When we first began our home education journey, long years stretched out ahead – 10 of them to be exact — before we would reach the high school age. As those who have read my writing or listened to our podcast have likely heard me mention, our province has two full-time years of kindergarten (Junior and Senior) and elementary school goes until the end of Grade 8.

I’m angry. 

I know … usually I come here and write about the bright side of things if I can, the #onegoodthing, the nature, the books and resources, the “kids are awesome” and all of that. 

Do adults who homeschooled as children reflect upon the difference in their education? 

How about their childhood as a whole?

And resilience, initiative and self-determination … what do they think about those?

I’m in the midst of sifting through what I’d like to be writing about these days. “In the midst” is often not a comfortable place. I’d much rather be clearly past something or clearly looking forward to something rather than “sifting through” but I’m trying to take a more curious approach. Many parts of both my current life, past experiences and future ponderings seem to be calling at once.

We are pleased to have our first ever guest blog post! Bex Tobin Fine is a home educating parent and also a Canadian children’s author. Her beautiful picture book, You are Home, will be available in April 2025. Enjoy a taste her of her ponderings about “home.” You can read more about Bex and her work at Books by Bex.

Our lovely Sugar who passed away in January.

This harness and leash and outdoor time from a few years ago is something that I think could be referred to as a project. 

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a project?

This might sound odd but stay with me. 

I’ve been thinking about how one of the most meaningful ways I was able to facilitate and support high school age connections for my kids actually ended up being to offer myself/ourselves to other people in ways that were helpful.

Her: I’ll be getting up earlier tomorrow so don’t worry if you’re hearing a bit of noise. I’ll try to be as quiet as possible.

Me: As early as this morning?

Her: Not quite, but maybe like 5:30/6:00

Me: Are you heading out earlier tomorrow?

I was in Grade Two, just nicely seven that fall, when I heard the news that Santa wasn’t real. A boy in my class, L, leaned forward eagerly to inform me, eyes shining.  L wasn’t someone who had just found out himself; he was someone whose family didn’t ‘do Santa’ and he seemed happy to bear the truth. His mother was volunteering in our class that day and was sitting beside him on the other side of the table from me. As I looked to her for assurance that he was wrong, she simply nodded in agreement with him, also smiling and seemingly pleased to be educating me on the matter. It’s funny that I don’t remember where in the school we were because I have quite a distinct memory for places, but I really can only see the set up of the two of them on one side of the table and me by myself on the other while they waited and watched me digest the news. Or so it felt.

We have our whole lives to learn and pursue our interests and so do our children. 

I’ve been mentoring some new local homeschool families, particularly in the areas of building community and local opportunities. I’m noticing some words come up as they start out like, “I want to make sure it’s enough,” “I want to offer them (the kids) the best experience I can” and “I’m trying to make sure I have the materials they need.”

Unschooling, self-directed learning, self-directed education, natural learning, consent-based education, whole life learning, child-led learning, worldschooling, delight-directed education – these are all terms that are sometimes used to point to the same general idea of living and learning. 

I’ve been thinking about the distinction between supporting our teens’ interests (and children’s too, but this is more about teens) and entering into shared experiences with them. 

Last week I shared the following online:

“Mum, I actually found quite a bit more information about nature journaling.”

“Oh great. “

“I can send you the links if you want. There’s a lot here about a woman named Charlotte Mason. It looks really good. I think you might like it.” 

“Ah, ok. Great. Yes, I’ll have a look at the links. I’m familiar with Charlotte Mason.” 

“Oh, you are?” 

Socialisation might be one of the most nuanced and complex “topics” in home education. 

Sometimes we treat the “S word” as though it’s a yes or no answer. A simple thing. An annoying question from friends, family, neighbours and the media that we don’t want to have to answer one more time. 

Can children develop social skills like taking turns and listening to others talk and managing societal rules without learning them from school? We know the answer is yes. 

OR 

sat across from my kids at my in-laws’ house, listening to one of my sons (23) fill us in on his last few days of a snowboarding trip to Alberta and BC. I heard him talk about some pieces that weren’t easy, yet he didn’t identify them specifically as such and recounted them in a matter of fact way. They just appeared in the story chronologically.

his post is based on a weekly piece of writing I do in the Stories of Unschooling Families Community. 

Here is last week’s post. 

Something to Ponder this Week … What is our “Why?” 

“I waved. I’m not sure if you saw.” 

These words brought me joy. 

Letting experiences and feelings be what they are … 

Two small lessons came to me within an hour.

If you’re a parent, you’ve likely had the sense of wanting your children to have wonderful experiences, feeling joy and satisfaction as much as possible. Less comfortable feelings are, well, less comfortable. And while some of what our own childhood was like probably plays into how comfortable we are with harder feelings, either a lot or a little, this is likely common to all parents to some degree. It just kind of is. 

Today is the 20th time that I’ve experienced the first official day of school in our province as a home-educating mum. It’s also the last! 

My oldest officially began homeschooling in September of 2003. My youngest will officially finish in June of 2023. Two others fill in the space in the middle. I say ‘officially’ because, of course, they were learning before they were school age and they will continue learning through life all the rest of their days.

Well, it’s the end of an era for our family.

S delivered his last newspaper last week. It’s hard to believe how many years he’s been at it. He was just turning 5 and eager to help when my oldest son (8 at the time) convinced me to “co-sign” for the first paper route – he technically needed to be 10 to have it on his own.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I only have one child left, my daughter, who is technically school age. Five years ago there were four kids (three boys and a girl) whose day to day life I was actively involved with and now there is one.