Why do I home educate when I could send them to school and have more "me" time?

I get asked this question a lot. I'm sure that it would make more sense to send my kids off for seven hours each day so that my house could be quiet for a while. When I was asked this last time, I really started to think about it. Why do I do this? Why don't I give myself all day to have some "me" time? As I thought about it I realized there are so may more blessings by having my kids home with me. If they were in school the we'd get home around 3:30 in the afternoon. We'd have time for a snack and a little break time. Then it would be time for homework. By the time that is over then it would be dinner time and then time for baths and laying stuff out for our early morning the next day and finally bed time just to start it all the next day. And then, the nights that we have TaeKwonDo would really stink. When would we spend any time together?

Since they stay home with me, we are able to make all day a family day. We do school together so I know what the kids are working on in school, I know where their strengths and weaknesses are academically and all of our field trips turn into family time. We are able to keep education fun and learn about the things the kids are interested in.

I know that Collin would lose his desire to learn in a traditional brick and mortar school. We are doing public school at home and I was following the classes as written and noticed a decline in his desire to learn. This wasn't like my so at all. Learning had suddenly become boring. Since are in a 1 on 2 situation instead of a 1 on 26 situation, I am able to adapt the lesson to make it more fun. I can either rush through it and make sure he knows the objectives so that he doesn't get to bored (like in math) or we can get more involved and do projects to make what we're learning about come to life (like in history or science).

Staying home with my kids allows me to keep their love of learning strong and gives me the time that I want to spend with my children. I miss very little of their lives and love that because soon they will be adults and will be moving out and going off to live their own lives without me. This is totally worth sacrificing my seven hours of "me" time! :)