Sometimes you get burned out. Sometimes you get frustrated. Sometimes you cry. But you know what? It’s your homeschool and you can cry if you want to! Ask a doctor, a teacher, a hair dresser, a circus performer; do you ever get burned out? Go ahead and find someone who has never experienced feelings of frustration, burn out or failure. Did they quit their job? Did they just throw in the towel saying it was just too hard and maybe they were not cut out to be a doctor, teacher, hair dresser or circus performer? Has your husband ever come … Continue reading →

Are your homeschooled children ok? An odd question, to be sure. Of course they are. They’re happy, healthy, and well-fed, at least most of the time. They are learning and thriving. What more can you ask? But sometimes people ask the question. How can you know that your children will be all right, if you’re doing this odd thing with their education? How can you be sure? First off, you can’t be sure. Things happen, and nothing is certain in life. Hopefully, schooling and life in general prepare our children for these uncertainties. But secondly, challenges aside, what do you … Continue reading →

I’d like you all to meet ToriAnn Perkey. She and her husband, Josh, are homeschoolers, and I’ve recently had several conversations with ToriAnn about her decision to homeschool and her philosophies concerning it. I’ll be sharing snippets of our conversation here on Families.com over the course of the next couple of weeks, and I’ll kick off by sharing highlights of our conversation about the uniqueness of children and how that led to our decisions to homeschool. I have four very bright children who keep me hopping morning, noon, and night. My decision to homeschool was largely based on my desire … Continue reading →

Perhaps it’s just been my experience, but I’ve noticed that homeschool parents and public school parents seem inclined to think of the differences between themselves rather than their similarities. This can lead to feelings of “us” and “them,” and inhibits us from making close friendships with those around us who might have chosen a different educational philosophy. I’d like to take a minute to focus on the things we have in common. 1. We love our children immensely. Regardless of where our children go to school, we love them with all our hearts and we feel responsible for them and … Continue reading →

We’ve all been there—someone finds out you homeschool, and they question your decision. Sometimes they are genuinely curious, sometimes they are looking for reasons to debate. Regardless of their intent, we know we need to answer them calmly and reasonably—no reason to add fuel to a fire they may have because of past negative interactions with another homeschooler. We’ve memorized some statistics and we feel ready to answer any questions that might come our way. We’ve prepared answers from an educational standpoint, from a spiritual standpoint, and we might even have scribbled key words on the cuffs of our sleeves … Continue reading →

I love talking to other homeschoolers and finding out why they chose to homeschool and how it works for them. Today I’m joined by Danyelle Leafty. Danyelle, thanks for letting me pick your brain! First off, I’d like to know, why did you decide to homeschool? I decided to homeschool because my son learns very quickly. I wanted his education to be paced with his ability which would be impossible in a traditional school setting. A single teacher can only do so much. I also wanted him to retain his love of learning. He has been asking questions ever since … Continue reading →

We had a family gathering today, and were blessed to have two grandmas and one grandpa in attendance. One grandma asked my son, “How’s school? What’s your favorite class?” My son replied, “Well, we homeschool.” She replied, “Yes, but you still have classes. Which one do you like best?” This launched into a discussion of math – who knew that I’d have a child who liked math – and the conversation was very positive and upbeat. Not every conversation with a grandparent will go so smoothly, though. I feel very blessed that my parents and my husband’s parents have been … Continue reading →

I’ve been looking over the blogs I’ve posted recently and noticed how many of them center around defending the choice to homeschool. I have to chuckle a little – if you were to take these by themselves, I’d look pretty paranoid. No, I don’t believe the entire world is out to get homeschoolers in general and me in particular. There are days when it feels that way, but I’m definitely not making this a drama. Fact is, it’s something we deal with, but it’s not unique to homeschool. Every person who makes a life decision that is contrary to the … Continue reading →

It’s a completely normal occurrence. Jimmy goes to soccer practice. Coach says, “Hey, Jimmy, why’d your parents decide to teach you at home?” Maybe Coach genuinely wants to know. Maybe Coach wants to razz him a little. In either case, Jimmy’s now in an awkward position – that of defending a choice his parents made, without his parents present. It doesn’t matter how he replies – it’s still awkward. Ideally, this would be a question that Coach would pose directly to the parents. After all, they’re the ones who made the decision. But those who ask the questions aren’t always … Continue reading →