<em>by Laura Q. — used by permission</em>

I’m not patient, I’m far from organized, and I’m not disciplined. But guess what? We’re doing great! It would be very very hard to do worse than the public schools in educating your child.

My daughter attended a “good” private Christian school. I have always wanted to homeschool after meeting a homeschooling family, but wasn’t able to until this past year. It was just in the nick of time, too because the second grade class at that school looked like a nightmare for a girl like my daughter! All the kids sitting quietly and straight, looking forward, working diligently. My daughter? Never!
<ul>
<li>We love not getting up so early, taking our time with breakfast and getting ready, and snuggling together on the couch with a good book.</li>
<li>We love taking off for weather days – you know, when it’s NICE outside and you just HAVE to go swimming or to the park!</li>
<li>We love being together.</li>
<li>We love exploring and learning.</li>
<li>We love being able to linger on weather because we’re fascinated with hurricanes, and skipping half the math problems on a page because we already know something and doing them would just be busy work.</li>
<li>We love to read good books together, to talk about them.</li>
<li>I love to watch my kids act out history lessons and novels later on when they don’t realize I’m watching.</li>
<li>I love not having to wonder what sort of trash the teachers might put in my kids’ head I wouldn’t approve of, and I don’t have to pay tuition any more.</li>
<li>My daughter doesn’t need nearly as many clothes, and we don’t have to buy quite so many birthday gifts.</li>
<li>We love our homeschool park days on Friday when it’s not crowded and it’s still early and not too hot.</li>
<li>We love taking two hours for lunch, and most days doing school in the afternoon instead of in the morning because we just like that better. My son likes reading on the easy chair. My daughter likes doing math while lying on her bed.</li>
<li>I love doing read-alouds at bedtime when we’re all snuggled up together in my bed, smelling of children’s shampoo and all cozy in our jammies.</li>
</ul>
Oh yeah, and my kids are learning the most amazing things! Ask my daughter about Julius Caesar some time – it will blow you away. And she’s only 7!

I love being able to incorporate catechism into our regular school day. I love that my children are taught that the Bible is the only truly reliable history book, and the rest we use must be taken with a grain of salt.

I loved teaching my son to read, and teaching my daughter to multiply. We were all so happy when it “clicked” finally! These “aha” moments as we call them will make your month. So much more amazing than having them come home and report that someone else taught them xyz – if they bother to report at all.

I’m not sure it matters so much why you start doing it. I think your reasons will change anyway as you see the many benefits. I think the important thing is to give it a shot and enjoy every single minute of having your kids at home no matter what else you do, because time flies and then they move away from home. But you will always have these memories of having them home and learning together to cherish for the rest of your life!