Mama's Musings

This is the third and final post in this series.  See the first and second three reasons here and here.

LEARNING OPTIONS

Each of our six graduates have learned various things in various ways, to suit their learning styles.  Some studied independently a lot, others loved co-operative learning with their siblings and/or peers - including classes, all of them have studied something online at some stage, and some really liked to learn from me, or their Dad, or another adult working closely with them.

THE VALUE OF REST

There are plenty of years of busyness in adulthood.  I am glad our lifestyle allows our children to rest when they are tired, rest when they are unwell, rest when they are growing (physically or emotionally).

I love that they can walk into our forest, and gaze at our flowing creek, and ponder all of life.  

Sometimes I've been frustrated with how much they've rested, as teenagers, but now I know it was what they needed at the time.

GROWING...

Following on from last Tuesday's post, here are another three reasons I'm glad we're a home educating family...

TALKING

Homeschooling has allowed our children the time to talk to us - their parents, each other, neighbours, friends, other parents in the home ed group, their various tutors and coaches, team mates,employers and fellow staff at their jobs, professionals and more.  As with many home educated children, most of ours are very happy to have a conversation with anyone,and have gained a great deal of knowledge and confidence by doing so.

AVOIDING PEER PRESSURE

Not altogether, but for the most part, home educated children and teens are more free to be themselves, and to ponder the possibilities in life and learning.  They are able to make choices without too much influence of their age peers.  

FREEDOM

This can be scary, but also so empowering.  I feel blessed to allow our children so much freedom during their childhoods.  Freedom to choose,...

Some of the reasons I'm glad we're a home educating family include...

READING

As an avid reader myself, I'm so happy to be able to give our family the opportunity to read and read and read.  Homeschooling has allowed our children a lot of time to read.  They can read to suit their interests and abilities. 

Our children learned to read when they were ready.  They were aged 3 to 8 when they read independently.

Oh, and books.  Homeschooling = books...  So many books!  Being homeschoolers means guilt-free home library building!

SPONTANEOUS LEARNING

We have had so many occasions when we've come across wildlife, for one example, and had the time to photograph it, research it, draw it, write about it, talk about it to others...  Time is such a precious commodity, and without it, spontaneous learning is difficult. 

A lot of our most memorable learning situations were spontaneous ones.  No one remembers my handmade phonics readers, doing...

Print a copy of this and pop it on the fridge ... how long until you can mark off all the squares?