Why?

Yesterday, I kind of posted about how to get started in homeschooling and today, I want to address the question of "why?". There were a few things that put the idea of homeschooling in my head. The first was that my friend was doing it and the reports from her were good. Also, I'd read an article about a family that kept each one of their daughters home from middle school for 1 year, each, just to spend more time with their mom and bond during these difficult years. I thought it sounded like a good idea. I wasn't ready for my oldest son to go to middle school, so we kept him home. He and I started on a study of world history and we were having a lot of fun. Meanwhile, daughter was in 3rd grade and was placed in a split class with 4th grade. Every night, she'd come home needing me to explain her work to her because the teacher's aide said "I'm not the teacher, I can't help you." and the teacher was too busy. Youngest son was not doing well in first grade. He was crying every morning when I dropped him off at school. After a few weeks of this, it just seemed like a no-brainer to bring them home too. At first, it was scary and overwhelming, but after 2 years, we've kind of got a system and none of the kids want to go back into school. They are much happier and less stressed and they get to see their Dad more than once a week. We've found a good homeschool support group to join and they have a lot of friends there. For now, homeschooling is working out well for us. The kids may change their minds about going back to school when they get older, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.