Home Education

How homeschooling saved my son

My soon-to-be twelve year old son is practicing an electric guitar riff in his bedroom right now.

He’s in sixth grade.It’s a Wednesday, around 2:00pm.

Shouldn’t he be at school?

He is at school. He is homeschooled and I couldn’t be more relieved. I watched him quickly

decline and struggle so much in just the first couple of months while he tried public school for

the first time last year.

Learning went down, anxiety went up drastically, temptations and exposure to inappropriate

behaviors were rampant, fights were constant, trauma came fast with a school shooting scare.

Not to mention the “academics” were robotic, generic and standardized. He stopped reading for

fun (gotta get those “points,” and take those tests!) and hated the way the work was assigned.

Most teachers weren’t teaching as much as they were just handing out assignments for students

to complete on I-Pads or in other indirect ways.

Classes were over-crowded, days were too long while the time was used poorly.

And nutrition? Well, imagine going to your eight-hour work day (that is about how long, give or

take, the government has control of most of our kids) and on your lunch break you are given 25

minutes to quickly eat the equivalent of a gas station mini-meal, perhaps not even being allowed

to talk. Then you are cattled to your next class, still hungry. (“Hurry! The bell is about to ring!”)

Outside time rarely or never happened. Sitting in desks or at tables is expected from these

growing kids for almost the entire day. It’s like a huge corporate office for kids. Oh, except

you’re not allowed to have snacks or flavored drinks at your cubicle, or listen to music, or move

too much, or, well, be a kid.

I could go on and on, and this is certainly not a bash on the kind, hard-working and well-meaning

teachers and faculty we have out in the trenches of the public school system. (Thank you for all

you do!) But I think most of them would agree that it is just that-a system. And there’s only so

much you can do within such a system.

My son is doing so much better, now that he is back in his “natural habitat.” The limitations are

off and the learning is back on! He is more relaxed, confident and curious. His days are more

varied and interesting, less pressured. He still covers the core subjects most schools do, (math,

language arts, etc) but also has the time and permission to include other just-as-important

subjects like guitar lessons, cooking and baking, working out, art history, composer study and

more. And just like magic, he is a reader again. Not because he will be tested, but because he

gets to read his favorite books, for the love of literature. (Isn’t that the point? To raise kids who

will be life-long readers?) I love to read and now he will too.

If he gets hungry, he can just eat. (Real food too, from his own kitchen.) If he gets stressed out

about a math problem, he doesn’t have to worry about feeling “dumb” or suppressing his

emotions because of all the other kids that would be watching. He can take a break when he

needs to. He is allowed to talk and ask questions, often leading to wonderful educational

conversations and organic “add-ons,” such as when feeding ducks outside sparks interest in

learning more about them, which then becomes a whole nature study in itself! (“Siri, how far can

ducks see? Do they really have a third eyelid? What do they eat?” “Mom, Let’s watch some

videos about them, too!”)

He can sleep a little longer in the mornings, and wake up to a loving parent ready to teach, and

even better, learn alongside him. (This is not just a duty, it’s an adventure!) He is not a number or

a grade, he is a person. He always has been. As the great British pioneer of the homeschooling

movement, Charlotte Mason famously coined, “Children are born persons.”

Our children were created with a natural hunger for knowledge, ideas, creativity and wisdom.

They came equipped with the personalities, talents and unique coding and gender-specific

qualities distinctly given by God.

Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “Train up a child in the way HE should go.” (Not in the way everyone

else is going)

Also, Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that SEEMS right…but in the end leads to death.”

How we train and educate our children (or allow them to be trained and educated) will either

lead to life or death. We are either building them up or tearing them down, pointing them in the

direction that best fits who THEY are, or they are getting lost in the crowd. Just because

something is a popular way, doesn’t mean it's the best way for YOUR child.

Who better to nurture, teach and cheer on the character and calling of a person than those who

were entrusted with him in the first place? In my opinion, “Homeschooling,” is just an extension

of parenting. Parents naturally teach their children from day one. Think about all the little things

your babies and toddlers learned either on their own under your supervision, or from you,

directly. All of that foundation-building and trust has “schooled” them during some of the most

crucial, formative developmental years of their lives!

Why should that change just because they hit the age of kindergarten? (Really? Just five short

years, then all of a sudden we aren't supposed to parent our own kids, except on nights and

weekends? I think not.) If anything, those first years have made you your child’s best advocate

and closest observer. You know him. You know her. Even better, they know YOU.

Nobody likes to be put in a box. “The world is our classroom!” Now, more than ever, abundant

resources, technology and a wide variety of groups and curriculum, along with a wildly growing

acceptance and preference for homeschooling is making it easier to home-educate. Mama, you

got this.

Here’s to homeschooling!