The Pros & Cons...

Growing up, the most common questions asked were, “So where do you go to school?” and “How do you do school living in two states?”. It’s a fairly easy answer. While others were parading down school hallways, bouncing from class to class, and experiencing long bus rides home… I was at home working in our very own personal school room. I, being the youngest of four, never experience the excitement and torture of a public classroom. My classmates were me myself and I, unless a group class was had, then I had the pleasure of my siblings. We had our wonderful mother as our teacher; teaching me from my very first class until I received my diploma. That’s right, she taught all four of us; each in different grades until we graduated. And our lovely principal/economics teacher… the man who oddly knows everything, my dad. But, we didn’t exactly experience homeschool like most. We had a very hands-on and personalized education that caused us to be excited about our goals. There are a lot of years I could share stories of, but let’s try and keep it simple.

The Classroom

We’ve had a lot of different “classrooms” and “teachers” over the years with being able to take our school anywhere and having different video lessons. However, officially we had two classrooms, and one overall teacher, Miss mother. She created a specific space for us to work on our school. Having a place to go and become focused, trying to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Now, when we were being homeschooled, it was not the “it” thing. But, my mother made it an “it” thing. Our school had a name and school colors. It was very hands-on. One year we did a medieval feast to go with one of our studies. We had some friends show-up in full costume. We made all of our costumes, the props, and an extravagant meal.

Another year we all ran for student body president. We all had to create our logos, create campaign videos (that were then put on a private Youtube channel so more friends could vote), wrote and presented speeches (that were also uploaded to that Youtube channel), and we had many of our friends and neighbors come in and vote, at our polling place, in a booth the four of us made. Beyond that, when we weren’t doing extravagant and exciting studies, we had a combined school Bible study as our first class of the day. We would all learn and present poems (we memorized the constitution at one point), participate in fast mental math challenges, take nature walks and draw different things we saw in our nature journals, and had a time when we and a few other friends did a full study on writing styles where we researched and present our papers to everyone. It was a full and subversive education.

Pros & Cons

Pro:

The ability to be surrounded by my family, and the ability to explore the world together, despite the seasons. Those times were probably a focal point. My family is a close-knit unit and I have no doubt that our schooling was a huge contribution. We could live in two beautiful states. And we had the option of being able to bring our school with us if an adventure arose. My sister spent part of her senior year working at an orphanage in Belize.

Con:

We missed out on a variety of social experiences. Although we knew a good amount of people in our community, we didn’t have the same bond of classes and teachers as other students did. Along with that, extracurriculars were a bit of a challenge regarding sports. Schools shut their doors on students who were not their own, causing the choices for extracurriculars to be limited. School dances were never a huge priority with my family, yet having the option more readily available would I’m sure benefit others.

Pro:

We were able to cater our curriculums to what our interests were. I wanted to go to school for dance, so knowing that, (beyond our gen-eds) my mom had me take French and anatomy. Knowing I loved artistic things, I took art lessons, creative writing classes, and I read exciting books to become the topics for my essays. In high school, my dad and I did French together for a year, not sure how well we did, but it was truly a highlight. Along with catering our classes to each student, my mother/teacher learned how we operated and how we best learned. She saw I struggled with exams so she would give them to me orally. She knew I struggled and was embarrassed to read out loud so she would encourage me to read out loud and help me sound each word out. My parents taught us excellence, if it was not our best it was repeated until the proper grade was earned (it was torture at the time, however, it aged in our favor). We had a set time school would start, pushing us out of bed and encouraging us to be ready for the day; eager to accomplish our tasks. And if we procrastinated, we were not done until the tasks were finished, even if that meant working until dinner.

Con:

Being home all the time is a perk, but…can also cause moments of frustration. As well as having your mother as your teacher could sometimes lead to never feeling like you have that separation. I felt, at times, as though school was always looming over one's head. It was extremely easy to become distracted. I used to watch Netflix when I was supposed to be doing math and being discovered was never a fun experience.

No Take Backs

I wouldn’t have traded my education for anything. Although there were opportunities that I missed out on, there were far greater experiences I was able to take part in. And yes, there were some trying times, but everyone made it out alive and intact (I was a ball of sass throughout high school). My parents made sure that we all had our own graduations where we walked, had friends and family present, wore a cap and gown, received our diplomas, and even had speeches. Not every child will be able to experience the same opportunities that we were given, and not all parents can replicate what other home school families do. Each family is given a chance to choose what and how their child learns. As long as all members of the team try their best and are willing to learn along the process, lessons will be learned. Luckily home school has become so much more of a common and exciting way of participating in school that there are far more resources, Co-ops, and other home-schooled family experiences to help navigate a very daunting path - if it’s the path chosen to take.

It’s fun looking back at my education even if some moments needed a few years to age. No life is rent-free of moments that need time to make them sweet. I would love to answer any questions or hear about other school experiences that you might have. Leave me a message in the comment section. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow along on my Instagram (Theallie.way). And please feel free to share if you know of someone that would benefit from reading this. I hope you have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for reading Allie-cats, you’re all amazing!

• Dru Allie