Pat, it’s very helpful to hear from someone who has been down the schooling road. Your posts reflects what (I think) many of us want: teaching our children for life, not just for academics. While some of the “how” of what you did is different from what I am doing, the “why” is the same. Your testimony to the effectiveness of your “how” is very powerful; it was not only what you said, but what you did not say. that you have a busy house full of imperfect people, yet one that teaches and practices grace to yourself and one another. So I want to say thank you for your post. It will continue to give me some great thoughts for our schooling –and life– practices. Blessings to you.

One, we never cease all learning or all schooling for two or three months at a time. We take smaller breaks throughout the year, and breaks from any particular subject, if we want to, as we finish up one book or long-term project before we move into another. And we never, ever take a break from Bible time or reading good books, both aloud as a group and independently! I find that the children can often skip right through (or test right through as we usually do) the first half or so of some texts – particularly math texts – since we have not forgotten everything due to an overly long break.

Since we do not take long breaks, we seldom have bad habits like excessively late bedtimes to undo. Again, there are occasions where we stay up late, but its easily overcome because we never do it long-term. Where else in life will you ever get the entire summer off or 6 weeks at Christmas? Daddy works year-round, and we do too! Many of our breaks revolve around new babies (new grandbabies too) or helping a sibling get a house ready to move into. Granted, I am at a different place in life than most of your readers as I have grown married children as well as school-aged children still at home. My pattern has varied little over the years though, as I often wanted a week or so after the birth of my own children or a house project before we resumed our full schedule again.

Our local school’s first day has always been a celebration for us too! Sleep in late, a big breakfast and some sort of outing are common. Actually, its fun if you can work in several fieldtrips that week as its the one week you don’t often find busloads of school children at the attractions you wish to visit. In our area, however, a trip to the swimming pool is not an option as it always closes (and is even drained:-/) the weekend before school starts; I think all of the employees are students, thus a lack of lifeguards once school starts.

As for the kids being addicted to screen time of any sort, well, we try not to be overly weird and unsocial, but we have never had a television in our home (even bc). And since Daddy needs to use the computer in his work, it is not a toy and screen time there is limited as to purpose and amount of time. Not to deny the children any videos ever, we have always gone to Grandpa and Grandma’s house when they were on vacation and had some movie time, and even the occasion tv re-run. But then they come back, and that is over naturally! Seriously, we have never regretted the lack of television in our home.

In our home, life skills hold a prominent place, equally important as academics I would say. Periods of time for each young person to learn thoroughly how to do the many jobs it takes to run our home smoothly. And yes, boys learn to cook and sew, and girls learn to change a tire and check the oil. If it is a skill they may well need, even as a married person, they will practice it in our home! This has proven to be useful as I have observed the married ones. For instance, our daughter-in-law had (surprise) twins in January. Her husband took over the cooking and laundry for quite a few months as it took her fulltime to keep the babies nursed and get adequate sleep. She was amazed at how well he could cook! Another son has a wife who was not raised with any domestic skills, and not only does he do a lot of the cooking but he has taught his wife many skills. My daughters (all unmarried at this point) have also been a blessing to each of their sisters-in-law as there have been eight children born to them in the last three years. This is NOT meant to advocate those parents who use their children as slave labor or unpaid domestic help!!!! As a mom with kiddos in training, I work as hard or harder than they do, right alongside them. It is a passing on of life skills. Just last week I allowed my 13yo son to prepare the grocery list from a menu he created with his older sister. I bought exactly what was on the list, and believe me it was a great learning experience – for what he forgot! And no, I did not run to the store for everything forgotten. He has just prepared this week’s list, and I am betting it is improved:-)

The last thing I thought as I read was to limit outside classes and activities. I have observed many families who spend their time running Mom’s taxi, and the results don’t seem worth it. Granted, both limited funds and restricted transportation have naturally limited our outside activities. But I am of the opinion that children need:
1. unscheduled time to be creative and live out their play-thoughts.
2. to not be entertained or scheduled at all times, but to learn to entertain themselves (in non-electronic ways:-).
3. time with all ages rather than limited age groups.
4. time to serve others rather than to be served all the time.

I was recently in the grocery store with my two youngest daughters. The young lady checking us out was chatting with the girls, and she looked at me and said, “They are homeschooled, aren’t they?” I confirmed that they were, but asked why she had asked? She said it was because they could interact with her, a random adult, and looked her in the eye when she spoke. It seems that most of the public school children she tries that with either won’t answer or don’t really interact even if they do give short answers. It was just one observation, but we have encountered many over the last 23 years that confirm this investment of time is worth it!!