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We’re often asked about our life as a homeschooling family (yes, we do get the “oh-you’re-that-zany-bunch” look), and boy, do we enjoy every minute answering questions. It does not only give us the opportunity to share the joys, challenges and the mad moments we go through, it also opens doors for us to get to know more people. We value what we learn from other parents.
The loss of faith in educational systems (around the world) is a sentiment shared by people that we’ve met during our travels. A young couple from Europe told me during my recent solo trip to Cambodia that they’d do what we do when they become parents. They, too, believe that there is no better place for the kids to learn but from home.
I received an e-mail from a mom telling me that she has been considering homeschooling her four-year old daughter, but is doubtful that she has the capacity to do it. It is true that homeschooling is a colossal, demanding and a challenging full-time job, but the benefits you reap are simply priceless. You have probably heard that a thousand times from other homeschooling parents and that’s how you know there’s some weight to it.
But homeschooling is not for everyone, and by that we don’t mean that it has anything to do with your perceived personal capacity. What it really demands is your dedication. Let’s spell that out again. It’s D-E-D-I-C-A-T-I-O-N. Don’t rush into the decision to homeschool. Do your (intense) research and ask as many questions as you can. That’s what I did before plunging in four years ago.
The perspectives people have on education, based on culture and experience, are varied and interesting.
I received an e-mail from a mom telling me that she has been considering homeschooling her four-year old daughter, but is doubtful that she has the capacity to do it. It is true that homeschooling is a colossal, demanding and a challenging full-time job, but the benefits you reap are simply priceless. You have probably heard that a thousand times from other homeschooling parents and that’s how you know there’s some weight to it.
But homeschooling is not for everyone, and by that we don’t mean that it has anything to do with your perceived personal capacity. What it really demands is your dedication. Let’s spell that out again. It’s D-E-D-I-C-A-T-I-O-N. Don’t rush into the decision to homeschool. Do your (intense) research and ask as many questions as you can. That’s what I did before plunging in four years ago.
So why should you NOT homeschool?
- You don’t have a husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner
who can do shifts with you homeschooling the kid/s.
- You think you need a husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner
to pull it off. (There are single moms/dads who have been doing a great
job homeschooling.)
- You have a full-time job, you work 12 hours a day and
you come home every night looking like an apocalypse is happening outside
your house that your kids don’t know about.
- You enjoy leaving the house at 6 a.m. to get to your 9
a.m. job without getting late, and without killing anyone on your way to
your office.
- Your level of patience is anything from too little to
nil. (But I don’t know how that’s an excuse because I’m exactly the same.)
- You care too much about what other people say and you’re
afraid of how your family, neighbors and friends will react if you told
them you’re homeschooling. (This one is tough. Don’t expect banners and cheerful
greetings the moment you tell them. Let’s go back to the scenario of the
apocalypse.)
- You seriously think reading is for boring people.
Exclusively.
- You’re least entertained by historical facts,
literature and science.
- You are convinced that only parents with A+ grades in
school can homeschool their kids. (Very far from the truth.)
- You don’t enjoy watching movies.
- You don’t like going out for explorations and you
abhor travelling.
- You don’t like watching the sky and planes flying by
because you think it’s a waste of time.
- Whenever you look up at the night sky you think it’s
such a boring space and not worth marveling at.
- Music bores you to death.
- You’d rather spend time elsewhere than with the kids.
- You are paranoid about how your kids can get to
college. (We may have the answer to that here.)
- You believe that teachers were born to teach and you
were born…to not teach?
- You believe that stock-market-like competition in the classroom
is healthy. Very healthy.
- You think that your kids will be socially impaired if
they learn from home. (Does your home resemble Alcatraz?)
- You are
comfortable at the thought of your school-age kids spending eight hours a day with
other people and possibly hours on the road to and from school, rain or
shine.
There are so many reasons, and valid ones at that, why people are afraid to start homeschooling. The number one fear that people have (based from what we always hear and what we’re told) is that they don’t know how to teach their children. If you’re a parent and you say that out loud a few times, you will start noticing how odd that sounds.
