Every Bed of Roses: Day 4 of 5 Real Life Homeschool

Welcome to Day 4 of Real Life Home school. I had so many good intentions of taking my camera along and showing you our typical home school day but this week is turning out to be anything but our normal typical week.

Today I've decided to share about some common conversations I have when people find out I am a SAHM and I home school my children.

So many myths and misconceptions surround homeschooling and it's day to day reality. Every time the conversations about home educating start there are normally one of four question / statements:

Wow you must be patient! or I could NEVER homeschool I'm not patient enough ...
Are you going to send them to high school?
What about socialization?
Are you a qualified teacher?

I don't know when homeschool mothers became super women but I sure do know that it takes a lot of determination some days to keep on keeping on and part of the secret formula is know why you are doing what you are doing. Today I would like to share a few thoughts on each of these common statements made to home school families.

1. Wow you must be patient!
Let's look at the definition of the word: Patient - {adjective}being able to accept or tolerate delays, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.

Firstly let me tell you ALL homeschool mothers are human like you and we all have days where we are able to be as patient as Job and other days where you had better hand over the chocolate in order to remain safe.

When your children were babies and they were learning to sit, crawl or walk did you get angry and impatient with your child for not getting it the first time? For most of us the answer to this is an out right NO. It's much the same most days with homeschooling, it's about coaching and supporting your children on their learning journey.

Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting. - Joyce Meyer

Patience is all about my attitude towards my family and has nothing to do with my ability or that or my children either. Yes I have days when I'm impatient (ask my children or my husband!) and I have learned that I need determination more than I need patience to home school.

For more encouragement read

2. Are you going to send them to high school?
No, we will keep homeschooling. I'm by no means an expert in every field but I do know where to get the information if we need it. If I can't teach it and together we can't figure it out then I will find someone who can teach it and help us. The high school years are a great opportunity to learn along side my students and show them that learning never ends and that you can learn anything you want to.

Here are a few of the posts I've written about homeschooling in high school:

3. What about socialization?
This is the one question that often is asked of home school families. It's one that gets a lot of attention and one that people become very heated over. I have written a more in-depth post about it before but here are a few key things to consider.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

Why is it important to me that my child learn the social culture of school ?
What is the social culture that school is dominated by ?
Is this something I want for my child ? If so then why ?
What does the word of God have to say about this?

Three scriptures that come to mind are:

Bad company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33)
Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. (Proverbs 13:20)
Make no friendships with a man given to anger, and with a wrathful man do not associate, Lest you learn his ways and get yourself into a snare.(Proverbs 22: 24-25)

I highly recommend Sally and Clay Clarkson's book: Educating the WholeHearted child. Clay has a fantastic comparison chart of socialization in the school setting versus socialization in the home school environment. This chart is ultimately the thing that settled my nerves and made me happy and comfortable with the whole home school and socialization issue.

Articles of interest:

4. Are you a qualified teacher?
That depends on your point of view. In essence I'm not a qualified school teacher but I am a homeschooling mother with 17 years of hands on experience including graduating two students. In practice you do not need to go to a college in order to home educate your children in Australia (different countries/states have different requirements be sure to find out what yours is before you begin).

You do however need a determined attitude and be prepared to research and look for opportunities to educate your children well.

Homeschooling is one of the most rewarding things I have done. I have seen most of my children's firsts and enjoyed their triumphs when they succeed. I have also cried and struggled but it's been worth every minute. We have many years of memories together and many stories to tell. Whenever I am in need of a little encouragement I read this beautiful letter written by Erica called: Candid Conversation with God.

May your homeschool journey be one filled with many days of joy.
Blessings
Chareen