.jpg)
When her husband suggested homeschooling, she thought he was crazy! If she only knew then what she knows now!
When our twins were little, my husband suggested homeschooling them. He thought that sending them to school was silly and that we could do a better job at home.
I thought he was crazy.
I refused, going through the list of excuses from “I’m not a teacher”, to “I’ll go crazy,” to “We need my income too.” There were more excuses, but you get the picture. If you have ever thought of a reason to not homeschool, I have probably used it as an excuse. Fast forward a few years to 2012, when we started hearing about Common Core, I ignored it until my husband asked me to look at it, and when I could find no redeeming quality in it from the standards to the political/government push behind it, we decided to homeschool. We all have those, “If I knew then what I know now,” moments and it sounded like fun to share a few with you.
I wish I knew how much fun I would have
I had no idea how much fun it would be to be with my twins all day, every day. Really. To watch them grow and develop, to see them blossom in front of me is a true treat and one that frankly, all moms should experience. Do they drive me crazy? Absolutely, there are days that really just don’t go as planned. Before we send them off to the “professionals” at school, we watch some of this development – but the really cool stuff doesn’t happen until they’re about 9 when their brains start developing the ability to think logically. When they have the ability to discuss electricity, explain aerodynamics, and understand why a sentence needs both a subject and a predicate, it’s a gift to be there to see it happening first-hand.
I wish I knew how much I would get to learn
Learning is a joy to me, always has been, but when I became an adult, I thought that the learning had at least slowed down. I was so wrong! So far, I’ve been able to learn Latin, Algebra and a bit of piano, we are also studying Ancient Greek. Out of self-defense, I’ve also learned to take better care of myself, organize the house and still run two businesses (learningtangent.com and I teach violin and viola). The boys are not the only people in the house learning… it’s a family affair!
I wish I knew that homeschooling isn’t as hard as I imagined
You know how it is when something unusual comes up – you go to the worst possible outcome. That’s exactly where my mind went when my husband originally asked if we could homeschool. The images in my head were terrifying and vivid. I saw the twins looking like something out of Lord of the Flies, with me tied up over a spit, shouting, “I just wanted to do English!” I saw myself, in a corner, defeated because I had managed to make them hate me, and, having given up, putting them back into public school. For me, that would be a failure because with the current state of the schools – public school is not an option.
Is homeschooling right for everyone? Probably not, and for a variety of reasons. I do believe that if it is what you want for your family, then there is a way to make it happen. I also believe that when you do the right thing, that thing you know deep in your belly to be right, those doors start opening where you didn’t even know they exist. Those previously-unknown doors have a way of being just what you need to make it work.
This isn’t an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination! They are just the three things that came to mind most quickly.
What do you wish you knew, even if you have homeschooled from the start?
Still unsure about homeschooling? Conquer those homeschool fears with this presentation!
Bio:
Gail Nelson has four kids, two of whom are at home still. When she’s not off on some adventure with her twins, she edits and writes for Learning Tangent Homeschool Magazine, teaches violin and viola privately, and tries to stay sane.
Wow! Our stories are very similar. My husband was also the one that suggested homeschooling. And I, too, thought he was crazy! Now, fourteen years later, I am so very thankful I listened to his leading (and, of course, the Lord’s as well.) Even through the difficult times, you are absolutely right, we can have fun and learn so much alongside our kids. 🙂 Thank you for sharing.
Oh boy – my husband has literally spent thousands of hours listening to history podcasts… LOL! His big problem is simplifying what he knows for the mind of a 10-year old. He’s getting better, or they’re getting older… not sure which… but at any rate, they’re loving history this year.
I’m more the language nerd, I study the cultures via the languages they spoke because that says volumes about a culture.
Yeah… I think we’ve all got regrets, the trick is in making them regrets that are more along the lines of, “I wish I’d gone skydiving,” than “I wish I’d paid more attention to my kids,” we spend so much time running from one place to another that we don’t focus on the here and now. Homeschooling has become a constant reminder to me to do just that.
We’ve had a bit of a rough start this year, but a bit of a reality check in the boys’ corner and we’re getting back on track… thankfully. I’ve gotten a lot more introspective about things lately too, I’m glad I can share some of that with everyone both here and on learningtangent.com!
Thanks for sharing your story! I’ve had fun learning along with my kids, too. I’d always considered myself fairly knowledgeable about history until I started doing Story of the World. I’m loving it! My hubby is checking out audio lectures on ancient Greece for his commute, too!
Sorry to hear about your hand issues, Misty. Prayers for you.
Gail, yay for you. 🙂 We’ve just started our 13th year of homeschooling, and I can so relate to your points above. The time…we may look back and regret some things, but we’ll never get to the end of our lives and say, I wish I wouldn’t have spent that extra time. So grateful for the time. 🙂 This year, I kind of need that reminder too, b/c I’ve been feeling spent before the year even began. Thanks for sharing. 🙂 Hope your year is great. Blessed to be your neighbor at the Women with Intention linkup today. (((blessings)))
I can really relate to this. My husband pushed homeschool at first too, and my excuses looked a lot like yours, and he dropped it. It seemed so isolated, and even though I briefly WAS a teacher, it was in middle school/high school and I had little desire to teach younger children. Plus, our oldest was a “constantly needs attention” kind of kid and when I finally got to take a breath on his first day of school I didn’t want to go back. And our kids were thriving at school. But I always said that if homeschooling was really what my children needed I would do it.
Then came my third, who, was young for his age in so many ways. Kindergarden hit him like a ton of bricks, and after that horrible first year I knew something had to change. Trying to “catch him up” during the summer I realized that even the best classroom teacher couldn’t spend the kind of one on one time with him he needed. It’s just impossible in a class of 20+ kids. So, I dove in to homeschooling.
And I have enjoyed it so much. I was so surprised. Still don’t know if I could handle it with three, but so far my older two are happy where they’re at.
Don’t we? 10 years ago, if you told me that I would be homeschooling, and not only homeschooling but a huge advocate and founder/editor of a homeschool magazine I would have died laughing. I mean really, me? teach? LOL
Now… I can’t imagine not teaching in some capacity, and I can’t imagine not homeschooling.
Great Post! I love how we all doubt our abilities in the beginning. 😊 Thank you for sharing!