The Real Cons of Homeschooling

Although I fully understand that we will be questioned, criticized and sometimes condemned for homeschooling for some reason I still feel the need to justify our decisions to others.  Knowing that we have nothing to justify and knowing we are doing what we are called to do I still struggle with public opinion, especial the opinion of those close to us.  I found this article in my reading yesterday and found it spot on.  While I could link you to all sorts of studies, statistics, reports and a bunch of blah blah blah that tends to puff up home education I thought you may find this more interesting.

You’ve read about them in homeschooling articles, you’ve heard them brought up in conversation, and you may have even written a letter or blog entry defending against them – that’s right, we’re talking about the CONS OF HOMESCHOOLING. (Insert suspense movie music here.)

So many non-homeschoolers stress over their perceived cons of homeschooling, and we explain ourselves again and again. But, the answer is always, “Those aren’t cons, those are pros!” I wanna say, “Give me a *real* con to discuss.”

So here it is. A list of real homeschooling cons, from a homeschooler who is in the know. If you are thinking of homeschooling, or you don’t know much about it, this is the list that will tell you all there is to know about the problems that homeschoolers have, and where homeschooling is lacking.

1) Parents and kids have to learn to accept each other as they are, and to get along with each other so well that they can live together peacefully.

2) Parents have to accept responsibility for their actions and live their lives, pretty much all the time, in a way that they want to see their children live their lives.

3) Families have to listen to a lot of smack, and field a lot of questions about their decision. It takes a long time to convince the world around them that it’s OK that they don’t send their kids to school.

4) Parents have to be resourceful. Parents have to learn how to find things in their community, how to get information on their own, how to access people who can answer their questions, and how to communicate well.

5) Parents have to let go enough that they can balance their devotion to their children with their own interests and self-care. Parents in school have to do this too, but it’s more poignant in homeschooling, because it’s very easy to spend every waking moment dealing with homeschooling “stuff” and kid “stuff” that we forget about who we are as individuals with our own interests.

6) Homeschooling requires dedication – but not to workbooks and curriculum. Homeschooling can involved these things, but the dedication has to be towards being a good person, being open minded, and to being involved with the family. It also requires parents to be dedicated to understanding their children.

7) Homeschoolers have increased chance of making themselves sick with worry, with fear and with guilt. One of the biggest cons of homeschooling is the time it takes to learn to live as a homeschooler without these hovering over us.

 Homeschoolers have to pave their own way. Even if there is support and resources available, ultimately, homeschoolers have to shovel most of their own snow. In other words – homeschoolers have to be independent and willing to put in the footwork.

9) Often, homeschoolers have to stand up, alone, and do what they have to do even though others around them are doing something different. Homeschoolers have to be OK with not conforming, and know themselves well enough to be able to walk into a situation and know they are the only ones there who homeschool, and will probably be questioned, talked about or even confronted.

10) And finally, homeschoolers have to accept that no matter what they do, life will never be perfect; kids will always have holes in their learning, the house will never stay clean, and there will never be enough time to get everything done that we want to do. The hardest thing about homeschooling is choosing between the million and one options, million and one workbooks, projects and learning opportunities. The biggest benefit of homeschooling is also the biggest con of all – freedom.

Perfection is my enemy!

So, I swore up and down that I would never blog, however, this is a much better alternative than updating you all on facebook. We are going to try to keep our business here as a one stop shop for all things Holliday. There is so much going on right now that I'm pretty sure if my head were not screwed on tightly it would spin off into orbit.

I'll begin with our move. Shane and I decided that moving ourselves from Hawaii to Virginia would help off-set the costs of shipping the canine kids and our Jeep. Great idea in theory. What this means is we gather the boxes, packing materials, we hire the container company, trucking company, ramp company, build the motorcycle crate and the Jeep crate, and load everything onto the container with the help of some stellar friends that have stepped up to help in return for pizza and beer. The government cuts us a check for 60% of what the move would cost them. This will cover most, but not all of the expense. After loading the trucking company weighs our goods and we are paid the remaining 40% on the receiving end all based on weight.

So, this leaves me with the job of organizing and packing up the house in such a way that our time unpacking in Virginia will be minimal and structured. HA! I am trying nonetheless.

Our next couple weeks are jammed packed with activity. Tomorrow I move into a friends house for 4 days to care for their 5 adorable children 5 and under. Monday my kids will join us for the fun. For those of you doing the math that's a single mom to 7 children under 6. I'm looking forward to all the fun and looking forward to the time I get to love on them before we leave.

Braden is scheduled for surgery on his pinky and possibly his arm on March 3rd. The hand surgeon who is doing the surgery is the number 1 hand surgeon in the Army and Braden will be followed by his mentor once we arrive in the DC area.

Please pray for Braden's anxiety to keep at an all time low, the surgeons wisdom in deciding whether to operate on his arm and his steady hand in repairing Braden's finger. Braden has also asked for prayer that he will heal quickly so he will not have an issue play

ing for his new baseball team on April 5th in Virginia. If you know Braden, you know he lives for baseball.

We are also opting to live on Fort Belvoir for one year while we house hunt in VA. If you could please pray for newer housing to be available to our family once we arrive that would take a huge chunk of stress off our shoulders.