I posted last week that we kicked off our third year of homeschool. 
Mid-second week things are still going great…mostly. I haven’t quite figured out how to balance the whole three kids, homeschooling, and keeping up with housework thing yet, lol. My super supportive husband has taken up the slack for now, bless him! <3
Anyway, I met up with two different groups of awesome homeschool moms yesterday, and both times heard people talking about how crazy others think homeschooling is, and the pushback they get from friends and family, and the general notion that homeschooling your kids is not normal. 🙁
Side note: I realized that having been homeschooled, I don’t really face that. I get the occasional remark from acquaintances, but my family is supportive, I have friends that were homeschooled, and my friends that know I was homeschooled don’t tend to call it crazy even if that’s what they think. 😉
Homeschool moms, know that your kids will someday feel so much freedom in choosing what form of education will be best for their kids…so there’s that little bonus.
OK, back to my main point. Apparently there’s this notion that homeschooling is just too out there, too hard, too risky, or whatever, for average people to do it.
It makes me sad that families may be in a situation where other schooling options aren’t working, but they feel stuck because something looked upon as crazy must not be viable. So I want to address the notion that this is crazy.
If you’re considering homeschooling but it sounds insane, or you think there’s no way you could pull it off, or you believe only some sort of semi-mythical super mom could do it, or whatever…the rest of this post is dedicated to you.
(I’m not actually sure what all the points against homeschool are, so if I don’t address your concern, let me know…but here’s what I have to say about the main ones I know of.)
1. I don’t know how to teach.
You don’t have to. You know your own kids better than anyone, and that’s really the most important thing. There are sooo many aids out there to help you with all the rest. There’s curriculum that tells you exactly what to do, online programs and DVDs that teach for you, co-ops you can join, and conventions where you can learn from others.
And can I just say…my Mom wasn’t a certified teacher, but she did an excellent job of teaching us. I was a National Merit Commended Scholar. I made about a 29 on my ACT, I don’t remember exactly, but it was well above the national average, and I received a perfect score on the reading portion. You don’t have to have special training, or know all about everything, or whatever you think a homeschool mom has to have…you can simply jump in, and your kids can excel academically.
2. My kids won’t have enough social interaction.
Believe me, your kids can absolutely spend a ton of time socializing if that’s important to you. There are soo many groups you can be a part of, where, by the way, they’ll make friends with kids of all ages. You can finish lessons each day in significantly less time than public school, so there’s actually more time available to do fun stuff. Plus there are dance classes and sports teams and all kinds of other things your kids can do where they can make friends.
To be honest, I’m introverted and would generally rather spend my Friday night reading than at a party. But that’s just my personality. I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I was homeschooled. My siblings each have their own personalities and varying levels of introversion and extroversion.
3. I would go crazy if I didn’t get a break from my kids.
This is probably the toughest one. There are moments when I feel like it would be soo great to have some time to myself. But as another homeschool mom put it, you just get used to it. You figure out what works for you. Maybe you have quiet times when your kids have to stay in their room and look at books for an hour. Or you let them watch Super Why while you sip coffee in the other room and recharge. Or you pay the oldest two to watch the baby for an hour while you clean up the kitchen without interference….maybe that last one is just me, but whatever. 😉
It can be rough. But it can also be incredible. Last week, Artist told me she was so glad she got to be homeschooled. I asked her why, figuring she’d mention one of the fun things we’d done, like sewing a bear or making slime worms with her kids chemistry set. But she exclaimed, “Because I get to spend time with you!”
I don’t know if we’ll homeschool forever, but right now I wouldn’t trade it for the world. And I promise you, I am sooo far from any sort of super-mom it’s laughable. (If you don’t believe me, scroll though some of my past posts…like this one, or this one…or maybe this one.) Yeaaah. If I can do this, anyone can!
It’s nice to get affirmation that I am not crazy….so thanks for that. This is our first year home schooling after two years in public school. There are a slew of reasons we decided not to return to ‘school school’ this year, but ironically one of them is that trying to keep up with the ridiculous demands of school seemed much more trying than just doing it ourselves. for the past two years we have been inundated with events that we felt pressured to attend even though many of them had nothing to do with anything our child was actually interested in…pressured to keep up with crazy homework demands that rarely addressed anything my child actually needed extra practice in (waste.of.time.)…pressured to get him on the bus at the crack of dawn to get to school on time (my son wakes up at 6 am every day on his own, but it’s nice to actually be able to sit and have a real breakfast with each other these days and ease into the school day peacefully). I was worried I would need a break from him too, but I actually think I have more time to myself now than I did before. Our academic day is done very quickly (and we are already 1/3 of the way through his second grade math curriculum AND we are doing two maths at the same time!). After that, he tends to have projects he wants to work on or we all ride our bikes to the park and the kids play while I read my Kindle. Sometimes I will find something on Netflix that supports our curriculum (lots of great documentaries on there) and the kids will watch that while I squeeze in some house work or me time. I do not have to worry about rushing anyone out the door anymore or worry about rushing home at 3pm to meet the bus. Our schedule is our own to do whatever we like with. The quality of the work he produces at home is so much better than what he did at school because he knows I won’t let it slide. He has more accountability, yet far more freedom at the same time. So far…it has been lovely. This winter, we have ski passes and intend to take full advantage of being able to ski midweek when no one else is on the mountain (being that we are now not even one hour from the slopes! Woohoo!) So, yeah, we are pretty pleased all the way around.