You Should Homeschool Your Children This Year. Homeschooling is Reasonable. 

You will have more time with your children. Now some of you may be worrying about this aspect. What will you do with your child for all that time? Between regular school intervals of doing

• lessons and worksheets,
• snack times,
• play times (individually and with siblings),
• helping with chores,
• music (listening, play, lessons and practice),
• art class,
• outside time and nature studies,
• board games,
• listening to audio books or reading out loud,
• nap times and rest times,
• meal preparations and
• crafts

I assure you, the days will go by one after another quite quickly.

You can change your schedule as needed. You have heard that your children will grow up quickly but this is also true: The years go fast but the days go slowly. So what do you do on those slow days?

• Have a daylong study of a topic of Interest: Medieval knights, Castles and Keeps, Coming to America, How Does a Laser Work, Magnets, Space
• Art units: Make a visual timeline for each artistic period (Ancient Egypt, Minoan, Ancient Greek, Medieval, Renaissance, Rococo, Impressionism) with a representative art picture for each one.
• Be a Reporter for a Day: Interview an older person or grandparent about their childhood days and write out what you find.
• Plan out an elaborate party for an upcoming holiday. Even if you don’t get to use all your ideas, it is fun to plan.
• Read a book by your favorite author and write a book report. If you don’t want to write, be ready to talk about your book to an adult for 4-5 minutes.
• Draw flags from your favorite 4 states or countries and be able to tell about them.
• Draw 10 interesting and odd bugs! We loved this project.
• Make a personality flag art project! You may be surprised what you learn about your child through this project. Details here.
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You will be able to teach your children how to have better relationships with their siblings, with you and with other adults.

A lot of life lis about relationships and these skills need to be taught. As Christians we need to follow Jesus and his teachings, be kind, love others, be humble, do good, and give to the poor.

• You will have time to talk about what God values: faith, trustworthiness, integrity, truthfulness, kindness, and generosity. How precious to be able to work together as a family to put those qualities into your family life.

• You will have time to study the Bible and pray together. 

And you should plan for a good Bible curriculum with your children every year.  Not just the accounts of history as told in the Bible, but really study the Bible with your children. Make sure you teach them to have a Biblical worldview. Help them to be able to defend their faith and live it out day by day.

• You will have time to talk about the news, how it is being presented and teach critical thinking skills.
•  What is the difference between facts and opinions?
• If two courses of action are presented, are there really only two options?
• What else could be going on?
• What is the person’s motivation for doing that? Or saying that?
• Do you see a pattern of behavior?
• Are there other connections you could make?
• Are you assuming something to come to your opinion? What if that assumption is false?
• Do you have a bias that would influence the way you view that situation?
• Why do you think this is happening? What else could be happening?
• What is the source for this information? Is it a reliable source?

You can teach your children principles for decision making. This was especially important in our family as our children became readers. There was no way I could pre-read all the books before my children read them so we came up with a list of questions to ask yourself as you read. If a book you were reading had these objectionable elements in it, then you didn’t finish reading the book!

Because we need to be careful what things we put in our mind, we wanted to be careful about what we read. We wanted to please the Lord even in our reading for entertainment. We used similar questions for watching shows.

• Are the good characters acting in a way that you should not act?
• Are the good characters made fun of for being good?
• Are the bad characters being rewarded for acting badly?
• Are the characters using objectionable language?
• Are the characters promoting a lifestyle that is unbiblical?
• Is there unnecessary gory descriptions of violence or evil?

You get to choose the curriculum you use.  There are a lot of choices out there- some are free and others cost money up front or a subscription to access. I recommend buying the best curriculum you can afford and then modifying as needed. I say this because it is very easy to spend lots of money trying to find the perfect curriculum for each child.

There are very good boxed all-in-one curriculums out there. I used mainly one curriculum: BJU Press Homeschool curriculum for all my kids K thru 12. It is a Christian curriculum. I knew some people that worked there and we really liked it. It is a curriculum where the subjects are integrated (like the spelling words are in the reading and science lessons.) You can do parent led where you teach or purchase the DVD’s or get the same material through the computer. For any of those ways, there are recommendations for grading or they do it for you. I love the BJU curriculum because they have thought of everything. Subjects are well put together, they list tons of extra resources if you need it and all the prep work is done. On day one, you teach lesson one, etc. So the value of that kind of complete curriculum was worth every penny to me. You can see their curriculum here.

You can encourage reading and a love of reading. At home there is plenty of time for reading! Our librarians knew we would be coming in on Thursdays each week. Each child would get to choose 10 books. That meant 40 new books came in and out of here each week. Thankfully our library has a book sharing program and there were always plenty of new titles.

With homeschooling, you have the ability to customize lessons. (if you like something, you can study more of it. If you don’t, you learn the minimum and move on.)

You will have the freedom to make radical accommodations for your student if they need it. 

Homeschooling allows you to move ahead the child that is learning quickly. You don’t have to get permission from the principal to move your child to more advanced material. (And anyway,  🤣🤣 your husband would say, Yes.) If your first grader needs more advanced readers, you can move her on ahead. If your child can do Algebra I and Algebra II, go ahead to Calculus and Trigonometry!

And it allows you to help the child that learns differently. Does she need to sit on an exercise ball while she studies? You can do that! Does your son listen well but need to keep his hands busy? He can whittle while he listens to his lessons.

And homeschooling allows you to help your child make progress slowly but surely.

Get Outside More

You can get outside more. And if the time outside is going well, you can stay outside. Somehow the fresh air is both restorative and rejuvenating. Some studies suggest that inside air really is “stale” and that the fresh air of outdoors is cleaner. A walk in a forest lowers stress and produces feelings of happiness, and increases creativity. 

Outside you can absorb some sunshine giving you extra vitamin D. The outdoor time helps you get out more energy and then sleep better at night, and even boosts your immune system. To me, this seems like common sense, but if it takes a study to convince you, there are plenty of studies out there supporting the benefit of a walk in the great outdoors. 

You have the ability to have a more flexible schedule. Newsflash: You don’t have to homeschool from 8:10 am to 2:50 pm every day.  Your homeschool schedule should work for you and your family. You can see my Youtube channel  here. I have many fun, scheduling videos including the ones below.

Homeschooling Scheduling with Littles and Meals

Are you Satisfied with Your Schedule?

With homeschooling you can go on field trips that you actually want to go on.

Your student will get one on one instruction with a loving caregiver: you!

You will have the freedom to make radical accommodations for your student if they need it.

Homeschooling allows you to move ahead the child that is learning quickly.

And it allows you to helping the child that learns differently.

And homeschooling allows you to help your child make progress slowly but surely.

You can provide a safe environment free from bullying and negative peer pressure (regarding the use of drugs and tobacco, experimentation of sex, etc.) Unfortunately, the public school system has become to the place to learn social agendas as well as reading, writing, math, science and history. Now there’s a move to erase and rewrite history, WOKE culture, Critical Race Theory, Transgender and Fluid Gender studies (what does that mean anyway????).

The public educational system is falling further and further behind in teaching the reading, writing, math, science and history. They are giving a mediocre education at best.

No Bullying Allowed!

Unfortunately, while bullying isn’t supposed to be allowed at the public schools, the incidents of bullying continue to increase. Suicides are up. Anxiety is up. The pressure this puts on a student is enormous.

• From Adolescent Psychiatry about Bullying: “When parents, teachers, and students have tried in-school interventions and accommodations without success, homeschooling may be a viable answer, especially if it’s clear that the child needs social skills training, practice, and a time to heal before re-entry at a later date.”

And let me just say, if you are one of those parents that says that your child will be a Christian witness at the public school: Don’t go there. Your child will do the best they can but they will be bombarded with evil and wickedness, forced to read weird and ambiguous books, hear profane and suggestive language, harassed, teased mercilessly, and it will take years to get over being treated in that way. Yes, I speak from my own experience. It is not worth it!

If there is any way possible at all, get your child out of the public school system.

With all parenting, you had better be paying attention. Know what is happening at whatever school your child attends!

Many liberals, progressives and deviants have made their way into the school system. These kinds of people are more than happy to bombard your child with the most profane lifestyles and choices, demanding that these deviant practices be accepted as normal. And every night on the news, there’s another story about it: Drag Queens Reading Time, Sixth Graders Pole Dancing, Teachers Have Sex with Student (sadly, there are multiple examples of this), Student Raped in Stairwell.

Many times, the pressure is not just to accept these practices but to try them and live them.

Sad to say, there is an unleashed spirit of wickedness out there and many teachers seem to have breathed it in. The number of wicked teachers has grown to such an extent that I now say, The worst day homeschooling is still better than the best day at a public school.

Your child stays out of the system of being tracked, especially for mental health issues. While this may not be a concern for your family, it is for many.  And who wants any more tracking by the government? Not me!

Feelings of anxiety, depression and suicide tend to be lower in the homeschool population. Check this fact!    That truth about stability may be the answer that leads some of you to homeschool. “Homeschooled children were also more likely to attend religious services in adulthood than children educated in public schools, which the researchers noted is correlated with “lower risks of alcohol and drug abuse, depression and suicide.” Kerry McDonald.

Student can pursue their passions in apprenticeship and teen work programs. Though college has often been seen as the fastest way to get ahead in a career, there are now numerous apprenticeship programs. My husband worked in a vocational high school and he was especially impressed with the welding and culinary students. New York’s Department of Labor is the place to apply in this state.

The Best Part? Your child will get one on one instruction with a loving caregiver= YOU!

You know them the best. You know their strengths and weaknesses. Your can cheer on the strengths and teach to the weaknesses in a compassionate way that no one else can.

You can be successful at homeschooling.