What is the point of learning?
If you learn to count but never count your blessings why bother?
Of what use is the skill of drawing if you never see the beauty or share it with someone you love?
Drawing maps and learning the names of countries is of little value if you never learn their history, their stories, seek to understand their culture or enjoy the beauty of their language, their art, their people.
The learning of names of letters, sounds and words is just one more boring exercise if there are no stories to read, lives to explore, rhymes to giggle at and poems that share the loveliness of another's soul.
School is a privilege that is wasted if the students don't understand the reasons for their writing, reading, spelling and music, their geography, math, science and Physical Education. They may go calmly forward never realizing that within those books, behind those pictures and inside those hearts are joys, pains, glories and meaning beyond human comprehension. The mysteries that unfold for those who seek can make a life full and overflowing.
We are here for the learning to have joy in the journey............and I choose to make mine with my children because I love the sparkle I see in their eyes......and we laughingly give it an inadequate description (a grade) and call it Homeschool.