Monday, April 13, 2015

Life after homeschooling

When we started homeschooling fifteen years ago it soon became the norm for us.  Homeschooling became a way of life.  In many ways we defined ourselves as homeschoolers.  At times it seemed like we would be homeschooling forever.

But now with two of our children out the door and the third who will probably follow in three years, I’ve started thinking more about life after homeschooling.  As our son is only eight years old we expect to be homeschooling for another nine or ten years, but things will be different when we settle down to one, and then eventually none.

Even though we’ll stop homeschooling I think we will always be homeschoolers.  I like to think Janine and I will keep the love of learning alive in ourselves.  This love of learning was one of my first reasons for taking the risk to homeschool.  I had graduated from a good high school and earned a BS in Physics.  But at 23 I saw education something you only did when you had to, not something that was worthwhile in and of itself.  It wasn’t until I was close to 30 that I rediscovered the love of learning.  And as my children started asking a million questions and eagerly soaking up knowledge I realized that a large part of the reason I stopped being excited about education was the regimented approach public schools take to teaching.  It took a few years to rediscover my love for learning.

It will be interesting to see how life evolves as our children leave the nest and move on.

3 comments:

Malcolm Kirkpatrick said...

The experiment is not over. Please report on your children's progress past age 18.

I would really love to hear how second-generation farm-raised homeschooling parents raise their third-generation homeschooled kids.

Karen said...

I've been homeschooling 17 years. One college graduate, and one in college. Both have come back to say they are grateful for being homeschooled and that it prepared them so much better for what they encountered since. My daughter says she intends to homeschool her kids one day too.
I wrote down a few reflections on the things I've learned along the way. Though you or your readers might be encouraged. http://www.switchbacks.org/2015/05/13/25-life-lessons/

Mama Squirrel said...

You have three years; I have three weeks.