So, about Homeschooling…

Because of this pandemic many people are now homeschooling and not knowing what to do, where to start, how to do it. For me it’s like a dream come true and I’m so glad it’s come to this! I sometimes think God has a great sense of humor because it has been my prayer that homeschooling would be legal to do all over the world! I have 6 kids and have been homeschooling for 24 years. That’s not to say I have all the answers because each child is different. 3 of my kids know what it’s like to go to a public and private school and the other 3 have always been homeschooled. When I started this it was answer to my prayer, I wanted to be the one to raise my kids; not a babysitter, whether it was grandma or aunt or best friend. I wanted it to be ME. The first time I heard of it I had the same question everyone asks, “What about socialization?” My answer to that is well, first of all there are so many co-op groups to join. In these groups there are things offered to plug in to like P.E., various classes, and field trips. Secondly, my take on this is that in the “real” world, you don’t deal with only 1 age group. You’ll deal with people of all ages and backgrounds. THAT’S true socialization. And thirdly, why would I want to send my kid to school to “socialize” and expose them to peer pressure; i.e. smoking, sex, drugs, the prom, dance, games….etc.?

I saw the favoritism in school. I knew it well, I was one of them. I liked it when it was me but when my kid turned out to not be the favorite, I didn’t like that. But anyway that’s not the point. I just simply wanted to be with my kids. To build a relationship with them, bond with them, teach them my values. I’m not going to say it was easy. It was a rough start. I had to LEARN things. Things I had forgotten in school and things I never learned before. And I had to teach it to them. But that’s the beauty of it, you learn right along with them and if you can’t get the answer, you find someone who can. More often than not they will find the answer because they get to learn what they want to learn. But mostly you get to teach them to love learning and learn to love. They learn at their own pace and not when they hear a bell ring. Lots of times kids are right in the middle of a good thought, or they’re on a roll with the subject at hand and then the bell rings and takes that idea right out of their minds. I’d like to suggest that first you get to know your kid. Spend time, real quality time with them. This is a perfect time to also do what some people call “deschooling”. My advise would be to not sweat the small stuff. Enjoy life and each day with your kids! They grow so fast and are gone before you know it! Create memories with them as much as you can. Keep the communication lines open, don’t just make everything about school. Make time to make it be about THEM, what they are thinking, feeling, needing to say to you or just because. The saying “Life is short” is so, so true. What do you want your kids to remember about his/her childhood? Would it be something wonderful? (At least most of the time) Or something they become bitter/angry about? You as a parent have this opportunity to create this atmosphere so DO IT. And last but not least, (actually this should be first) teach them about God. He is the true reason that we live! He is the reason that we were created: To search for him and to know him.

I’m going to back up a bit and let you know how I started. I grew up without my mom. She passed away when I was 5 and by that age you’d think that your child would know and remember their mom. Well, I didn’t. Not because I’ve blocked her out of my mind, but because I didn’t know her. I had very dim memories of her. She was a career woman and I was at the sitter’s. That sitter is the one I remember as my mom. Like I said earlier, I wanted to be the one to raise my kids! And this is the reason! I did not want to die and have my kids say that they didn’t remember/know me. That kind of sounds vain but it’s not. Not from the place I’m coming from. I had no relationship with my mom. And I wasn’t about to let that happen to my kids. I was going to spend as much time as I possibly could with them so help me God! I laugh right now because we did. I dragged them with me everywhere. And there were times that I wanted space and didn’t get it and guess what my kids would tell me? “Well this is what you wanted mom, to bond with your kids.” I have no regrets even though there were many times I wanted to pull my hair out. We even homeschooled through a depression. My depression, because of menopause. But back to how I started. I first learned about it in the late 90’s. A friend of mine had 6 kids and 2 of them were my kid’s ages and they went to the same private school. Then she withdrew them and we met up and she told me she was “homeschooling them now.” Of course I thought, and mentioned to my husband, “but what about socialization?” “Yeah, I know,” he said. And that was the end of that conversation. So during a 6 year time frame, here I was dropping my kids to school. Then heading off to work. You know, the normal life. The kind of life I did NOT want. I hated our lifestyle. Get them up early, shower and brush teeth, eat breakfast fast, drive them to school, go to work, be at work for 8 hours while my kids went to an after school program until I got off (once I walked in to one of the teachers yelling at the top of her lungs and pointing at a 10 year old kid)(more on that in another blog)(maybe, because there’s not much more I can add to that, LOL!), get off from work, fight the traffic, wait in a long line to pick up 2 kids, wait in another line to pick up my 3rd kid, go home, cook dinner while the kids do homework, eat dinner, watch a little t.v., everybody get showered and brush teeth, go to bed (early, in order to wake up early), sleep, get up and DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN! I HATED THAT! Well, at that time we were renting an apartment and baby #4 came along. We calculated how much we were spending renting and realized (duh) that we were wasting our money when we could build or buy a house of our own. So within 6 months, we had our house built and we were ready to move in. Funny thing is I was scared to be home alone. But wait, before that happened, I met (and by this time and even before this time I was praying for a way that I could raise my own kids; I hated answering to their teachers and seeing favoritism or hearing them tell me, “but my teacher said…”) some families in a dance group that my oldest son was in. I noticed how nice the kids were. How polite. So I asked one of the moms what school their kids went to? “They’re homeschooled.” Oh. As time went by I asked more questions and got invited to a support group meeting and there I could get all my questions answered. Well I went. AND I got all my questions answered. AND I got excited! It was then that I realized that God was answering my prayer; to raise my own kids. It was also an answer to prayer because I was scared to be home alone, LOL! (Hey, we were living in a secluded place) So I waited until that school year was over and I just never registered them for the following school year. I got questioned once by one of the moms whose daughter was a classmate of my youngest son at the time. But that was it. I guess because I didn’t pull them out in the middle of the school year. I don’t suggest you do that. Make sure to withdraw your kids so you don’t get questioned later but with this pandemic, you probably won’t need to? I have no idea! So that was in 1995. Today, 4 of my kids are grown and graduated, with honors and top of the class 😉 😉 (because I can do that being their Principal), 1 graduating this year (he’s my special one; more on him later), and 1 more to go. The truth is that my kids are doing good and living their lives. So far none have gone to college (because not everyone is college bound), wait I take that back, 1 started to then got into the work world and preferred that (he’s in the banking industry), one is a mechanic (he went to school through an apprenticeship which no one else at his job then, got picked for), the other one is in the U.S. Army as a Staff Sgt. and is attending college through them, and the 4th one is working in retail. All of them are hard workers and they get highly recognized. The one graduating this year got chosen to attend some acting classes (of course we’ll have to pay for it) that guarantees that he gets in front of agents. Only the youngest has her mind set on college and is working on credits to be able to attend (more on that later, too.) But all in all, they are happy! I mean, that’s the ultimate goal, right? AND, they are all Christians today! So, about homeschooling…..if I can do it, YOU CAN TOO!

Oh and btw, if you have time check out the things I have for sale in my Ecwid store! Click on “store” on the menu above.

THANKS FOR VISITING!