5 Exciting Reasons for Homeschooling
by Megan Mora Fuentes
February is Home Education Month in Virginia, and it provides an excellent opportunity for homeschoolers to share their reasons for homeschooling and promote the benefits of homeschooling in their communities across Virginia. There are a myriad of reasons for homeschooling, and this Homeschool Living focuses on five of the most compelling reasons to homeschool and offers inspiration for bringing homeschooling into your family’s life.
Reasons for Homeschooling in Virginia
1. Embrace family time
Homeschooling can become part of a family’s life in many different ways. In this blog post by Patricia Marie, she shares how she sees homeschooling as a natural extension of parenting her children. Homeschooling offers the unique opportunity for a family to explore, learn, and create together, and the bonds created by shared experiences, passions, and discoveries lay a foundation on which to build for the rest of their lives.
2. Cultivate creativity and a desire to learn
The opportunity to instill a genuine love for learning is one of the great benefits of homeschooling. Learning how to approach a subject with passion and creativity–even if the subject is not your forte–is a perfect way to model lifelong learning and curiosity.
3. Learn your child’s unique strengths
You already know that no two children are exactly alike. So why do we expect entire classes of children to learn the same way? Exploring these five flavors of homeschooling can give you a taste of the limitless options you’ll have in figuring out not only how to best teach your children, but how to effectively communicate and relate to them long term. Learning your child’s unique strengths is the key to encouraging a healthy love of learning.
4. Disciple your child at home
One of the greatest callings of Christian parents is to train our children in a manner consistent with Biblical values, and one of the greatest freedoms afforded to homeschooling families is the ability to incorporate the subjects we find most important into our daily curriculum. Modeling a lifelong practice of Bible study, reflection, and prayer takes on whole new meaning when your days are spent learning and living together and involve the hundreds of little interactions that provide the opportunity to model and practice Christlikeness within your family.
5. It’s never too late to start!
Maybe you didn’t start out with the intention of homeschooling. Maybe you–with thousands of other parents–have found yourself homeschooling unexpectedly due to the pandemic crisis in 2020. Maybe your family situation, your perspective, or your heart has changed over the years. That’s okay! While it can be challenging to transition your children from a public or private school to homeschool, it’s never too late to start homeschooling! Kris Bales of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers shares ten tips she wishes she had known when she and her children made their own transition from public school to homeschool.
