The Truth About Homeschooling

The truth about homeschooling:



You will have to answer math questions from the bathtub,

while changing poopie diapers,

while making dinner,

while helping someone else with reading,

while folding laundry.


You will quickly realize that you forgot everything you learned in school... and then re-learn it as you teach. Some days you will be certain that you are the only one learning anything--you're not.


In a desperate attempt to still be able to do some of the things you loved to do most, you will force your children to do them with you. (Playing the piano, reading your bible and singing alone becomes "worship time" all together. Quilting becomes "sewing lessons".)


Your kids will pick up your bad habits and cause you to think about your own character daily. For every child this is multiplied over again. Some days you will feel like a failure-- You're not.


"Me Time" is that moment when you take the crumby tablecloth out the back door to shake it out and the chilly winter air hits you like a fresh kiss.

You will have to lock yourself in the bathroom on occasion to carry on a private phone conversation. When you come out crying they will say "Where were you for so long! Darren's bugging everyone, Sadie is eating all the Halloween candy and Robin's not doing her work!!" You will suck up your tears and get on with it.

There is no such thing as a sick day.

.........

Your children become each others' best playmates, give each other nick names, call each other "buddy", spend every school day (together) making memories (together).

You will be the one to teach your child to read fluently. As you sit together on the couch, she will hold the book with one hand and rest the other on your belly so she can feel her baby brother kick inside when she gets words right. When he kicks she'll stop reading, look up at you and say. "He likes when I read to him." You will fall in love with your roll as a mother all over again.

When your child comes to you and says "I need a hug." You will be the one to melt in it, no matter what time of the day it is.


When it's blistery, blizzardy, snowing and dark on a school day, you don't have to drive anywhere....or call the school to see if it's in session or send your children out into the darkness of the Alberta dawn to wait for the bus. You get to announce a hot chocolate morning and make popcorn snacks during lessons and be a hero.

When your child is struggling with something, "the class" won't move on without her. She is "the class." and you can slow down to accommodate her. When she is gifted, she won't have to wait for the class to catch up. She can work ahead of her "grade".

When your child falls in love with a subject, there is freedom to explore it for months.


When your 3 year old wants someone to play with, her siblings are home and there are lots of options for playmates throughout the day.

When your husband decides to go fishing, horseback riding, fencing, pick up sheep, hunting, with the kids, you don't have to pull your kids out of school lessons. Those become the school lessons.

When the vet comes over to castrate the stallion, perform an ultrasound on a horse, or a biopsy on a cancerous tumor on a horse and he finds out that you homeschool, he offers more information and demonstration than you could imagine....or want. :)

You get to decide what is important... and teach it.

You will see your children try.... and fail... and succeed, you will try... and fail... and succeed. You will be prideful some days, defeated others.


People will attack you publicly for your decision to teach your own children at home. Other people will heap praise. You'll be comfortable with neither....But you'll come to really enjoy and value your children, your home, and your role in it all.