My Experience Being Homeschooled

I’ve shared that I was homeschooled before, and I’ve had a number of women respond by asking me to share my experience. 

So, this is for those of you who might be thinking about homeschooling your kids some day. 

First, the back story. 

My mother was a stay at home mom from the time I was born. I’m the second child and at that point it made more sense for her to stay home with my sister and I instead of my parents paying for two kids in daycare. 

I also have two younger brothers, so four kids in total. Both my sister (who is 21 months older) went to preschool and kindergarten roundup (a week long thing before kindergarten). But from kindergarten to 5th grade both my sister and I were homeschooled by my mom. 

And technically I “skipped” kindergarten and started 1st grade at the same time as my sister even though we were a grade apart. I don’t think I missed out on too much skipping my kindergarten education. 

Looking back I have nothing but positive memories of being homeschooled. 

Because it wasn’t a matter of keeping us busy for 8 hours while our parents were at work, we were able to get our school work done in just a few hours (depending on how focused we were that day). 

And then we were free to go outside, play and explore, which I think was worth it’s weight in gold. I grew up on 90+ acres of mostly forest, with horses, cats, dogs (and two pigs and three cows at one point.) 

Not only the time we were able to spend with our mother, which is beyond valuable and I will be forever grateful for, the life skills we got from being able to spend so much time outside in nature and with animals is an amazing thing looking back. 

Because there were only four of us vs. a normal class size, my mom was able to devote so much more attention to our individual needs and interests. Whenever there was something we were curious about my mom did such an amazing job of helping us investigate whatever it may be. 

There was one summer where I went to art camp while my sister attended a theater camp at the playhouse. There were countless art classes I was able to attend where I was the youngest in the class by about 50 years. (Let’s just say that made me pretty popular). 

Another benefit was our mother’s patience with us. The public school system has obvious constraints when it comes to learning styles and needs, and if you don’t fall within the norm you can be penalized. 

We were all fairly energetic kids, and while in a normal school setting we may had been punished for our excess energy, our mother taught us how to focus on what we were doing, learn when to take breaks and that after completing whatever it was we were free to do as we pleased. 

If I fell out my chair from squirming too much, she didn’t yell at me. She would let me fidget, get it out of my system, climb back into my chair and get back to work. This only took maybe 10 seconds, and could have been a much longer ordeal. 

The only downside I can see to my homeschool experience, which I think has an easy fix for those of you interested in homeschooling your kiddos, is the social aspect of it all. I had my siblings, and the kids from our homeschool group, but I didn’t really have my own friends. 

I was slightly socially awkward when I went into public school in 5th grade, but quickly adjusted, and now I’d like to think I’m fairly social. And this is definitely something you can take care of easily for your own kids. 

Who else out there was homeschooled, and what was your experience?  And what about parents who homeschool or want to homeschool their kids? 

Nature Feeds My Soul

I grew up in the country (outside the city, in nature), on over 90 acres of land. 

On top of that I was homeschooled through fifth grade, meaning I spent a lot of time around home, which I absolutely loved. 

I was in the middle of the woods, surrounded by nature and animals. 

The most ponies/horses we’ve had at one time was 13 I believe. We have always had two dogs, a handful of cats, a parrot that’s older than I am, and we once had two pigs, two jersey calves and a crippled angus calf around the same time. 

I also grew up with three siblings. A sister 21 months older than me and then two brothers, three and five years younger than me. We would run around the woods creating make believe worlds, and swim in a particular part of our creek we called the Frog Pond. 

But as I got into junior high and high school I started to resent this little slice of heaven I grew up on. I wanted the city and I couldn’t wait to get as far away from the country as I could. 

But as the years pass the more I can feel myself pulled towards the trees, the birds and the ability to see the stars at night.

When the occasion comes to get back down to my parent’s place I relish in those moments spent outside. I soak in how incredibly calm and peaceful it is. 

I forget until I get back out there how much nature nourishes me. 

I find myself in these moments, out there in the trees, where I can just stop, breath deep and look up towards the sky. What better time to stop and become present in that moment, to find gratitude for being in that place. 

And I am reminded each time, how much good this does for me, and how I need to continue to find space for nature in my life.