Why Bother Homeschooling?

The most basic answer I've come up with so far is that the school system we live in is messed up and I don't want my children stuck in it. Our church has a school, but it's not distinctively Christian enough for me to feel comfortable sending my kids there. Another private school option is simply too expensive. Yet all of this makes it sound as if those who choose those options are not choosing the best for their children, which I don't think is true at all. I know excellent parents who choose each one of these options, for excellent reasons, and their choice is truly the best for their family. It's just not the best for our family.
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My younger sister, who became a teacher herself, told me when I entered college that I should become a teacher. She recognized that education is extremely important to me and I do have the ability to educate others. I responded that as much as I might enjoy tutoring, I didn't want to deal with classroom management (a significant problem teachers in our school district have to work with every day). It was the right decision. I much prefer the smaller classrooms and the greater range of authority to deal with problems that homeschool offers than I would have endured in our local schools.
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Since I was myself homeschooled for most of my K-12 years, I've been asked many times since then whether I would choose to homeschool my own children. My response has always been that it would depend on what was best for my family and for the particular children entrusted to us. Now that our daughters' personalities have emerged so clearly, the question for us has become whether our oldest will go stir-crazy at home (she's an extrovert extraordinaire) and whether it's catering to her weakness to allow our shy younger daughter to stay home.
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For our oldest, I'm concerned that she wouldn't get her work done in a public/private school. She might very well distract her classmates, trying to interact with them when they're all supposed to be doing book-work. I'm also concerned that her peers would influence her too much in that setting: that she would respond to whatever they think and say rather than thinking it through herself. But the classroom isn't the only opportunity for social interaction. She'll interact with friends at church every Sunday morning, with the same and other friends at our Christian prayer group every Sunday afternoon, with the child(ren) I babysit (currently one regular 2 days/wk and other visitors 1/month), with new friends and old through the extracurricular classes we plan to enroll her in (e.g. swim class, homeschool swaps, choir; we plan to keep her in at least one or another throughout the whole year), with playdate friends, with weekly and special occasion extended family get-togethers, regular interaction with senior citizens we're cultivating relationships with, various individuals and groups we eat Sabbath meals with every week. She won't see the same 30 classmates every day of the school year, but she also won't be lacking any social stimulation. Instead, her socialization will continue to extend beyond her peers, giving her a broader vision for relating and serving in God's family.
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Our younger daughter will get all the same socialization opportunities. Her natural tendency is the opposite of her sister: she would clam up, ignore people, and avoid interactions outside of our immediate family. As we've encouraged her and taught her how she's expected to react in various situations, we've seen a great deal of improvement in her. She will usually now greet guests to our home, most of the time with a hug, even when she has never met the person before. We've told her repeatedly that she's not to ignore people when they ask her a question, and she's doing much better at it. She used to avoid speaking in public situations, maybe whispering to me if she really needed to but certainly causing a few to ask me, "She does talk at home, right??" Now she seems comfortable in public speaking in a normal voice to me (even though others can overhear her) and is doing better at responding to questions directed at her by others. She's still not likely to take the initiative with anyone outside her closest sphere of relationships, but at least she knows she has to respond. We'll be keeping her in the same type of social situations as her sister so she can continue practicing her important skills and pushing the limits of her comfort zone.
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Our family schedule can change, of course, but there's no reason to go out of our way to adjust it to a school's schedule when it's accomplishing such good things for us. We're able to eat breakfast together and have a family prayer time every morning (my husband doesn't go to work until 10ish). We would lose these if we had to leave the house by 8 or so every morning. We don't mind adjusting sometimes for opportunities that are important enough for us (like our 1/wk Christian preschool program or occasional swim lessons for 2 weeks), but adjusting it so drastically 5 days/wk doesn't seem worth it to me. Even more so with my husband's work schedule making it impossible to eat dinner with him on weekdays. We would lose that daily family meal and our daily family prayertime and our children's daily personal prayertime for .... what?? No, thank you!
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My husband and I have hopes for the future which will be so much easier to accomplish with homeschooling than with traditional schools. He has taken the leadership in cultivating relationships with several senior citizens we know. He has wonderful memories of other similar relationships from his grandparents, great-grandmother, and neighbors growing up. Now he is creating those memories with our children, mostly by calling someone up and asking if he can bring our daughters by to eat a light lunch together: toast perhaps. While the three of them eat with the couple or the single person, they often bring out a coloring page or read a short story to the girls or bring out the toys their children and grandchildren like(d). It's a wonderful opportunity, cherished by our daughters and by their hosts. Our schedule hasn't allowed this to happen in awhile, but our daughters still seek out those older people they have relationships with whenever they see them in other settings. Our daughters pray for their needs, they give hugs, they bring pictures they've colored as presents. As we approach the fall, we need to make arrangements for those lunch dates to happen again. While my husband is MUCH more comfortable than I am calling people up to invite himself over, if his schedule doesn't allow for it then I think I need to step out of my comfort zone to make it happen.
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Homeschooling is not the best choice for every family. I'm excited for the opportunity to use it for our family though, as I'm sure it's the best for us.
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Linked with Works for Me Wednesday and Modest Mom