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Why We Homeschool…

by Adrienne
Why do We Homeschool

Today, I am going to share with you the reasons why we decided to homeschool our children instead of sending them to preschool in France or maternelle.

I have always been intrigued with homeschooling ; I have always been a teacher at heart and kids seem to flock towards me. We started doing hands-on activities and alphabet hats at two and half years old and Miss F seemed to enjoy the time we spent together. When Miss F was three years old, we applied for an Islamic preschool in our area. We were interviewed and told to wait for a reply. I wasn’t quite satisfied with the school and had started leaning toward homeschool. The month we spent waiting for the reply, I became more and more interested in homeschool so much so I couldn’t figure out how I would tell The Turk. I tried dropping hints through the informal lessons with her that I preferred and really would like to homeschool Miss F for at least her first year and then we would decided what to do. Finally he brought it up and said that he would prefer that we would try homeschool for the moment. So it has been a year and a half almost and we are still homeschooling!

Here are the reasons why we homeschool :

  1. In Islam, it is the mother’s responsibility to raise and teach her children for at least the first seven years and not to really do formal lessons.
  2. Preschool in France or maternelle  is not obligatory, no matter how many people will tell you so. Homeschool or école à la maison / instruction en famille isn’t as popular as it is in English-speaking countires. School or primaire (CP) becomes obligatory when the child is six years old.
  3. We are a multilingual family. My vision of homeschool was for my children to be bilingual, meaning be able to carry on a conversation in both languages and if possible read and/or  write by the time they were in primary school. Excuse my French, but French speakers are notorious for knowing little English, so I see it as an advantage for Miss F. As for Turkish, it ‘s not that useful in France, unless you live in a neighbrohood like mine. It is more of a social language.
  4. The child learns at their own pace. I am not very familar with how and what chidlren learn in a French preschool but it seems very timed and rigourous. I do not want to recreate school at home, we follow our own beat. Certain days we could be very focused and get a lot done others will be full of independant play. Sometimes we sleep in, sometimes we get up super early. We go outside and hunt for nature or we spend the afternoon baking. No matter what, both Mr. Z and Miss F are learning at their own paces with no pressure.
  5. I enjoy homeschooling. People always ask me if I would like those three extra morning hours to myself for cleaning or whatever people use that for. I mean sometimes I would like extra time for myself and I’m sure that I could find something to do, (but then again the blog wouldn’t have a language learning or homeschool section ! ) Since Mr. Z is still too young to go to school and Mr. M will be arriving soon, I prefer having everyone together learning for now, instead of making lots of stops during the day.
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What are your reasons for homeschooling ?

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