Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Our Unexpected Benefits of Homeschooling

This is our first year homeschooling. I don't know why I chose to wait to start homeschooling until my son was in fourth grade and my daughter was in first grade. :) I was also pregnant with my fourth child and had a very busy two year old running around. I'm starting to understand why my Mom says that I do everything the hard way. :)

Anyway, I had felt like the Lord had been convicting me to homeschool for a few years before we finally made the decision. There are many reasons why we homeschool, our faith, good education, behavior issues, etc. The thing that I want to talk about in this blog post are the unexpected benefits we found so far in our homeschooling journey.

1.) More family time:  This one is obvious as since the kids do their schooling at home, we are together more often. The unexpected benefit was that even though Daddy works out of the home, we found more time with him too. Running to his work while we were out or taking Daddy lunch provided extra time for the kids to see and talk to him.

2.) More Opportunities to learn: This one was a benefit that I hadn't even thought of before we started homeschooling. Since I know what they are learning in their school lessons each day, it is easier for me to incorporate that into everyday situations. For example, my son and I were learning about caterpillars and how they cocoon and turn into butterflies. Well, a few days after that we were looking at our plants in the backyard and found a cocoon on our cauliflower plant. It was so neat to be able to take what we had read in the Science book and see it before us happening in reality.

3.) More Time for Extracurricular Interests: This one was really a great, unexpected benefit since both of my school-aged children decided they wanted to try playing basketball for the first time this year. Since we can usually get all of our schooling done in around four hours, we have more time to visit friends, take music lessons, and do sports.

4.) More Time for Real World Learning:  Since my children are with me all of the time, I have the benefit of being able to teach them many skills that they will use as adults and parents themselves. When I run to the bank or go to an appointment or pay a bill, they are with me. I can teach them how to deposit money at the bank, clean the house, call for services, etc. My Mother was very good at teaching me how to do all these things, but I've had a few friends who were completely unprepared for running a house. These skills are almost more important that the lessons we learn in schooling since they will be used more often.


These are just a few of the unexpected benefits that I've found in my homeschooling journey. There was a time in my life where I would have never considered homeschooling my children. I'm happy that the Lord has changed my heart and mind and now we are able to enjoy this new chapter in our lives.

 Do you homeschool your kids? Have you ever thought about homeschooling your kids? Are you against homeschooling? Please share your thoughts in the comments! :)


Linking up with Time Warp Wife at http://time-warp-wife.blogspot.com/2012/06/titus-2sdays-link-up-party.html

and Linking with. http://womenlivingwell.org/2012/06/keeping-your-husband-the-man-of-your-dreams-wlww-link-up-party

6 comments:

  1. I was never brave enough to home school my kids, although I thought seriously about it with my youngest. I salute those parents who are dedicated homeschoolers and do it well. Sounds like you are finding some real benefits for your family. Thanks for sharing this.

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    1. Thanks for reading! I didn't realize that there would be any other benefits besides the obvious ones.

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  2. I home schooled my kids all the way through high school. It started out as an experiment when my oldest started kindergarten. Once we started it just seemed like the natural thing to do. Hard work but well worth it. I agree with all the benefits you listed. Best wishes on your home schooling journey.

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    1. Thanks for reading Emma. How did you get their high school diploma?

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  3. My husband and I have been tossing around and praying about homeschooling. I wanted to start last fall when my oldest started K, but we were expecting our 3rd baby in Oct. and running a business together and I was overwhelmed. How did you start out or do you have any resources that you could recommend? We had a good experience with the public school this year, but I really want to instill our values and faith as much as possible and give our daughters a better start and more protection from all that is out there.

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    1. It all seemed overwhelming to me when I first started. I have been very blessed to have many friends that homeschool so they helped me a lot! I also joined our local homeschool co-op which has been an endless source of support and encouragement. The curriculum that I use is A Beka which the private school that my children attended prior to homeschooling used. http://www.abeka.com/HomeSchool/Default.aspx

      Timberdoodle - They have Christian and secular products
      http://www.timberdoodle.com/

      Alpha Omega - They have switched on schoolhouse which is what we will be using for bible next year
      they also have several different curriculum options

      http://www.aophomeschooling.com/index.php

      Sonlight which is a more traditional approach

      http://www.sonlight.com/

      http://www.mathusee.com/

      http://www.rodstaff.com/
      Rod and staff which is Christian based

      There are so many! Saxon Math
      http://saxonhomeschool.hmhco.com/en/saxonhomeschool.htm;jsessionid=BBA67C9C5D3102149DE0C358BE6BFC4E.ecom-app-wk1

      apologia
      http://www.apologia.com/
      i think that should help you feel overwhelmed lol

      If you want to talk more my email is ningrlpwr@hotmail.com

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