The Homeschool View
Mrs. Homeschool Mom
By Hunter Fell

February 17, 2011

___Well, it’s time to bring you another Homeschool View! This week, we get a glimpse from a mom of three – who I shall call Mrs. Homeschool Mom – who is in her 6th year of homeschooling and has some very specific reasons for choosing this educational route for her family. Let’s listen in…
___Homeschool View: First off, I want to thank you for answering my questions. Let’s get right to the heart of things; what are the primary reasons that you homeschool, and what types of homeschooling have you done?
___Mrs. Homeschool Mom: We began homeschooling because my oldest son was diagnosed with Aspergers and was having trouble socially. The social anxiety my son was dealing with affected his ability to learn in a typical classroom setting. When we first brought him home we started with a cyber school, but found this very limiting to his unique learning styles. We did Cyber School for two years and then switched to traditional homeschooling.
___Homeschool View: What’s one of your favorite moments from homeschooling?
___Mrs. HM: When I first brought my oldest son home he was quite behind in math. The school system continued to push him through the books even though he didn’t thoroughly understand the material. After being home only a few months, we had gained so much ground, but were approaching fractions. I knew he hated fractions and dreaded starting the chapter. We took our time and I used several manipulative and “cutting” projects. One day he looked at me and said, “Mom, I’ve never understood fractions before; why couldn’t they just have taught it like this in school?” I thought to myself, “because your poor teacher had too many students to teach and she couldn’t spend the one-on-one time with you like I do!” Shortly after that we brought home my other two children.
___Homeschool View: What do you consider to be the best aspect of homeschooling?
___Mrs. HM: Now that I have all three of my kids home, I really appreciate how each one can learn at their own unique pace and style of learning. I can pick excellent curriculum bent towards their learning styles. They are not given cookie-cutter books that all public school kids have to use.
___Homeschool View: What do you consider to be the greatest challenge of homeschooling?
___Mrs. HM: Managing to fit in my own “personal time”. I do admit that the thought of having 8 hours a day all to myself to workout, clean and run errands sounds great, but then I remember that I would be sacrificing my kid’s education for it and I don’t miss it so much.
___Homeschool View: What’s the best advice you could give to a new homeschooler?
Mrs. HM: Find a good homeschool counselor and evaluator! It’s worth the money the first few years when you are just learning your kids learning style, as well as, your teaching style. I never knew how much amazing curriculum was available out there until my counselor showed me.
___Homeschool View: Thank you Mrs. Homeschool Mom; do you have any final comments?
___Mrs. HM: Your kids are WORTH it!
If you’d like to share a Homeschooling View or have questions, email me at mailto: dillsburgbanner@ dillsburgbanner.net and as always, thanks for reading The Homeschool View.