25 Reasons Why I Love Homeschooling

Recently my social media newsfeed has been clogged with blog essays directed at parents for how to survive the first day of school. There are hundreds of adorable pictures of sweet little faces beaming with pride while holding hand-made signs reading First Day of Preschool!

A part of me gets a little bit jealous by the parental rite of passage of sending the kids off on a big yellow bus. That is until I start hearing all of the complaints from other moms about everything from the horrors of PTA meetings to the ridiculously confusing method of New Math.

That is when my jealously is quietly replaced by relief that my parental academic woes are a world away because I’ve got these 25 reasons why I love homeschooling my kids.

1. We are never late for the bus.

2. I don’t have to slap-dash together some kind of lunch at the crack of morning.

3. My bank account is never held hostage for a small ransom to pay for iPads, vintage inspired distressed tees, or $130 gym shoes.

4. If I don’t like the teacher (me) I just have to drink more coffee to lighten the hell up.

5. We are not forced to plan our family vacations around a school schedule.

6. Sick days do not hold us back academically.

7. We don’t have to dissect a frog.

8. New Math. Good luck with that made up shit.

9. A “PTA Meeting” is me, myself, and Pinot Noir scouring catalogues and the Internet for new cool ideas.

10. I do not ever have to prepare for a bake sale. Or 132 Valentines. Or Secret Santa’s.

11. My kids are not asked to annoy friends and family to buy crappy wrapping paper or stinky candles.

12. Art, Music, and Home Economics (remember that?) have not been cut from our curriculum.

13. My loud and fast boy is not in danger of being labeled a trouble student because he is a physical learner.

14. Any local business or service from the newspaper to the fire station to the veterinarian’s office are often times excited to host a private tour for free.

15. We can spend great lengths of time encouraging burgeoning academic skills, talents, and interests in our kids.

16. We fret over annual portfolio reviews instead of standardized tests.

17. Bullying as a systemic problem does not exist in my house.

18. We don’t need specialists or counselors or principals watching over us.

19. If I have a serious reservation about religious, historical, or social aspects of the curriculum we use then I don’t need to fight the system, I just change it. Or omit it.

20. My kids are always the cool kids at our lunch table.

21. Socializing is not limited to 20 minutes of recess on the same playground everyday.

22. Detention is a foreign concept at my house.

23. Every lesson is hands-on, loud, messy, fun, and always welcoming the spontaneity of change.

24. If the kids are not into a lesson then we switch things up to keep the spark if interest alive.

25. I get to watch my kids discover the world in a new and amazing ways. Every. Single. Day.

I never thought I would be a homeschooling mom, but I am and I adore it. It is a total luxury and I am grateful for the ability to stay home and teach my children. It might be true that I get a wee bit envious of the funny posts from my mom friends about the frustrating trials of the back-to-school milestones, but I wouldn’t trade this experience for all the bake sale gluten-free vegan fudge brownies in the world.

Related post: 10 Ways School Sucks For Adults Just As Much As Kids