Whats Homeschooling Like?
You may not even be considering homeschooling but wondering “ Whats homeschooling like?” Everyones homeschool is vastly different, depending on age and lifestyle. Our homeschool is full of gardening, collecting chicken eggs, baking, messy projects, and lots of redirecting. This is our lifestyle and my kids are still elementary age.
Your homeschool will be what you want it to be. Thats the beauty in it, is you get to choose. If something isn’t working, change it!
What is life like?
The best way I can describe what homeschool is like is to ask yourself “ what is life like?” How is your life outside of public school, is it chaotic? Is your family always on the go all the time? Are you homebodies? How does everyone act in a stressful situation? What is everyone doing while in a calm situation?
I say this because we must realize homeschooling is just living life with the added aspect of full time education (because everyone educates their kids to some extent). So what is your everyday life like, it’ll be like that. Homeschooling is not going to change who we are and our personalities. It may take some pressures off of us but that will be replaced with something different. This “different” might suit you well and make a world of difference. There will still be stressful moments though, chaotic moments, deadlines. You will handle that in the same way you always have, which could be in complete grace! But if you’re like me you may have to put some serious intentional effort into changing the way you handle things.
Homeschool has changed me as a mother and teacher in ways I am so thankful for. My patience, understanding, and connection with my children has grown immensely. That has come with alot of work and self analyzing. Our homeschool is fun, free, with a touch of rigor and a side of impatience and frustration.
I want to give an example, Maybe you had a lazy morning, woke up at 10 and everything seems perfect on your first day of homeschooling, but think back, if when you were going to public school everyone was screaming, crying, and stressed just trying to get out the door to school in the morning then it’ll likely be the same when your child is sitting at the table frustrated not wanting to do his work. The more difficult times just come in a different form.
This is in no way to discourage you, you CAN do this. But it doesn’t come without work and a determination to make it work. People who homeschool have seen their children flourish and homeschool and be a truly beautiful mess
It is what you make it
Now like I said before our personalities play a big role. You and your child may flourish. The extra sleep. The extra freedom at times brings out a whole new side of you.
Often when homeschooling you are given a chance to be your true authentic self. There is no one there to push you down. Telling you should be something different.
If you are schooling a younger grade there will be more play time, more snack time, and more mommy time. You will be assisting with lots of projects and hearing a lot of “mommy look at this”. You will be able to see every step of progress first hand knowing you worked together to get there.
If your child is in an older grade, you will be more of a supervisor. Your child will likely be able to do a lot of the work on their own but will need loving motivation and that’s where you come in. One of the more difficult things in homeschooling older grades is actually getting it done. You expect them to know they should do it but remember they are still kids and need your guidance.
In short your homeschool will be what the student and teacher make it. It requires effort from both parties to not only meet your goals but to make it enjoyable. You can add your own touches like making a big deal out of the first or last day of school. I give 10 great first day of school ideas here. This was just a small peek and I hope it helped. Maybe one day I will write what its like from a student perspective as I was homeschooled as well. Let me know if you would like to hear about that. Until then, I hope you enjoyed!