Why Do You Homeschool?

It is the norm for kids to go to a school for their education. It is the norm for families in my jewish circle to send their kids to the synagogues pre-school. I have experienced a lot of pressure from my Jewish community to send my daughter to this preschool. My daughter isn’t even three yet and I am constantly asked where my daughter attends preschool. I even get asked what classroom she is in, by those assuming she goes to the synagogues preschool. These questions started around her 1st birthday! This seems crazy to me!

Now when I am asked where she goes to preschool I answer, “She is homeschooled.” Then I get a look, and a “wow, how do you do that?!”, and a “how long are you going to do that for?”. Then the big one, “Why are you homeschooling?”. I could go on and on about why we are homeschooling. There are so many things wrong with the traditional school system and so many benefits to homeschooling. Of course this decision is not for everybody.

I have learned, already, that the best answer is, “This is what is best for our family.” It is hard to list off the reasons we have chosen to homeschool without starting to sound like you are judging the other persons decision to send their kids to traditional school. Of course we are not judging them, it is the basis of homeschooling that parents are free to choose how to educate their children. They can do what they want and we can do what we want.

When you start to list off reasons why you have chosen homeschooling it starts to feel like you are defending yourself. They stare at you, trying to process all the facts you are throwing at them, and it starts to get awkward. Sometimes I feel like they are judging my ability to educate my children by how well I can form my answer to the question. But that is probably just in my head. To avoid all of these feelings it is best to give a simple and vague answer. We homeschool because this is what is best for our family.