• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Surly Housewife

  • State Books For Kids
  • Literature-Based Homeschool
  • Family Fun
  • About The Surly Housewife
  • Homeschool Preschool Curriculum
    • How to Homeschool Preschool: A Step-by-Step Guide

10 Reasons Why We Decided to Homeschool

by

Why homeschool? 10 reasons why we decided to homeschool our kids.

Why homeschool? 10 reasons why we decided to homeschool our kids. Check out this post to learn our motives for starting a secular homeschool.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, we earn a commission at NO extra cost to you. For more information, please read my full disclosure policy.

I will be the first to admit that I NEVER thought I would be homeschooling my kids. I used to dream about the day both of my kids would be in school. My oldest in kindergarten and my youngest in 3K. A silent house for 3 hours?! Imagine the possibilities!!!!

So where did we get this crazy idea. Who would have thought, out of all the reasons to homeschool, I would get the inspiration from Jim Breuer. Yes. That’s correct, the Goatman from SNL. Jim has three daughters and was talking about his preference to homeschool on one of his appearances on “The Opie and Anthony” radio show. I had never thought of homeschooling and he shed a whole new light on it.

I studied education in college so I wasn’t ever worried about teaching my children. I was more concerned about social activities because my husband and I are very introverted and don’t know a lot whole of people with kids our age. However, the stereotype of the unsocialized, strange, odd-looking homeschooled kid is gone. To paraphrase Breuer “You don’t lock ’em in a closet.” Kids are constantly around people and there are plenty of opportunities for social activities through your communities Parks and Recreation Department. He made several other great arguments for homeschooling: buying curriculums online, tutors for difficult subjects, no lice, the “need” for cell phones, boys.

Then came my “aha moment.”  Then one of the producers on the show brought up the fact that being in school doesn’t necessarily teach you social skills. The gist of his argument was you go through your school years with a certain amount of kids. For the most part, you are friends with the same kids and don’t really branch out. Basically you really aren’t learning to socialize with anyone new. This was my “aha” moment. I graduated in a class of 65 or so. I was friends with the same kids for most of my life. If anything, school made me more socially awkward.

My husband and I listened to the show (at different times) and had a lot to discuss afterwards. I can still remember texting with him as I was listening. Realizing the social aspect of school wasn’t entirely valid, we realized we didn’t NEED to send our kids to school just because we were supposed to. We came up with a whole laundry list of reasons why homeschooling would be a good fit for our family. 

Why homeschool?

1. Age – Fofo makes the birthday cut off by 4 days. She would either one of the oldest or one of the youngest in her class. Both of which are not entirely good or entirely bad. Which leads us to the next reason.

2. Size/Birth Order – She is TINY and will most likely be that way forever. I mean she is practically imp size. Sorry kid. The Norwegian genes did you no good. My youngest daughter will mostly likely be tall. They get mistaken for twins all the time but at some point The Bear is gonna be taller than her older sister. I can only imagine the annoyance/jealousy this will cause once they get older.

3. Quality Time – Fofo is a total papa’s girl and once she attends school full-time she will hardly seem him. He works long hours and she would be sleeping by the time he got home in the evening so she could get up at the butt crack of dawn to get to school. She wouldn’t get quality time in the morning because we would be rushing her off to school.

For example, one morning this summer, my husband was in the back yard for some reason or another and, naturally, the girls followed him. Fofo found a caterpillar walking along our hose. They probably had 10-15 minutes of father-daughter time just observing the caterpillar. It may seem petty or simple but it’s those small moments that are important to us. As Breuer said “spend valuable time talking about real life.”

Why homeschool? Quality family time.

4. Money – We wouldn’t be able to afford the nice clothes and other things that kids feel they need nowadays. We are very blessed to have an incredible generous family but we can’t assume grandma will buy Fofo a new “Whateverthefuck” tech gadget or name brand jeans or purse she needs to fit in. Homeschooling allows us the opportunity to have less focus on material things and fitting in.

5. Sleep – Today kids are not able to get the proper amount of sleep due to extracurricular activities and homework. Rushing through our morning routine with crabby children is not the way we want to spend 9 months out of the year.

6. Losing – It seems like today “everybody gets a trophy.” Kids don’t know what it means to lose because they never have lost! I’m not talking full contact football at 2 years old, but can we at least keep score at the 5 year olds soccer games?! Teaching kids about winning and losing is teaching them life is not perfect. Life is hard and you need to learn how to pick yourself back up.

7. Individualization – We would like our children’s education to be customized around their strengths and weaknesses. Rather than them sitting in a classroom that is “teaching to the middle” just so they can simply pass a test.

8. Safety – After the tragedy at Newtown Elementary School, I knew I didn’t want my children to go to public school. It was a little too close to home. It may seem overly protective but several schools in our area went into lockdown for threats of some sort. I used to believe the threat of school violence was small, now I’m not so sure.

Why homeschool? Spend more time outdoors.

9. Values and Goals – Our values and goals are simply different from what the public schools can offer our children. We want to raise warrior kids. We want our kids to learn about art, music, food, nature, and discipline. I want us to teach them real life skills like how to do a mortgage or how to fix a toilet. And ultimately helping them learn about their true passion in life.

10. Happiness – We truly believe homeschooling done right is the best thing for our kids because we will get to spend more time together and get to learn together. It seems like as soon as kids get interesting we ship them off to school and we never see them again. We want to be our children’s teachers and educate them about life. “Kids will tell you what they want to learn. They want to learn, just not bullshit.” Jim Breuer

Why homeschool? We want our children’s education to reflect our values, goals, and create life-long learners. Not everyday is easy, but everyday is worth it!

Why homeschool? 10 reasons why we decided to homeschool our kids. Check out this post to learn our motives for starting a secular homeschool.

Sharing is caring!

383 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Filed Under: Encouragement, Homeschool Preschool Curriculum

Previous Post: « Fofo and The Bear
Next Post: 5 Steps to a Perfect Lunch Wrap »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nita

    February 4, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    I fell into homeschooling because my youngest son really needed it. Traditional school and him didn’t quite work out. My older 2 kids did just fine in that setting though. We love it and make it work even though my life is truly hectic. Joining you from List-It Tuesday

    • Katie

      February 4, 2014 at 8:31 pm

      My kids are still young of course, but I don’t think they would mesh with public school. They get pretty wild and distracted. Hopefully I won’t have to find out 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.

Trackbacks

  1. Letter of the Week – Letter D | The Surly Housewife says:
    December 19, 2013 at 10:13 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  2. Letter of the Week – Letter E | The Surly Housewife says:
    January 2, 2014 at 12:55 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  3. Letter of the Week – Letter F | The Surly Housewife says:
    January 23, 2014 at 5:10 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  4. Day in the Life of an Unschooler | The Surly Housewife says:
    January 29, 2014 at 11:17 pm

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  5. Letter of the Week – Letter H | The Surly Housewife says:
    February 20, 2014 at 5:46 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  6. Fofo and Pioneer Woman | The Surly Housewife says:
    February 27, 2014 at 6:03 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  7. Fofo on Skates | The Surly Housewife says:
    March 6, 2014 at 7:36 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  8. Letter of the Week – Letter I | The Surly Housewife says:
    March 13, 2014 at 5:00 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  9. Letter of the Week – Letter J | The Surly Housewife says:
    March 27, 2014 at 12:48 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  10. 8 Springtime Outdoor Activities for Homeschoolers | The Surly Housewife says:
    April 3, 2014 at 12:27 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  11. “The Maple Syrup Factory” | The Surly Housewife says:
    April 9, 2014 at 11:07 pm

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  12. Homeschool Curriculum 2013-2014 | The Surly Housewife says:
    April 23, 2014 at 2:43 pm

    […] time for more homeschool talk here on The Surly Housewife. In previous posts, I have discussed our reasons for homeschooling and our educational philosophy. This week I am going to share our curriculum plans for the […]

  13. How I Plan Our Homeschool Units | The Surly Housewife says:
    May 1, 2014 at 3:40 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  14. Homeschool Progress Report | The Surly Housewife says:
    May 8, 2014 at 12:37 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  15. 10 Quotes to Live By | The Surly Housewife says:
    May 15, 2014 at 1:13 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  16. The Road to our Homeschool Philosophy | The Surly Housewife says:
    May 29, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    […] there. What the hell was I going to talk about? Oh right. Last week I discussed our family’s reasons for homeschooling. This is a big decision that should not be taken lightly. You are now the teacher and you need come […]

  17. Letter of the Week – Letter K | The Surly Housewife says:
    June 4, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  18. Homeschool Life Lately | The Surly Housewife says:
    June 12, 2014 at 3:04 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  19. Letter of the Week – Letter L | The Surly Housewife says:
    June 19, 2014 at 3:07 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

  20. Homeschooling in Wisconsin | The Surly Housewife says:
    July 10, 2014 at 12:20 am

    […] Thursday, I share a little bit about our homeschool life. Interested in why we are homeschooling? Click here. Want to know about our home preschool curriculum? Click here. Any other questions? Ask away. I […]

Primary Sidebar

Welcome, I’m Katie!

Welcome, I’m Katie!

The Surly Housewife is dedicated to helping homeschool moms go from doubtful and overwhelmed to confident and capable. Click on the picture above to learn more about me!

Let’s Connect

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Resource Vault

Click here to enter the Resource Vault

AMAZON ASSOCIATES DISCLOSURE

The Surly Housewife is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Copyright © 2025 The Surly Housewife on the Foodie Pro Theme