Hey everyone! So I know this isn't strictly writing related, but this is
something that's really important to me and that I'm very passionate about and
I thought I would share my experience. There's always been a lot of mixed
opinions and controversy around the idea of homeschooling. People seem to have
a lot of misconceptions about what homeschooling is and just, after reading
some articles and seeing all the negativity toward it, and I was just feeling really passionate about the subject and decided to write about it this weekend. Usually, I just blog about writing and books and stuff on here, and I really went back and forth about publishing this post, but I mean, I already wrote it and put time and energy into it, so might as well, right? I thought it would be a
good idea to share why homeschooling was the best thing that could have ever happened
to me. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't been homeschooled.
I don't have anything against parents that send their kids to public or private schools. I have nothing against kids who want to go to school. The school system fits well for a lot of families and some kids are suited for it, but some kids - a lot of kids in my opinion - are not. There are two schools that I remember going to. One in Arizona and one in Indiana. Arizona was so long ago that I barely remember what grade I even started going to that school, I'm pretty sure it was for third and fourth grade though. I was pretty young, seeing how we've been in Indiana for six, seven years now. (I'm terrible at dates and times, so I may probably be off by a little bit). Both schools were very small. In Arizona, I had a class of maybe nine kids. All of them were boys, except for the one girl and then me, so we sort of ended up being best friends because we were surrounded by boys. The one in Indiana was just as small. Maybe seven, eight kids in the class? And oddly enough, it just happened to be all girls with one guy in the whole class.
But, near the end of seventh grade - I don't even remember what happened that made me want to be homeschooled and made my mom want to homeschool me, besides the fact that she's always really been into homeschooling - but I left and got to skip eighth grade since I was held back in like first grade or something and by seventh grade I had caught up. The truth is, I was never an A-B student. Back then, I struggled in almost every class. I had bad dyslexia (yes I'm a writer with dyslexia and still has no idea how to use proper grammar) and my brain is just not cut out to understand math or science in the least (if your counting, that pretty much covers every class in school that you will take).
I got mostly C's and D's, not because I didn't apply myself. I worked hard. Twice as hard as everyone else in my class because I had to or I would have flunked. That and I had an awesome, very smart mom who helped a lot and a few supportive teachers who were willing to work with me. Without them, I would have been a D-F student. Even though I didn't know it yet, I hadn't put a label on this, but I struggled with extreme anxiety in middle school too. As I look back at my time in school, I remember all the times I came home overwhelmed or would have dizzy spells and would feel sick to my stomach. I had horrible fainting spells (I had no idea what caused them, now I know that the heat effects me in a bad way and my anxiety gives me those fainting spells as well). All of those things also made school difficult. Being homeschooled didn't cure my anxiety, but I think it made it a bit more manageable. I didn't have to have anxiety attacks about standardized tests and remembering useless facts (I have a horrible memory so tests are like torture to me) and freaking out over projects or standing up in front of a class and reading a paper. PE was also horrible. Back then (and even now) I am not a very athletic person.
I had bad anxiety whenever it came to PE class. I don't do sports at all, I don't like sports. It's just not my thing, so to be forced to participate in something that I am horrible at and that everyone else in my class was good at, was horrible. It made me hate exercising and made me self-conscious.
When I became homeschooled, my mom bought a treadmill and I slowly worked myself up to using that. Now I'm on the elliptical for a full 65 minutes every day. I'm no longer so self-conscious about exercising and about myself in general. Being homeschooled really let me become more physical and healthy in my own way, like riding my bike every day around the neighborhood and being on the treadmill and eating healthier foods at home that my mom would make or buy that she couldn't put in a sack lunch for school.
Anyways, that is why, when I say I wouldn't have survived public or private high school, I am telling the truth. At sixteen I had a surprising and difficult diagnosis that made my anxiety flare worse than it ever had before. I had really bad panic attacks almost every day and severe depression. If I had been in high school at the time, I don't think I would have been able to deal. I wouldn't have been able to handle the diagnosis as well as I did or my anxiety and depression. Homeschooling allowed me to take a step back and give myself the time and space I needed to get my anxiety and depression under control. To go to the doctors and get medicine to help without an outside influence like the pressures of high school to make it all worse.
But that's all me. That's my experience and I know one of the biggest concerns people have is socialization. That is the one argument I really don't understand, especially amongst Christians and people who know about homeschool co-ops. In Arizona, before I hit middle school age we were a part of a co-op and went to zoos and parks and hung out with other kids our age and kids older and younger than us. We also had church. As Christians, I don't understand how you can be worried about socialization because isn't going to church and youth groups and all the parties and activities that go along with youth group, which are full of kids your own age, and slightly older and younger than you, considered socialization? What was I doing all those years at youth group when I was talking to people and studying the Bible in small groups and meeting friends? Is that not socialization? I don't really consider being in a class full of kids the same age as you and probably just as immature as you, socialization. Especially when peer pressure is present and you can't tell me peer pressure isn't present, because when you get a group of teenagers or even pre-teens together, there is always peer pressure. Especially amongst girls. Pressure to look a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way, be a certain way. Being homeschooled allowed me to grow into myself and embrace my interests. I'm a total geek at heart. I fangirl over TV shows and books and know too much about the X-Men and Marvel. I'm a total Disney geek and half of my wardrobe as an almost twenty year old is full of Disney, fandom, and Marvel clothes from Hot Topic.
In most girl groups at high school I don't think wearing Disney and fandom shirts and clothes is very cool or acceptable. It makes it hard to make friends, unless you find someone like-minded which can also be hard. I remember I met one of my really good friends in high school at church and we bonded over our love of Marvel and Loki (if that's not true friendship, I don't know what is). If I hadn't been homeschooled, I wouldn't have been able to grow into myself, dress the way I want and be more comfortable and confidant in my own body and with who I am in general. I wouldn't have met some of my best friends if I had been in high school. Two of my closest friends were homeschooled.
Learning isn't as big of a deal when it comes to homeschooling as people may think. We do learn how to read and write and talk like normal, civilized people. We do learn math and history and science. We just don't have rigorous, overwhelming amounts of homework and we get to work at our own pace, whether that be slower than others or faster.
Being able to learn all the subjects you would learn in school, only at a pace that fits your personal learning style takes the pressure off and makes learning and school more enjoyable and even fun. I learned all the math and science and history that I would have learned in school over my high school years and I got to put hours upon hours of work into learning my writing craft. As a writer, you do a lot of research on odd things. Even now, I'm always learning new things because I'm researching historical facts, news articles, articles and studies about other cultures and other religions, scienc-y stuff for sci-fi. As a writer, I'm always learning. Because of homeschooling, my mom let me pursue my passion and my dream. She knew that I was a writer at heart and that writing is what makes me truly happy and that one day I wanted to have a career in writing and so, she let me pursue that. After I got my schoolwork done in the morning (which took me like two hours to complete every topic that a student would learn in school over the course of an entire day) I got to work on my writing.
Now, I feel like I'm ahead of the game because I am. I'm ahead in my writing, I'm ahead in college. Because I was allowed to work at my own pace and because my mom tailored my curriculum around what I could handle and manage, I did science, Spanish, math, history, and English (every bit as much as students do in high schools) and I worked through the summer with small breaks here and there throughout the year (like most schools do now anyways), I graduated at sixteen in a half and started college that Fall. Now I'm about to turn twenty in a month and I'll have my associates at the end of this summer. The only reason it took me so long is because I went at the pace I could handle. I get overwhelmed very easily, so I only took two or three classes a semester. Most twenty-year-olds are either starting college or only in their second year of college and here I am, already applying to IU to get a degree in general liberal arts and have two books published. You can’t tell me that isn’t impressive, and guess what? I was homeschooled! I managed to do college and be on the honor roll almost every semester and publish two books (soon to be three) even though I was homeschooled. Because I was homeschooled. Going from middle school as a C-D student where people were worried about my grades and where I didn’t think I would ever be a “good” student to being on the honor roll, a straight A-B student in college? It makes me pretty happy and proud of myself.
And guess what else? Just one more thing, throughout my years in college I’ve had more social interaction and friends than I did even in middle school when I was in a class with other kids my age. I have a best friend and a few close friends that I hang out with (one of them moved to Florida so we text every once in a while, I plan to visit her the next time we go down there). I go to several small groups, a Bible study group and hang out with friends every once in a while on the weekends. I know how to talk like a normal person. I can hold a conversation with people and make plans and everything and guess what? I was homeschooled.
Socialization isn’t a problem, because in my experience, “socialization” doesn’t happen in a classroom with other immature kids your age. Socialization is not only learning how to interact with people your own age, but people who are older than you and younger than you. I have friends my age, friends a few years older than me. Friends who are adults and parents and that make me laugh and that I can have a conversation with and cute little friends who are still only 2-9 years old and friends that are almost teenagers. I know how to talk with people of all ages and who have many different, unique backgrounds, and I learned all of that by being homeschooled.
This has been really long, so I think I’ll wrap it up. To you all you homeschoolers out there, you aren’t alone. You guys are awesome, and you guys are going to go so far and do so many amazing things. There’s an amazing community of homeschoolers out there of all sizes, ages, and backgrounds, you just have to find them, but once you do, you’ll have a lot of people in your corner. Keep living differently and originally and don’t let the world or anyone tell you that you need to conform to what is “normal” for kids your age because the norm is completely overrated.
Thanks for reading to the end of my homeschooling rant! If you made it this far, you’re awesome! And I hope this gives you a new perspective on homeschooling if you never really thought about it, so the next time you meet a homeschooler, don’t just make assumptions about them, because they may and most likely will surprise you. We’re smarter than you think 😉
I don't have anything against parents that send their kids to public or private schools. I have nothing against kids who want to go to school. The school system fits well for a lot of families and some kids are suited for it, but some kids - a lot of kids in my opinion - are not. There are two schools that I remember going to. One in Arizona and one in Indiana. Arizona was so long ago that I barely remember what grade I even started going to that school, I'm pretty sure it was for third and fourth grade though. I was pretty young, seeing how we've been in Indiana for six, seven years now. (I'm terrible at dates and times, so I may probably be off by a little bit). Both schools were very small. In Arizona, I had a class of maybe nine kids. All of them were boys, except for the one girl and then me, so we sort of ended up being best friends because we were surrounded by boys. The one in Indiana was just as small. Maybe seven, eight kids in the class? And oddly enough, it just happened to be all girls with one guy in the whole class.
But, near the end of seventh grade - I don't even remember what happened that made me want to be homeschooled and made my mom want to homeschool me, besides the fact that she's always really been into homeschooling - but I left and got to skip eighth grade since I was held back in like first grade or something and by seventh grade I had caught up. The truth is, I was never an A-B student. Back then, I struggled in almost every class. I had bad dyslexia (yes I'm a writer with dyslexia and still has no idea how to use proper grammar) and my brain is just not cut out to understand math or science in the least (if your counting, that pretty much covers every class in school that you will take).
I got mostly C's and D's, not because I didn't apply myself. I worked hard. Twice as hard as everyone else in my class because I had to or I would have flunked. That and I had an awesome, very smart mom who helped a lot and a few supportive teachers who were willing to work with me. Without them, I would have been a D-F student. Even though I didn't know it yet, I hadn't put a label on this, but I struggled with extreme anxiety in middle school too. As I look back at my time in school, I remember all the times I came home overwhelmed or would have dizzy spells and would feel sick to my stomach. I had horrible fainting spells (I had no idea what caused them, now I know that the heat effects me in a bad way and my anxiety gives me those fainting spells as well). All of those things also made school difficult. Being homeschooled didn't cure my anxiety, but I think it made it a bit more manageable. I didn't have to have anxiety attacks about standardized tests and remembering useless facts (I have a horrible memory so tests are like torture to me) and freaking out over projects or standing up in front of a class and reading a paper. PE was also horrible. Back then (and even now) I am not a very athletic person.
I had bad anxiety whenever it came to PE class. I don't do sports at all, I don't like sports. It's just not my thing, so to be forced to participate in something that I am horrible at and that everyone else in my class was good at, was horrible. It made me hate exercising and made me self-conscious.
When I became homeschooled, my mom bought a treadmill and I slowly worked myself up to using that. Now I'm on the elliptical for a full 65 minutes every day. I'm no longer so self-conscious about exercising and about myself in general. Being homeschooled really let me become more physical and healthy in my own way, like riding my bike every day around the neighborhood and being on the treadmill and eating healthier foods at home that my mom would make or buy that she couldn't put in a sack lunch for school.
Anyways, that is why, when I say I wouldn't have survived public or private high school, I am telling the truth. At sixteen I had a surprising and difficult diagnosis that made my anxiety flare worse than it ever had before. I had really bad panic attacks almost every day and severe depression. If I had been in high school at the time, I don't think I would have been able to deal. I wouldn't have been able to handle the diagnosis as well as I did or my anxiety and depression. Homeschooling allowed me to take a step back and give myself the time and space I needed to get my anxiety and depression under control. To go to the doctors and get medicine to help without an outside influence like the pressures of high school to make it all worse.
But that's all me. That's my experience and I know one of the biggest concerns people have is socialization. That is the one argument I really don't understand, especially amongst Christians and people who know about homeschool co-ops. In Arizona, before I hit middle school age we were a part of a co-op and went to zoos and parks and hung out with other kids our age and kids older and younger than us. We also had church. As Christians, I don't understand how you can be worried about socialization because isn't going to church and youth groups and all the parties and activities that go along with youth group, which are full of kids your own age, and slightly older and younger than you, considered socialization? What was I doing all those years at youth group when I was talking to people and studying the Bible in small groups and meeting friends? Is that not socialization? I don't really consider being in a class full of kids the same age as you and probably just as immature as you, socialization. Especially when peer pressure is present and you can't tell me peer pressure isn't present, because when you get a group of teenagers or even pre-teens together, there is always peer pressure. Especially amongst girls. Pressure to look a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way, be a certain way. Being homeschooled allowed me to grow into myself and embrace my interests. I'm a total geek at heart. I fangirl over TV shows and books and know too much about the X-Men and Marvel. I'm a total Disney geek and half of my wardrobe as an almost twenty year old is full of Disney, fandom, and Marvel clothes from Hot Topic.
In most girl groups at high school I don't think wearing Disney and fandom shirts and clothes is very cool or acceptable. It makes it hard to make friends, unless you find someone like-minded which can also be hard. I remember I met one of my really good friends in high school at church and we bonded over our love of Marvel and Loki (if that's not true friendship, I don't know what is). If I hadn't been homeschooled, I wouldn't have been able to grow into myself, dress the way I want and be more comfortable and confidant in my own body and with who I am in general. I wouldn't have met some of my best friends if I had been in high school. Two of my closest friends were homeschooled.
Learning isn't as big of a deal when it comes to homeschooling as people may think. We do learn how to read and write and talk like normal, civilized people. We do learn math and history and science. We just don't have rigorous, overwhelming amounts of homework and we get to work at our own pace, whether that be slower than others or faster.
Being able to learn all the subjects you would learn in school, only at a pace that fits your personal learning style takes the pressure off and makes learning and school more enjoyable and even fun. I learned all the math and science and history that I would have learned in school over my high school years and I got to put hours upon hours of work into learning my writing craft. As a writer, you do a lot of research on odd things. Even now, I'm always learning new things because I'm researching historical facts, news articles, articles and studies about other cultures and other religions, scienc-y stuff for sci-fi. As a writer, I'm always learning. Because of homeschooling, my mom let me pursue my passion and my dream. She knew that I was a writer at heart and that writing is what makes me truly happy and that one day I wanted to have a career in writing and so, she let me pursue that. After I got my schoolwork done in the morning (which took me like two hours to complete every topic that a student would learn in school over the course of an entire day) I got to work on my writing.
Now, I feel like I'm ahead of the game because I am. I'm ahead in my writing, I'm ahead in college. Because I was allowed to work at my own pace and because my mom tailored my curriculum around what I could handle and manage, I did science, Spanish, math, history, and English (every bit as much as students do in high schools) and I worked through the summer with small breaks here and there throughout the year (like most schools do now anyways), I graduated at sixteen in a half and started college that Fall. Now I'm about to turn twenty in a month and I'll have my associates at the end of this summer. The only reason it took me so long is because I went at the pace I could handle. I get overwhelmed very easily, so I only took two or three classes a semester. Most twenty-year-olds are either starting college or only in their second year of college and here I am, already applying to IU to get a degree in general liberal arts and have two books published. You can’t tell me that isn’t impressive, and guess what? I was homeschooled! I managed to do college and be on the honor roll almost every semester and publish two books (soon to be three) even though I was homeschooled. Because I was homeschooled. Going from middle school as a C-D student where people were worried about my grades and where I didn’t think I would ever be a “good” student to being on the honor roll, a straight A-B student in college? It makes me pretty happy and proud of myself.
And guess what else? Just one more thing, throughout my years in college I’ve had more social interaction and friends than I did even in middle school when I was in a class with other kids my age. I have a best friend and a few close friends that I hang out with (one of them moved to Florida so we text every once in a while, I plan to visit her the next time we go down there). I go to several small groups, a Bible study group and hang out with friends every once in a while on the weekends. I know how to talk like a normal person. I can hold a conversation with people and make plans and everything and guess what? I was homeschooled.
Socialization isn’t a problem, because in my experience, “socialization” doesn’t happen in a classroom with other immature kids your age. Socialization is not only learning how to interact with people your own age, but people who are older than you and younger than you. I have friends my age, friends a few years older than me. Friends who are adults and parents and that make me laugh and that I can have a conversation with and cute little friends who are still only 2-9 years old and friends that are almost teenagers. I know how to talk with people of all ages and who have many different, unique backgrounds, and I learned all of that by being homeschooled.
This has been really long, so I think I’ll wrap it up. To you all you homeschoolers out there, you aren’t alone. You guys are awesome, and you guys are going to go so far and do so many amazing things. There’s an amazing community of homeschoolers out there of all sizes, ages, and backgrounds, you just have to find them, but once you do, you’ll have a lot of people in your corner. Keep living differently and originally and don’t let the world or anyone tell you that you need to conform to what is “normal” for kids your age because the norm is completely overrated.
Thanks for reading to the end of my homeschooling rant! If you made it this far, you’re awesome! And I hope this gives you a new perspective on homeschooling if you never really thought about it, so the next time you meet a homeschooler, don’t just make assumptions about them, because they may and most likely will surprise you. We’re smarter than you think 😉
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