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The mention of being “homeschooled” has always been a conversation starter, and for a good reason. Back in the late nineties, homeschooling was far from the norm, and it still remains a less popular choice compared to traditional schooling. Many people I encountered had never met anyone who was homeschooled, and their surprise was evident when they learned about my educational background.
However, I must admit that I was initially hesitant to talk about my homeschooling experience. I felt indifferent when compared to my friends who attended what my relatives and even my dad called “real school.” Growing up, I couldn’t fully appreciate the benefits of homeschooling, perhaps because of the divorce happening between my parents at that time. My dad tried to convince me that my life would be so much better if I attended public school, surrounded by other kids.
Yet, as I journeyed through life, my perspective began to shift. I realized that being homeschooled offered me unique opportunities to excel in the things I was genuinely interested in. It allowed me to explore my passions and develop my skills in ways that may not have been possible within the confines of a traditional school system.
In this blog, I will share my personal experience of what homeschooling was like for me. From the challenges I faced to the triumphs I celebrated, I hope to shed light on the often misunderstood world of homeschooling. Whether you are a curious parent contemplating homeschooling for your child or simply intrigued by this unconventional form of education, join me as I reflect on my journey and unravel the hidden gems of homeschooling.
Peoples Reaction
Most of the time people act surprised and will say things like “that must have been so nice”, or most commonly asked “what was that like”, for the majority most people took a genuine interest in what I had to say about it since they had no clue what homeschooling was like.
Then you will have the people that will assume and think the worst about it. They will say things like “you must have had no friends”.
It’s not like I was a house hermit. As a kid, I did activities where I was around other kids and had lots of friends who would come over and play and as a teenager, I was quite popular for growing up in a small town.
Why My Mom Decided To HomeSchool Us
My sister kept coming home off the bus crying from being bullied. She wore glasses and during this time kids would pick on people who wore glasses a lot more than they do today.
So after many weeks of this one morning, my mom asked us if we wanted to stay home and start being homeschooled, and just like any kid would say when being asked if they wanted to get homeschooled, yes was the response by us both.
It is no surprise there, kids and young people can be extremely mean and if your kids are going to public school at some point in time they will be bullied.
So What Was Homeschooling Like?
You are probably wondering how to homeschool a kid, and what that would look like during a typical day.
In the early days starting out, we had different books on all the subjects we needed to focus on to get a good education, we used a lot of kids’ computer kids games like Jump Start, Bodyland, and more alike.
Most people picture kids doing work from morning until the afternoon but this is not how it goes at all. You are at home living your life, you do not need to follow the public school’s way.
Later on at the age of 8 or 9, we enrolled in the Christian Light Education books for their curriculum.
These books you could read these yourself or have someone read to you, answer the questions, and do the work. Focusing on a few subjects at once by completing the subject and then getting back to what you feel like doing, which for me it was the computer and gaming on my Super Nintendo.
What is homeschooling like – The average day went like this:
- Get out of bed at 8 AM
- Have breakfast and watch educational tv shows like Sesame Street or Reading Rainbow
- Lesson/chapter from the book for a given subject, do the work, crafts, computer time, field trips, play outdoors
- Active in sports, church groups, and 4-H, had other homeschooled friends to play with
What Is Homeschooling Like For High Schoolers?
By the time I was 13 we switched from Christian Light Education to ICS (International Career School) in which a student would obtain their high school diploma.
My actual work only entailed a few hours per day. 2-3 hours at max per day, and this is what shocks most people when they picture a full day of being homeschooled. It is not like this.
You have x amount of books you get with ICS, you complete the work and submit it online. This allowed a student to go at their own pace. You could do as little or as much as you wanted. My sister graduated at 16.
At this point when doing your homeschool work, you should be able to do it yourself and not have the need for anyone unless you get stuck on a really hard algebra problem or something.
The public school system is very much broken. You are learning the basics of a subject like math, science, or history and then a lot of pointless stuff you will never use later on in life.
The majority of my time was spent playing guitar. I took 2 lessons and then decided to teach myself. I excelled in music and dedicated around 8 hours per day in order to get better since I loved playing so much, I thought at the time I would have a future one day as a lead guitar player.
Are All Homeschool Diplomas Accredited?
No. Some will have to make sure they are accepted at a particular college or educational institution for post-secondary education when the time comes.
In some cases for example, if you picked ICS (International Career School) and wanted to go to college when you graduate, depending on the school they may or may not let you since it’s not guaranteed accredited everywhere.
What if that happens? You will need to get your GED. I received mine a few years ago before I went to take software engineering.
How To Homeschool A Kid With Special Needs
I was taken to a specialist when I was a child and they deemed me as a “slow learner”, with the assumption I had ADHD.
Focusing when I was young was very difficult for me to do. I always just had to be doing something and since I wasn’t much of a “thinker” or at least in the book smarts way, I would always be going around in the woods building forts, and tree houses and even building cool little franken-go-cart looking thing out of a bunch of parts.
Having to take the extra time to read and make sure the child understands is important and allows them to do what they are good at. Often someone with ADHD, their minds are racing so fast that it is really hard to focus on things that they consider boring.
Trying other learning techniques will help. There are a lot of different ways to teach a kid who has learning disabilities. What works for some may not work for others. I learned how to spell using MSN Messenger when I was 12-13 years of age.
Why? I had the drive to talk to my friends. I was sick of not being able to spell and so I learned by the patterns when typing something out. My problem was I couldn’t sound words out, so having to memorize them with the keyboard was very beneficial for me.
How Homeschool Prepares You For Life
You have to admit, some of the things they teach in public school are not very useful later on once you get out into the real world.
How homeschooling prepares you:
- Learning skills like cooking and baking, to other homesteading skills
- Better development when you are in a healthy home and not being bullied
- Learning survival skills that are essential
- Managing finances
- Housework like cleaning, chores, and learning to be organized
- Develop better and stronger values. I am known to be too honest of a person who wears my heart on my shelve
- Farming and gardening
- Household and mechanical repairs
- Not being gullible, people who are homeschooled seem to have a good sense of what is going on in the world and can see through the fake news media.
- Caring for the planet
- How to get along with friends and family
- Self-care and keeping fit
- First Aid
- Caring for the animals
- Better moral values than most people that have gone to public school, it’s due to not being subjected to it daily.
- Programming and computer repair, by having lots of time to learn on the computer.
- Lawn care
- Not being addicted to social media for attention
- Sewing and tailoring work
Conclusion
When it comes down to it and looking back at some of the most important things I learned as being taught at home was the importance of how to learn and how to teach myself anything. But not until I learned how to program did this truly teach me to learn how to think and how to learn. This is what is homeschooling like in a way but for others, it could have been completely different. Most people I met that were homeschooled are quite smart I have found.
I’m considered a renascence man and there is nothing I can’t learn how to do. I know a bit about everything and my love of survival skills and the outdoors comes back to when I was young and played in the woods, learning how to fish and hunt.
I have good morals and a good belief system which I think a lot of it has to do with being homeschooled, in my twenties, I wanted to finally pursue going to college to get an education since I wanted to do something different from farming.
During my twenties, I got my GED and went to school for carpentry, business, and software development. Now I run many enterprises and spend most of my time doing what I love to do outdoors.
Nowadays there are so many free resources and awesome educational programs you can get your kids to do. With Khan Academy and other great free learning sites, there is no better time than now to start homeschooling your kids.
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