HOMESCHOOLING AIN’T FOR SISSIES By Terri White

HOMESCHOOLING AIN’T FOR SISSIES
By Terri White 
 
Imagine it’s 1983.  You have three kids ages one through five. For a couple of years, you’ve been considering the options available for your children’s education.  When you hear about homeschooling, you research it. After careful consideration, you decide to homeschool.  Next, you roll up your sleeves and get to work.
 
Choosing a curriculum for kindergarten wasn’t too complex.  However, in the early 80s, options for homeschoolers were limited.  And no Internet at our fingertips.  One day, as I listened to a radio talk show, wonder of wonders, the host was interviewing a woman who sold a phonics program called Play ‘N Talk - one proven to work for every learning style. I called her for more information and ordered it.  The. Best. Decision.
 
The most important part of one’s education is learning to read - the foundation upon which we build all other learning. If you can read, you can learn anything. Phonics teaches kids to decode words which makes learning to read a logical step-by-step process. We dove in. It worked.  All three of our kids became avid readers.
 
Once our kids learned to read, they needed to read, read, read to cement their new skill – silently and aloud. Furthermore, we read to our children daily.  A big stack of library books.  Sometimes one of them needed a quiet activity during reading time; that helped him listen while keeping his hands busy.
 
In math, I used manipulatives to introduce new concepts. Working with raisins, beans, and Lego pieces proved the perfect approach for beginning addition and subtraction. We also used dominoes. For subtraction, they ate their raisins: if you eat two out of five raisins, how many remain?  Sometimes we drew numbers on the sidewalk and walked backward.  Physical involvement with new math lessons sealed their understanding.
 
Eventually, I purchased math textbooks but continued using manipulatives to introduce new concepts. Before we dove into algebra, I used a scale, like a seesaw, to represent the formula: to balance it, you must place equal weight on both sides.  In other words, whatever you do to the left side of the equal sign, you must do the same to the right side. Algebra in a nutshell.
 
Of course, we included social studies and science which also involved hands-on experiments, reading, and discussions. Eventually, we added a weekly “speech night” so the kids could share what they had learned on a particular subject. 
 
Sometimes we teamed up with other homeschoolers for group instruction. For example, each year before our group attended the Fort Worth Symphony, we met the week before to learn about the composers and the music that would be featured in the concert.  Parents took turns presenting for a fun-filled week.  Our group also organized talent shows, academic fairs, full-length plays, field trips, and various social outings.
I read voraciously to learn how best to teach my children.  Understanding that their personalities and learning styles determined how they received and processed information proved invaluable.  I left no stone unturned in my search to enrich their learning experiences. 
 
As private tutoring, homeschooling proved far more efficient than a classroom experience. With minimal distractions, teaching and homework took less time.  That left room for practicing life skills.  In their teenage years, they all worked part-time, too.  Over the years, our children thrived.
 
Was it challenging?  You bet!  Was it hard sometimes?  Absolutely.  Was it perfect? Heck, no! Was it gratifying?  Always.  Was it worth it?  Totally.
                                                       
However, not everyone understood our choice to homeschool.  One day in the 80s, I opened the newspaper to the editorial page.  A letter to the editor claimed that people homeschool because they were “too lazy to get their kids ready for the school bus”.  I was dumbfounded.  Really?  Too lazy?  If I were lazy, homeschooling would never have seen the light of day in our home.
 
Now I faced a dilemma.  Should I respond to this letter publicly?  I knew the person who wrote it, so I didn’t want to get personal. First, I attempted to recruit other homeschool parents to respond.  No one could muster the courage, so I tackled it.
 
Instead of addressing the “lazy” accusation, I explained homeschooling to dispel the misinformation floating around.  Whether it helped or not, I will never know.  But all my kids, now in their 40s, are married with children, and living successful lives.  The proof is in the pudding.
 
No, homeschooling ain’t for sissies.  It requires many hats and takes determination, tenacity, patience, and flexibility.  Do you lack those?  Welcome to the human race! Life, the crucible that shapes us, turns up the heat to develop those character traits.  Never pleasant, but there’s no escaping it – no matter what educational choices you make for your children.  In the end, we’re all in this together.  This thing called life - which ain’t for sissies either.