10 Reasons Why I Love Homeschooling and You Should, Too

Read All The Homeschooling Series’ Posts (Click on the Links Below)

• How to Have a Fun, Easy First Year of Homeschooling Kindergarten
• Homeschooling is Hard, But So Worth It
• Homeschool Curriculum 101
• Look at the Benefits of Homeschooling Objectively
• Grammar Skills Lead to Success, So How To Help Your Child
• Why I Love Homeschooling, And You Should, Too

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are present in this post, which just means that at no extra cost to you, I may get a small commission if you click on a link and follow through to make a purchase. Thank you for your support of this blog!

10 Reasons Why I Love Homeschooling and You Should, Too!

1) Homeschooling is Learning Anywhere (and Not A Place Your Kids Go To School)

I believe in Homeschooling. For us, Homeschooling was a way of life. I am still a Homeschooler, though I graduated my last student 12 years ago! Our family Homeschooled. I believe that learning takes place every moment of every day. It’s not confined to a few hours inside a schoolroom somewhere. 

Homeschooling Facts You May Not Know

a) Homeschooling isn’t just a fad that a few eccentric families engage in. “The home schooling movement in America is growing at a phenomenal rate. Indeed, some researchers place the number of children being home schooled nationwide at somewhere ‘between 900,000 and 1.2 million’ (Farris cited in Innerst, 1996, p. 23).”1 

The numbers have to be considerably higher than this statistic from 20 years ago, as Homeschooling is now much more readily accepted as a school choice.

During the pandemic and the crisis of spring 2020, these statistics are exponentially higher! I hope that this will result in more families considering Homeschooling!

Homeschooled Kids Outperform Their Public-schooled Peers Academically

b) Homeschooled students typically do better academically than their public-schooled peers.

Grammarly is one tool I use and absolutely love for my own writing, and recommend as a great tool for Homeschoolers! Click to check it out below!

• The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50^th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.) A 2015 study found Black homeschool students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above Black public school students (Ray, 2015).2
• Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income.3

2) Homeschooling Involves The Most Important People In A Child’s Life, His Parents

All Parents Homeschool

Parents, in the Bible, are the most important people teaching a child, next to God. All a person’s life, he is commanded to honor his parents, and advised to listen to their teaching, to gain their wisdom and insights, for his own good! Though there are rare exceptions, there is no one who is more invested in a child’s learning and growth in every area, than his parents.

I always tell a nervous mom of a kindergarten-age child, who is about to begin Homeschooling, that she has been Homeschooling already, all her child’s life! Who taught him everything he knows?! She did!

You, as a Mom, Taught Your Child Everything He Knows! That’s Homeschooling! 

Wendy Gunn

3) Every Parent Homeschools Prior to Preschool and Kindergarten, So It’s Nothing New

Here is a very abbreviated list of the knowledge that you, as a mom, have already instilled in your child, by Homeschooling, before your child ever reached school age. You taught your child:

• To speak.
• To understand your language.
• How to eat.
•  How to dress himself.
• Manners: to say Please and Thank you.
• About relationships: who and what a mother, father, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, grandpa, grandma is and many other relationships.
• About systems: Family systems, home and church culture, what it means to be a Christian and how to become one, work and the importance of it, how to complete a job.
• How to do many jobs in your home. He can understand instructions and carry them out.
• Directions of up, down, right and left (though he may not have that down perfectly yet), inside, outside, beside, under, above, etc.
• How to use tools. Simple tools like knives, forks and spoons, all the way to cell phones, TVs, the internet and at a simple level, how a car works.

You, as your child’s parent, have taught him everything he knows before he begins Kindergarten. You have been Homeschooling since before he was born (your child hears your voice in the womb, and you have talked to him!).

4) Homeschooling Is Not Age-Segregated

I loved Homeschooling, because our whole family learned together. We read so many books together as a family in the evenings. We watched many movies. We visited more historic sites than I can mention! There were experiments done in the kitchen, some of them not involving cooking! 

Dad taught auto mechanics, home maintenance, and building skills, just to name a few subjects, and those were the informal subjects! He shared his love of gardening, and his knowledge of plants, flowers and trees.

Amazon best sellers list Homeschooling for Christian moms

You may say, “Well, every family does that!” To which I would say, “No, every family doesn’t do that, because the family is not together long enough for Dad to teach all those skills.” Unless you are purposeful, even as a Homeschooler, you are not together long enough for the parents to teach all that a child should learn from his parents.

“Unless you are purposeful, even as a Homeschool parent you are not together with your children long enough for you to teach all that a child should learn from his parents.”

Wendy Gunn

5) Grandparents Can Homeschool

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, can all be teachers. Our children learned so much from their grandparents. Because we were free during the day, we could go and see Grandma, and have a closer relationship with my mom, who lived an hour away, and she could participate in teaching our children. I loved that.

When I say, “teach,” I’m not talking about formal teaching, though that takes place at times and in some families, too. Being together causes learning to take place. Who are the people your child will spend the most time with during his day? He will be learning from them.

My mother cried when I told her that we had decided to Homeschool our first-born, who she felt the sun rose and set upon. She became one of our staunchest supporters in time!

6) Homeschooling Promotes Close Family Relationships, Not Peer Dependency

Homeschooling encourages family relationships. These are relationships which you have all your life. How many still have relationships 20 years later with their high school buddies? I have a plaque that says, “No matter where you go in life, it all starts and ends with family.” Family relationships are at the core of society and life. For a strong, Godly society and country, we need strong, Godly families.

God instructs in His Word that the father is to teach his children and his children’s children. (Psalm 78:1-7) There is a generational aspect to life. Since Satan’s desire is to steal, kill and destroy, he works against families. Families represent Christ and the Church in marriage, and bearing and raising children represents sharing the gospel and making disciples. Satan hates that representation.

7) Homeschooling Encourages Sibling Friendship

Sibling relationships are fostered in Homeschooling. In the Homeschool setting, it is common for a child not to know what grade he is in. While what grade you were in was all-important in my public school experience, and you never hung around with someone a grade lower than yourself, if you were cool, in the Homeschool setting, you are with your family of all ages, most of the time. 

A child learns to be patient with a younger sibling. Friendships between siblings can be strong. I learned from the book, “Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends,” by the Mally family, and others who practiced this principle, to encourage my children to be each other’s best friends. “Take your little sister with you!” didn’t have to be preached, because they did everything together! They are almost 4 years apart in age!

Belittling behavior and demeaning speech toward a sibling was not allowed in our home. Our children learned, worked and played together! That isn’t to say they always got along! They were normal siblings. But, they weren’t allowed to say abusive words, or treat one another unlovingly. Often, in a Homeschooling family, the older children do their fair share of teaching younger siblings. This prepares them to be parents, and gives them a sense of being needed, which they are!

8) Homeschooling Can Have A Ripple Effect

Homeschoolers often talk about training the older children well, because the younger will follow them. If you get the first ones right, the younger will fall in line. Not always, but often. Who will your children follow? 

Peer dependence is one of the elements that Homeschoolers try to avoid. In the home, younger children are closely watched and supervised by their older siblings, as well as parents. They are taught by their siblings, working alongside them in many aspects of home life.

In the Homeschool, a child’s peers are their older and younger siblings. Peer influence is inevitable. Peer dependence is not. I quote it frequently, because it’s so true, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Proverbs 13:20. Who will be your children’s greatest influences? 

9) Homeschooling Trains You, As Parents

You may think, if you are one contemplating Homeschooling, that your children are going to be the students, but that isn’t so. You are all students. God uses Homeschooling to train and teach all family members, perhaps, especially parents.

Of course, it’s difficult to be together 24/7. Yes, there is patience needed, and being your child’s parent and teacher is draining. Who said life should be easy?! Your character is being molded by Homeschooling your children. You are being made into the image of Christ by living together with imperfect people, just like yourself. I love the quote, “Great things never came from comfort zones!” You are training the next generations’s leaders. You are making disciples.

Homeschooling Isn’t Easy, But It’s Worth It

Think of your Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. He left His perfect Home with a Perfect Father, to come to earth and experience the humiliation of being born as a baby, and being under the tutelage and training of imperfect parents. He was the oldest of at least seven siblings, according to Matthew 13:55-56: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶ And his sisters, are they not all with us?” 4 brothers plus “all” his sisters implies at least 3, so he had 7 brothers and sisters, at least.

Jesus Knows What Homeschooling And Family Life Are Like

Permit me to go down a bunny trail for a moment. Imagine living with a perfect older brother! And, being perfect(!), imagine being Jesus and living with 7 younger, imperfect siblings!!! One can only assume that situation would be fraught with difficulty, even if Jesus did love them perfectly! Take encouragement, families everywhere, from the fact that Jesus knows what family life is like!

Jesus also endured walking with stupid, imperfect, human disciples for 3 years. They didn’t get it. At all. Yet He didn’t sin. We are to walk in His steps. No, it won’t be easy. But, it is worth it.

10) Homeschooling Allows You To Focus On What’s Truly Important

God molds the character of mom and dad, even as He does that of the children. Character development is more important than academic learning, I have said over and over and over.

In the home, the people know the real you. When you walk out the door,  you tend to make sure you look good (though I’m not sure that’s true anymore, when I look around the grocery store), and you try to behave well in front of strangers. At home, you let it all hang out, as they say.

Homeschooling Doesn’t Allow You To Sweep Bad Character Under The Rug

In the home there is friction, and other unpleasant opportunities abound for training in righteousness. A parent is allowed to take out the Bible and instruct from it, pray with the child, teach the way that Christ would. Who will teach your children what is right and wrong? Who will correct your child’s bad character?

I Was There Through The Joys And Sorrows Of Homeschooling 

I have so many wonderful memories from Homeschooling! I was the one who taught my children to read! No one knows the joyful hours of pleasure we had reading together, often snuggled up on the couch.

I was there when one struggled with Math and another fell off the piano bench in tears, wanting to quit. I was also there when they succeeded and passed their tests and when they used math successfully in cooking and in business. 

Having taught them to not give up, I was there to watch with pride and joy when those children went on to play piano and learn piano theory at a college level, and use their gifts in music to serve our church and many others. By God’s grace, we prevailed, taught them, and reaped the joyful harvest.

Yes, I guess there is a lot of satisfaction in having Homeschooled my children. I see them now as adults, and I am so proud of them. I see them walking with the Lord, and it fills my heart with joy! I am so grateful for the privilege of having been able to Homeschool them all the way through. What a joy! Was it hard? Oh, my, yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

Family Discipleship

I believe in Homeschooling. Statistics show that Homeschooled children do better academically than their public-schooled counterparts.1 But, it’s the character and spiritual development and opportunity for family discipleship that are the most important to me. I love the close relationships we have as a family. I love the memories of Homeschooling. I wouldn’t trade having Homeschooled my children for anything in the world!

If you found this helpful, please share it! Let me know in the comments if you are thinking of Homeschooling, and what is your greatest hesitation or fear? We all have them at first!

“Parents who secure a good education to their children, are more useful than those who merely  beget them.”

Aristotle (cited in Barnard, 1861, p. 40)

Many parents hesitate to Homeschool or think it’s great for others, but, they could never do it, because their children won’t listen to them or obey them. If that description hits home for you, then please read this series below that I wrote just for you.

Series on Obedience in Children

Part 1: Raising Godly Kids

Part 2:What is the #1 Character Trait You Need to Train In

Part 3:How to Be a Success in Child Discipline

Part 4:How to Stop Being a Repeating Parent

Part 5:Christian Parenting is Tough

Bonus Post: How to Discipline My Child

Amazon Best Sellers Books Christian Homeschooling (<–click The Links to go to the page)

1 https://www.nheri.org/home-school-researcher-the-perceived-impact-of-home-schooling-on-the-family-in-general-and-the-mother-teacher-in-particular-2/

2 https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/

3 ibid

Don’t forget to read all the posts in the series

• How to Have a Fun, Easy First Year of Homeschooling Kindergarten
• Homeschooling is Hard, But So Worth It
• Homeschool Curriculum 101
• Look at the Benefits of Homeschooling Objectively
• Grammar Skills Lead to Success, So How To Help Your Child
• Why I Love Homeschooling, And You Should, Too