Why did you decide to homeschool? 

A more loaded ques­tion has none ven­tured to answer.  Well, that may be a bit hyperbolic. 

I can tell you that one very impor­tant rea­son that we home­school is to build rela­tion­ships.  Rela­tion­ships with our chil­dren, rela­tion­ships between sib­lings, rela­tion­ships with peo­ple of all ages, and most impor­tant­ly, a rela­tion­ship with God. 

Build­ing rela­tion­ships hap­pens not in a work­book. It hap­pens not in a lec­ture. It hap­pens in the labs, dis­cus­sions, argu­ments, activ­i­ties, appren­tice­ships, com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice, and work. 

Free­dom to pur­sue those things that devel­op skills, char­ac­ter, and build rela­tion­ships is one rea­son why we have cho­sen to home­school.  With­in our home­school we focus on good lit­er­a­ture, a strong knowl­edge base, and an incred­i­ble work eth­ic.  These foci come from our per­son­al con­vic­tion that our lives should dic­tate our school. 

• When we found our­selves liv­ing in rur­al Maine with land for ani­mals, we learned about ani­mal husbandry. 
• When we found our­selves liv­ing in sub­ur­bia with an afford­able recre­ation cen­ter, we learned about lift­ing weights and exercise. 
• When we want­ed to learn Shake­speare, we joined Aman­da’s class.
• When we were faced with the strug­gle of need­ing to insu­late a house, we learned about r val­ues and insu­la­tion costs and savings. 

Right now, we have found our­selves mov­ing into a house that needs a facelift. Lit­er­al­ly. In every room.  We are super excit­ed to get start­ed and share this learn­ing expe­ri­ence with our chil­dren.  Our boys will learn how to pre­dict costs of projects, deter­mine which projects are most fea­si­ble, how to take respon­si­bil­i­ty for large sec­tions of work, how to man­age oth­er peo­ple with grace and dig­ni­ty, and how to work hard as a group toward one goal. 

View our jour­ney and share yours using the hash­tag #Life­Dic­tatesS­chool