Almost Unschooling Grama

  There are 3 things I want you to know about homeschooling.   #1 It doesn’t have to be a full-time job. #2 It doesn’t have to take a ton of money. #3 It doesn’t take a whole lot of brains or any special training.   Most of us have grown up in the traditional school system and as a result, we think that education takes 6-9 hours a day, costs huge amounts, and requires a master’s degree. I mean, after all, that’s what we’ve always experienced so it has to be so. Right? Well, the truth is that every story sounds true until you hear the other side and most of us have never heard the other side.   Here’s the other side: I homeschooled all 3 of my kids with a budget of around $50/ year while I worked full-time outside the home and the highest degree I hold is an AA. On top of all that, for the first several years I homeschooled I was very sick with an underdiagnosed illness. Many people in my community thought I was crazy and pitied my kids because of ...

When I started homeschooling, everyone thought I would fail, including me. It was rare to be able to walk thru my house. It was such a mess! And my kids tended to look like this little girl most of the time. I couldn’t discipline myself, much less my children. 5 years into this adventure, we had some teachers come and paint our windows. I was working nights at the time and the kids were pretty much on their own. These teachers were absolutely amazed at how well behaved my kids were while I slept. They would work on their assignments and chores and play quietly as I slept. Turned out that homeschooling (with a hefty dose of prayer) taught me about self-discipline and delegation. It didn’t happen right away, but it was key to lifting me and my kids out of the mess I was in. In the beginning, I couldn’t add 2 + 2 without a calculator. By taking on the responsibility of homeschooling, I grew and learned right along with my children. My older 2 children went to the local high sch...