We didn’t start formal education for the last three until they were eight. They learned a “bazillion” things way before they were handed a pencil or started phonics. Our main goal was to teach them responsibility and then to teach them how to read. Once you know how to read, the world is at your fingertips. Their vocabularies are HUGE. In college other students kept asking them to define the words they used in common conversation.

We chose curriculum that helped them learn how to learn. Saxon Math is one of those.

I never understood how having a five year old spend a lot of time around a bunch of five year old children would socialize them in a positive way. It taught my public schooled kindergarten child all kind of fun new ways to be naughty. It did not teach anything of social value for life. The high school years for our firstborn were horrendous with such fears about fitting in and having friends.

The peers that our last three children had were all ages and colors. They became fast friends with older people in our church family who shared life experiences and values that they couldn’t get from kids exactly their age. They made friends with those both younger and older than them,who have been the closest of friends and confidants, for much of their lives, we made sure that we knew those friends and their families well.

They also met new and different friends of all ages and all walks of life through an archery club they belonged to, and all found new lifelong friends in college (yes, they all went to college!) They are confident, creative (VERY CREATIVE!) and successful adults.

The trick to teaching them was to get them to teach themselves. As they continue on with life they continue to learn.

I will also agree with you on the whole “not being prepared for college” thing. I was a “High Honor” student in high school and took all the advanced, “college prep” science classes. Then, I get to college and EVERYTHING I ever learned in high school was basically our “review” in my first week of my classes. It was really hard for me to adjust to the independent, critical thinking and study skills in my first year. So, when I used to teach, I would always keep this in the back of my mind and I would often teach and tutor (for FREE) about the study skills and critical thinking strategies that I had to teach myself while in college…and I was teaching MIDDLE SCHOOLERS! I wanted them to go to high school with the skills that I wished I had.

Anyway, I really appreciate your input on this conversation and loved what you had to say! Thank you.

Thanks for being a part of this conversation and I appreciate your input!

I appreciate you being part of this conversation and wish you and your family all the best. Only you know what’s best for your children, so keep working hard and giving them your all…they will appreciate it someday!

I also really love your analogy to the farmer, that is probably a much better way of looking at it. I was simply trying to express my original thoughts on homeschooling and I hope you know that I was making a jab at anyone chooses this route.

Thank you for being a part of this conversation. I think it’s so important to shed light on controversial issues so that people can be as educated as possible before jumping on any bandwagon. I really appreciate your input!

High school, on the other hand, provided me with the cliche “best four years of my life” and lifelong friendships. Call me crazy, or one of the lucky few, but college was not where I had the time of my life, nor was it where I found friendships that will last forever. I found a few, yes, but the majority of my best friends today still come from good ole CPA. So to make my point, I can see where homeschooling enables children with the power and knowledge from the beginning on how to study, properly take notes and most importantly – use your resources and be lifelong self learners, things I wish I had learned at a young age rather than in my first 2+ years of college. Maybe its my specific high school that is at fault, or maybe it is “the system,” or maybe it was me, but I will say that the relationships and lifelong friendships that public schooling led me to made it all worth it – something that I’d never want my children to miss out on. So this may be a different take on the subject than what you posted, but I think it is all part of the decision on whether parents put their children in public schools vs. homeschooling. It may not make sense to some that I would choose the social benefits over the importance of education from K-12, but I graduated with my engineering degree and have worked as an Industrial Engineer since, so I’d like to believe I turned out just fine!

But now I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Homeschooling has changed me. I think He wanted me to homeschool for me. I have these 4 little girls watching my every move. I want them to move and speak sweetly. So I have had to do so myself.

The girls learn everyday with everyday things in life.
One day a couple months ago, Ella saw me writhing in cursive. She asked me what are you writing? So I told her, and I bought a book on cursive. Now she almost always writes in cursive. She thinks its cool. Many “schooling” happens just this way. Its so flexible, so fluid. There is no timeline other than them taking the state end of year exams. This relaxing setting is what allows us to do it. The Hardest part is entertaining the younger ones while I’m teaching the older ones. I only “Teach” which is basically reading the teachers manual word for word for a several minutes. Then I leave them be to finish. As life changes so does the schedule. I sit with them at the table for all the meals everyday. They are learning table manners. We have homeschool communities that we are involved in and the socialization thing is not an issue at all.

on average this is what my day looks like

7 am I get up sometimes I work out. I need to do all the time! ha! I drink my tea, do my daily bible reading
as the girls trickle down stairs I let them play while I get out their breakfast. I get more done my keeping it simple. We do my homemade oatmeal bars (which I make Sunday evenings to last all week long). And a smoothie or fresh fruit, or greek yogurt with thawed frozen berries with honey and an oatmeal bar.

Then we get right into school which is about 10 am. I get Ella 2nd grade going and then I get Aubrey Kindergarten going. I homeschool in the kitchen which is where I am most of the day anyway, its near the laundry room and I’m doing dishes. Ava likes to color and cut paper and Everly usually plays with blocks.
I put out heavy snacks for lunch and we continue school during lunch time. I usually serve quesadillas and smoothies or pretzel sticks, fresh fruit and hard boiled eggs. They see school has fun usually.

By 1/2pm I put the baby down for a nap and I watch a movie and put the girls in their room for quiet time. This is mostly for my sanity.

3ish we clean up the house. Than go play.
The girls continue to play as I cook dinner.

We start bed/bath @ 6:30 and everyone is in bed at 8:30.

If i have the energy I clean up the rest of the kitchen and family room mess.

Friday we never school. Every other friday I do groceries. And the other every other friday we clean the house. like toilets and sheets and scrubbing floors.

This will change a lot through out the year, but its what we do now.

Homeschooling is beautiful. Sharing so many moments with them. Time is something I can never get make up for later.

In your analogy, I see homeschooling more as that of a farmer. We can all grow our own food, because we all have the basic ability to do so. It comes down to a question of whether of not you have the tools or desire to farm. Parents are the first teacher a child has. I think that is often forgotten. We are always teaching our children, whether we realize it or not. When school age approaches, we all have to decide whether we have the tools needed (which are easily acquired) or the desire to continue.

I applaud public and private school teachers. They have so many demands placed upon them. It’s not a career I would choose for myself. As for me and my family, we’ve chosen homeschooling. Public school just wasn’t for us. My children are self directed learners and love what they learn. Like many homeschoolers, they are scoring high on standardized tests and are thrilling.