We had our first day of the new school year today and as part of our first day traditions we made a list of what we love about homeschooling. These are listed in no particular order.
1. Choice of subjects. When asked to clarify, Bug stated he likes to have some say in his subjects/curriculum for the year AND the freedom to choose what he wants to do when in the course of a day. I, too, love the freedom to choose subject matter and curriculum that fits my child best.
2. Being able to take vacation when we want without having to do homework. We just recently got back from 10 days in Texas while celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. We loved the freedom to leave and come back without the stress of school work!
3. We get to choose the people we do school with. We have a fabulous local homeschool group that we meet with on Fridays for casual classes and social times. If for some reason we didn't feel comfortable with someone there, we have the choice to not spend time with them. Bug does not have to allow himself to be bullied simply because he has no option but to spend time in a classroom with someone. I have the ability to choose the adults that will play a teacher/mentor roll in his life. Choice is good!
4. We get to celebrate with LimeBerry! Said while we ate LimeBerry frozen yogurt in celebration of our first day of school. We can celebrate any big or little achievement in the way that we love - usually with something sweet!
5. Doing school in our pjs! So Bug doesn't find this as important, but I find this to be an awesome thing! There are many days where we have to actually get dressed and leave the house, but I take pure joy in the days that I declare we are not going anywhere and I won't be getting dressed!
6. Home cooked meals for lunch. No questionable chicken nuggets and chocolate milk for lunch here! This doesn't mean we eat a hot, fresh-cooked meal every day, but I have many more lunch options when I don't have to worry about putting it in a sack lunch!
7. Can listen to music or audiobooks during school. I have an auditory kid. He can't focus when it's too quiet. If there isn't background noise, he'll make his own. So we like to have Pandora filling the house during the day. He also listens to a lot of audiobooks and sometimes gets away with listening to them while working on another subject. (And sometimes they are the subject!)
8. Get to take birthdays off! So he has a summer birthday and didn't really think about the fact that he'd have his birthday off if he was in public school too. But this is indicative of our philosophy that people and relationships come first. We have no problem putting school on hold to celebrate a friend or family member's birthday or just to grow relationships with the people we love.
9. We don't have a huge supply list every year. Crayons, pencils, paper, scissors, glue, kleenex, expo markers... the list goes on. I've seen those lists. I couldn't imagine buying all of that new every year! Sure, we have to buy some supplies. I have a bit of an addiction to buying school/office supplies so I often buy more than we need. But I can look at what we have on hand and choose not to buy something because we have one (or ten) from the year before.
10. Not a bunch of 'dead weight' learning. It took me a moment to figure out what Bug was talking about with this one. Basically he meant there is no busy work. All the stuff we do has a purpose. If we find that he's spending time on something that's not actually teaching him something, we stop doing it. He loves having a condensed schedule with no fluff!
We probably could have come up with many more reasons we love homeschooling, but this pretty much covers all the important ones. At least for today! I love this tradition of reminding ourselves what we love about this lifestyle we chose!
What are your back to school traditions?
Linked up at Hip Homeschool Moms.
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