Try it! You May Like It!

Are you considering homeschooling this fall? If you are, I want to share with you a few of my thoughts on the idea as a former homeschooled student!

I loved being homeschooled! Not everyone will love it, and it’s not for everyone, but I would definitely encourage you to try it out! If you don’t end up liking it, you don’t have to stick with it throughout the rest of your child’s life, but there’s a chance you will enjoy it and your child will enjoy it too!

There are so many different ways you can go about this if you do choose to try it. You certainly don’t have to do it on your own. You don’t even necessarily have to be the teacher. There are so many different kinds of curriculum you can choose from that have teachers that guide the student through the material, and even some of the online programs have automatic grading. Besides that, there are homeschool groups and co-ops you can look into for help as well! Or perhaps you have a parent or sibling who would be an excellent teacher for a certain subject who would like to help. There are so many options, and they’re worth looking into!

Continuing on with the subject of curriculum, as I said, there is a plethora of options out there. When I was in school, I had different publications of curriculum for just about all my subjects. You can have any kind of variety of curriculum you want! And if you do continue homeschooling over a few years, that will give you time to figure out which curriculum best suits each of your children. Some of the curriculum that worked for me didn’t work as well for a sibling, because we are different and learn a little bit differently. Some of our work was on a computer, and some of it was in books. Some of it my mom helped me with more, and some of it I could pretty much do on my own, especially as I got older. I didn’t have to have my teacher around all the time, and if I had a question there was no issue with waiting to get the lesson done later or the next day when she was around.

Homeschooling makes life so much more flexible! Personally, I worked better in the evenings than in the mornings, at least as a teenager, so I would often get more done later in the day. I was also able to travel with my family at any time, and ride along with my mom when she’d run errands, taking my books with me to work on in the car between stores and such if needed, and we could take sick days and birthdays off whenever we wanted. I’m not saying we didn’t have structure, because we definitely did, but the flexibility was one of the best things about homeschooling. And everyone does it differently. It’s a matter of finding what works best for you and your family!

One of your concerns may be socialization for your kiddos. Some homeschoolers might not get as much of that, but I think some probably get a significant amount more than public school students! It’s not a matter of whether you homeschool or not; it’s about how you do it! I was involved in lots of things growing up and never lacked for socialization. You may be concerned that if you homeschool, your kids will lack social skills, but I believe that many people who were homeschooled their entire lives have better social skills than many who attended public school. Socialization is not so much about where you get your education; it’s about who you get it from and how, and it has a lot to do with parenting. So don’t worry about the social aspect of things one bit! Just because your child does his schoolwork at home doesn’t mean he lives on a different planet than everyone else.

Be sure to look into the laws for your state on homeschooling. The laws for each state vary- and change! Laws in my state have been changed even since I graduated high school, which wasn’t that long ago. If you know of anyone who homeschools, you can talk to them about it; I’m sure they would be happy to help you out.

Honestly, I could go on and on about homeschooling, but I’ll leave it at that for now. Don’t be intimidated or overwhelmed by all the information and decisions and options pertaining to it! Part of the beauty of homeschooling is doing it however you want, which I love! If you’re thinking about homeschooling and are interested in more posts like this one, leave me a comment! I hope you try it out! <3