Why Do We Homeschool? [Part 1]

It’s finally here! I’ve been planning to write this blog series for the last 3 years (most of the time was spent procrastinating working on other projects, so don’t expect 3 years worth of material). It’s also the first time I’m officially introducing Mrs Mayers, so when I write ‘we’ or ‘our’, you know who I’m talking about. 😊

We also want to say a big thanks to our Twitter and Facebook friends who have asked us a stack of questions relating to home education, and patiently waited for us to blog about it.

So where to start?

Let’s start at the very beginning, that’s a very good place to start).

In our family, there’s a song for everything!

Our main reasons for homeschooling were wanting our 3 children (at the time) to be closer to us and to each other, and live a holistic life not one where their faith was compartmentalised into a few hours on a Sunday. They were in school already and it was striking to see how they were able to spend the best part of their waking day listening to their teachers, following instructions and being model children, but were the complete opposite at home!

We had some good friends that home schooled before us, and just knowing them dropped a seed in our minds which began to sprout as we grew more unhappy with the education system (especially the organised Mafia/PTA racket. Do you have one of those at your kid’s school? Always extorting money from you?). I also remember the school was keen to place negative labels on the kids like ‘fidgety’ and ‘poor reading skills’ even at the age of 5 or younger.

This journey took a couple of years where my wife was initially more keen than I was but after a while, I came around to the idea and initiated Deregistration Day in 2009.

Picture chosen for dramatic effect. The actual letter was word processed.

I wrote the letter to the headteacher of the school withdrawing them from the end of that term rather than disrupt things and pull them out immediately. It was the first time they’d ever had to de-register someone from their school before, but was a very straightforward process.

And that was that! We were free. Ready to embark on a new and exciting journey into the unknown world of home education after the summer break. But what should that look like?

I’ll continue the story next week Monday [edit: Part 2 is here] and begin to answer your questions so keep ’em coming. Also please share with your network or anyone that you think might be interested.