Ever get the "look"  from someone after you inform them that you homeschool?  You know the "Why on earth would you..." look?  I've received a few of those and it moved me to come up with this of handy answers for the next time someone wants to know just why we homeschool.

1.  We wanted to teach our beliefs within the curriculum.

2.  We wanted to give our children individual attention and cater to their individual learning styles.

3.  We are part of the Witness Protection Program (Don't tell, o.k.?)

4.  We want our children's days to be filled with learning not lining up.

5.  We wanted our dog to attend school with our kids. (She's already progressed a grade level!)

6.  We are helping our child with a learning delay or disability and feel the public school system would not meet his needs.

7.  We do not believe in spending half the instructional time teaching a test to validate the educational system.

8.  We want to win The Spelling Bee.

9.  We feel our home environment is a safe refuge from drugs, violence, prejudice and moral decay.

10.  We are spending hours of study in our home and dedicating our lives to find out if homeschool is one word...or two.

Teresa Higginbotham is a freelance writer and homeschooling mom. You can subscribe to her newsletter, The Frugal Homeschooler by sending an email to frugalhomeschooler-subscribe@topica.com and receive articles written by other homeschooling moms and save money with her ever changing list of freebies for homeschooling.   She also writes articles about frugal living and has two websites:  Tightwad Tess at http://www.tightwadtess.com and The Frugal Homeschooler at http://pages.ivillage.com/frugalhomeschooler.