I was homeschooled for 12 years. For my first years, I was taught by mother, with my siblings in our basement. We each had our own desks. We would wake up and eat breakfast. Then go downstairs and learn. At around noon we would eat lunch. My mom would normally make us sandwiches. Our favorite sandwiches were the PB&J's made with my mom's homemade jams. After lunch, we would go back to the basement to study more, or if we had focused and worked hard in the morning, we would go and play. On nice days, we got to go play in the park, or just enjoy the outdoors. These early days left some great memories for me. I got to spend a lot of time with my mom, and two younger siblings. I don't know that I would trade that for anything.
In 2004, my family moved. At this new house, we had a schoolroom in a big room over the garage.
The walls were lined with bookshelves filled with books. It was in this room that we studied together. We would all sit at the table and do our work. Occasionally my brother and I would start wrestling, and then we would stop and get back to our work. Eventually, my sister got annoyed with us and began doing her work in her room. My mom during this time was running her own small business out of our home. She would check in on us occasionally, but learning was mostly left up to us. Every so often my parents would, in essence, check our report cards. Because they were the teachers, that meant going through all of our past work for whatever the time period was, and making sure we had been doing what we were supposed to do. Sometimes these "report card" checks ended in tears, other times these "report card" checks would end happily.
When I made it to high school my parents began enrolling us into some online classes. They used classical and Lutheran online schools. These online classes added a little more accountability to our lives. However, we still had all of the freedom that homeschoolers so often boast of. The online classes I took were set up similarly to college classes. Each week I would have a lecture, or two. There would be assignments due, and quizzes and tests to take online. For my economics class, we read many books. We were assigned to mark them and had to write summaries on each section of the books, on top of other assignments. At the end of the semester we had to send our books to the teacher, so he could check our markings. During my high school years, I was able to work a lot with the added time flexibility that being homeschooled gave me.
In 2015, I began my journey as a college student. I attended Purdue North Central (PNC) my freshman year. Starting in the fall I will be transferring to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. At PNC, I took a full course load, 30 credits. I took 5 classes both semesters. There were a few differences between college and being home schooled. The biggest difference was that in college I actually had to go to classes, and sit in a classroom. The feel of a classroom was a nice change of pace for me. I enjoyed having a blackboard, and an actual teacher. I also had other students to interact with in person. That was a lot different for me. It was easier than interacting with students through a chat box because you had body language to read. I also really enjoyed being surrounded by more people.
Academically the transition was very simple. Being homeschooled I already was very involved in
making my own schedules and controlling my time. I was also used to only interacting with a professor or teacher twice a week for a lecture. In none of my classes did I feel as if I was behind. If people saw the amount of time I spent on school during my years being home schooled, they'd think I would be years behind. However, after receiving A's in all of my classes I don't think that was the case at all.
Socially the transition was also very simple. Being homeschooled I had to go out of my way to make friends, and socialize. I think this helped advance my social skills, not inhibit them. When I began classes at PNC I didn't have any trouble talking to the students sitting next to me, or the professors. The reason for this is because I was used to going up to people to talk to them. I got that practice on homeschooling outings, going to high school sporting events, and meeting new people when I was hanging out with people who were already my friends.
After making the big transition, I can safely say that being homeschooled was one of the greatest gifts my parents have given me. I learned the materials and skills that I needed to learn, to perform well in college. I was able to make friends. I was able to pursue many things that I loved. I was able to start my own landscaping business, and I was able to work and earn money. I also got to go on many memorable trips, and adventures with my family. These things would not have been possible if my parents had taken a more traditional approach to schooling.
