What sets your family apart from other homeschooling families?

Question

What makes your homeschooling family unique?

Answer 1

Oooooooooooh! We could have lots of fun with this one!!!!

Well. Being that every person is unique and wonderfully made.....

My homeschooling family is different than every other one that I know. We have some similarities and commonalities with other homeschoolers and then again we have many variables.

To begin: My house, it's size and location.... We are the only homeschool family within it's walls. So, we are physically set apart from others. Next: Our personalities set us apart from everyone else. We are *normal* but yet we are unusual. ;-)

My children get up in the morning and do not follow a strict regimen. It is very flexible. BUT, they are required to complete a full math lesson, write an one page essay, and read, read, and read.

We take breaks whenever we have major distractions. For example --- this week we welcomed "home" a new grandchild. The whole family has been helping mommy and daddy while they commute between home and the children's hospital. No other homeschool family that I know has gone through our circumstances. Now that the sweet one is fully recovered and able to thrive on her own we will *get back* to a flexible schedule of completing academic study.

Our family uses the Robinson Curriculum which is not widespread within our community of homeschoolers. We are set apart by it because our christian homeschool friends say it is *not* christian and our non-christian homeschool friends say it is tooooooo christian. LOL.

We love it because it is a METHOD more than it is material. The material is great and far and above high quality. Our children teach themselves. There are tens of thousands of homeschoolers across the nation that are currently self-teaching. It is amazing that they actually DO become skilled thinkers. They learn math at an higher level than I ever was privileged to learn in publicschooling. They are capable of learning anything and everything that they desire to study WITHOUT my help. They know more than I at an early age and progress at a remarkable rate.

I do not give lectures, nor do we have group sessions. The children learn their material independent of me. Although ---- I am available to encourage and troubleshoot whenever they truly need a hand. We do not copy any classroom work.

I often tell others that in this world I am weird because I am a christian. Among christians I am weird because I homeschool my children. Among homeschoolers I am weird because I use the Robinson Curriculum. And among Robinson users.... well, I'm just weird. I have a lot of fun with it.

Anyone that uses RC or is interested in it please join our yahoo group ---(I'm a moderator of the group) RobinsonUsers4Christ

Barb

Answer 2

Our family is unique, not only because we homeschool.
Homeschooling is a wonderful educational tool!
We are Christians first and we homeschool our children.
We are very social. We are out and about so much
of the time, that we don't always have time for academic
work. This is a little harder on the children who like things
predictable, but the children who like adventure and something
different every day love it!

We also travel quite alot. My children have travelled coast
to coast about six times. This is an interesting way to
teach your children, and they love meeting other homeschoolers
all over the United States.

We always take time for music and math and reading and
Bible reading. The longer I've homeschooled, the more
relaxed I've become. When we work, we work hard.
But we have large gatherings of all different people. We
don't wait for the church to do something, we just cook
food and invite people over.

Answer 3

Ready to hear from another non-christian homeschooling family? We don't follow a strict curriculum like regular schools. We spend alot of time in the library and bookstores. We use the Internet and workbooks. Also reading is a top priority. Things are much more laid back and not as hectic. If one of my children is having a problem with a subject we keep at it until they get it no matter how long it takes. They are also much more involved in what they learn and choose to learn certain thing individually. if one son wants to know the ins and outs of boats and my other son wants to learn about tigers then they can learn individually. They are also more apt to LEARN if they are interested in the subject! I love homeschooling and I think it has made our family closer.

Answer 4

Another non-Christian homeschooler here.

What makes ourfamily unique??? We do the majority of our work verbally. My daughter has aprocessing disorder that makes writing out answers extremely difficult and does not allow her to really be able to express herself or what she knows. We are generally done our work in two hours and do two Calvert lesson plans a day.

So what do we do with the rest of the time??? We spend a lot of time pursuing the arts...art, music, theatre. Homeschooling lets my daughter explore all her interests so we take full advantage of it. We live in an area with a lot of acess to these things and love it!

We're also a military family. Certainly not a one of a kind, but still more unusual at a state side base.

My daughter also spends a fair amount of time with me volunteering at her brother's school, He has autism,so attends a specialized program year round. Oh...that's another unique thing..we follow his schedule so we work year round, taking time off when he does as well as extra days throughout the more traditional year.

Of course, we're all pretty unique. I think that is one of the best parts of homeschooling. We can follow our child's and our families interests and build an education that embraces them!

Answer 5

Honestly, no two homeschooling families are exactly alike. Each family has their own reasons for homeschooling, their own way of homeschooling, their own goals for homeschooling, their own set of curricula, etc.

There are a couple of great books available, if you want to look at what other homeschooling families do. One is by Lisa Whelchel (Blaire from The Facts of Life - if you're old enough to remember that show) and is called, "So You're Thinking About Homeschooling". The other is called, "Real-Life Homeschooling" and is written by Rhonda Barfield.

Answer 6

IMHO, my family doesn't stand out as unique from other homeschooling families except for the fact that I'm a secular homeschooler in a mostly Christian homeschooling community. :-)

Most people assume that homeschoolers are right wing fanatics, either that or left wing rebels. We're more in-between the two extremes.

Answer 7

I think what sets my parents and I from other home schoolers is that I do all the work myself,and it doesn't take me to long,and that if I want to spend the night at a friends house in the middle of the week,I can,and then I just double up the next day to make up.My mom doesn't teach me,but she does pay for all new grades when I'm done.I also think that the fact that I don't take summer vacations or a couple weeks off like other kids is unique.I do school all through the year(except if we're busy,birthdays,sleepovers and holidays)I also think that the fact the we live up in the mountains in the middle of no where,with neighbors like 5 miles away at the closest,makes us SUPER weird.but it works for us,and that's whats important,that,and the fact that I am learning things.

Answer 8

We live a fairly normal life and have interactions with public school children as opposed to avoiding interactions with them like some people that we know. We are not extremly rigid nor are we overtly conservative.We've noticed that this seems to frustrate the heck out of some hs families that we know, .They just can't figure out how to box us into a category that they're familiar & comfortable with.We live our lives and do whats best for our individual family without caving into to societal or hs support group pressures.These are just few things that set us apart.

Answer 9

Hey PColaSuns..
Another not right wing fanatic or left wing rebel family here. Wow, we should start a support group or something. Nice to know we're not alone!

Answer 10

I was going to say that we're different because we're not right wing, fanatcial, religious people, but it appears that answer has been taken. I guess we're not so different afterall.....