On Home Schooling

These are excerpts from a letter my mother wrote to her cousins about home schooling. She wrote this while I was finishing my 9th grade year. I believe her words reflect how much she loved us, her children, and the joy she experienced while educating us.

She writes… “It always seems overwhelming but I feel committed to this. I guess some day when it is all said and done I have to feel good about how I raised my children that is in every area. I hope that I never say “oh, how I wished I’d….”. I can’t tell you if the education is better public vs home, it is a feeling in year heart, and mind just knowing it is the right thing to do.”

Later she describes what some of her days were like… “ There are days the housework never gets done because we don’t stop due to being on a roll. Field trip days we don’t do as much school. I try to cook easy meals. I have to do at least 2-3 loads of laundry a day to keep up. …The first few years I worked through what I liked and didn’t like. Changed rooms where we did school and desks to find the best way to do things. Some times of the day work better then others do. … sometimes things interrupt and you can’t get much done…We work at the kitchen table a lot.”

About our family she shared… “Our kids are close to each other and for the most part enjoy it. The have a wide range of friends in age groups, which is good they can get along in any group of people. I feel our kids are well rounded with a wide variety of ideas.

Her perspective on teaching… “Every opportunity is an educational one. Just turn it into a fieldtrip, or learning experience. This is the case even if they’re in (public) school. I think a lot of people think once their child is in school then their job as a parent and teaching stop. This is not true.”

In closing she writes… “As you can tell I can talk about this subject for a long time and my heart is there…I enjoy the lower ele. levels so much I will miss them when JR is done. I have at least 6 more years. Just today the kids built out of play-dough a volcano and lake with a boat and waves as a project.”