Homeschooling...how we learn...

My family only has one student left (I graduated when I was 17 in 03' and my other brother at 17 in 04')...my "baby" brother (17) spends 1 hour (little more, little less depending on day) sitting and doing a unit study with my mom, it's been this way since he was 9. HE LOVES doing school with mom. And he loves the unit study they do. He loves to learn. It was suggested recently he give up his unit study and just do life skills alone and he said, no thank you, I like how we are doing things.

When he is done with school for the day, he does his choring around our "farm" and is off making things, removing trees off the property, making bow and arrows, climbing trees, wrestling (hill billy kung fu style) with my brother, Justin (20), training his mandarin ducks, digesting tons of history books, reading God's Word, doing pullups, running laps and doing all sorts of things around our home. When out and about, he is constantly passing out gospel tracts and being gentlemanly to my mom and I (opening doors, lifting heavy bags, etc.).

To us, learning isn't just books. It's life.

When I did school I could stay all day in what I was learning and would find myself more activities and research to do. I worked on my own and used Far Above Rubies unit study in my highschool years.

Justin hated school (thanks to his first couple of years in public school) and didn't apply himself to books. What he has learned by experience (building things, working with my dad, etc.) has far exceeded what any book could of taught him. You do not need homeschool curriculum to learn, all us children are a testament to this fact! :)

We met a homeschool family this past year that spent $1,000 on their homeschooling curriculum (for 3-ish children) PER year and mom and I's mouth dropped. That is a lot of money. Mom homeschooled for 10 years so far and we have not even spent $1,000 on our education.

No matter how long you spend doing school each day, I believe, as a family, it's important for learning to be fun. Learning should not be confined to the pages of textbooks. Learning cannot be a forced thing. SO many homeschooling moms stress out when lil' ones are not grasping concepts. They FORCE and push their children to do school work and get angry when the children don't perform like they want them to.

Homeschool momma', if your life is busy and hectic....examine what your doing. ARE YOU rushing away your children's precious years of learning with too many homeschooling functions, sports and social events? Are you too busy? Do you prod your children through their work? Do you get upset with them when they score and test badly? Do you compare them to other children who are doing better?

If yes to any of the above, examine yourself....it's not your children, it's you. Momma, if your like this, you are no better then public school.

*Note I am not saying if you tell your child to do something and they don't you shouldn't have them obey....when I say "force children to do their school work" I simply mean that some homeschool families have a rigorous schooling schedule and if lil sally is behind and does math too long, momma gets upset she isn't comprehending and pushes Sally harder to keep on track.

IF you tell your child to do something and they don't do it, you have a heart issue on your hands, not a learning issue. http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/ (great child training advice!)