Home education or home schooling was something I thought I’d love to do when I was single and in my early 20’s. My husband had other plans. He had a great schooling experience. My school experience wasn’t that positive. He thought home schooled children were weird. I had met some rather normal home schooled children.
I visited my nutritionist when I was pregnant and he said that my body wasn’t coping. I had cut back as much as I could. All I was doing was looking after my house, my family and doing the school run-a-round. We thought about moving the children to a closer school or moving house, closer to the school the children were enrolled in, but I knew it was more than the long drive each day that was taking my energy – it was the rush in the morning, afternoons and nights.
At around this time my husband happened meet four different home schooling families through his work. Three were normal and one family was a little odd – but isn’t that the case in life? LOL
Our children were missing their dad. He was out most nights, he worked every Saturday and often Sunday as well. He would take a day off during the week and do the school run – but they before and after school doesn’t leave much time for play.
Our second child didn’t seem to be coping with prep. She would cry hysterically every morning, refusing to get dressed. I sneaked a look on a couple of occasions to see if she was mixing during the breaks and it broke my heart to see her standing on the edge of the play ground by herself.
Our eldest was one of the best behaved children. I would often see him being a toilet buddy or walking someone to the sick room or to the office. I asked his teacher about him being out of the room so much and she said that he was the most mature and trustworthy. Hmmm we were paying for private education – not to have our boy ushering other children around the school.
I also found that I was missing watching them learn. I wasn’t allowed to be hands on in the classroom because I had a preschooler with me and I didn’t have the right qualifications.
A close friend had started home schooling. She was loving it and the whole family was thriving.
I have many more other reasons why we made the decision to home educate – these are only a few that come to mind.
The big question people often ask us, “What about socialization?”
This was also a huge concern for my hubby. We both wanted to keep our children mixing with others, we booked them into drama, music, little athletics, swimming, football, gymnastics and dance. Plus we hooked up with other home schooling families and started joining in on home school excursions. (Yes, we have a couple of groups of organised excursions.)
Next time you see a home schooler, home educator, un-educator or natural educator, perhaps you’ll see them as not weird but just choosing to do things a little different to suit their family lifestyle.
A huge thank you to Michelle for being willing to write this eye-opening post in relation to home schooling. Michelle is an avid blogger and writer, a fantastic mum and is a tweeter too {as well as a long list of other things too!} Be sure to visit Michelle’s blog, I am sure you will love it too!
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Thank you for having me on your blog today Carly :)
I felt like I was on a merry-go-round of stressful mornings, and cranky children in the afternoon. I was glad to get off the merry-go-round and have a more relaxed lifestyle through home education. There are some of us that aren’t weird. Great post Michelle
A wonderful post, thanks Michelle.
I have been home schooling my daughter one day a week for the last few months. I do love it and she does too. I am just not sure I can juggle everything to do it full time. I have some hard decisions to make over the next couple of months. It was great to read your post Michelle.