Why Home Educate?

This post is part of my series on starting to home educate.

There are almost as many reasons to home educate as there are home educators. These reasons include

• more time with the family
• more time to play and be a child
• not being squeezed into a mould
• avoiding a restrictive curriculum
• bullying at school
• more concentration on academics
• special needs
• avoiding early academics
• to allow world travel
• to avoid being restricted by term and school times
• didn't get a place at the desired school
• health issues
• individual, personalised teaching

I know that there are many more!

However, like many other Christian home educators, none of the above reasons is our primary reason for home educating. We believe that all education comes with a world view and we wanted to teach the children from a Christian world view. We don't believe that this will make our children Christian believers. We pray that they will come to know the Lord while they are young but we can't make them Christians. Our job is to be faithful and to bring them up in the nuture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6v4)

Obviously, the reasons for home educating will influence the way in which we tackle home education. Anyone taking even the most superficial view of the home education community will realise that it is very varied.

For many reasons it is worth setting out your own reasons for wanting to home educate. In fact, this is probably the most useful piece of advice that I was given. A short written statement for yourself will help

• on difficult days.
• you to be ready to explain when others ask why you home educate.
• to provide a starter to help answer possible local authority inquiries.
• decide on the way in which your days will be planned or not planned and which materials you will use.
• to make sure that both husband and wife have the same motivations.
• not feel threatened by people who home educate differently!

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