HS 201: 10 Things That Are Easier When You Homeschool by Ginny Yurich

HS 201: 10 Things That Are Easier When You Homeschool by Ginny Yurich

Show Notes:

Connect with Ginny:

www.1000hoursoutside.com

www.facebook.com/1000hoursoutside

www.instagram.com/1000hoursoutside

www.curriculumoffamily.com

I John 5:3b - And his commands are not burdensome.

Matthew 11:30 - For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Proverbs 16:9 - In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

Show Transcript:

WENDY – Hey there, welcome to the Homeschool Solutions podcast. I’m your host, Wendy Speake. Here on the podcast, we start each week with a longer, more traditional podcast, most often with guests, but sometimes we simply open the Word together and apply it directly to our homeschooling days.

On Thursdays, however, we share shorter episodes that I like to call blogcasts, where one of our favorite homeschool bloggers simply encourages us with the content of one of their recent blog posts. I hope this message serves you and your family today.

As always, I’d like to thank our sponsor, Sonlight Curriculum. The wonderful people at Sonlight curriculum offer complete homeschool curriculum that you are guaranteed to love.

And now, let me introduce you to one of my friends.

GINNY – Hi, my name is Ginny Yurich. I am a homeschool mom of five from Michigan and founder of One Thousand Hours Outside, which is a challenge to match nature time with screen time throughout the course of a given year.

The average American child spends about 1200 hours a year in front of a screen device. But only 4 to 7 minutes outside in free play. And so, One Thousand Hours Outside is about bringing balance back to childhood and about incorporating some nature immersion for kids and that nature time will help with every facet of their development. And it also helps parents be more present and with mental health and wellbeing, the benefits are lifelong, and there are a whole lot of them. So.

I’ll be at all seven of the Great Homeschool Conventions in 2020. I’m looking forward to meeting you. And I’ll be there encouraging you to incorporate nature time into your homeschool. And also encouraging you in all things homeschool, especially the homeschool 101. And I’m a former public-school educator. I’m really passionate that kids thrive at home.

So beyond One Thousand Hours Outside, I also have a website called Curriculum of Family. And it is about how you have the most to offer your child. It is that encouragement that kids thrive at home, and sometimes it’s scary to go against the cultural norm, but your kids will do great if you bring them home. And you have so much to offer them as their parent.

So, I’m gonna be reading a post today from Curriculum of Family, called Ten Things That Are Easier When You Homeschool. And this is about answering that question, that statement that sometimes people say, which is, I could never homeschool, or How do you homeschool?

But what I have found is that we have a slower-paced life here at home. And actually, it seems a lot easier when I get together with my friends who have kids in the public school system. They complain about a lot of things that we don’t have to deal with. And so, I hope that this is encouraging to you and I hope that you can increase the list. You can let us know what are other things that are easier when you homeschool.

So here goes, Ten Things That Are Easier When You Homeschool.

I could never homeschool.

I find this statement so intriguing because homeschool moms or dads are not anything extraordinary. I don’t possess any special skills that somehow make homeschooling an easier choice for me than it would for another mom.

When people say, I could never homeschool, I think they’re overwhelmed by too many components. The first is the thought of being solely responsible for their child’s education. Because we have become so accustomed in our society to farming out this responsibility to the government, most don’t know that throughout the course of history, parents have taught their own children marvelously well.

There are a multitude of resources to start you on your path, and once you become confident that parents, even parents who haven’t graduated from high school themselves, do this teaching job the best, you fall into a day to day routine where kids grow little by little.

Research is abundantly clear that homeschooled students outperform public school students academically by 25-30% on average, regardless of mother’s education level. Once you find your path, and there are many who will help you, you fall into a groove.

The second hurdle to the “I could never homeschool” dilemma is the thought of being with our kids all day every day. Once again, we’ve grown accustomed to all the children throughout the entire country being sequestered in school buildings for a large majority of their childhoods. We have forgotten that kids are enjoyable, that they are fun, they’re entertaining to be around, they keep us young, they remind us of the wonder of the world.

Public school changes children to a large degree. Given a few months out of the public-school system, your children will be used to being home and you will be used to, and begin to enjoy, having them there. I could never homeschool might actually mean I don’t want to homeschool. Interestingly enough, I hear parents complain, over and over again, about issues with the public schools that homeschoolers never have to deal with.

Here are ten reasons why homeschooling is actually the easier choice.

The first reason is that the mornings aren’t ever rushed. Homeschool mornings are a breeze because there is no bus coming. There’s no rush to make it to the school doors before the bell rings to signify the start of a school day. When you homeschool, the day can unfold peacefully. There’s ample time for a good breakfast, family worship, playtime, etc. There’s time to sleep in for the growing bodies that need it. We cherish the slow pace of our homeschool mornings.

Reason two that homeschooling is actually the easier choice is that lunches don’t have to be packed daily. Oh, the dreaded lunchbox. When you homeschool, you don’t have to deal with packing lunches. You can cook something nutritious or teach your child to cook something nutritious midday. There are so many more options when you don’t have to pack lunch in a brown paper sack. Homeschool lunches are not burdensome, and it is special to be able to all eat together.

Reason number three is that there is ample time for extracurricular activities. God made each of us with our own unique desires and talents. Homeschool students have plenty of time to pursue their passions. Public school students who participate in extracurricular activities hardly have any time left in the day at all. Many go straight from school to sports or lessons and then once dinner is over, they may only have an hour or two left for any sort of downtime or family time. Homeschooling provides a schedule that allows for kids to complete schoolwork, engage in social activities, contribute to the household, pursue their passions, and have time left over for fun and family.

The fourth reason is that you get to enjoy having public places to yourselves. Museums, playgrounds, zoos, vacation destinations, you name it. And there has been at least one homeschooling family who has had it all to themselves. It’s so much easier and more enjoyable to go to public places and not have to fight off the crowds.

Just this past week, we were at an indoor play place and we were the only ones there for hours. You would pay big bucks to rent some of these places out for just your own family. Kids and parents enjoy being able to get right up close to exhibits and meander without crowds.

Here’s the fifth reasons why homeschooling is actually the easier choice. There are less gaps in learning. Learning is so much easier in the long run when the parent is the guide. When a child is gone from the home for 7 to 8 hours, there are so many gaps that can and do occur in the educational process. There are so many things that slip through the cracks, even with the best-intentioned public-school teachers. But when you are the guide, walking by your child, day by day, you don’t miss anything. It’s so much easier to correct mistakes right as they happen. This means that your child will learn more and you won’t be stuck years down the road trying to backtrack and figure out where all the holes are.

The sixth reason is a fun one. Vacations can be taken anytime. Public school schedules tie families down to only being able to vacation during certain windows of time. When you homeschool, your entire year frees right up. You can travel during the off season when places are both cheaper and less crowded. Win-win.

Reason seven is there’s no chance of lifelong damage from bullying. We have to face the facts that schools are scary places these days. Beyond bullying, there are school shootings and sex abuse scandals happening all across the country. Bullying, both by students and teachers, is not a rite of passage of childhood. These experiences leave lasting scars. Homeschooled students are generally safe from these threats.

The eighth reason that homeschooling is the easier choice is that family relationships grow stronger. Our families can become so fractured when we each do our own thing five days out of the week. When families are together for homeschooling, the parent-child bond grows, as well as the sibling bonds. Often, there’s extra time for extended family as well. Our children love the extra time they get to spend with grandparents because of the space in the homeschooling schedule.

The ninth reason is that afternoons and evenings aren’t filled with activities and homework. Children need time for active outdoor play. They also need downtime. When a large portion of a seven-hour day goes to seat work in a classroom and a portion of the afternoon and evening goes to scheduled activities and homework, children do not get enough time for movement as well as for boredom. Children need hours of time to play and to move each day for optimal developmental growth. Too much deskwork is contributing to incredible amounts of developmental delays. Homeschool kids have the time they need to thrive.

And the last reason I’ve got here is that the public-school system changes your child. Normally talks to much about this… The public-school system changes children in fundamental ways. To begin with, the public-school day is almost entirely adult-directed. Children quickly lose their own innate drive to learn and to grow. They have a hard time knowing what to do with themselves when they’re home and have nothing scheduled then. This is probably why some parents have such a hard time making it through a few snow days while other homeschool parents are fine to be with their kids every day in a homeschooling setting.

Additionally, the peer influence and peer culture changes children at their core. Their allegiance quickly shifts from family to peer group. It is physically hard and demanding to parent an infant or a toddler. It is not physically hard and demanding to parent a grade-school child. But the problem is, is that as soon as they hit the stage where they will be infinitely easier, we ship them off, and their full days away alter who they are.

Throughout Scripture, God gives clear responsibility that the education of children should be done by the parents. Ultimately, we can know this is the easier choice because “His commandments are not burdensome”, 1 John 5:3b, “His yoke is easy,” Matthew 11:30, “And he guides our daily path,” Proverbs 16:9.

So hopefully, the next time someone says I could never homeschool, you might be able to encourage them and say, Actually, there are a lot of things about homeschooling that are easy.

So once again I’ll be at all seven of the Great Homeschool Conventions this year. Can’t wait to meet you. And you can find me at One Thousand Hours Outside dot com, that’s 1000hoursoutside.com. And also, on Facebook, and there are a bunch of Facebook groups as well, encouraging nature immersion through childhood. And on Instagram, at 1000HoursOutside. And you can follow along on other people’s journey, with hashtag, #1000hoursoutside. Super consistent.

So, can’t wait to meet you, and love to hear what you would add to the list of what is easier when you homeschool. Thanks.

WENDY – I hope that today’s blogcast equipped and encouraged you. Remember that next week, I’ll be back with another great conversation, right here on the Homeschool Solutions podcast. My name is Wendy Speake. I’m your host, and I am so glad that you tuned in today.

But before we sign off, I’d like to invite you to subscribe right now to the Homeschool Solutions podcast through Apple or Google Play. And speaking of invitations, won’t you join me at one of the Great Homeschool Conventions this year? These conventions are my favorites, offering dozens of wonderful speakers and hundreds of inspiring exhibitors. Go to great homeschoolconventions.com and find one near you in 2020.

This year, I will be at the Ohio, Texas, South Carolina, and California conventions. Make sure to stop by and say hey if you’ll be at one of those events.

But in the meantime, we’ve got this podcast and homeschooling.mom as other great resources to support you as you educate your kids in math and science and literature, yes, but also as you train them in Godliness and love.

Until next time, this is Wendy Speake. I hope that you and your family have a wonderful day.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Sonlight Curriculum

Medi-Share

Great Homeschool Conventions

Previous PostHS 200: When Marriage Stress Affects the Homeschool with Amber Lia
Next PostHS 203 - [AUDIOBLOG] - There's No Silver Bullet in Homeschooling by Judy Sarden