That’s a Wrap

These two have officially completed 5th & 6th grade at the Classical Academy of Wonder & Wisdom (what I named our little homeschool nearly eight years ago now) 🎉.

What a year of riches and learning it has been.

A handful, eon, non-specified amount of time ago someone told me they saw one of my pastor’s wife jobs as being the Spokesperson for Homeschooling, when I inquired what in the actual heck that meant, they said I was to tell The People they must, under all circumstances, homeschool, in order to save the whales, woops, the children.

After some deep breaths and a brief inquiry about the salary and benefits (nada, nilch), I informed the person that I couldn’t convincingly recite that script due to…morals. They weren’t thrilled, called me some things I’d never read when I was growing up in my primary homeschool textbook, The Bible, but then dropped the subject (with me anyway, I believe the position is still available should anyone like to inquire).

Here’s the thing, I would never minimize the reality of public (and private!) school challenges on multiple fronts but, in the same vein, are challenges FROM homeschooling that, as it turns out, aren’t fixed by just…MORE homeschooling.

These challenges include: unrelenting demands on time and energy, costs upon costs for curriculum, classes, materials, field trips and more, all of which are out of pocket, expected knowledge of maths or at least where to find answers to all the maths (blast it all), absurd and unrestricted access to snacks, academic needs outside of parental ability to provide which can require specialists and, you guessed it, more costs, questions ad infinitum, so much family time (sometimes too much), so many opportunities to provide personality and character feedback (sometimes too many, there are days I pretend I’m blind which isn’t must of a stretch).

In all seriousness homeschooling requires a huge time, money and energy investment. It’s not an easy choice and not automatically a better one. In fact, sometimes it’s unquestionably the worse choice for the child and family for a wide range of reasons.

I’m not a teacher by profession but I am a second-generation homeschooler and, depending who you ask, that makes me a college professor. Credentials aside and unspecified, I do love education. It’s a joy to me (at least 100 school days a year) to tailor curriculum to meet the learning style, needs and interests of my children, to be the one taking the tall tales off the top shelf and putting them into eager hands, to plan field trips and read-alouds and squint at the minuscule print on The Good and The Beautiful’s math answer key, to be front row for their aha! moments and surprise them with the riches of nature and learning.

Homeschooling for us at this season of time works wonderfully for our family. It let’s us have Friday as our family day (church hasn’t budged on Tom working Sundays), easily change up what’s not working, accommodate lower cost lessons and classes at odd times of day, pair math with cats and enjoy a family life and schedule that is easy to invite others into for all sorts of things whether it be shared learning, dinner or exploring. If on a random week mid-February you decide to go hiking on the salt flats in Death Valley (pictured), well, you’re quite free to do that.

Will it always work for us? I have no idea. We evaluate every year.

Should everyone homeschool? See paragraph 3 of this essay.

Education isn’t a one-size fits all choice, for either student or family, I also don’t see it as a one-size fits every year choice. I’m so grateful for live in a world with a variety of educational options and the freedom to decide what’s best for each child, each year.

Even as a homeschooling family my children have other teachers for piano, classes at church, Irish dance and several classes through our homeschool co-op (Spanish, computer science & art to name a few).

I find that valuable for multiple reasons. One, many of these are not my area of expertise and my children would be sunk if I tried. Two, those teachers instruct differently than I do. While that can have its challenges it’s also a large part of why we do it, learning to translate meaning across different ways of expression and complete assignments according to different sets of expectations is a literal life skill I want my kids to have.

All that to say, here’s to you summer ‘26 🥂.

May it be full of pool trips, hiking, popsicles, reading challenges, monsoons and Go Fish in the wading pool even as the waterproof cards are floating away (the kid’s current activity).

Meanwhile August’s hot breath is already in my face and I need to press order on six carts worth of homeschooling materials.

At least there is raspberry, lemon chia pudding to ease the pain.