Twelve Long-Term Reasons for Short-Term Perseverance with Homeschooling

Written by Trisha Pull

January can be a tough month. After the Christmas decorations come down and the deep cold of a Minnesota winter sets in, motivation to endure the day-to-day humdrum of homeschooling can be sparse. In a month when it feels like there’s much to gripe about, remembering why I homeschool can foster gratitude and renewed focus.

My hope is that these long-term reasons for homeschooling will encourage all of us to persevere in the short term.

#1  Knowing God’s Love

Homeschooling my kids is the best opportunity to teach them day in and day out that God loves them.  Through every high and every low, every failure and success, God loves them. Unconditionally. Perfectly.

#2 Loving God

Homeschooling is a daily opportunity of learning how to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Through scripture, prayer, worship, service and all the ups and downs of every age and stage, there’s regular opportunity to turn hearts toward Christ.

#3 Loving Our Neighbor

We have a friend who is elderly and lives alone. Every week, a portion of our school time involves grocery shopping, trash hauling, pet care and just general friendship. This is one example of the kind of real-life training in how to love others that is a natural and easy fit with homeschooling.

#4 Meeting Individual Needs

Homeschooling allows me to teach according to my kids’ individual needs and unique learning styles. One child who needs the quiet of a bedroom with a closed door to work is afforded that opportunity while another child rip sticks through the upstairs memorizing his Bible verses. Download this free informal learning style assessment to learn more about your child’s preferred ways to learn.

#5 A Flexible Schedule

Instead of being captive to someone else’s schedule, we make scheduling decisions that work for our family. If we need to pause school for a season, complete school on a weekend or continue school in the summer, we have the liberty to do exactly what works for us.

#6  Learning Is Not Contained to a Classroom

Our family just returned from a road trip to Florida. Don’t tell my kids, but while we were on vacation, class was in session:  there were alligators, up close and personal; black crowned night heron and belted kingfishers snapping fish from the water; slough slogs in cypress forests; and learning how to get along with siblings after 30 hours straight in the seemingly small confines of a van.  On the road, our kids were learning valuable lessons, and we never even cracked a textbook.

#7 To Give Them a Lifelong Love for Learning

It’s fun to watch kids get excited about how a lava lamp works or have them explain in detail the inner workings of an ear. By fostering learning in a variety of ways now, my hope is that my kids will become independent learners who love learning for a lifetime.

#8  Quality Time

When my eldest was five and eligible to head out the door to school for 6-7 hours each day, I realized that one reason I wanted to homeschool was because I actually enjoyed being with my kids. I didn’t want to send them away. I wanted them around and homeschooling has afforded me the opportunity to spend loads of time with them, individually and corporately.

#9 The Ability to Address Emotional and Spiritual Needs

My kids are not learning robots. They have needs that extend into the spiritual and emotional realms and those needs sometimes present themselves at unscheduled times. Spending all day with my kids allows me to meet these needs in real time. I’m convinced that some of our best school days are days where we get to the bottom of a behavior or a wrong belief about themselves or God and our math lesson sits unfinished.

#10 Teaching Life Skills

Homeschooling allows us to take necessary time to teach life skills, like folding laundry, scrubbing floors, painting walls, fixing appliances, and organizing closets. My hope is that my children will always be blessed to live in a home. If that’s the case, then they’re going to need to know how to take care of it and how to cook food and how to live within their means. Homeschooling allows me to give them these skills in real time, like when the washing machine breaks during the day and mom decides to tear it apart and fix it via YouTube University.

#11  Helping My Child Discover Himself

Each of my children is unique. They have differing gifts and interests. Homeschooling allows us to discover and explore opportunities connected to their God-given wiring.

#12  Sibling Relationships

It’s a lot of work to help our kids love each other well, but it’s work that’s well worth it. Being together provides ample opportunity for developing healthy sibling dynamics like resolving conflict, forgiving, laughing, crying, and generally growing and making memories together. Shared memories of days spent together as a family last a lifetime. And skills built in pursuing healthy relationships are gifts to every future relationship.

As another week looms, cold and dreary, be encouraged! There is great purpose in the task before you, no matter how small or insignificant it seems. Our children are learning to love the Lord, love their neighbor, love their family, and love learning. We have been given the gift of front row seats in the process of watching it unfold.

 

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. 

Galatians 6:9

What are some reasons why you homeschool? We’d love to hear in the comments below.