Homeschooling and the Gift of Time
Posted in Homeschooling Tips on August 18th, 2009 by Elaine | Permalink | Share/Save
There are many things that I love about homeschooling — the flexibility, being able to customize an education, the strengthened sibling relationships — but I think the greatest gift of all is TIME.
Time to live in an unhurried way. Time to be a family together. Time to volunteer together. Time for my children to take on increased, real responsibility, unhampered by loads and loads of homework. (Were you ever excused from chores because of school work as a kid? I know I was.)
My dear friends whose kids are in school tell me about the homework infringing on family time, about time spent volunteering at school, fighting the school… It all takes time: using school or choosing to homeschool. But how are you spending your time?
For me, the right choice is not to fight with the school, but to spend time with my children, time as a family, and set up experiences for them to learn, and keep their excitement about learning alive.
What about you? What’s the greatest gift of time for your family?
The views expressed in this post belong to the blogger, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Community Co-op. This blogger respects the right to choose school, and doesn’t mean to give anyone a hard time for choosing school.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Our greatest gift is outdoor time – in our garden, harvesting fruits and vegetables, studying nature, exercising, and playing. We also love how much time homeschooling gives us to cook and bake – baking bread is one of our favorite things to do, especially when it is too cold to stay outside very long!
August 19th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Our greatest gift is family purpose…which involves time. Homeschooling isn’t necessarily our only family purpose, but it is one. It has become a lifestyle. I’m a fairly structured homeschooler in that we use a curriculum, and I follow a routine with our studies. But that’s just the core. The lifestyle goes beyond the structured part, and we find ourselves learning as a lifestyle. Because I know exactly what we’re studying, and we’ve been studying it together, we constantly find connections out in the world. The line between “studies” and “out in the world” is blurred; and for us that’s a real gift.