Why I’m Grateful We Chose Homeschooling: 7 Blessings I Didn’t Expect

Chapters

• 0:00 College Orientation and Life Update
• 3:42 Reflections on Homeschooling Success
• 5:43 Pros of Homeschooling: Discipleship Connection
• 8:06 Customizing Each Child's Education
• 11:47 Flexible Scheduling and Family Rhythms
• 14:29 Joy of Learning vs Test Focus
• 17:49 Safety, Life Skills and Parting Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:13

Hello and welcome back to Grace From my Home. I'm Audrey McCracken and I'm so glad to be back with you again this week. I hope that you're doing well. We are doing well this week. I am actually posting this podcast a little late because I had freshman orientation with my oldest son, david, at Coastal Carolina University this week with my oldest son David, at Coastal Carolina University this week and it was a lot of walking and by the time I got home I just wanted to rest, I wanted to crash, but we had such a nice time. It was nice spending two days with him, but the campus and the university is just great and so he's really excited about the fall. He's going to be majoring in accounting and I'm so proud of him. He's super excited and I'm excited for him. So that's what our week has consisted of.

Speaker 1: 2:14

We've been touring Coastal and learning about the program that he's going to go into and I actually a little side note I actually worked there for 10 years, right out of college. That was my first job. I worked at Coastal Carolina University. I worked in two different departments but when I left I was in the admissions department. But that's been 18 years ago and I actually quit the year that I found out that I was pregnant with him. I went to another position at another company. But Coastal is a terrific school and it was nice to see the campus and how much it's grown in the last 18, 19 years. And I actually knew some people there not many, because most of them have retired or gone on or moved but I'm really glad that he's decided to go there and I could not recommend it enough.

Speaker 1: 2:57

It's a wonderful school and so, as I was pondering this morning and thinking about my time at the university and since then and our homeschool journey, I just wanted to share some things with you. You know, I'm so glad that we homeschooled. It did not hurt my kids' opportunities. I think that it did things in them that you know some things only God knows, but I think it did good things in them and you know, even this week it was kind of like a validation. It was like, okay, you didn't ruin your children. They got into a good university and could basically go almost anywhere they wanted to go. You know the financial side is another consideration, but I had some time to ponder in between sessions and I went to my van for a while while he was doing other things and I had some time to think about homeschooling and the road we took. You know we took the road less traveled and I'm glad we did. But I wanted to share with you this week some things that I love about homeschooling what I would call the pros of homeschooling. Now, to be balanced, next week I'll probably share with you some of the things that are not so great about homeschooling.

Speaker 1: 4:15

There are some cons to homeschooling, though some people may disagree, but I want to share with you honestly, from my heart, the things that I feel like homeschooling did for us and the reasons that I'm glad that we were able to homeschool. And I want to start off by saying that I don't think homeschooling is for everyone. I don't. I have heard podcasts where Christian homeschoolers would say you know, every't think homeschooling is for everyone. I don't. I have heard podcasts where Christian homeschoolers would say you know, every Christian should homeschool. You should never send your kids to public education or public school. And I disagree.

Speaker 1: 4:48

I think that God has a unique plan for every family, every individual. And you know we're in the world, we're not of the world, but I'm also not afraid of the world. I can't be afraid of the world because then you know we're in the world, we're not of the world, but I'm also not afraid of the world. I can't be afraid of the world because then you know, if we're afraid of the world, we will retreat, we'll hide and we won't be active in this world, where God has placed us to be salt and light and not to hide our light under a bushel. And so I think that homeschooling is wonderful. I mean, I loved it. I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity and we were able to do that, but I don't think it's for everybody. So today I want to share with you some things that homeschooling did for us. For us, it opened up a way for us to connect. For me, it opened up a way for me to connect with my children, for me to share my faith with them. And today I just want to share some of those things with you. First of all and I've spoken on this I did a whole series on homeschooling and I'll link to that series in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 5:49

But for me, homeschooling was an opportunity to disciple my children. It was a great tool to disciple my children. It was a great tool To disciple someone. You need proximity, you need to be close to them and you need time. You know, a lot of times we talk about quality time and quality time is important, but also sometimes you just need lots of time, like you need to be around that person so that they can soak in what who you are and what you believe and what you think, and so that they can see that you love them and you care for them. And homeschooling was an opportunity for me to do that with my children. It gave me the time, the two necessary ingredients time and proximity to truly disciple my children. As a homeschool mom, I was with them all day, every day. I was able to have devotions with them. I was able to share my heart with them. I was there for correction, I was there to say no, not that way. This way, it's an opportunity to be close to your children, to teach them, to disciple them and to pour your heart into them. You know it's, you become their primary influence and you get to shape their worldview. It's a very natural way to disciple your children, and so that was probably that was my first motivation to homeschool my children, and it was probably the greatest benefit I see from homeschooling my children.

Speaker 1: 7:19

The second thing that I loved about homeschooling was the ability to customize each child's education. I had three. I had three children that I homeschooled. They were all very different from each other but as one teacher, three children I could cater for the most part. I could cater to their needs. All of us have different strengths and weaknesses and one curriculum does not always fit everybody, and of course, I had my favorites. I had the things that I enjoy teaching, because you have to take into consideration your own personality and the way you enjoy teaching and the way you know, the way you like to structure things. But then, once you find things that work for you, they don't always work for your children, and so you know, I found things that I really liked and I could try those things on my children, and sometimes it was a great fit and sometimes it wasn't.

Speaker 1: 8:21

And the beauty about homeschooling is, if something is not working, you can go find something else or you can find additional resources to supplement, and you have the freedom to do that. And so I loved that about homeschooling and you know your child better than anyone else. You love your child more than anyone else, and homeschooling allows you to create an environment that works for their learning style, that works at their pace, that takes into account their personality. You know you can slow down if they need more time or you can speed things up if they're getting it quickly Right and you don't have to wait on the whole class to get to the point where that child is. And you know it's an opportunity to customize an education for that child. You can take into account their interests, the things that light them up. You know you can do things that are outside of the box. You can take them on field trips that correspond with their curriculum.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Often during the summers we would take a vacation and I would try to find a spot where we could actually learn some things that corresponded with what we learned that year. You know, for example, one year we went to Williamsburg, virginia, and we did all of the touristy things there, but we had just done a unit on colonial America and we had just studied about the founding of America and the Revolutionary War, and so that was a wonderful trip to solidify a lot of the things we just learned that year, and they were young enough at that time that they were really into it, and so it was a lot of the things we just learned that year, and they were young enough at that time that they were really into it, and so it was a lot of fun. And with homeschooling you have that freedom to do that. You know, if you have one child that thrives on hands-on projects, you can do that. You can make that a part of that child's curriculum. You know, if you have another who loves to read, you can find the best books for that child to read and you don't have 20 or 30 kids that you're trying to move along at the same pace, so they get a lot of one-on-one attention, and so I think that my children really thrived in that small, one-on-one environment.

Speaker 1: 10:47

Also, another point that kind of feeds into that is we were very flexible in our scheduling and for us that meant that we had less stress and we had more margin in our day. You know I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and try to get everybody food and pack their lunch and get them in the car, and you know I didn't have to do that, and so our mornings were not as rushed, we didn't have to race the clock. We didn't have to spend, you know, hours in the pickup line or the drop-off line, and so, you know, we had more opportunities for play, we had more opportunities to rest, and it helped to kind of create a flow in our home where we, you know, we had lots of time at home, we had lots of time with each other, we could take vacations during the off season, and so places weren't as crowded. I always tried to schedule our dentist and doctor's appointments during the day, when, you know, when other kids were at school, and so there was always open, you know, availability, and we didn't have to wait as long. And so it really homeschooling really honored our family's rhythms. It helped us to create more margin, it helped us to not be as stressed.

Speaker 1: 12:00

It really I think it helped with my mental health because we were able to create our own schedule. You know, don't get me wrong we had times when it was really busy and it felt like we couldn't get everything in. You know, the thing about homeschooling is when you know you're the teacher for all three or all of your children, then if something happens to you, there's no school right, not very little happens, and I remember a particular season where it seemed like we had a funeral, and then, you know, on top of that, somebody in our house got sick and then you know that person finally got better and then the other person got it, and then so it felt like it was like a month that we didn't homeschool and so we had to. In order to finish where I felt like we needed to finish, we had to continue into the summer. Where I felt like we needed to finish, we had to continue into the summer. But we could do that. I didn't like it but we could, and so it puts the control of the schedule into your hands, into your family's hands. You're not tied to the school district schedule or you know you can. If your family, if something comes up and you guys want to take a trip somewhere, you can do that, you know. I remember when my kids finally started transitioning into public school and we would go to doctor's appointments, I always forgot to get the school excuses, because I never had to do that before, and so I'd always have to call the doctor and say could you fax the school an excuse for my son? That was really helpful. With my children growing up is that flexibility in our schedule and being able to set our own schedule Also another benefit that I saw with homeschooling was that the goal was different.

Speaker 1: 13:37

It was not only was there the goal to disciple, but I also cared a lot about the academics. And you can do both well. You don't have to choose. You don't have to say, well, we're going to be this kind of homeschooler and just focus on academics, or we're going to be this kind of homeschooler and focus on discipleship or character development. You can do both well. And I cared about the academics because if my kids ever did want to go on and go to public school and go to college, I didn't want something that I did or didn't do to limit their options, but we could focus on the joy of learning. We didn't do formal grades, we didn't have to do standardized tests. It wasn't a requirement in my state. So it was a long time before my kids even took a test when they got older and I wanted to assess are they learning this material? You know, we we added some tests, but for a long time the goal in learning, the goal in our school, was just to learn and we didn't have to. We could emphasize the joy of learning and I think it helped them to become lifelong learners.

Speaker 1: 14:53

They would get excited about things they would get excited about. You know. We would go on nature walks and they would actually get excited about things that we found Not always. Sometimes it was hot and they just wanted to get back to the house and guys, that's normal. But there were days when things would grab their attention and they weren't trying to get a grade, they were just experiencing something new, something new in their life, and that is learning. And I've even had them. I've even had my sons now, you know, come home from school and say, mama, it's all about the tests, it's all about the grades, and you know, that's that, that's, that's the nature of public school, that's just the way it is. But I'm glad that they saw that there is another way to learn, that it doesn't always have to be about the test or the grades, that you know we can learn just because we enjoy learning.

Speaker 1: 15:44

One of the things I loved most about homeschooling was when they would get into a good book. We did a lot of reading and a lot of times there was a lot of moaning. That goes along with that, because they're like, no, I don't want to read. No, not another book. Well, we read a lot. We read out loud. I read to them, and then as they got older they would learn to read on their own, and I loved it when they would complain and gripe, but then they would get into a book and not want to put it down, because that's when I knew, okay, at least they see that, you know, at least they may not love reading. They may never, you know, admit that they enjoyed this book, but I saw it. I saw that there were times when they would really get into that book and not want to put it down, and to me that was a win. They have learned that there is a joy in reading and you can enjoy reading and you don't just have to watch TV or movies to get a good story. And so we had that. Learning becomes a way of life. One of our goals and one of the things I think is wonderful about homeschooling is that learning can become a way of life. It's not just a race to the test.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Another benefit for me for homeschooling was the safety issue. I did not homeschool my kids to shelter them from the world their entire life, but when they were younger it was nice to know that they were at a place where they could grow, develop and learn without having to worry about being bullied, without having to worry about peer pressure, without having to worry about violence. There was a comfort that my children are in a safe place and they can grow in confidence. There was less social anxiety. They could focus on growing academically, growing spiritually, growing emotionally. And then my hope, my prayer, was that when they went on to public school, when they went to learn outside of our home, that they had the confidence and they had built the skills they needed to be themselves, to be confident in who they were, to have a strong faith and if that were the case, then I felt like I was successful in my role as a homeschool mom and discover who they really were before they were shaped by the world that they were going into. And so homeschool gave us the time and the opportunity to do that.

Speaker 1: 18:20

Also, one of the last thing I'll mention and it's a small one, that's why I saved it for the last but they learn a lot of life skills. You know, they learn how to unload the dishwasher and they learn how to wash clothes and how to clean up after themselves and how to set the table. And you know, they and I tried to teach and, guys, please understand there is. This was not perfect, it's never has been perfect and never will be perfect in our home. But my goal was to teach them that it is not your mom's responsibility to take care of everything in the house, that this is our home, that it's our responsibility to make sure that things are tidy, that make sure that things are functioning, that make sure that you know if a guest comes, that they're not appalled by the bathroom, that they, you know those kind of things. It's not just mama's responsibility, it's our house. And so being at home with them all day gave me the opportunity to help, to show them how to help to keep things you know in a good state. Can you do that without homeschooling? Absolutely, but having that time and being home with them gave me more opportunities to show them that you know, instead of running out the door in the morning and you know, and just leaving everything a mess. That was something we could do before we started school. You know, let's make sure that the bathroom is cleaned before we start school. Let's make sure that the dishes are unloaded before we eat lunch, and that was part of our rhythms, you know. That's how I tried to make our day flow. We have a flow to the day, and so homeschooling was a great place to learn life skills that hopefully they will have for the rest of their life.

Speaker 1: 20:05

I will be honest here. Just a moment of honesty. As they've become teenagers and they've gone to public school and now I am in and out, you know, working at the coffee shop, doing other things I wonder if they remember any of it. I have to. You know I'm still constantly saying I'm not the only person who can unload this dishwasher. Or you know, if you know, if you come to me and you're upset because you know your soccer socks are not clean, maybe you should wash them. And that's hard for me because as a mom, I just want to make sure everything's perfect for them, but that is not helping them. If I'm doing it all, I'm not helping them to become responsible adults, and so, anyway, enough of that. So I guess my point in saying all that is it's not perfect, it's never going to be perfect, but homeschooling gave me an opportunity to teach them things that at least I know they know how to do, whether they choose to do them or not. So I hope that this has been helpful today. These are the things that I loved most about homeschooling.

Speaker 1: 21:15

Next week, like I said, I'm going to share with you some of the things that I think were some of the areas where homeschooling wasn't great, because I want to give a balanced view and I want to be honest with the areas where we seem to thrive and with the areas where we struggled. I hope this has been informative and helpful and made you think. And also, if you have any questions, you can always reach out to me. That's what I'm here for. If you have any questions, you can get in touch with me. I have my all of my contact information in the show notes how to reach me through email and text and facebook and instagram. So, and I would love to hear from you, I would so love to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 21:51

Um, every now and then I'll get a text, I'll get an email from a listener and it just it makes my day so and I respond back to those. I cannot respond back to the text. If you send me a text through the link in the show notes, unless you give me your email address, I can't respond back to that. It's a one-way communication. But all the other ways I can respond back and I definitely will way communication, but all the other ways I can respond back and I definitely will.

Speaker 1: 22:15

Also, don't forget, if you live in the Mullins area, on Saturday, august 9th, from five to seven, I'm having a prayer gathering. It's called covered in prayer, a night for moms, and on that night I'm gathering moms from our area who would like to get together and just have a meal, relax, get to know each other and pray for our children, pray together for our children, and I'm really excited about it. If you live in or around the Mullen South Carolina area, that's, in Marion County, we would love to have you. I'll put the link in the show notes where you can sign up for that, and I hope you have a great week. God bless, take care, bye, bye.