So I had an interesting conversation a couple of weeks ago from a mother, who was considering homeschooling and what that would look like for her family. When she found out I was homeschooled and am now helping to homeschool two first graders, she had many, many questions. I thought it would be fun to do a quick interview with myself based off what we talked about and share it here.
What has your experience with homeschooling been?
So I and my siblings were homeschooled from kindergarten all the way through high school. Some families choose to let their kids to go to public or private high school, and while we were all given that option none of us chose that route. Which I think speaks volumes about our experiences.
So you enjoyed being homeschooled? What do you think you gained by being homeschooled?
For myself I loved being homeschooled! Yes it was super nice to not have to go to school(and therefore get dressed) And it was nice to have your school day go from 9am-1pm. What kid wouldn’t like that? Plus we followed a traditional school year from Labor Day to Memorial Day with a nice long summer break.
However if I was to pick one thing as my chief advantage, or take away from being homeschooled it would have to be: the ability to learn. If I don’t know something both in an academic and practical sense, I know I can learn it. Because I’ve done it before.
Homeschooling requires discipline on the student’s part to sit and get your work done. Especially as we got older our school work became a list of required reading, tests and worksheets, papers written and essays turned in. Our Mom(and Dad) didn’t sit there beside us and make sure we did it. On Mondays we got our assignments for the week and then on Fridays we had to turn it in. This taught us time management and organization in addition to the discipline to learn. I now have the ability to be like, “Yeah I don’t know anything about this subject but I know the steps to learn it.” This is undoubtedly the greatest strength homeschooling taught me.
So what was the biggest disadvantage?
With homeschooling your topics can play(and normally do play) to your parents strengths. So for instance I can’t play musical instruments or read music, but I’ve written six novels and I wrote three of those in high school. (One for school and two just cause) My history and language skills are very cemented. Can you guess which were my parents’ strengths? Yep history and language. Neither of my parents are musically talented and so we had a disadvantage there. These of course can be supplemented outside the home.
What’s one stereotype of homeschoolers that you’ve run into the most?
Do you feel like you’re socially inept? I have been asked this sooo many times.(which frankly I find the question quite rude) And the answer is no… Do you think I’m socially inept? Being a homeschooled kid doesn’t mean I was locked in the basement until I turned eighteen. We went to church, AWANA, I was a Girl Scout, my sister played softball, etc. So no I am not socially inept.
Anyway I hope this was informative! If you have any additional questions please feel free to ask me.
Lots of love,
Tally
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