I made the unusual switch from public school to homeschool for high school. Typically, many teens decide to do the vise-versa, wanting a “normal high school experience.” There seems to be this common belief that you can’t have a standard and exciting education when you’re homeschooled. I’m here to talk about why I switched and how such stereotypes terrified me at first.
Two years ago, I made the decision to leave public school to pursue a classical homeschool education. This was a difficult, but ultimately extremely edifying process. I chose the online homeschooling route: taking classes with online Christian academies. I was very unsure of what to expect when I first began this journey, so I hope this article will offer some clarity and encouragement to those exploring homeschooling, specifically the online option. I will elaborate on the reasoning behind my switch to classical homeschooling, the Orthodox homeschool pedagogy, and its effect on my spiritual life.
In the Prologue of Ochrid, St. Nikolai tells a story of a monk talking to St. Arsenius about reading the Holy Scriptures. If you want to read the whole story, you can find it in the reflections for May 8th. The exhortation given by St. Arsenius to the monk is to “just read.”
The centrality of our educational philosophy parallels the ethos of this same idea. While the exchange centered on the power of scriptures despite our lack of understanding, it has a similar mechanical process to the way we learn in general. We put in the work, and the results will come.
It is Holy Week, and like most of us my family is pushing through, attending daily services. Only complication: my husband and I work on average 50 hours a week, and our kids attend public school. By Thursday, my eldest, a second grader, is falling asleep in class. He tells his concerned teacher that he is tired because we have been in church every evening. To which his teacher replied: “Tell your mom school is more important than church.”
Hearing that from my child did something to me.
A common struggle for homeschoolers is finding a supportive community in which to thrive. This is especially true if you attend a small parish or are a part of a church community with few homeschoolers. It is easy to feel alone and cut off from society, but that does not mean one must despair.
The desire for independence also increases as we become teens. Whether conscious of this or not, we want to stretch ourselves and practice all of the beautiful treasures our parents have passed down to us. This is good and natural. So how can we do this when we feel limited in the number of people we are surrounded by or too shy to approach those in our presence?
I love to write stories about our life in Alaska; homesteading; homeschooling; home birthing; business; entrepreneurship; houses; finding out that Christ truly loved me; breaking myself of soap operas, then TV, then talk radio, then Facebook/Instagram, and finally radio music. I love writing recipes, specifically good fasting ones (hopefully I can write a cookbook, God willing!), and generally giving people practical advice on all of these topics–oh and making sure to include lots of run-on sentences! I have dreamed of being the next Orthodox Christian version of “Dear Abby”, not that I’d be very good at it: I seem to love sticking my foot in my mouth and have strong opinions on most everything....much to my husband’s chagrin.
Today, I am writing the story of how my husband tricked me into homeschooling our kids.
High school is often the time when families shift from homeschool to "real" school (the misnomer commonly used in our house, at least, for brick-and-mortar school). I am very grateful to my parents, though, for giving me the opportunity to be homeschooled from preschool through graduation; and I believe I came out of the four years of high school a better-formed person with more knowledge and skills that will be of use to me the rest of my life than if I had gone to public school. Homeschooling has also offered me more freedom in my education and with my time than I would have otherwise had. As the oldest child in my family, there was certainly a learning curve to homeschool highschool, but it was a blessed journey! Here are some tips I learned along the way that helped me make the most of my four years of high school
Why are many Orthodox families turning towards homeschooling their children?
As the Director of an online school for homeschooling families, I talk with many parents of homeschoolers, and I also work directly with their children, so I have a unique window into the lives of these families.
It’s important to recognize that families across the nation and the world choose homeschooling for a multitude of reasons.
In March 2020, I (like most people) was restless. Very rarely did I leave my one-bedroom apartment where I lived alone with my cat. On top of that, I had recently moved to a new state and hadn’t had much time to make new friends before the first round of lockdowns started. I missed attending services at my local parishes, but more than that, I missed my previous parish, which I considered my “home.”
