When people find out we homeschool, one of the first questions I get is, “Are you going to homeschool all the way through?” My answer is always the same:

I take it year by year.

I don’t know what our homeschool will look like five years from now. I don’t even know exactly what it will look like next year. But I do know that homeschooling has been such a gift to our family in this season, and I also know it isn’t without its challenges.

I don’t think homeschooling is for everyone. And I definitely don’t think my way is the only way. But after homeschooling for a few years, I wanted to share some of the things we have genuinely loved about it—and some of the things that have been hard. It’s the question I get asked about the most because people know I won’t hold back…

The Pros of Homeschooling for Our Family

1. We get to be very intentional about behavior.

One of the first things I noticed when we started homeschooling was a difference in my kids’ behavior.

When they were in school, they were around so many different personalities and behaviors throughout the day. Sometimes they would come home having picked up something we didn’t love. Now, if something comes up that doesn’t align with what we’re teaching our kids, we’re able to address it right away. We’re not waiting until the end of the day or hoping it works itself out or wondering if they will bring it up with us.

We’re right there to talk through it, correct it, and help them understand why. And honestly, I think that’s one of the beautiful things about having our kids home. We get to be present for so much of their formation. My kids relationship with me is even more open I think.

2. We get to choose what and how they learn.

I love being able to choose our curriculum.

But even more than that, I love being able to choose how much time we spend on something and how we learn it. We absolutely use books and worksheets. Homeschooling isn’t some magical world where we never do paperwork.But we also do a lot of hands-on learning. Especially with subjects like science and history, I want my kids to experience what they’re learning instead of simply filling out a worksheet about it. If we’re learning about something and there’s an opportunity to see it, build it, cook it, visit it, experiment with it, or experience it somehow, I want to take advantage of that.

3. We can slow down or speed up.

If my child already understands something, we don’t have to spend three more weeks on it simply because that’s what’s next in the curriculum.

We can move on.

And if something isn’t clicking?

We can slow down. We can try a different explanation. We can practice it another way. We can spend another day—or another week—on it.

Recently, we were reading a story and the word jousting came up. My kids asked what jousting was.

So we stopped. We looked it up. We learned about it. We talked about it. And I learned some things too!

That’s one of my favorite parts of homeschooling. Curiosity doesn’t have to be interrupted because we have to get to the next lesson.

4. Learning can happen in real life.

Some of our favorite school days don’t look much like school. A trip to the zoo is a field trip, but it’s also science. Going somewhere historical is history.

Cooking is math. Running errands can turn into reading, money, communication, or life skills.

And sometimes something as simple as a question from one of my kids turns into a whole afternoon of learning.

I want my kids to become lifelong learners.

I don’t want them to grow up thinking learning is something you do because someone is forcing you to.

I want them to be curious. I want them to have books they love, podcasts they enjoy, shows that teach them something, and questions they can’t wait to find the answers to.

5. We have more flexibility.

We don’t take an extremely long Christmas break, but throughout the school year we like to have little reset weeks. We’ll choose a theme and spend the week doing fun activities related to it instead of our normal book work. And we have the flexibility to finish our school year earlier.

For our family, we aim to be done around May 1st because we’ve learned that by then, we’re all ready for a break. We can also take a day off when something comes up. If it’s a beautiful day and we want to go to the zoo? We can. If family is visiting? We can adjust.

If we have something special going on?

We can work around it.

6. We get more time with family.

This one is huge for me.

Our grandparents aren’t around forever.

We’ve learned that life can change in the blink of an eye, and not every day with the people we love is guaranteed. So being able to spend more time with our grandparents has been such a gift. My kids actually look forward to their grandparent day every week. They know schoolwork needs to be finished, and then they get to go spend time with Grandma and Grandpa.

And because my husband works long hours and doesn’t always have a predictable schedule, homeschooling has also given us more opportunities to see him. There are days when we might not otherwise see Dad because he’s working when they’re awake and sleeping when he gets home. But sometimes we can drop off lunch. We can stop by and say hi. Every once in a while, they even get to go to work with him.

Those little moments mean so much to us.

7. Their sibling relationships have grown.

This was something I didn’t expect quite as much as I have noticed it. My kids still fight. They’re siblings. But they have had so much more time to learn how to communicate with one another.

When we had some kids in school and some at home, we struggled more with this. It seemed like they were finally figuring out how to communicate with each other over the weekend, and then Monday came and we’d start all over again. Now they have so much more time together. They play together. They work together.

They argue and then have to figure out how to work through it. And I’ve watched those sibling relationships grow in a really beautiful way.

8. We get to be intentional about friendships.

One thing I appreciate about homeschooling is that we get to be more intentional about the people our kids surround themselves with. Instead of friendships simply being based on who happens to be sitting next to them every day, we get to help teach them what a good friend looks like. Who builds you up? Who encourages you? Who helps you become more like the person God created you to be? Friendship is still something they have to learn how to navigate, but we get to be much more involved in that process.

9. We get to weave our faith into everyday life.

This might be one of my favorite parts.

We don’t have to find a separate time to “fit God into our homeschool.” Faith is part of our homeschool.

We can talk about God throughout the day. We can pray. We can learn about saints. We can stop and have a conversation about something we’re reading. And perhaps most importantly, my kids get to see me live my faith. They see Mom open her Bible. They see Mom pray. They see Mom have hard days and come back to God. They see that faith isn’t something we only practice on Sunday. And I’m beginning to see little pieces of that taking root in them.

My oldest has started developing her own little faith routine with a devotional in the morning and prayer at night. That is something I will never take for granted.

10. We can take care of our bodies and our needs.

I love that my kids don’t have to ask permission to get a drink of water or use the bathroom. If they’re hungry, they can eat. And I’m able to be intentional about the food we have available throughout the day. We talk about how different foods make our bodies feel and why our bodies need good nutrition. We still eat fruit snacks. We still have treats. We’re not trying to create some perfectly healthy household. But I love having the opportunity to teach them about food in the context of everyday life.

11. Extracurriculars don’t feel as exhausting.

When my kids were in school, sports and activities could feel like one more thing. They had already been gone all day. Then we’d rush home, try to eat supper, get ready, and head back out. Sometimes they wanted to go to their activity but also desperately wanted to stay home. Now they have had time at home during the day, and they actually look forward to getting out and seeing people.

It’s a completely different feeling.

12. We can rest when we need to.

If someone has a stomachache, we don’t have to spend the morning wondering if they’re “sick enough” to miss school.

We can read a book.

We can do a little school.

We can take a break.

We can adjust the day.

We also have the freedom to sleep an after a late night with family or a special event. And yes, when I say “sleep in,” I’m talking about 30 minutes.

My kids aren’t sleeping until 10 a.m. My kids are early risers no matter what time they go to bed. 😂

But that extra 30 minutes can make a difference, along with a slower less rushed morning.

13. I’ve watched their confidence grow.

This one is close to my heart. My oldest used to be incredibly shy. She struggled to get up in front of people. She struggled to make decisions. New situations could be really overwhelming for her.

And I’ve watched her confidence grow—dare I say skyrocket! I’ve watched all of my kids become more comfortable figuring out who they are. They still get nervous. They still have moments of anxiety about something new. That’s normal. Hello to every adult in the real world right now. But instead of rushing them through those feelings, we can work through them at their own pace.

And I think there is something powerful about giving children space to grow into who God created them to be without constantly feeling like they need to fit into a certain mold.

14. For our family, it has been more affordable.

This is a very practical one. We were using private school, and in order for all of our kids to attend, I would have needed to teach there full-time to receive free tuition. But then we would also have had daycare expenses for our younger kids. When we looked at the numbers, homeschooling simply made more financial sense for our family.

But Homeschooling Has Cons Too.

I don’t want to write a post about the pros of homeschooling without talking about the hard parts.

Because there are hard parts.

There is no real “clocking out.”

This was something I thought about a lot before we started homeschooling. My husband works long hours, weekends, and emergency calls can happen at any time. He isn’t someone who comes home at 5 p.m. every day and takes over so I can have the evening to myself. So I knew I needed to prepare myself mentally for the reality that I was going to be with my kids a lot.

There are days when I have to choose between doing the dishes and taking ten minutes to myself.

And sometimes the dishes win. Sometimes I don’t. And vise versa. I’ve learned that taking care of myself isn’t selfish. When I take time to pray, read my Bible, or simply sit for a moment, I show up differently for my family.

The weight of their education can feel heavy.

This one surprised me. I have an education degree.

I literally went to college to learn how to teach children.

And yet, when it comes to my own children, I still have that little voice asking:

Am I doing enough?

Are they learning enough?

What if I’m failing them?

What if I missed something?

There isn’t someone else to blame if something doesn’t go well. The responsibility feels very real. I’ve had to learn to surrender that to God.

I can do my best.

I can be intentional.

I can educate them.

And I can trust God to fill in the gaps where I can’t.

The house is not going to stay clean.

If you need a perfectly clean house to feel like your life is together, homeschooling might be a little uncomfortable. Because when everyone is home all day…the house is lived in.

There are dishes.

There are books.

There are toys.

There are projects.

There are meals.

And as soon as you clean one thing, someone needs something else. I’m still learning how to build in resets because, honestly, we don’t do enough of them.

You have to have some discipline.

It’s really easy to turn on the tv or hand someone an iPad. It’s really easy to say, “They’re happy and quiet. I’ll just leave them alone.” We have to be intentional about our boundaries. For our family, we keep screen time pretty limited. We have a weekly movie night, occasionally watch something educational during lunch, and sometimes watch a saint story.

But overall, I want my kids to play.

I want them to use their imaginations.

I want them to be bored sometimes.

And that requires discipline on my part too.

You can’t send them away on a hard day.

There are days when you think,

“Maybe I should just send you to school.”

And sometimes I actually say it. And my kids immediately respond, “NO!” 😂

But there are days when you desperately wish you could just have a quiet house for a few hours.

And you can. You have to work through the hard day together.

Sick days can be really hard.

Especially when you have little ones.

Trying to homeschool while taking care of a sick child, a baby, and everyone else who still needs breakfast, lunch, snacks, clean clothes, and attention?

It’s a lot. Those days are hard. But they’re also a season.

My babies aren’t going to need me like this forever.

Every year, every month, every day, they become a little more independent.

You have to push through the lazy days.

Especially in the winter.

When it’s freezing outside and everyone is cozy and the kids are happily playing, it can be very tempting to say, “We’ll just skip school today.” Sometimes we do. But we can’t make that our everyday routine.

Homeschooling requires discipline. Not perfection.

But discipline. There are days when I have to say, “Okay, guys. Let’s get started.” And we do the next right thing.

So… Would I Recommend Homeschooling?

I don’t think that’s really my question to answer.

Every family is different.

Every child is different.

Every season is different.

For us, homeschooling has brought so many beautiful things into our family.

More time together.

More flexibility.

More opportunities to learn through real life.

More time with grandparents.

More sibling connection.

More opportunities to weave our faith into everyday life.

And yes, there are hard days.

But I don’t need homeschooling to be perfect for it to be right for our family right now.

And I don’t know if I’ll homeschool all the way through.

I really don’t.

I take it year by year.

And I trust that God will lead us where He wants us to go. Because ultimately, that’s the part that matters most to me. I get to be intentional about my children’s education, but I don’t have to carry it all by myself.

I can plan.

I can choose curriculum.

I can create routines.

I can make mistakes.

I can change things when they aren’t working.

And through all of it, I can bring it to God and ask Him to lead me.

And that’s where Abide: Taking Motherhood Back has become such a meaningful part of my motherhood.

One thing I’ve been learning more and more is that motherhood isn’t something I have to simply survive.

Motherhood is kingdom work.

The ordinary things matter.

The reading lessons.

The sibling arguments.

The meals.

The discipline.

The Bible opened on the table.

The prayers whispered while making lunch.

The child asking a random question about jousting.

The moments when I wonder if I’m doing enough.

All of it can be brought to God.

That’s what Abide has helped me remember.

And I love that Abide isn’t something I use once and then put away forever.

I’m not the same mom I was when I first started homeschooling. I’m not going to be the same mom next year either. Different seasons bring different struggles. So I can keep coming back to it.

I can open it when I need to reset my heart.

I can sit with a page again.

I can reflect on something differently because I’m different now.

And maybe that’s what I love most about this season of motherhood.

I’m not trying to have it all figured out.

I’m simply trying to stay close to God, love these kids well, and do the next right thing.

One year at a time.

One day at a time.

One ordinary moment at a time.

And trusting God to meet me there. 🤍