Celebrating 5 Awesome Ways Homeschooling Means Freedom for Your Family

One of the best parts of homeschooling is the freedom it offers.

Since our own childhoods, so many of us have been accustomed to just going along with what everyone does, and just doing what it seems everyone just has to do. But do we have to what everyone else does? When you choose to start homeschooling, you’ll find that you have so much more freedom to choose. You get to create the life and schedule and day-to-day that is right for your own family. That freedom is just about the best part of homeschooling. 

So, in honor of American Independence Day, I want to share 5 of my favorite ways that homeschooling means freedom for my family. 

Freedom to manage your own time

Homeschooling is an awesome option for people who like to be in control of their own time. I love homeschooling because it allows my family to plan our lives around our priorities and not someone else’s bell schedule. We are not strict schedulers in my family, but we’re also not the family who stays in PJs and leaves the day open for whatever may come up. We like a routine, and we like that the routine doesn’t start at 7am. 

You may be an early bird who loves getting everything done by noon so you can get to work in the afternoon while the kids go to after school care through your local park and rec. Or you could be a family with an adult who works nights, and the thought of starting anything that takes energy or brain cells before 11am is out of the question. You may have a spouse whose job involves a lot of travel, or a family with elders in another state who need your care. 

Whatever your situation, you get to make your yearly-, weekly- and daily homeschool schedule. The freedom to manage one’s own time is a pretty precious thing, and it is one of the very best things about choosing to homeschool.

Freedom to spend time with family

This freedom is so primary, and should be so basic, but- surprisingly – a comparative few parents demand it. Imagine how many kids go off to school every morning at 8 am and then don’t see their parents again until after-care is over at 6. I realize homeschooling is not something that everyone can do without some serious changes to schedule and priorities. It is not as easy as simply sending the kids to the local school, but I do believe that with effort and creativity most people can find a way to take some measure of control of their children’s education. Until we start to fund kids rather than schools, I’m glad public school exists because some people really do need the safety net of all-day childcare and school lunch. For the rest of us, the freedom to spend time with our kids is a precious one, and it is my very favorite thing about homeschooling.

Freedom to move

The fact that learning can take place everywhere, from the sofa to the lakeside to the co op classroom to trampoline is a fantastic aspect of homeschooling. Kids who need movement can move! Keeps who need quiet can get it. A classroom environment may have a lot of great things going for it, but your own homeschool is tailored to the family you have in a way that no institutional setting can compare. 

Freedom from ideology

Currently the argument ranges across my country: should we should teach children through a lens of Critical Race Theory, reducing each child to a collection of identity markers that put him in a position of oppressor or oppressed relative to his classmates? Or should we teach a colorblind approach, judging each other by the content of our character instead of the color of our skin? Should we teach that a divine being created this world and that each one has a path that said being set out before you were born? Or that material reality is meaningless, gender is a feeling, sex is a spectrum? Is America a unique force for good a la the 1776 Commission? Or a force of unique and particular evil as in the 1619 Project? 

Should teaching = activism? Should teachers focus instead on improving distressing lack of US academic achievement?

I’m not interested in any ideology standing in for actual education. I want my kids to know how to think, not what to think. You too? You will enjoy homeschooling for its freedom from ideology.

Freedom to change

If the workbook is no longer working, you don’t have to finish it. If your daughter decides she needs to know everything about marine biology, you can pause something else to make room for visits to the tide pools, aquarium websites, ocean life books and Jacques Cousteau documentaries. If the math curriculum just isn’t clicking for your son, you can change to another one. If you find that your sleeping in until 9 is having a negative impact on the flow of your morning, you can decide to get up earlier to be more prepared. Freedom to change is much more difficult a school setting, but it’s easy when your school is your own, and it is one of the best freedoms of homeschooling.

Are you ready to make the leap to choosing your own path and creating a homeschool family life you love? An adventure of freedom and family is waiting for you. I’ve made a free rookie cheat sheet to share what you need to know to start homeschooling. Grab yours below: