Homeschooling in the Military

Our lives change drastically every 3 to 4 years, its transfer season, time to find a new place to live. Most of my friends base their decisions on which units are located in the best school districts. Where is the best school to send the children? As a homeschooling family, we make our decisions based on which job will be the best for DH’s career.

After we submit our wish list to the powers that be, then we start dreaming. As soon as we find out where we’re officially going, the first thing I do is find out if there’s a home school group. By getting involved with a group, I can find out about things like play dates, Charter Schools, scouts, and getting myself involved with a network of like-minded families.

This year, when we moved from California to Alaska, our first move since the kids started school, we involved them a lot more. They learned the “ABC’s of Alaska” to present to their friends in our 4H group. We also had a subscription to “Which Way USA” through Highlights magazine, so DS#1 decided that he wanted to study Alaska during the school day.

Living on, or being attached to a Military Base provides us with opportunities for Social Studies every day. The boys have learned things such as “Chain of Command”, telling time in different time zones, and strengthened their map reading skills. They have also attended things such as business luncheons, promotion ceremonies, and retirement ceremonies. At our last base the boys were almost as much a fixture in their dad’s office as he was.

My husband’s career choice has also played a part in our homeschooling journey. The boys frequently have an opportunity to visit their dad’s office and workspace. Children are sponges, soaking information. When DS#1 was 5 dad was supervising Study Hall. There were pieces of paper taped to the desks with math equations that used letters in place of numbers. The next morning I was asked “mom, can you do math with letters?” We were able to gently ease into the process of solving for the unknown.

Homeschooling really fits our nomadic lifestyle. Making new friends is hard enough, but because dad and I are their primary teachers, we can help to maintain some consistency in their lives. Public schools are not the same from state to state, there’s even a great variance from school to school with the course of study. By homeschooling we have found, through trial and error in some cases, what curriculum works well and what doesn’t.

My standard disclaimer is that homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but for now it’s working for us. I’m always willing to share my story and my why’s with my friends. I’ll even admit when they say (because someone always says it!!) “I don’t think I’d have the patience to home school” that some days I don’t have the patience either. But, for our family, this is what works. And one of my duties as a Military Spouse is to figure out what works for my family.

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Barb can be found at Barb’s Life, where she share her crafts, pictures of her new home (thanks to the Military), and more frequently stories of her home school day.

photo by Coast Guard BM

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