I was asked why I homeschool, again. Sigh. (How not to answer in essay format.) After eleven years, I have so many reasons now. So how do I be succinct? This is why my family homeschools. And I share the book (& the 8 reasons) that convinced me in one week. Get your 19 Tips for New Home Learners Why my family homeschools? Because living in this world, and discovering all that it has to offer is intriguing, interesting, and energizing; and I wouldn’t want to do it without those that have been placed in my care for an abbreviated time. I want to learn to live and learn about life with my family for the days we are given together. I picked up a book on our spring vacation to a resort mountain town over a decade ago. I had a spare afternoon, an opportunity to leave my three little girls with my husband and go out for an afternoon, to do nothing. No unfinished phone calls, no bookkeeping, no housekeeping, no childcare. This was a free afternoon, and there weren’t many of them as I had three kids under six. I’d finished my most recently borrowed library books. No extra books sitting on my nightstand. An exciting crossroads—carefree and bookless. I ventured to the chic bookstore on the main street, and perused bookshelves–if reading was something I was born to do, I was in the right place. Thumbing my way through the parenting section, I came upon a book entitled: The Homeschooling Option: How to Decide When It’s Right for Your Family. (No, it is not! I thought.) So many acquaintances were going in the homeschool direction. * I’m not looking for a mission to step outside the crowd and be different. I’m a mainstream kinda gal.* I don’t have kids with behavioural troubles in school–just a little sassiness and arguing at home. * No one is complaining of bullying. (If anything, my oldest is a social butterfly with clever ideas to keep her friends engaged.) I decided I would read the book to determine why I wouldn’t homeschool, then I would have my reasoned arguments and get on with the busyness of family life. Was it the first chapter or the second where I began to identify? 1. Did public education inspire a desire for learning for me? To me, it felt like a holding station, keeping me back from living the rest of my life. To me, it was a place I wrestled with my identity, responded to social labels, and uneasily engaged in uncertain peer interactions. Did I learn? I suppose there were things I learned. I remember a keen grade 7 math teacher who seemed fun and as relevant as Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society. I remember a grade 12 teacher, though she was far from fun, made her quick judgment on me correctly as she stopped me in a hallway one day and said, “I see some kids that read and I see some kids that watch television, you need to pick up a book.” And though her judgment didn’t serve me or propel me toward reading or writing or anything academic, rather it highlighted my sense of inadequacy, she saw me and she was right. My tv-watching coping mechanism helped me survive my ...