Simply Read: Why on this good green earth would anyone ever CHOOSE to homeschool?

This is a big one. When ever I meet other homeschoolers I always ask why? Why on this good green earth would you ever CHOOSE to homeschool??? (of course I don't use those exact words, but thats what I'm thinking inside).

I remember the first time I met a homeschool mom. I was her visiting teacher (a calling in our church where we visit families that we are assigned to each month, we pray for them, give them a spiritual message and help them when they need it). She told me she had pulled her kids out of the nice comfy brand spankin' new school up the street and decided to homeschool them instead. "WHY?" I practically yelled as I tried to keep myself from falling off the couch, and realized my jaw must be sitting on the floor by this point.

I mean, lets think about it for a minute. You get to send your kids to an institution for 7 beautifully glorious peaceful hours a day for FREE! (kinda free, since we all pay a ridiculous about of taxes for this free education). Um, where do I sign up?

I was a young mom, i guess i'm still kind of a young mom, kind of... I have a toddler, so I think I still fit in that category.

I had 3 kids at home at the time, a five year old, a 3 year old and a baby. I was barely keeping my head above water. My husband had started a new business, I was living in Texas away from family. I was overwhelmed with little people that needed me ALL THE TIME and I was counting down the days for my turn to partake of the free daycare/education center up the street. Seriously. Counting. Down. The. Days.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my kids, but little people are demanding and messing and cry and poop. I needed a break and this was it! (plus, I wasn't qualified to teach kids things like how to read and write, you need a degree for the type of thing).

Its what we do. We sign our tiny little 5 year olds up for school because thats what our parents did and thats what their parents did before them.

Besides only weird people homeschool. AM I RIGHT?!

Please that choose to keep their kids home ALL DAY are weird, so ya. Weird people for sure.

So you can imagine my utter concern and mind blowing wonder at why this nice lady would EVER consider such a laborious exhausting task of keeping her kids home ALL DAY ER' DAY and taking on the huge responsibility of teaching them!

And then, I asked "where are you kids"? Because the house was silent, not a kid in sight. She said they were upstairs working. Again, I'm pretty sure my jaw was hanging open again. Could this be real? First she tells me she is homeschooling, a death sentence, then she tells me that her kids are working quietly without supervision?

I laughed inside, thinking of the damage that she would find upstairs after we left her home. There would be sharpie drawings on the wall, paper dolls cut out of the new bed sheets, and paint in the carpet, but hey, to each their own. She is the crazy person choosing this lifestyle, not me!

I was going home to mark off another day until kindergarten round up! Sucka'!