My top FIVE reasons you should consider homeschooling your child(ren).
All five reasons have to do with FREEDOM!!!!
As a homeschooling Mom of eight children (three have graduated from homeschooling), 18 years of doing so, there has been nothing more affirming of my decision to homeschool my beautiful children then FREEDOM!
As each year morph into the next homeschooling year more freedoms emerge and the blessing of homeschooling becomes even more ‘sweetah’.
1.TIME Freedom!
At one point of our homeschooling journey every three months our family took an extensive vacation. We were able to do so as a result of not being bound to a public school schedule. We had no schedule at all except the one we set for ourselves.
Also, time freedom to choose how long our schooling day would be. South Carollina, the state in which we homeschool, do not have a required number of hours each day to homeschool. Some days we start earlier than others or later than others. Homeschooled on the weekends while skipping a few days during the weeks for schooling.
Time is on our side in our schooling journey.
2. EDUCATIONAL Freedom!
While there are required subjects we must cover in our homeschooling year per SC regulations, I still have the freedom to choose which curriculum we will use, if we will use curriculum or if I will create our studies, what historical truths I choose to pull from, what pace of homeschooling we will go at for each child.
Education Freedom has afforded me the opportunity to choose who will speak into my children’s life academically and what I’d like them to learn. AND this freedom has allowed my children to choose and hone in what they’d like to learn. I’m learning to now follow their lead.
3. ‘NO-LABELS’ Freedom!
Labels like:
“Your hyper son has ADHD.”
Well….he’s now 19-1/2 years old. He would have received this label at 5 years old in school. HIS BUTT WAS A LIVE WIRE!! He had to often take breaks to jump on our mini trampoline we had in the house so he could get his wiggles out. We still have this same trampoline today! Ha.
“Your twins have special needs. They have severe learning disabilities.”
We adopted our twin boy and girl at 3 years old. They were in special needs classes IN PRESCHOOL!! They are now nine years old, 5th grade, reading, cursive writing, excelling. Oh….I skipped them a grade ahead. They are super smart kiddoes!
“Your son has ADD and special needs.”
This is our 1st adopted son. He talks, talks, talks and talks. He is super smart with so much to say and articulates himself well. He bores easy and likes to be challenged. On his adoption paperwork it says, ‘Special Needs Child.’ Uhhmmm…he’s not.
“Your daughter is quiet and doesn’t participate in class. She has ‘a problem. If she doesn’t participate she’ll fail her participation grade.’
This would have been said of my 3rd daughter. She was a very quiet baby and child while growing up. She was TAKING IN EVERYTHING. Very observant. She graduated homeschooling at 16 years old. Completed her studies at 15 years old. Was accepted into college at 16 years old (just finished her freshman year studying violin performance. 4.0 gpa 1st semester. 3.944 gpa 2nd semester)
So…you see. NO labels here!
4. ‘MAKE-MEMORIES’ Freedom!
Every day I get to spend with my children is an opportunity to make memories: to have things to laugh, chat about later, remind me of my grouchy days and more.
Memories like being home when my 9 year old started her menstraul cycle. Omgee….Yes, 9 years old.
Memories like beating daddy at chess because everyday they played with their siblings until they were able to master the game. Chess is apart of their schooling by their choosing.
Memories like discussing my daughter’s absolute abundance of love studying the human body, bones, muscles and learning their ‘medical’ names.
Memories like….well there are just too many to name.
5. ‘JUST BE YOU!’ – Freedom!
Honestly, I’ve not done the best at this over my 18-years of homeschooling. But I’m allowing and learning to give FREEDOM to my children to just be.
To have autonomy over themselves, their minds, their bodies, their learning, their likes/dislikes.
I contribute a lot of this new thought process to Akilah Richards . Her interview with me on my show Girlfriends’ Guide to Homeschooling with Angela Jordan Perry opened my eyes to raising Free Children.
Akilah is a host of an amazing podcast. She is doing ‘the most’ for the unschooling community. Her tag for her podcast Fare of the Free Child, ‘You can’t keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free children’ speaks to me everytime I hear it. I’m continually fine tuning what that freedom looks like for each of my remaining homeschooling children (five of them) while adjusting to where I need to butt out and allow them to be free to be themselves.
This is a learning process. But it’s about time they be FREE to be themselves and learn who they are within this FREEDOM!
I’m sure you can name a few freedoms yourself. Share the freedoms you’ve discovered on your homeschooling journey OR
FREEDOMS you’d like to develop within your homeschooling journey.
I’d love to hear!
(Be sure to share this post with a friend. You just never know who needs to this encouragment or who may be considering homeschooling their own children.)
Angela Jordan Perry, is a wife of 26 years, homeschooling Mom of eight children, mentor, entrepreneur, host of Girlfriends’ Guide to Homeschooling show, podcast host of Girlfriends Chat, founder/director of STEAM Co-Op of the Upstate, Mocha Homeschooling Moms-SC founder, owner/director/administrator of United Community of Homeschoolers Unlimited Option 3 Accountability Association, founder/Executive Director of Educating Our Own, direct marketer, mad’am farmer, Toastmasters Competent Communicator recipient, racial injustice activist. Angela and her family makes their homestead in Campobello, SC.