At this time of year the back-to-school bug is in the air and has bitten many of us. Whether or not we’re sending our kids away to school or homeschooling, there’s just something about this time of year that makes us excited about school. That makes this an excellent time to stop and jot down why we homeschool. If we take the time to do this, when the going gets tough—and I guarantee it will, it always does—we can look at our notes and remind ourselves that we actually had a reason to homeschool.

So why did you choose homeschool? There are scores of reasons and combinations of reasons why people homeschool. Here are a few:

• You’ve just always wanted to homeschool.
• Your children have disabilities or they are very advanced, either one.
• You just like being with your children all day long.
• The peer pressure of the school environment would hurt your children.
• The graded system concerns you.
• Socialization! You want your kids to socialize with more than kids their own age. (I just had to throw that one in there, since I think homeschool kids are very well socialized!)
• The teacher that your child would be assigned to is less than desirable to you.
• The nearest church school is not within a reasonable commute.
• You don’t have the finances to pay tuition at the church school.
• The church school is a disappointment in some way, whether academically, spiritually or another way.
• You believe in child directed learning.
• You know somebody else who homeschools and you’d like to emulate them or their family.
• You think homeschooling is academically superior to any other choice.
• Your family travels a lot or are missionaries and homeschooling just fits your lifestyle.
• You believe that homeschooling will give you a better chance at preparing your children for heaven.
• You believe in delayed learning so your homeschooling for the first few years until you think your child is ready for school.
• Maybe you just got bit by the homeschooling bug, and thought you’d give it a try.

Of course, there are dozens of more reasons why people homeschool. What are your reasons for homeschooling? It’s good to think through. If circumstances changed would you choose another form of education for your children? Are you going to homeschool through second grade, eighth grade, twelfth grade, college or are you just going to take it year by year? These are all things to consider when thinking through your reasons to homeschool. That way when you have challenging days, and you’re wondering if you should keep on going, you can fairly evaluate why it was that you started down this path; and if you choose a different path, you will know why your changing course too.

Ultimately it comes back down to, what is your philosophy of education? Is homeschooling part of your philosophy? So review the recent posts about philosophy of education and think through why you homeschool and what your philosophy of education is and then save all of this information either on your computer or in a diary or somewhere where you can find it later, because there will come a day or maybe several days, when reviewing it might be what you need to make it through the day.