How I [accidentally] Fell In Love With Home Schooling

My experience with homeschooling started out just like one of those teeny-bopper Freddy Prinze, Jr. movies. Basically, the guy doesn’t want to date the girl because she wears dorky glasses but a magical crescendo leads to the girl taking off the dorky glasses and all of a sudden he realizes she’s the gorgeous Rachel Leigh Cook.

From that highly-mature, highly-scientific analogy I’m sure you gathered that the guy represents me and the gorgeous girl hiding underneath the dorky glasses represents homeschooling. Just like ol’ Freddy, I thought she was dorky. I thought she wasn’t worth my time. But homeschooling has turned out to be the one and only Rachel Leigh Cook.

I cannot believe I just said that.

And in case anyone is totally confused – because at this point I think I am, too – I have somehow just related our family’s experience with homeschooling to the 90’s chick flick, “She’s All That.”

Let’s just move on.

Homeschooling has 100% surprised me. My old notions and assumptions (which were nothing more than ignorant stereotypes) have been proven completely wrong, and now I shamelessly admit that I am shamelessly in love with our homeschooling lifestyle.

Let me share a few of the ways that homeschooling
has unexpectedly swept me off my feet:

1. We get to travel whenever we want!  No early dismissal slips, no make-up work, and no attendance record!  We can make vacations educational and do school work on the road.
2. We get to take it slow and easy in the morning.  To be totally honest, I don’t think my kids would ever make it on time to school if I had to get up early and get them ready every morning.
3. I can teach my kids that Pluto is a planet.  I can teach them that the universe was created by God about 6,000 years ago.  And I can teach them that, contrary to common core, the simplest way to solve 1+1 is to actually add the 2 numbers together.
4. We get to go to parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week when there is half the crowd that there would be on the weekend.
5. Because my kids – ages 1, 3, 5, and 6 – spend all of their time together, they are not only best friends and peers, but they have also developed a really neat skill of enjoying kids of all ages and not only kids of their own age.  It’s like they don’t even see an “age barrier.”
6. They experience a lot of life stuff.  They come everywhere I do, which means that they have to sit in waiting rooms, go grocery shopping, wait in DMV lines, and do all of the other things that mommies do during the day.
7. Education becomes way more than “school work.”  Designing and building, serving neighbors, exercising, doing yard work, painting, exploring…these are the type things that can be a part of our education.
8. I get to be with my kids all the time.  I miss nothing.  Every change and development and success and emotion gets to be observed by me.  What a privilege.
9. All of my kids’ education can be completely customized and tailored to meet their individual learning styles and interests.  My 6-year-old loves to sit down and do worksheets at the table, and he learns very quickly.  My 5-year-old would rather sit on a blanket outside and talk about science, and he learns much more slowly.  My 3-year-old just wants to glue things together.
10. My kids’ day consists of 10% school time and 90% play time.  They are young and adventurous and playful, and their play is their work.  There is no stress that comes from being tested or from struggling to keep up with a group.  Their day is happy and learning is fun.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not living in some fantasy home schooling world where my kids are demure geniuses and I look super cute in an apron all day.  Nooooo.

Home schooling is hard...so hard that I could easily write a list twice as long as this one that shares the struggle and exhaustion that comes with it.

But in my family’s case – because it’s not for everyone! – home schooling has been the most unexpected of blessings.  I am tired, but happy.  I am busy, but in an at-home kind of way.

We love and are thankful for our home schooling life.

Do you home school?
What are some of the unexpected blessings that you have experienced?

Photo credits:  here

Lauren Souers

Hi, my name is Lauren. I am the wife of one fine man and the momma of four (huge) young children – three boys and one princess! I love all of them. I mostly clean up messes and feed people all day, and it’s really fun to write about it. Jesus is the rock of my family – we love and serve a mighty King! I hope you leave here full of hope that “tired” can be good.