Mommy’s Life

Whenever I talk to people about home-school, without fail I get one of these three responses  1) I just don’t have the patience to do that. 2) I’m not smart enough to do that. 3) What about their socialization? I would like to briefly address each of those replies.

1) Patience. I’m always surprised when moms say this. Why do they think it takes some great, vast amount of patience to spend several hours a day teaching their kids? I think the moms who say this must have problems with their kids already. (i.e, their kids are undisciplined, won’t listen or behave.) So for a mom who ALREADY has trouble controlling her children, the idea of sending them away for hours each day is pretty appealing! There are situations that require patience when you home-school, but a gal with an average amount will do fine.

2) Smarts. I think people assume that you can only be “qualified” to teach your kids if you have a college degree. Not so! The great thing about homeschooling today is that are literally thousands of different programs out there to help you. For example, I stink at math. I’ve never been very good at it and I’ve never EVER liked it! Does that mean I’m not qualified to teach math to my kids? Absolutely not! I have a wonderful program called Saxon Math. I have a teacher’s manual and my kids have the student books. The teacher’s manual tells me exactly what to say to teach an easy to understand lesson for each kid. It’s fabulous! I think I have learned as much as my kids. The bonus is that I understand math so much better now too! I can also spell well now, thanks to teaching my kids the rules of spelling. I’m homeschooling myself in the process of homeschooling my kids!

3) Socialization. This is the question that really bugs me. Why does a kid have to spend all day with 30 kids his own age to be socialized? How is that “the real world?” It’s not!!!!! No business that I’ve ever heard of only hires 25 year-olds! The real world is working with people of all ages and abilities and in many different situations. Are you going to learn that better with 30 kids your own age or in a house full of siblings of different ages? At our house, our kids learn appropriate social skills from my husband and I, and then they practice these skills every day as they interact with their siblings, neighborhood kids, at scouts, in tumbling, on the soccer field, at church, 4H, play groups, etc. So please, if you are worried about socialization, DON’T move to a farm in the middle of Montana where your neighbors are 3 hours away! DO give home-school a try! Homeschooling does not mean living in a bubble!