Why We Homeschool

The subject of our homeschooling has come up quite a bit recently...not just with non-homeschoolers, but a lot with homeschoolers. This is our 15 year to teach our kids at home and it's been a big boost to realize once again why we do what we do.

Ben and I are not the "vision statement" or "family mission statement" kinds of folks. We don't have a 5-year plan or ponder the future too much. We try to live in the moment, trying to understand what God would have us do, and we try to do it. We hold on loosely to our stuff and our "plans". BUT several years ago, we were discussing our homeschooling and after much discussion realized that we were stumbling upon our reasons for why we homeschool.

Ever since then, we have had a focus and have aimed in that direction! It has informed everything that we do from what curriculum we choose to how we spend our time. It has allowed us to be excited for others' results of graduating their children from high school at age 10 instead of having a knot in the pit of our stomachs that we the stick figures our children were still drawing weren't even close to high school graduate type of work! What a joy that is!

Though most non-homeschoolers out there really wonder in the back of their minds if homeschoolers really school their children, I have NEVER come across one homeschooler who didn't want the best for their children and loved their children more than anyone else in the whole world! Our lives just look a bit different.

So...why do we homeschool? We homeschool for mainly these four reasons. (there are so many others, but these are the BIG 4)....and in this order!

1. To teach our children about our FAITH.
2. To teach our children about our FAMILY.
3. To teach our children how to SERVE.
4. To teach our children ACADEMICS.

We want our children to grow up to be strong women and men of faith in the Almighty God of the universe.

This list has truly freed us up and given us a direction for how we spend our days, what activities we choose to get involved in, and most certainly the curriculum we pick.

So, though we still don't have a family mission statement, and probably never will, we do have 4 core values that hopefully are beginning to define what it means to be a DeBusk in this world.