What’s the Best Thing About Homeschool?
Allow me to be repetitive and proclaim that homeschooling is great. Of course, we have our bad days like everyone else, but there is a lot to homeschooling I love. I bet you can’t guess my very favorite thing…
The Obvious
I enjoy the flexibility with our days. I am thankful we can go slow some days, speed up other days and go at our own pace. Right now, we are through with our academic day by lunch time. Freedom to give my time to other areas of life and to tote the kids to fun things happens during the second half of the day.
I love exploring new curriculum and being creative with seasonal or other fun things to study.
I like knowing exactly what my kids are learning so I can help make connections between everyday life and the science lessons, people in history, math concepts, and new vocabulary words.
I relish in observing my kids befriending each other. They spend their days which each other and I hope that this develops into deep friendships. Time spend with siblings is irreplaceable.
The Obscure
My list of things I like about homeschooling could get fairly long, but let’s get to the best thing…
You see, my favorite thing about homeschooling came as a surprise to me. One day, it dawned on me that I could spend an entire day with my kids at home and never really talk to them, never really connect with them. I am a task-oriented person, so much so that I have to intentionally force myself to stop my tasks and connect with people.
Homeschooling forces me to stop my chores, phone calls, planning dinner for that night, and all the other tasks that are running through my head. I get the pleasure of sitting across the table from my daughters and focus entirely on them (and the toddler running circles around the table) for our morning.
When I am on my A-game, even my phone is silenced and my kids get all my attention. I look at them, eyeball to eyeball (in a good way, of course), and get to soak in who they are today.
My dear friend and mentor advised me “to just look” at my kids. She told me how children just grow up and change before we know it and we might just forget what they looked like as youngsters. As her kids can tell you, looking at them and studying their faces, expressions, curly eyelashes, chubby cheeks, and missing teeth might feel a little awkward for both of you. But the weirdness is worth it. It burns an image of a fleeting moment into your mind. And in a strange way, it is a warm-fuzzy that the kids secretly love too.
So, although the normal list of homeschooling benefits is great. (I love my laminator just like the next homeschooler down the road, don’t get my wrong.) I am so thankful that I stumbled upon this lifestyle because it forces me out of my own rhythm. The list of things that can pull me away from my tasks is rather short, but knowing that the responsibility of their education in my hands is one of the very top things on that list.
While the world is still going on outside of the walls of my house, it stops just for a few hours each morning for me. Yes, it strains our relationships at times, but we are forced to work out our personality weaknesses and push through to become better people – both me and my kids.
Lindsay Banton is a caffeinated mother to three great kids. She never expected to homeschool, but has found that it is a wonderful addition to their lifestyle and wouldn’t change it for the world. In addition to homeschooling, Lindsay works alongside her husband in campus ministry at a large university in Connecticut. She grew up in Virginia but has settled into life in New England, learning to love the long winters, cool springs, green summers and gorgeous autumns- and has built a boot collection to meet all the demands. She is currently blogging at www.oaksreplanted.blogspot.com