This surprising statement came from my 35-year-old son as he described his homeschooling years to his cousin. A boatload of memories came flooding back. And he’s right! He did almost break me. I’m not entirely sure what a broken homeschooling mom would have looked like, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been pretty. The low point of my homeschooling experience was the day I faked a phone call. In my son’s hearing, I pretended to call our local school asking how to enroll him. I’m not entirely sure what response I expected, but he hardly even noticed. Fail! He tells me that I also wrote a letter of resignation addressed to my husband, but I’ve evidently suppressed that memory.

I’ve learned over the years that it’s not unusual for there to be that “one” in the family. The one who just can’t seem to “click” with reading. The one whose learning style does not match mom’s teaching style. The one who has his own ideas of what his education should look like. The one who is smart as a whip but doesn’t want to do schoolwork. The one whose mind can race in a million directions but can’t sit still for two minutes – unless there’s something he wants to do. That “one.”

I was feeling rather smug at the beginning of my homeschooling career after successfully conducting my two daughters into the world of reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic. But then it was my son’s turn. Our tried-and-true phonics program failed. We tried another. And, then another. We slogged along through the years with our chosen math program by sheer will and determination (mine not his). I had to modify or change almost every approach and program that I had successfully used with my daughters. If I’m honest, my son’s homeschooling years were a continual parade of trying this approach or that method, this product or that program. I would say that we only persevered through our homeschooling years by the grace of God, the persistence of my husband’s commitment to homeschooling and support, and the help of our homeschooling co-op. But he did graduate from high school! And we both survived to tell the tale.

In the twenty some years since those days, I’ve often joked that homeschooling my son was my most important qualification for the years I’ve spent as a Rainbow consultant. But it’s not really a joke. My homeschooling experience – particularly with my son – has helped forge my recognition of the FAMILY factors and my belief that they are the most important element in choosing homeschool curriculum. I wish I had understood back then what I know so much better now.

  • Learning Styles are important – and it’s important to understand not only what your student’s learning style is but also what your teaching (learning) style is.
  • Approaches and methods can help you choose curriculum, but you might just derail if you can’t learn to be flexible within an approach or method.
  • Some students will require more teacher-student interaction than others.
  • Comparisons (whether between your students or with your friends’ situations) are a very bad idea. JUST DON’T DO IT!!!
  • If in doubt, trust your gut!
  • And most importantly, DON’T give up!

Whatever you do and whatever educational difficulties you face, don’t lose sight of the most important reasons you are homeschooling. For my husband and me it was relationships. Our relationship with God and the relationship with our children. Yes, we wanted a quality education for our children, but we also wanted to preserve a mentoring/discipling relationship.

Not only did my son and I survive all those turbulent years, in fact, I would even say that by many measures, in the final analysis, we thrived. He went on to graduate (with honors) from a state university and is enjoying a job that utilizes his right-brain creativity. I’ve enjoyed many years here at Rainbow Resource helping homeschooling moms sort through the same challenges we faced in our homeschooling journey. Are there things I would do differently? Oh, so many. But I’m thankful for the many times that God gave us the grace to carry-on and to persevere. ~ Janice