A homeschool grad looks back on her homeschooling experience and relates ten things she never expected when they first began.
Text of 10 Things I Never Expected When I Started Homeschooling
10 Things I Never Expected When I Started Homeschooling
Learning How to Learn While I obviously expected to learn, I didnt realize that the homeschool experience would equip me with the tools to learn how to learn. With those tools, I can learn anything - and for the rest of my life.
Self-Discipline I never expected that homeschooling would teach me to become a self- disciplined person. My parents put a lot of my school responsibilities on me as I grew older, and that forced me to not only plan ahead, but to schedule (and adhere to my schedule) to finish my lessons. How fast or slow I made it through the school years depended on how willing I was to do the work. That experience has molded me into a very self-disciplined person today.
Life Skills When we began homeschooling, I expected pajama days, sleeping in, and movies. While we did have those, the homeschooling experience mainly taught me life skills. Such as, cooking for a family of seven (Home-Ec!), yard work (mixing cement, laying concrete, assembling a sprinkler system, building sheds), managing laundry for the said large family, coupon shopping, price checking, swimming, and lots of animal care - just to name a few.
Homeschool Friends I never, ever, expected to meet so many other homeschoolers - and to realize that they are so much FUN! I was amazed by how quickly other homeschoolers took me in and became friends with me. I have formed the absolute best friendships over the years with other homeschoolers.
Becoming a Nerd While I loved books even before being homeschooled, I didnt expect to develop such a strong passion for learning. My homeschool experience cultivated that passion - which undoubtedly transformed me into a huge nerd - and I love it! The term nerd no longer has a negative connotation to me - it means one who desires to learn, to read, to excel. How could that be a bad thing?
Flexibility When we started homeschooling, I expected some flexibility - after all, we were home. However, I didnt realize that, if we wanted, we could take a day just sitting in our living room watching LOTR and feasting on junk food. Why not? We could always make our school up later! Perks of being a homeschooler: schedule flexibility.
Hard Work One thing I certainly didnt expect (but soon learned) was that homeschoolers work really hard! Good grades certainly do not come easy. Before we began homeschooling, I didnt realize homeschoolers had to work very much at all. That certainly is one homeschooler myth that isnt true. Homeschoolers work hard!
Strict Parents This goes hand-in-hand with the previous slide. I never expected my parents to be heavy with the red pen when it came to grading my work. They were my parents after all - until that point, they had helped me with my school - not graded it. Getting marked down by mom and dad was certainly something I hadnt expected. However, Im glad they did mark me down - how else could I learn?
Pursuing My Interests In homeschool, I was often able to learn what I wanted to learn. For example, my parents would give me a choice of curricula, and I could choose which one I would like to study. Taking part in choosing my textbooks definitely deepened my determination to do well. (Also, if I ended up not liking the curriculum, my parents could always remind me, You picked it!)
Grading My Own WOrk Typically, when you hear about a student grading their own work, it sounds like a cop-out. If theyre grading themselves, surely they cant be honest. Well...my parents changed that. I never would have expected to honestly grade my own work, but its something I learned to do over the years, and it is definitely an invaluable skill. I learned to honestly evaluate myself, and it has helped in so many other areas of my life.
