Homeschooling

Growing up, I always dreaded the question at camps or gymnastics meets. “Where do you go to school?” I never minded being homeschooled, but the constant follow-up questions were annoying. “Who is your teacher? How do you learn anything? What time do classes start? How does it work?” I dreamed of being an adult who wouldn’t need to answer these questions anymore. But the joke is on me. I’m still asked all the time!

I always relish the “You were homeschooled? I would never have guessed!” To me, this is a compliment that I am somehow “normal”. I’m not overly religious or ignorant. But it is a backhanded compliment too. It seems to imply that people who were homeschooled are ignorant, conservative, religious, or destined to be socially awkward forever. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that anyone from any school can be religious, socially awkward, ignorant, etc.

I’m more understanding and patient now (I think). I get that people want to know what homeschooling is like or how it worked for me. Some people dream of being homeschooled; others can’t fathom it.

Homeschooling is not right for everyone, and I’m not here to advocate for it exclusively. But I do often say, “No one told me I wasn’t cool until I was old enough to ignore it.” AKA I never dealt with a lot of public school bullying, shaming, or basic peer pressure. Though I am sometimes lost in certain comments or jokes. Sarcasm especially. I don’t have a cultural understanding of public school interactions. That can cause some small challenges, but it’s never impacted my quality of life.

Anyway. Homeschooling is a huge term that covers a wide range of possibilities. No homeschool family I knew did things the exact same way as another family. Some were strict, with class times written on a whiteboard in the kitchen. Some were much looser, with “unschooling” ruling the house. Every state has different rules for homeschool families too. Where I grew up, we had to turn in attendance reports every year, and I had to take an approved end-of-grade test.

But I wasn’t sitting in a classroom. My parents never lectured from the front of the dining room table as we took notes or read a book. Well, my mom did teach us (my 3 siblings and me) lots of Greek and Latin root words together for a few years. And she was always available if we had questions. But from…let’s say 2nd grade on I was given assignments and expected to complete them on my own. (One challenge of being homeschooled is I cannot divide up my childhood years based on who my teacher was. So everything feels like it happened when I was 10 years old.)

^{I’m probably 11 years old here, presenting on Florida at a Homeschool Group. Florida has dolphins, my favorite animal, so I read all about the state and prepared a project on it.}

To me, this instilled - - or nurtured - - a self-motivation that still empowers me today. I knew if I got to work early and stayed focused, I could finish my assignments for the day by lunch and spend the afternoon playing outside. Or if I was in a play and didn’t get home from rehearsal till 10pm, I could sleep till 10am, starting schoolwork after that. As I got older, I asked for weekly assignments so I could work most of the day Monday through Wednesday and have Thursday and Friday to read books or explore the woods.

So for me, schooling looked something like this:

• 4 pages of math

• 3 pages of spelling

• 1 chapter of science

• 1 chapter of history

• Read a National Geographic article and write a paragraph about it.

I’m generalizing; I can’t remember the exact amounts of anything. But I got a well-rounded education in all the typical subjects (and yes, learned about evolution).

Math was always the hardest subject for me, and the only time my mom and I ever got upset with each other. She would try her best to help me, but often said, “You are getting the concept of this, but the answers are wrong.” And I would rebut, “But if I get the concept, how can I still get everything wrong?” When I got older, I worked with a math tutor, and things became a little clearer.

History, reading, and writing were always fun. I remember being assigned to write a persuasive paragraph and wrote it about my workbook “How to Spell,” which I found dull and pointless. I managed to get that workbook out of rotation for my schooling—yes! That’s a persuasive essay!

When I got to college, I had my first experience of school as I saw it in the movies. Someone standing at the front of the room talking over a concept or lesson. Some classes were awesome, but I often found that if I could take a basic requisite class online, I preferred that. The format was what I was used to: assignments written down and me in charge of my own time, and trusted to get the work done. I loved the teacher who posted all the tests in the first few weeks of class. I finished a few anthropology courses in a month or less!

Homeschooling for me meant lots of reading, lots of learning, and deep dives on subjects I was interested in. I feel like I read almost every book our library had in the kids section on the Revolutionary War. There were no limits on what we could read, though I did self-select to stop reading Wicked at 11 years old.

I loved waking up with no alarm. I’ve even joked that my high startle response to alarms or bells is because I had no daily exposure! I made whatever breakfast I wanted and sat down to look over my assignments. I learned to get the hard stuff out of the way first, struggling through math, then science, then spelling. History or reading was the treat at the end of the day. (In life, I still often tackle hard things first!)

My parents checked my work to ensure it was done (and done correctly), and we would talk over things that were not right. I wasn’t graded, but I was told if there were things to improve or concepts to go back over.

When I was done with my work, I could play in the woods, read a book, do chores (a less fun option), or hang out with friends. I had plenty of social interactions through ice skating, gymnastics, dance, drama, 4-H, youth choir, youth group, and homeschool groups.

So what was it like? For me, homeschooling was great. It suited my personality; it taught me self-motivation, self-worth, and how to manage my time. All important life skills I use daily. I’m happy I was homeschooled, even if I still have to answer questions about it ; )