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 to allow them freedom to be themselves without squishing them into a box that wasn’t designed to hold them, and as I spoke with ToriAnn, she expressed feeling much the same way.
She said, “I was one of those people who swore they would never homeschool their children. I used to laugh and say that you sent your kids to school so you could get a break. But Heavenly Father sent me my oldest, who is delightfully different in so many ways. When she was three and a half, my best friend was doing lots of research about homeschool (our oldests were the same age), and I felt a pull to start researching myself. The more I read, the more I was convinced that homeschooling was the way to go. Josh wasn’t really on board at first, but he figured there wasn’t much harm I could at the preschool level, so he was okay with giving it a try. Over the years, he’s come along more and more, until sometimes I think he’s more of an advocate than I am.”
I loved ToriAnn’s way of describing her child as “delightfully different.” If we all sat down and listed our children’s traits, I believe every one of us could identify ways in which our children are “delightfully different,” and that’s because they are all truly unique individuals with their own spin on the world. When we give them the room to develop those qualities, we give them the chance to become the people they really were meant to be, and that’s one of the most beautiful things about parenting—seeing who our children become as they grow.
Related Blogs:
Letting Your Kids Set the Schedule
It Doesn’t Have to Be a Big, Hairy Deal
Talking Politics with Your Young Children