my full attention in each and every lesson. I do not need to be anxious that they would be left behind when the rest of the class moves on to the next lesson. I can, instead, be assured that they have mastery over a lesson.
Another advantage to tutoring-style teaching is you can identify issues why a child is struggling and apply interventions appropriate to the child’s needs to make learning a more pleasant and meaningful experience.
Because I want my kids to move through a lesson at their own pace
In homeschooling, you don’t need to rush through a lesson. You can spend as much or as less time as you need on a topic because in homeschooling, you are not tied down to a schedule (you can create your own curriculum and schedule which you can adjust anytime as you see fit).
“Your child is the curriculum.” (Sorry but I can’t remember where I got this quote).
You can focus on quality over quantity of information.
There is no pressure how fast or slow you move through your lessons.
If your child is struggling over a topic, then spend more time on it. And if your child can wing the lesson, you can also speed up your pace. You do not need to worry about leaving a classmate or getting left behind.
It is impossible and unnecessary to say exactly where a child should be at a particular age.
Joan A. Cotter, PhD, creator of RightStartTM Mathematics
Because homeschooling is time-efficient: You can cover the same amount of school work in significantly less time
According to teachers, only a fraction of their alloted time is spent on actually teaching a lesson in school because what they mostly do is class management.
In homeschooling, you teach only one child (or the number of kids you have, max) so you can do a lesson in half the time (or even less than) it takes to finish in a school. No time is “wasted” on managing a class.
This allows kids to have time to leisurely pursue their interests, e.g., reading for pleasure, sports, craft, music, etc. and learn more beyond what is in a given set of curriculum.
It also allows kids more time for play which, we all know, is very important for a child’s growth and development.
Because there are no absences and no missed school work in homeschooling
This especially works to our advantage because my eldest dear daughter (DD) often gets sick and it would have made her miss school a lot of times if she was attending a brick-and-mortar school.
Thanks to homeschooling we need not worry about missing a lesson or an exam and we can just pick up where we left off when we need to “be absent” for one reason or another.
Also, with the number of days classes are always suspended due to the weather and various holidays (e.g., school, local, as well as national holidays), my children would be lugi (short-changed) if they go to school. Not only that, I would feel lugi because I would be the one paying for their tuition fees.
Because I want to be the one to decide what and how my children are taught
This is probably the most mind-boggling thing I’ve discovered about homeschooling.
But then I realized that, as a parent, this is actually my prerogative and my responsibility.
So this is one of the things I’ve learned to really love about homeschooling, that I get to call the shots when it comes to what and how to teach my children.
My kids are not limited to the curriculum of an institution or the methodology or learning style it follows. And why should they be?
I can choose what subjects and topics to include or not include in our school and what books/materials/resources to use or not to use, depending on what I think my children need to learn or not.
I can curate our own curriculum.
It is daunting, yes, and can cause so much fear and anxiety.
But it is also empowering to reclaim the “power” that has been taken away from parents.
Because I do not want my kids to be defined by grades or other academic achievements
In other words, I don’t want to put academic pressure on my kids.
I do not want my children to develop the attitude or behavior of studying to pass exams, to get good grades, or to be better than their peers.
Such behavior and/or attitude limits learning to rote learning, something I want to avoid as it compromises a child’s love for learning due to fear of failing/failure.
Exams have their place, I believe. But exams in schools, especially the objective type, do not necessarily measure intelligence or critical thinking in any way, traits that are far more important than grades.
Because grades do not determine a child’s worth and do not determine future success.
I do not want my kids to be grade-conscious. Or compare themselves among their peers.
Because life is not a competition for grades or other things, for that matter.
Because I am not comfortable leaving my kids to strangers for most of my kids’ waking hours during their most formative years
Call me a helicopter parent if you want, but my kids are too precious to be entrusted to other people’s care.
Yes, it is tiring and consuming to be with kids 24/7/365 (moreso when you are a widow and solo mom without a nanny or a helper) and I am dying for a break! I will not lie about that.
But no matter how stressful and exhausting it can get, I can’t take the thought of letting my kids be parented by people I barely know. Because that is what schooling is, it is in loco parentis (i.e., in the place of a parent).
As one American public school teacher said, it is such a radical idea for parents to turn over their children to complete strangers whom they know nothing about and let those strangers work on their children’s mind, out of their sight, for a period of twelve years.
Wouldn’t you agree?
Because homeschooling means freedom and flexibility
We are not tied down to a schedule or required to comply with attendance.
And it is so liberating!
Let me share a few examples how this have worked out for us.
Just a month after my dear daughter (DD) officially started Kindergarten (back then, we were enrolled in a homeschool service provider so we were “required” to follow the government’s school calendar then), we had to make an emergency trip to my hometown and stayed there for a whole month.
We wouldn’t have been able to travel and be with my family who were sick and needed help if my DD went to a traditional school then.
The following year, and the year after, we moved houses (yes, twice) and as a solo parent without a nanny or a stay-in helper at home, it was really a stressful time and I was just so thankful that my DD didn’t go to a “real” school because I wouldn’t have been able to handle it (e.g., the morning preps, lunch packs, homeworks, exam week, etc).
I was so thankful I can make my child take time off from school without worries of actually missing school.
Then in 2024, we went to Manila to hold a Memorial Service for the death anniversary of my late husband in our home Church and had a month-long vacation afterwards, in the middle of the year, just when classes officially commenced nationwide.
I was so happy to be able to go on a vacation during an off-peak month when crowds are lesser (and plane fares are cheaper). Again, we wouldn’t have been able to do this if my child is enrolled in a conventional school.
Contrast this to a friend who got worried because she’s been asked by her child’s Nursery (not even Kindergarten) teacher to explain why her child has been absent for a week. Like, what would the child miss when Nursery classes are still mostly play (as far as I know)? It’s like taking a vacation is forbidden.
And, once in a while, we enjoy the spontaneous out-of-town trips when friends from Manila visit us and drive us around different places. Or simple fellowships with friends on school hours on weekdays. I doubt if we would have been able to do such things if not for our flexible school schedule.
We can also hold sleepovers in the middle of the week. My DD recently asked to invite her friends in Church when she had a pajama party for her birthday. I sadly told her their parents wouldn’t let them come because they have school. But we homeschoolers can afford sleepovers on so-called school nights.
Also, on some occassions when we stay up late, I can let the kids wake up late as well so their sleep is not compromised.
Because I have friends who were schoolteachers who said schools are actually not as ideal as we think they are
So they homeschool their kids, because they believe it is better and it is the right kind of education for their kids.
Mind you, my friends came from highly reputable private schools.
I will not elaborate on this lest I betray their privacy.
But their decision to quit being schoolteachers and educate their children at home speaks volumes about the educational system they were in.
Because I want to be the biggest influence to my kids while still possible
And I am not only talking about faith and morals.
I also want to be the one to influence my kids in terms of art, literature, music, clothing/fashion, habits, entertainments they consume, work ethics, diet, lifestyle, etc.
I want to be the one to influence them, not their peers or someone else.
And this is more likely possible if I homeschool them.
(The downside of this, I know, is my influence would be a double-edged sword because I can also influence them negatively).
But someday, my kids will become independent adults. When that time comes, I know my influence will cease and I will have no control anymore over their choices and decisions.
So I would like to take advantage of the time and the ‘power’ I temporarily have, to set the standards for truth, beauty, and goodness, without other competing influences.
Because I want to avoid negative peer pressure while still possible
I know of at least two sets of parents who have compromised their convictions and have given in to the demands of their children because their kids said they were being left out. It’s sad.
And it actually worries me when my kids reach the teen years.
But even now, even with just a few hours of play with neighbors, I can already see the influence other kids have on my kids (nothing major or negative, so far). What more if they spend the whole day and the whole week in school?
So I am hoping and praying that by homeschooling, I can protect my kids from negative peer pressures and influences and bullies.
I also want to protect their innocence as appropriately as their age requires and hope that I would be the one to teach and explain to them sensitive and mature topics, not their friends.
But what about socialization?
Ahh… socialization, the age-old question.
Well, according to experts, socialization is interacting with people of different ages with different backgrounds and different economic statuses.
And it has to be spontaneous or organic, i.e., naturally happening in the course of normal day-to-day living.
Interactions exclusively with same-aged peers with the same background and/or economic status is superficial, according to experts, and may actually not be ideal as we have been led to believe.
That being said, I do believe in socialization.
But I would not give in to the pressure to send kids to school for the purpose of socialization because socialization is not the purpose of education. If that is the only factor I will consider in making educational decisions for my kids, I think that would be irresponsible of me as a parent.
Also, mass educational systems are just recent social constructs or “inventions” (developed only during the 18th – 19th century) that, in my opinion, is patronized simply because it has become a way of life and as such, is expected of everyone, pretty much like marriage, having kids, and raising a family.
It has become like a custom or tradition or convention where everybody does it because that’s just the way life works. And that’s why it never gets questioned or challenged.
Schools didn’t actually exist before. And before the advent of mass educational systems, socialization wasn’t an issue for children at all. Because back when industrialization and mass and social media were still non-existent, children are part of and participate in all family affairs and, therefore, socialize naturally with the different people they come in contact with. The process was organic.
It is only now, in the recent past, that socialization has become a thing for kids and something that needs to be induced.
It is absurd and anti-life to be part of the system that compels you to sit in confinement with people of exactly the same age and social class. That system effectively cuts you off from the immense diversity of life and the synergy of variety; indeed it cuts you off from your own past and future, sealing you in a continuous present much the same way television does.
John Taylor Gatto
Because the Philippines’ educational system is in crisis
It’s all over the news, the result of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
I will let you Google it yourself. But I am sure you already know how the Philippines ranked among other countries worldwide.
I actually thought PISA only reflects the state of our public school but, apparently, it also includes private schools, albeit just a few.
Boo Chanco, a columnist in The Philippine Star, in one of his articles quoted a colleague who said…
Our BEST learners (including those from private schools) are comparable only to the average student in Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam and equivalent to the WORST performers in Singapore.
Boo Chanco, “Worse than we thought,” Demand and Supply, The Philippine Star, February 16, 2024
Can you imagine that?
(Actually, Boo Chanco has a previous column where he said that private schools significantly outperform public schools, which I do believe is true. The article linked above, however, is more recent and he is actually quoting a colleague above. It is not his own statement. Still…)
And just recently, a study by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reveal that almost 21% of our high school graduates are functionally illiterate, meaning, while they may know how to read, they do not understand what they’ve read, even simple texts.
Yes, it’s hard to believe but that’s the state of our educational system.
And with the way our government and elected leaders run the country, I don’t think our educational system will see significant improvements anytime soon. It has been an issue since time immemorial but our leaders choose to ignore it.
Because I “met” Charlotte Mason (CM)
And fell in love with her and her educational philosophies. It actually made me wish to have had a CM education myself.
Charlotte Mason made me see education and learning from a different perspective.
A lot of her philosophies are actually in contrast to the educational methods we have traditionally known. And some of them may be challenging to implement.
But they make sense. And actually, her philosophies are supported or have been “discovered” by modern science. CM was ahead of her time.
So after studying her principles and philosophies, I knew it is the kind of education I want for my kids.
I am not a Charlotte Mason expert, though, and I do not know all her philosophies and methods yet. I am still learning and learning along the way.
Because of John Taylor Gatto
John Taylor Gatto was a New York teacher who, after teaching for about 30 years, believed that schooling is unnecessary. But education is. He says the two are not synonymous.
His opinions on the modern educational system are quite outrageous, shocking, and scandalous, but I will not discuss them here because it is a whole discussion in itself and I haven’t actually read all his works yet, only bits and pieces.
But if you are curious to know what he has to say on schooling, learning, and education, you can read some of the books he authored such as:
- Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
- The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher’s Intimate Investigation into the Problems of Modern Schooling
- Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
Don’t you think the titles are very intriguing?
I haven’t read all his works yet (if you plan to surprise me with a gift, I would appreciate any of the above titles, in hard copy, hehe), but I have browsed them and have to say that they are very mind-boggling!
I especially encourage you to find out what he has to say specifically about the history and purpose of public mass educational systems.
If you can’t read any of his books for one reason or another, I suggest you read a few of his essays instead to give you a gist of his arguments. Some of his articles (and an interview) include:
- Why Schools Don’t Educate (January 1990)
- I Quit, I Think (July 1991)
- Bitter Lesson (December 1993)
- Beyond Money: Deschooling and a New Society (1995)
- An Interview with John Taylor Gatto (2000)
- Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, and Why (September 2003)
Or at the very least, read quotes from his books here.
Yes, he was an American public school teacher, but I think his opinions are still applicable to most mass educational system worldwide.
Because of personal reasons…
- Homeschooling is what my late husband and I agreed and planned for our kids, and…
- After the pain and tragedy of losing my husband, homeschooling is the one thing that gives meaning and purpose in my life right now. It is what gets me up in the morning, my reason for being and living.
That’s it!
But wait, there’s more!
There are other benefits/advantages or perks of homeschooling that I haven’t mentioned here but which I wrote in a separate post because this one’s already very long.
So click on the next post to learn all about it.