The Homeschool Girl Teaches

Hi, very-neglected-blog!  I have some exciting news…in a few days I will start teaching in private school.  Yikes!  I wanted to document my journey here, because I feel that my life as an educator directly links to my life as a home school grad.  Here are the reasons I have choosen to teach:

1. To be salt and light in the world (the school is in Washington, D.C. and secular).
2. To help kids that were less fortunate in their parents’ school choice. 
3. To aid special education students that may not have had parents able to help them with certain disabilities, without training or financial hardship (my school deals exclusively with reading-based learning disabilities)
4. Because God has called me to.
5. Because I had the best training in the world from my Mom and I want to pass it on.
6. To continue my life-long learning. 
7. To pay off debt.
8. Because it is fun to do while I wait for my own children. 

Struggles

 

Homeschool may release one from a lot of the drama of public school (bullies, drugs, boring worksheets), but homeschooling does have its own set of challenges.  Here is a list of the ones that I struggle with that I will be posting about (with more information/tips/links/etc.) later in the week:

1. Stereotypes- this is a big problem!  From the “hippie” to the “genius” homeschoolers have labels slapped on them from within and from outside of the homeschool movement.

2. Potential loneliness- sometimes homeschoolers feel left out when they are trying to interact with public schooled children.  This is not through fault of the homeschooler or the public schooled child, but because of the peer pressure to conform that is placed on public school children.  They are told to “stay with the group,” this or that group is “cool,” or even to totally shun certain types of people (especially those that are perceived as “intolerant” by the school establishment).  So this creates divisions and alienation between the two groups.

3. Dedication- for many kids this can be a struggle.  The freedom homeschooling offers also places huge amounts of responsibility on the student.  They must muscle up the gumption to get things done without a lot of outside pressure (unless their parents are yelling at them all the time to get their homework done).  So this can create a hard situation where the student loves the freedom but then doesn’t want to accomplish much.

4. Negative self-talk- if you are the only one responsible for something and it goes wrong you tend to blame yourself.  Which can be helpful if it really was your fault that you didn’t turn in your chemistry lab report, but can also be harmful if you start beating yourself up all the time for not being “perfect.”  This is NOT because of parents’ expectations, but more a result of a perfectionistic personality of the student.

5. Organization and Time- this goes along with dedication but this is huge.  If you can’t learn to control your time then you won’t be able to achieve your academic goals–regardless of your educational setting.

10 Celebs Who Homeschool Their Kids | Online Universities

10 Celebs Who Homeschool Their Kids | Online Universities.

Including Will Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, John Travolta, and more.

Raw Power

Perhaps the most precious treasure to society is the raw power held by the minds of the young.  One group decided that the parents of a child are the best keepers of this treasure and they are called “homeschoolers” across the world.  Even after facing sideways glances, mislabeling, and even persecution the group has continued to expand, and I want to write about an often underrepresented section of this world–the normal homeschooler.   I’m writing about the girl or guy who has friends, is socially qualified, and also happens to have a 4.0 GPA that was earned at home.  I will be changing all names for the duration of this blog so as to protect the privacy of those mentioned.  Follow me on the journey towards locating the normal homeschooler (or for that matter the abnormal public schooler).

~Amelia