Benefits of Home Education {Day 4 Thankful Thursday}

As I was considering what to share with you today I began to realise that as a family we have benefited from this journey far more than we actually realise.  Today the Homeschool Review Crew Blog Hop participants are focusing on thankfulness, so grab a cuppa and join us as we encourage you to look at homeschooling and the many things to be thankful for.

Time for Family Relationships

Being married to a zoo keeper who works a rotating roster Paul and I realised that if we had not home educated our children would have only seen him two days a month when his rostered days off fell on a weekend.  Oportunities for relationship building abound.  There is available time to enjoy one another and get to know each other on a deeper and more intimate level within the family.

Because we home educate Paul has been able to take our children on adventures and given them valuable one on one time.

Paul has blessed our home school with his skills.  He has helped us with all the things I am unable to do. His role within our home school in invaluable and our homeschool has benefitted from his life experience, insights, practical help and guidence.

Traveling

When you think of traveling often our first thoughts are interstate or international, however any time you walk out your front door and go anywhere you are traveling and the opportunities to learn abound! The longer we home educate the more I've come to value the depth that this type of immersion provides to our home school. When children experience real life they remember it so much more and are able to use that immersion to help them interpret the world around them. There are many benefits to exploring, here are a few of the things we have done that might give you ideas for your family

• As immigrants we love to explore and find out about all the fabulous things right in our own back yard. 
• We were blessed three years ago with a trip to explore the Outback of Australia with my father and brother.  
• In 2012 we had the amazing experience of driving to Queensland to experience a total Solar Eclipse and we got to hold koala!
• We have had so many fabulous opportunities with our local home educating groups through field trips.  We have experienced things like:
  • a Laser Light Show on the Melbourne Town Hall,
  • seen beautiful fashion and what people have worn in Australia over the last 200 years,
  • explored the history of the motor vehical at the Ford Museum,
  • experience a historical town from the 1800's at Sovereign Hill,
  • Discovered interesting things about our local police force at the Victorian Police Museum,
  • learned about the sacrifices members of our military force have made to maintain the freedoms we have in Australia at the Shrine of Remembrance,
  • discovered the beauty and history of the first cathedral in Melbourne by popping through the open door of St James Old Cathedral,
  • never underestimate the value of your local zoo, we have met the giraffe and developed a family tradition of night zoo in winter.
• We have been extrodinarily blessed with tickets to travel to our home country South Africa and imerse our children in a different culture and landscape.

Time

• Homeschooling has given us time.  Time to get to know each other.  Time to choose our own rythm and homeschool year round.   
• The opportunity to experience my children's successes.  The first time they read and seeing their faces light up with accomplishment. 
• The time to watch them grow and develop.
• Time to invest in Mother Culture rather than running from pillar to post (although that has happened when I have mismanaged my time)

Community

• I have been blessed with amazing friendships over the years.  Some have been seasonal.  Some have come and stayed but each and everyone has invested in my life and left behind footprints that have shaped me.
• Some of the Homeschool Co-Op opportunities have provided expereinces that my children would have been unable to experience anywhere else.  These have provided people to help share the load of schooling and have both challenged and stretched us educationally and relationally.
• Mentoring Relationships have been a huge blessing in our homeschool. We have been blessed with help, information, networking opportunities, advice, encouragement and support we could never have had anywhere else.

Looking Back - Benefits from a Homeschool Graduate's Perspective

I asked my daughter what she was felt were benefits of being homeschooled here is her list:

• Being able to work at her own pace - not too fast not too slow.
• Having time to pursue subjects she was interrested in.
• Flexibility.
• Not wasting time.  She could go from one subject to the next and not have to move between classes or wait for the next class time.
• Being able to graduate early at 16 with a tertiary qualification.
• Taking time off for family commitments or travel was never an issue.
• Having access to tutoring aka Mom!
• Traveling and learning through immersion.
• Having time to grow a relationship with my little brother who is ten years younger than me.

This post is part of the Homeschool Review Crew 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement Blog Hop.

Grab a cuppa and be prepared to be motivated for the year ahead.  Here are a few of the participants of this years blog hop.  Be sure to take a look at some of the posts shared by our wonderful home educating mom's.

• Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures 
• Lori @ At Home: where life happens 
• Margaret @ Creative Madness Mama  
• Marla @ Jump Into Genius 
• Meredith @ Powerline Productions: Being World Changers/Raising World Changers  
• Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays 
• Missica @ Through The Open Window 
• Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling