Guest Post :: Homeschool Encouragement

I’m excited to have a guest post from Laurie @ Keeping it Simple.  She is the mom of seven children, four of whom have graduated from homeschool.  She offers a wonderful perspective and great encouragement.  I know you will benefit from reading and pondering this post!  Thanks Laurie!

I told Jen I’d be happy to write a guest post. I’m honored!! But what to say? I am not one of those fabulous bloggers who have tons of original ideas. I simply write, for the most part, about the daily life around our crazy household. In pondering the question, it occurred to me that the one thing that I do have is the perspective of having graduated four students. I am working with our three youngest (all boys) for this final stretch, but that is another story!

Thinking back to the beginning of this journey, I clearly remember that first day of homeschool with my three little girls sitting around our worn kitchen table and me standing there, quaking in my size 9 Keds. We had pulled our girls out of a less than positive situation at the school we had recently moved to be close to! This was not what I had expected.

And then there was the fact that we were HOMESCHOOLING! The terror of it all. I attended a seminar that gave homeschool parents information on how to react if and when social services showed up to our door take our children away. This was complete with a skit- actually two skits. One skit was to show the wrong way and one to show the right way to interact with the social services workers when this seemingly inevitable event occurred. Whew. It was a lot to take on. And, honestly, the atmosphere was slightly more hostile back then. To this very green homeschooling mom, it was nerve wrecking.

So, there I was. I wasn’t thinking what next. Would I ruin my kids for life? Will they get in to college? I was just hoping to survive the day. And survive we did. Twenty years later, I am still here happily homeschooling my children.

I thought you might like to know what did happen next. Did I screw them up for life? Did they go to college? What do they think of homeschooling?

I’ll start with the fact that I did indeed screw up all the time. The good news is that children are far more resilient than we give them credit for. That is not a pass to behave badly- just saying that it happens. Move on and do better next time. Three of my girls went to and graduated from college, and one is just graduating from a salon academy.

And, I asked them what they thought of homeschooling. I was almost a little afraid to!

Michelle (third oldest of our tribe), who is an Occupational Therapist, wrote this:

“Homeschooling didn’t “spoon feed” me information in a “standardized” manor. While a lot of lessons were given to me, I feel like homeschooling taught me to find the answers. You always told me to try and figure things out first, then ask questions. I remember thinking, “Come on mom! Can’t you just tell me the answer?” It would save so much time!” I didn’t really understand why this was important until college and “real life”. Answers and solutions to all your problems aren’t given to you in real life.  This skill has made me feel more comfortable approaching unfamiliar situations, school assignments and jobs knowing that if I don’t know the answer, I can find it.”

Michelle also shared this:

“Don’t know if you can include this… but you allowed me a lot of freedom with crafts and, well, whatever else I was getting in to. When else in my life will I have time to do all those things! I am so glad I wasn’t pressured in to sitting down at a desk all day.”

Erin, our fourth born and most recent graduate, shared with me that she feels she was better prepared to be in the “real world” than some of her counterparts at the technical school she is attending. 

In her words:

“To me, when I think of homeschooling, it is more than just an educational choice. It is a lifestyle. It’s hard for me to distinguish things that homeschooling has given me verses what I have taken from my family’s values and our way of life. Growing up, I had the opportunity to focus my learning on subjects that interested me most at that time. Not only that, I had the flexibility to arrange my time such that I was able to play and coach soccer, be the event coordinator for my youth group, volunteer countless hours, and so many other things I felt passionate about. Something I have noticed at school is my peer’s lack of passion… for learning, family, religion, and really life in general.”

I thought it was interesting that in talking with my girls that they each touched on the fact that they feel homeschooling prepared them to think for themselves. In the “real world” they were surprised how often their peers just accepted answers, even ones that were clearly not logical, without question.

But would they choose to homeschool their children?

Shauna, oldest of the our children and graduate of a teaching prep program, shares her family’s decision:

“When my husband and I first started talking about school it was a tad bit stressful … He had made many wonderful friends through the school system and didn’t want his kids to miss out on that opportunity. I had a wonderful experience being homeschooled and felt that I would want to homeschool. It wasn’t until we had children of our own that my husband jumped on board 100%. He realized that our children could have all the same opportunities to make friends that he had, and he saw the educational benefits.”

Jessica, who has two little ones, hasn’t said absolutely no to homeschooling during the younger years, but feels sure her children will go to a traditional school when they are older for sports.

Michelle told me that she was surprised that her happily private schooled husband responded to his friends’ inquiry about where they would send their (theoretical) children to school by saying “I think I’d like to homeschool our kids”, pointing out that it offers a more flexible schedule and the opportunity control what the kids are exposed to.

Erin finds it funny that people expect her to either be fanatically for or completely against homeschooling. She feels that it depends on the family and their needs.

As the years have gone by, I have seen that despite my shortcomings and even because of them, that my girls have thrived. They have had the dreaded gaps in their education. And, I often failed to provide them with the consistency that is best. I realize now that there is no perfect homeschool. I prayed and I did the best I could, but my girls took it from there. Next up- the boys! We’ll see how that turns out.