Sharing the joys of homeschooling

[RavenStar]

Hello homeschoolers and those considering homeschooling,

I would love to start a thread to talk about what we love about homeschooling.

I am also curious what gifts homeschooling has given to your families, maybe some unexpected ones.

I'll share one.

When I first started homeschooling, I made a list of reasons why I wanted to homeschool.  One of my reasons was, and is, to be able to spend more time with my children.  I knew if they went to school, I would miss out on a huge part of their lives.  I also knew that A's younger sister would miss her a ton.

The gift I am seeing now, after 4 months of homeschooling, is my two daughters becoming closer and becoming good friends.  Maybe part of it is where they are in their development.  I believe a big part is the quality time we're spending together.  It's so wonderful to see.

I would love to hear your stories.  Thank you in advance! :)

[mrsmischief]

Your talk of quality time made me smile, RavenStar. QT is such a beautiful part of home education.

I have relished being able to see many of my daughter's intellectual firsts, including first book read, just as much as I did seeing her first steps when she was a nine month old wee baby. Witnessing her development in other ways, being there when she designed her first 'real' experiment on her own or when the beginning of one of her passions was starting to come together or those moments when a concept she's been struggling with suddenly clicks in her mind and becomes crystal clear, all of these have been such cherished parts of the "gift of time" aspect of homeschooling to me.

In the past few days I have found myself reflecting on a benefit of homeschooling suddenly becoming of the utmost importance for my daughter. My family is just a few months away from moving, our first military move with an "officially" school age child, and I'm feeling extremely grateful for the stability home education will be giving my daughter through our move. Although our address changes, her teacher, ongoing projects and education will not and she will not be required to be enrolled into a strange new school immediately upon unpacking on the other end, nor will she need to worry about new rules, subject matter, or feeling lost in the education related changes.

On a rational level I always knew the educational choice my husband and I made for our daughter would make this stability hers, but feeling the emotional reality and relief for the first time is amazing. My husband switched schools many times over the course of his father's career and I know he's feeling the blessings of homeschooling even more than I am right now. Our daughter will not have to go through some of the moving related struggles that he did. 

[mom2mygirls]

For me I just started homeschooling this month and so far I love it I love being able to teach my kids and spending time with them.

[onlyzombiecat]

Originally Posted by RavenStar 

Hello homeschoolers and those considering homeschooling,

I would love to start a thread to talk about what we love about homeschooling.

I am also curious what gifts homeschooling has given to your families, maybe some unexpected ones.

My dd is 12 years old and has always been homeschooled.

I love our flexibility and the control we have over our lives.

Dd has a big say in her own education.

Our schedule is set by us. We go at dd's pace. We homeschool year round. We take days off when we want to. If we are sick we stay home and rest.

If something doesn't work for us we can stop and find some other resource or method right away instead of painfully slogging through for a whole year.

I'm not more organized or more patient than any other parent starting out. My patience has grown over time. I've learned to be more organized.

It is fun a lot of the time.

Dd likes doing stuff with dh or me. Dd and I hang out, play and talk together. She is also very good about entertaining herself though.

I think dd has learned to do things for herself instead of being told to do them.

No constant pressure to fit in or be more mature. Dd wears what she likes, watches or listens to what she likes, and plays with what she likes. I think it is cool how unique her interests are and how much of an individual she truly is.

My surprise gift is that dd is not a homeschool genius. She is better at some subjects than others but she has some real challenges.

She has struggled mightly with basic math and it has been great to see her progress. I feel much prouder of that effort on her part than the fact that she is naturally good at spelling. At times it has been frustrating for me and my pride suffered a bit, but I think it has helped me to grow enormously as a person. Homeschooling isn't about dd being better than everyone else- it is about helping her grow to be her best no matter where that is.

[Echosmom]

Hello all, my dd is only 22 months old, we are planning to start HSing march on next year when she is three. I cannot share something from a teaching perspective, but as a HSd child I can share about mine and why we are choosing HSing for our daughter.

My husband is dyslexic, he was treated as special ed in school because they claimed he was incapable of learning. He's extremely intelligent but can hardly read. He has to really work at it AND the subject matter has to interest him.

I was HSd through most of elementary school, my mother gave me the option to go to public school when we moved and I really wanted to go. I'm bright and adaptive so I did well. I was placed in 5th grade but I was young so half way through I was moved to 4th. I finished 4th, went back through 5th and finished high school with honors. I truly enjoyed HSing and wish I hadn't chosen to go to public school. But I wouldn't have met my wonderful husband.

So, I'm here because were thinking of using oak meadow curr and I wondered if anyone had used them?

Thanks!

[RavenStar]

mrsmischief: I feel the same way about being there for our children's "firsts".  It's very powerful.  How wonderful that homeschooling will make the transition easier for your daughter.

mom2mygirls: So great that you are loving homeschooling and being with your girls!

onlyzombiecat:  Flexibility is a huge benefit.  Thanks for sharing your insights.  It's so good to be able to tailor things to our children's individual needs.

Echosmom:  Thanks for sharing your story and your husband's story.  We are really taking homeschooling year by year.  If our daughter really wanted to try school, she could.  I often wonder what her experience would be.  I think it would be a big adjustment.

I'm currently using Oak Meadow's first grade curriculum. I like it because it gives us some structure and it allows for flexibility.  We do the parts that work for us and supplement as needed.  They have a sale in the spring.

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories!

[CrunchyMama19]

We recently started HSing. We sent DD to public school for half a year of kindergarten and then pulled her out. I am so glad we are homeschooling now.

1. I love the time spent together. Sometimes it is a LOT, DD1 is an intense kid. But I felt like I was missing an entire chunk of her life when she was in school and didn't feel as connected to her.

2. I love the laid back atmosphere. DD doesn't have to get upset if she messes up on a sight word or worry about falling behind. She can learn as she is able, what she wants to, when she wants to.

3. I love the flexibility. DH works shifts and homeschool allows us to have weekends when he has them. We can travel when we want, don't have to worry about missing work when we are sick, or take time off if she simply needs a break. She can get up and wiggle anytime she needs too (and she needs to a lot, what 5 yo doesn't?). I love how this allows us to be outside and in nature instead of stuck in a brick building all day.

4. I love how close DD1 and DD2 are becoming!

5. I love how DD1 has the oppurtunity to learn real life skills by being at home and living life instead of just book learning.

[Smokering]

Well, we've only been officially homeschooling for a week. But so far, I love:

-Learning about ancient Egypt. I studied it about fifteen times as a kid, but it's far more interesting to me now. I'm learning about faience, and the status of women in society, and hieroglyphs; and we found a really neat six-part BBC documentary series on the subject.

-Not having to deal with starting DD off at school! Picking a school sounds ghastly enough, let alone dealing with uniforms, stationery, PTAs, lunch-packing, waking up early in the morning, driving out twice a day to drop her off and pick her up (or worse, dealing with carpool politics)... DH's parents sat DH down the other day and urged him to "seriously reconsider" homeschooling on the grounds that sending her to school would be less stressful. Good thing I wasn't there; I would have laughed in their faces.

-I love that DS doesn't have to spend most of the day without DD. He'd be lonesome! They play together really well and adore each other.

[JennyM]

Hi,

I am new here on these boards. I hope you don't mind that I jump right in and add my joys of homeschooling?  

I love that I am the one that gets to see the look on her face when she gets something. I love seeing her enjoy what she is learning and want to learn more. 

When I was just thinking of homeschooling one of the reasons was I wanted to provide my daughter with many different kind of experiences.  To teach her to think outside the box. To have plenty of hands on experience. To teach her how she learns. Even if it means to keep on trying to we find what works.   I love that we are doing all this.  I am glad that she isn't being taught to take the test.  

My daughter is the youngest and is being raised as an only child my boys are so much older then her and out of the house.  Both joined the army.  I love that homeschooling gives me the flexibility to travel to both their basic training graduations and my youngest son's ait graduation.  That we have also been able to pick up at a moments notice when we found out  my son's were about to deploy and get to send them off.  or when we found out my youngest was on his way home from deployment and meet his plane at the base.  If she was in school we would never have had the ability to take her out of school for all these important events.  

I like that I can tailor the work to how she learns, we can move forward when she gets it or stay longer on a subject when she needs more time with it.  

One of my biggest joys is being home with her and actually enjoy being with her.  That we are not rushed to get to school spend all day apart to only come home and do homework then bed and start all over again. I have been there with my son's. I am blessed to have support from them and my husband to do it differently with my daughter.  

[RavenStar]

CrunchyMamal9:  I feel the same way about the things you mentioned.  I want to be part of her life, I love the flexibility and life learning.  Thanks for responding!

Smokering:  I hear you about not having to wake up early and be on that school schedule.  I also love how DD and her sister get to be together.  I love ancient Egypt too. :)

JennyM:  Of course you can respond!  I love all of those things too. 

"I love that I am the one that gets to see the look on her face when she gets something. I love seeing her enjoy what she is learning and want to learn more. 

When I was just thinking of homeschooling one of the reasons was I wanted to provide my daughter with many different kind of experiences.  To teach her to think outside the box. To have plenty of hands on experience. To teach her how she learns. Even if it means to keep on trying to we find what works."   So awesome! 

Thank you everyone for sharing! 

[SweetSilver]

I love the freedom of HSing-- freedom of time and direction and whatever else.

What has surprised me is the directions our child-led learning has taken us-- far more interesting, I think, than anything I might have devised myself.  And the sequence as well.  I am still wriggling out of the "knowledge" that a 6yo learns X, then Y, and not Z until they are 8 and had a complete understanding of X and Y.  What?  Figure out Y, then dabble in Z a bit, shortly after figuring out X?  Apparently.........

[RavenStar]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

I love the freedom of HSing-- freedom of time and direction and whatever else.

What has surprised me is the directions our child-led learning has taken us-- far more interesting, I think, than anything I might have devised myself.  And the sequence as well.  I am still wriggling out of the "knowledge" that a 6yo learns X, then Y, and not Z until they are 8 and had a complete understanding of X and Y.  What?  Figure out Y, then dabble in Z a bit, shortly after figuring out X?  Apparently.........

SweetSilver:  I love the freedom too!  Homeschooling brings a real sense of freedom into our whole family.

Interesting what you said about the sequences of things.  Children are so incredible and they show us it doesn't need to be done in any certain way, just the way that's best for them.  This is where I see how I really need to trust their process and let go.  So cool.  Thanks for sharing your story!

[Emaye]

I love that we are not on the school schedule; it starts very early here. Stressful mornings are not a good way to start the day!  I also love the freedom my children have to do whatever they want. For example, the other day my son spent most of the afternoon drawing a potted plant in the house while listening to his Magic Tree audio books. Both my kids are busy with their own stuff and play well with each other. I love that they have the time to really explore and figure out what interests them for the day, the week, the month -- however long it takes until that obsession fizzles.   I am also happy that they won't be exposed to difficult social situations (bullying, etc) in large doses before they are ready to learn how to deal with these types of issues.  

[Jody59]

We homeschool (5) to give our kids a better education. Extra benefits-  really getting to know our kids and let them develop in the areas of their strengths. Ages 24 -16 and all really close.

They call each other for advise on dating and such.! They all want to live fairly close to each other (same state). 

Jody   [Admin note: Link removed as promotional posting of commerical links is not permitted.]