Each and every year, just about this time, I find it difficult to believe that our little family {okay, big family!} is rounding out yet another year of home-based education.
Homeschooling.
This choice was not one we embraced from the start, in fact, quite the opposite. We would not be homeschooling our children as agreed before marriage. But for a variety of reasons we’ve found a way of life that has many more benefits for our family than drawbacks. And this is what homeschooling has become,
a way of life.
‘Homeschoolers’ is not the best way of describing us. I suppose there’s no problem with this being a primary identity; it’s just not ours.
We are first and always..a family.
And as a family, this is our educational choice. While homeschooling holds a firm place in our future, the fact remains that this choice could change for some reason. Probably due to difficult or sad circumstances, and yet we would want to remain centered around our primary identity. A Family. A family who thoroughly enjoys learning together.
My sisters and I were not home-educated and attended public schools. Both of my parents worked full-time outside of the home. Several years ago I wrote a joy-filled letter generously thanking them for various aspects of our home life.
As I prepared for another school year, with fresh understanding, I realized that our focus on living and learning together mimicked what my parents had provided, even under completely different circumstances!
We had a wonderful library of books at home. My father regularly quizzed us on the Reader’s Digest vocabulary lists {we did not appreciate this until adulthood! :)}
Great music filled our home and music instruction was gifted to us.
My parents fostered our interests and provided in numerous areas for us to expand our knowledge.
We cooked and cleaned together. We planted gardens, juiced veggies & fruits, and baked a lot…especially cookies and croissants. My mother sewed many of our clothes. It’s funny to me that these traits are associated with homeschooling, but so it goes.
They taught us hands-on life skills {seriously, my Mom had to be the original FlyLady!}. I learned bulk shopping, bulk cooking and menu planning from watching my mother. And we all were instructed on how to change our car tires, though none of us remembers how. I did retain info on using jumper cables!
We had lively dinner conversations and discussed & ‘debated’ many topics. We traveled and were deliberately exposed to a variety of cultures, foods, and people.
We attended church together and my parents planned devotional times for our family {where my sisters and I were often requested to prepare a ‘sermonette’!}. Growing together spiritually was of utmost importance in our home.
You get the picture, but why do I write such a list?
Because you don’t have to be a homeschooling family in order have a rich family life.
Yes, yes…hands-down, I have more time with my children than if most of their days were taken up with traveling to and attending school and then we had to juggle another several hours after school of traveling to and participating in extra activities.
The flexibility and control we have over the pace at which our children intake their academics is important to us. These and other aspects of home education are ones we will not easily release.
But family life…living together? learning together? growing together?
Well…that is not at all limited to homeschooling families. That’s just simply God’s design for the family.
Any family, with any educational choice.
