10 Things I’ve Learned About Me Through Homeschooling

We decided to homeschool our children before we had children. Before we were married, even. There were several factors that went into our decision, but once it was made, we have never looked back. We’ve never “threatened” to send our children off to school. It was not (and is not) an option for us. We are dedicated to homeschooling our children, from beginning to end. I think I’ve learned as much about myself as I have taught my children.

10 Things I’ve Learned About Me Through Homeschooling

1. Patience can be increased. 
Many days, I did (and still do) need an extra measure of patience. God has shown up each and every time I took the time to ask Him to.

2. Books are not the only way to learn.
We learn best by doing, not reading. Learning from a book is great for some subjects, but actually DOING something is a much better teacher.

3. I’m not as smart as I might appear.
There are MANY things that I know nothing about. NOTHING. And I’m okay with that. 😉

4. I don’t really like math.
I can do it. I can understand it. I just really don’t like doing Algebra. 🙂

5. I really do like history.
History is cool. It’s also neat to see how things happened at the same time. I never connected the dots in my school years. How interesting to see that prominent people in history lived at the same time, but did completely different things.

6. Hearing your child read for the first time is incredible.
Knowing that you are the one who taught them to do that is beyond amazing!

7. Being firm in your convictions is imperative.
Whether it’s home education or anything else to do with parenting, be firm and united with your spouse on what you believe and will do for your family. Sadly, there are plenty of naysayers out there! Being a united front is crucial to your success.

8. I really do not need anyone’s approval besides my Honey’s.
Related to the above, we haven’t really encountered a lot of negativity in our choice to home educate. There was some, but nothing that was all that offensive. Even those who expressed some “concerns” have come around over the years.

9. I genuinely LOVE being with my children.
This is kind of a given, but I really do like hanging out with them. I can’t imagine giving them over to anyone else for hours and years on end.

10. I am not as organized as I’d like to be.
This is one of those things that just bugs me about myself. School (and life for that matter) would be oh so much easier if I would simply utilize any one of the organizational methods I’ve learned about over the past 16 years we’ve been formally home educating!

There’s plenty more that I have learned about ME, but I’ll stop at 10 things. 🙂

What about you? What have you learned about YOU since you started home educating?