The Ten Things That Homeschooling Has Taught Me

Mary @ Home grown learners has a wonderful post on how homeschooling has changed her life that inspired me to create a similar list, but, mine is more what *I* have learned over the past six years of homeschooling my boys.  It is a top ten list of sorts ;)


1.  Slow and steady wins the race

   I remember when I first began homeschooling my oldest son.  I had small and narrow     goals for us that year.  We worked on the necessities {or what I thought they were at   the time}...The 3 R's, art, science, and having fun!  I was thinking strictly in the box and ordered a packaged curriculum that year and even registered with them and had records and the whole kit and kaboodle!  It was a lot of paperwork for Kindergarten and we did not repeat that again for anyone else.  Over the past six years my hopes and dreams for my sons have enormously expanded and I see now the blessing and beauty of homeschooling.  It is an ongoing 24/7, 365 days a year learning experience and truth be told, my sons have learned the most important lessons in life from the little moments that were spontaneous and unplanned!

2.  Keep your eyes on your own paper

I need to confess that over the past six years, I have shuffled things up a bit more than need be.  I try to read a few {not too many} blogs of the ones listed here, occasionally at best.  I have seen some wonderful ideas from many talented mommas out there and thought to myself that it would be great for our family too, but, that was not always the case.  I have found some really amazing things for us to utilize in our homeschool from others, but, one click on the internet usually turns into way more than that one click in the long run and after many minutes, usually trying to reinvent the wheel is a colossal waste of time!  Time wasted that could be better used on other things, like enjoying time with my family :-)


3.  Invite the Holy Spirit into your school each and every day.
I have found that the best days we have I leave time free in our schedule to be open to His guidance.

4.  Patience is a virtue

Although you may plan to spend a certain amount of time on something, life seldom goes as planned ;)  This especially applies to math!  You can almost see those little wheels turning inside their heads some days and you really, really, really just want to blurt out the answer that they are struggling with, but, you don't.  Instead you choose patience with a smile and watch them and encourage them and then it clicks and you all smile :-)

5.  Reading Aloud is FUN! 
 I have always loved reading and was taught my love of reading from my momma who could devour a 300 page book in a few short days!  We try to read aloud frequently throughout the day... during school, before school, after lunch etc--->  It is actually a daily thing we've worked on throughout the year and over the year the boys have really come to enjoy the books and look forward to it.

6.  People are WAY more important than things.
They always were, but, now with once income you realize you really don't need all of the things that everyone else has to make you happy.


7.  I am more confident with choices I make for my family and not always following the easy smooth road that others follow.
We've always made choices along the way that do not always follow the norm:  Natural childbirth, baby wearing, breastfeeding, co-sleeping are a few of them, so, really homeschooling was really the next logical step in our journey :-)  I love the choices we make for our family and am proud of the love and prayers that surround them.

8.  Homeschooling is a 24/7, 365 days a year life embracing experience. 
 This one is ongoing for me and each year I embrace it a little bit more and realize that my kids are ALWAYS learning, whether we are "doing school" or not.  In the beginning, I made "school" and we did "school" at certain times with certain things.  I would stress out if we were not able to do what was planned for the day too.  Over the years I have learned as much as the kids.  I know that learning is not just about sitting and paying attention at certain times during the day and that true education happens *all day long* and I LOVE that.  I cannot tell you how many times my face has lit up with the expression of how cool something is that just happened that was totally unplanned and happened to be a huge learning opportunity.  I love God-incidences!  See #3 about inviting the Holy Spirit into your homeschool.  He will come if you invite Him :-)

9.  This is the way that life is supposed to be, blessed by God as a family to be in harmony and at peace with each other and work as one to do His will. 
Finding your rhythm is essential.  It takes time and patience on everyone's part, but, you will find it.  I am still finding ours, a little at a time.

10.  I love learning with my children and seeing EVERYTHING through their eyes and being SO blessed to witness all of the firsts and continuing firsts.  My heart just bursts with joy some days. I can say hands down that this is the most rewarding, most challenging thing I have ever done in my life.  It is a HUGE investment, but, the payment is even BIGGER and that makes my heart happy.  It is not just about learning the ABCs or 123s, but, helping to shape my boys into good people who will do God's will and for me that is WAY too important to simply hand over to someone else to accomplish.