Tuesday, April 28, 2015

20 Reasons to Love Homeschooling

This is a guest blog by my 14 YO, with an introduction and commentary from me.

A friend of mine who also homeschools posted to Facebook a list of 20 reasons to love homeschooling (Read it here), generated her daughter (I am totally poaching her idea here).  I decided that it would actually be good to have my boys reflect on what makes homeschooling enjoyable for them, and below is my 14YO's list.  I agree with him on most of them-- though #11 cracks me up, as I doubt he ever had a "several hour long lecture" in public school.  That may be how he recalls it, though!  As with my friend, I post this with some concern it will make us sound like completely lax homeschoolers, which is not the case at all; this 14YO has finished algebra 2 already and is powering through geometry; is finishing up a 4-year world tour of history from which he remembers quite a bit, has read books on high school and college reading lists, etc etc etc.  Somehow, with all that, he still seems to have had no trouble coming up with 20 reasons to love homeschooling.  I will also note that he has excellent study habits overall, tending to stick with a task as long as necessary rather than giving up or getting distracted.

My favorites from his list are 2, 4, 9, 14, 16, 17, 18, and 20.  I think they nicely sum up some of my favorite things about homeschooling too, and I'm thrilled to see he appreciates these things.

I do think any of us might benefit from this exercise-- what is it that occupies most of our time?  A job, a new baby, a new vocation in training?  Sitting down to reflect and generate a list of 20 reasons to love why I do what I do would certainly boost my spirits; perhaps I should do it next!

So without further ado, here is DS14's (4 1/2 years of homeschooling) list:

1. Snack whenever
2. Actual challenge
3. Random days off
4. Cats
5. Sit anywhere for work
6. No work after school
7. Break anytime
8. Can do sports
9. Flexible
10. Can sleep in
11. No several-hour-long lectures
12. Can do essays right on the computer
13. Can take days off to play with friends
14. Independence
15. Can finish before 3:00 pm
16. Can learn stuff on my own
17. Not every day is the same
18. Can go to fun places on weekdays
19. I don't have to worry about bullies
20. I can ask for help whenever I need it.

Thanks for reading!

Jen

1 comment:

  1. It's so cool you made one after me! I actually found it off Pinterest :). Homeschooling is the best and I'm glad other people are as lax as my mom to show her that it's not a bad thing :).

    ReplyDelete