Being Home schooled

Have you ever done something that you hated but are so glad you did it? Home schooling! I would never recommend it but it was the best thing that I think my parents have done for me.

I was home schooled from grades 5th-12th. I would say those were the best years and the worst years for me. I hated home schooling…1) because I was never self motivated enough 2) I was so stubborn that even when my mom yelled at me I still didn’t want to do my work 3) try to be around your family 24/7 4) my mom was never just a mom 5) I never had friends my own age and if I did then they weren’t home schooled.

Now I like to think that I am a self-motivated person with some things but school was not one of them. I could easily sit down in front of the computer and figure out a new game or a new program but when it came down to figure out my schoolwork…NO WAY! I have to say that I would give up so much on my schoolwork. A lot of the time I would cheat because my mom couldn’t help me or if I asked for help she would yell at me because I should know the answer. (Well if I knew the answer do you think that I would be asking you for help?)

Being stubborn is one word to describe me. I may not come across like that to some people but just wait till you get to know me. I don’t like to do stuff because I was told to. That got me in trouble a lot growing up but you can imagine on top of schoolwork what happened…ten times worse. And I never understood why we had to go to school. Couldn’t people just decide if they wanted to go to school or not? I mean if they wanted to go to school then they would go. What’s the point in school…(don’t lecture me about it I know what the point is…but that’s what I thought growing up)?

Have you ever gone home for a get together or for a family dinner and thought I can’t wait to get out of there? And then you finally get out and you realize how lucky you are to be out of there. Well yeah that’s what it was like for me for 7 years. 7 years of hell! I love my family don’t get me wrong, but being around them all the time really gets to after a while. They are not only your classmates but also your siblings and friends. It’s so crazy! And on top of that you have a mom who is trying to be a teacher, a mother, and a wife. Doesn’t leave much room to be a friend.

There was no social life. Yes my family was very fortunate to be in co-op (its like a day of school someplace with a whole bunch of other home school families). I don’t know how many of you have met our next-door neighbors but that’s what it was like at co-op, those same types of kids. Most of the families had been home schooled since kindergarten so going to co-op was a BIG deal to them. I wish I hadn’t been like this but I always thought that I was better than all of them…and I let them know that. I was so stuck up (maybe that’s why I never became friends with them…not that I wanted to anyways). All my friends growing up I met through the church and all of them went to school. A lot of the time I couldn’t relate to them because I didn’t really know what they were talking about. And I was afraid to ask because that might make me look stupid.

All that to say I wouldn’t change it for anything. There were so many opportunities that I got from being home schooled. I got my first job at 15 and it was amazing. I got to work at an OB clinic. I got to go on so many vacations with different people. I got to spend the night at peoples house on weeknights. I woke up every day around 9 and sit around and watch TV all day. (I was a night owl…so I always did my school at like 1 AM). And I learned so many things about life. I got to experience what happens when your family is in debt and when your dad loses his job for over a year. I got to see God provide in amazing ways.

Yeah maybe I had some really ruff days, but I think in the end I turned out good.

Funny story:
At my graduation… there were eight of us who graduated. We all decided that we didn’t want a speaker. And majority (not me) decided that we should speak, say a couple things about what we learned…blah blah blah. As you know I am not a speaker AT ALL! I don’t think that there is a speaker bone in my body.

I didn’t know what I was going to say the night before graduation. So my wonderful and smarter older sister made me flash cards…did she think I would use those? So we’re there one by one they all get up and talk about how thankful they are to their parents and how great they are and how much they loved school…lalala (you get the point). And its my turn. I get up there and I am crying (go figure). I can’t remember one thing I am supposed to say. I have played with my flash cards so much I don’t even know if I can read them. And the first thing out of my mouth is, “I hated school!” and everyone started laughing. It was true and they all knew it. I could have gotten up there and said school was so great but that would have been a complete lie.

Thats the end to my funny story! :)

More to all this soon…
There is a point to all this. I just don’t want to make it extremely boring!