Today I thought I’d give you my top 5 reasons I love homeschooling. There are so many reasons we chose and continue to educate our children at home — it seems with each passing year our list grows longer and longer. But that doesn’t change the fact that homeschooling is hard — it really is! So today I’m going to be singing the praises of homeschooling in terms of not only it’s benefits, but of all those warm and fuzzy reasons I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Time

I get so much more time with my kids than I would if they went to school — at least 1 000  hours more per year! And since we don’t spend nearly so many hours each day on formal educational pursuits as are in a conventional school day, I get to spend so much time with my kids doing other things!  We have time for tea parties in the afternoons, baking together, discipleship, read alouds, nature hikes, riding bikes, the list goes on and on! The time that we have with our kids is so short — in no time at all they will be all grown up and leaving home. I’m so thankful to be able to maximize that available time and enjoy all the moments of their growing up that I can.

Sibling Relationships

I’m not the only one who has more time available to spend with my children due to homeschooling — they have more time to spend with each other. While I’m the first to admit that my kids don’t always get along (they fight a lot), I like to think that even when they are fighting and not getting along, they are still building their relationships with one another. I love to watch them playing (nicely) with one another, and the way the older two dote on the baby.

Filing in My Gaps

My own education is full of gaping holes. These gaps are quite frankly embarrassing, and my children are asking me more questions that I answer with “I don’t know” than I care to admit. But do you know what? I get to dig and find the answers to these question with them! I’m finding it so satisfying to learn world history for the first time at the age of 36 — what other exciting things will I learn in the years to come? I feel so privileged to be able to learn from and with my children!

Books. More books.

This may be the very best thing about homeschooling. Seriously. I have been a lover of books ever since I can remember. I love to run my hands over the pages and fan the pages while taking a deep breath. Oups. That was a bit embarrassing, but yes, I love to smell books. It’s no wonder then that our homeschooling style tends toward the classical, literature based approach. We often have up to 100 books on loan from the library (which is the maximum allowed, ask me how I know!) and books are arriving in the mail from homeschool swap groups, Thrift Books, Christian Book Distributors, or Amazon at least monthly. I’m having such a good time reading all the children’s classics with my children that I missed growing up — just last week we read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and I loved every second of it!

Freedom

I really enjoy the freedom afforded to our family as we homeschool. As homeschoolers in Ontario, we are not required to answer to anyone about our homeschooling methods or implementation. I’m only required to provide “satisfactory instruction” and as such I have liberty in choosing the course of study that is in line with our family’s values and goals.

Homeschooling has also afforded our family the freedom to be free of the confines of anyone else’s schedule but our own — we can go on family vacations during the “school year”, take days off whenever we want/need to, and pursue our own interests during “school hours”. This freedom has also led us to homeschool year round, which gives us even more flexibility in our schedule.

I like to remember all of the many benefits of homeschooling, along with these favourite things to help me through the harder days of homeschooling. What do you consider to be some of the “perks” of homeschooling?