1. You will be the number one influence on your son and his upbringing, instead of learning the latest “dirty word” or being encouraged to have a girlfriend at the very ripe age of 10.

2. It will give you the opportunity to get to know your child better because you will be with him most of the day. An average child will spend about 11,000 hours in the classroom. That doesn’t even include activities and time with friends. Children are small for such a short period of time. Why waste so much time with them?

3. You can allow your child to learn at their own pace, whether they are ahead or behind. Teaching in a traditional school is “one size fits all”. Differences in aspects such as the child’s learning styles and temperament will not be taken into account. If your child is having a hard time keeping up in math class, they may be grouped with the kids in the “special education” room, rather than being allowed to go back a level and relearn some things.

4. The ability to teach their religious faith and pray during their school day. This is very important. It is a proven fact that many children will lose their faith when faced day after day with an assault on their beliefs. Christian teens often report in interviews that they felt like a small minority harassed at school. They often feel alone in their struggle to live by the Christian values ​​of avoiding premarital sex, risqué music and videos, pornography, alcohol, and drugs. Why throw their lambs to the wolves at such a young age? Keep them indoors as long as possible to help build a solid foundation to withstand future storms. Which brings me to #5…

5. The ability to have a say in who your child’s friends are. If you study at home for a period of time, you will seek out and find like-minded families and friends. I can’t say enough about how this has helped one of my most rebellious children in his ability to mature and grow through his teen years. All of your homeschooling friends are raised with roughly the same kinds of values, so there’s no “But mom, everyone else sees it, does it, etc.” In addition, there is a “positive peer pressure” from these friends. If my son started talking about drugs or bragging about watching porn, these friends wouldn’t approve and it wouldn’t be considered cool.

6. More friendly and pleasant children. I hate to say it, but it’s true. I have strangers tell me all the time how “well behaved” my kids are. It’s not that I’m a great mom or that I’m constantly picking on them for their manners (although I do believe in teaching them), but it’s for the removal of what I call the “Lord of the Flies influence.” When children of the same age spend 6 to 7 hours a day, five days a week for nine months of the year together, unless they have adults constantly monitoring and correcting them, their behavior can be somewhat barbaric and out of control .

7. Don’t worry about bullies. Children often don’t say what is going on in the classroom. The thought of a bully being mean to my little boy or stealing his glasses makes my blood boil. Why put your kids through that, especially when they’re little?

8. Don’t worry about sexual abuse. Much attention has been paid to sexual abuse by Catholic priests; however, the problem of sexual abuse in the public school system receives little attention and is a serious and worrying problem. Here is an article about the AP report.

9. More freedom to express creativity and be themselves. Some schools encourage the arts more than others and find it worth spending funds on the humanities. My son, now 19, is an incredibly talented artist and photographer. Being home schooled, he was free to pursue these natural talents of his without restriction. When he was younger, he had an affinity for drawing (mostly medieval) monsters and weapons. I know for a fact that his weapon drawings would not be allowed or appreciated in a traditional school.

10. The ability to start a learning adventure with your children. Who knew learning could be so much fun? She used to hate history because it was so boring. I remember falling asleep during American history class in high school more than once! It wasn’t until I started homeschooling my kids that I became captivated by the story. What a fascinating subject!

Now, don’t get me wrong, there will be frustrating days and days when neither you nor the kids feel like “going to school” at all; however, you will have many fun and interesting learning adventures together. Imagine snuggling together on the couch each morning, so you can read aloud to your children, instead of rushing them to the bus each morning. Imagine spending a beautiful fall afternoon taking a walk in nature with notebooks in hand to observe.

Homeschooling your child will be work and effort, but the rewards and special memories you gain are greater than you can imagine and will last a lifetime.