Why do we homeschool?

A while ago someone asked me to write a paragraph or two for a magazine about why we homeschool. We have many reasons, some more personal in nature, but I thought I would share here my reply.

Flashback: I went to good public schools, I never had problem learning, and nothing upsetting ever happened that would turn me away from schools. I do however remember sitting in second or third grade during reading hour, feeling very frustrated. The teacher would tell us to open our books and someone would be chosen to read the section. That someone was never I. Our teacher knew I read fluently, so I didn’t need the practice, right? Instead I had to sit there for what felt like forever, and listen to one of my classmates spell himself through every single word. Don’t get me wrong; I loved my classmates, and I loved playing soccer with them at recess, but we also played soccer after school every day, and academically, I would probably have thrived better on my own.

There are so many reasons why people homeschool their children, and ours is not a particular one. We simply want the best education possible for our children, and believe that at this stage of our children’s lives, we are best capable of choosing what that education should comprise and how it should be taught. We think that education should not be a separate department in a child’s life, but an integral part of everything they do. As parents, we see it as our responsibility to educate our children.

Ever since my husband & I had kids, we’ve considered homeschooling an option. Many of our friends were homeschooled and/or homeschool their children, and with our academic backgrounds, we always thought it would be something we could do. When we lived in Belgium, our boys went to school because both my husband and I had to work, but here in Egypt our schedules are flexible enough that we can do it.

Another reasons we homeschool is so that we can create and teach our children our own custom made curriculum. We want to give our children a strong academic, classical education, and make sure that they have a connection to the cultures, languages, and customs of our native countries. We use separate programs for all of the subjects.