Take Your Time and Get It Right

If there is one aspect of homeschooling that all homeschoolers know but that never gets explained properly to the public it is the fact that home education is a lifestyle.   Homeschooling is not simply a block of time each day that is interchangeable with a brick-and-mortar school schedule.   Because of the level of dedication that a family must have for this lifestyle, I am always interested in reading why people choose to educate their children at home. 

Recently, I read Cindy’s blog.  Cindy writes at Get Along Home.  In a recent post titled, “Why Homeschool?” she answered that question.   I found her answer to be at once refreshingly honest and compelling reading, so I asked for and received permission to share her answer with you.  

She wrote:

My primary reason [for homeschooling] is simply this: I don’t want to live that way.

By “that way,” I mean the normal American lifestyle.  I don’t want to live a life of constant running. It’s always a rush between home, school, work, church, and social functions. We were not meant to live this way!

Each thing I do I rush through so I can do something else.

I DO NOT WANT TO LIVE THAT WAY!
My mom and dad worked 40-50 hours a week to keep a roof over our heads. I was thrown in with a group of other kids at a babysitter’s house all summer. During the school year, I was thrown into taxpayer-funded babysitting (aka public school) with a group of other kids. I was home at night to eat and sleep. On weekends, we searched for entertainment. On weekdays, I got up early and went to bed exhausted, empty. My parents barely had a word to say to me. How could they? We led separate lives! I had a “normal” childhood. It was a wasted childhood, spent among people I didn’t know, going places that I didn’t want to be, without ever a moment to breathe.

All the pointless bustling about from place to place kept me from ever really knowing my family. And it kept them from knowing me. Most importantly, it kept me from knowing God. Church was just another place we had to hurry to get to. My parents were just the people who made me go there. God was just something you do when you aren’t doing something else.

I don’t want to live that way, and I really, really don’t want my kids to live that way. So that’s why we homeschool, in a nutshell: so we can take our time and get it right.

There is nothing that I can add that says more than Cindy’s last sentence, but it is worth repeating.  In regards to raising her children, she homeschools, “so we can take our time and get it right.”

If you would like to share your reasons for homeschooling, feel free to contact us at writearby@gmail.com.  We’d love to read your story!