How many times have we told someone we’re homeschooling and heard, “What about prom?” (Our group offers one.) “What about a yearbook?’ (Yep, get one of those, too.) “What about hanging out with friends their own age? “ (Uh, yeah. Got it covered.)
While skeptics are quick to point out all the things they think my kids will be missing, I can’t help but think of all the things they’re not missing! Like…
Moving on in a lesson before they’re ready, or lagging behind until the rest of the class gets it. At home, they move at their own perfect pace.
Getting stuck with a teacher that doesn’t like them. They are now guaranteed to be teacher’s pet!
Having to do PE when they have cramps. Their teacher now gives them the day off and some pampering to boot.
Bullies and mean girls. I’ve yet to meet one in our homeschool community.
Needing permission to use the bathroom. Freedom to pee anytime!
Needing permission to get a drink of water. Drink up, kids!
Waking up early. Or sometimes, even getting dressed. Which means we’re also not missing an hour of hair, makeup, and a possible fashion crisis every morning.
Cafeteria food. Need I say more?
Peer pressure. Mom’s definitely not missing this one, either.
Exposure to media, lifestyles, advertising, celebrities, etc. that their parents don’t want them exposed to. That’s right, we’re sheltering them. And proud of it.
What aren’t your kids missing?
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Amen!
.-= Kysha´s last blog ..Set Apart As Holy Unto God =-.
One of my fears of sending her to public school was getting a teacher that just didn’t want to handle her panic attacks. So she’s not missing getting yelled at and sent to the office, for something she can’t control.
.-= Riceball Mommy´s last blog ..Mini Riceball’s Photography Adventure =-.
Love.It. Exactly what I tell those who question us about homeschool, and all we’re “missing out on”.
.-= Liz´s last blog ..Home is a good place to be =-.
Yes, yes, and yes! My child is not missing out on having to go over material that she’s already mastered again and again because not everyone in the class gets in yet. And, conversely, she’s not missing out on moving on when she has not yet mastered the last skill simply because that’s all the time the teacher has for that subject matter today. I’m definitely saying yes to individual attention and personalized curriculum!
Well I know I’m not missing the tired, overwhelmed, and irratible little boy that used to come home from a day full of preschool =]
.-= jeana´s last blog ..Watching God at Work (1000 blessings) =-.
Perfect and so true!
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..Links I Like: Edition 12 =-.
I am going to go with…..Not Missing having to sit still for hours a day! Every subject or two, my kids will get a lego break or a let’s-go-ride-trikes break, they get to sit on the desk while we talk about our vocab words, cuddle on the couch while reading aloud….
My wiggly son would probably have to be medicated to zombie status if he had to sit still for 6 hours a day in public school. Cheers to celebrating Boyness, not drugging it.
write on, same here.
Your Reason #1 is so true for us. We homeschool through a charter school that requires the students to complete state testing yearly. This was my daughter’s first year of testing. She came out of the test and said “I am so glad I am not in public school. I can’t stand waiting for the other kids to finish!”
We have run across bullies, unfortunately, in homeschool groups. For the most part though, we have met great kids through homeschooling.
I was homeschooled for grades 6-8, and unfortunately there *were* bullies in our co-op. Those were the three worst years of my life as the girls there were horrible to me and my twin sister.
As for the rest, very true! It was nice to take breaks, field trips, whatever to keep our focus.
Great list! Totally agree. Although, my husband hates it that I let the kids sleep past 7am. lol.
.-= Richele´s last blog ..Five Question Friday: April 23rd =-.
Love this!!
.-= Kelli´s last blog ..The Construction of a Dam =-.
As someone who was a “victim” of homeschooling, I love this. It’s so true. I used to blame my social ineptness on homeschooling, until I hit college and realized it would have probably been worse if I hadn’t been allowed to grow into my own person without the influence of the kind of cruelty and maliciousness children (and some teachers) are capable of.
I had such a terrible time in school I swore I would never send my kids to school, but my wife loved school so much that our kids go. It is all I can do to let them out of the car in the morning, but they seem to love it. I reserved the right to yank em out and homeschool them if things go south.
Love it! Especially the part about mean girls and peer pressure!! Yes, I know our kids have to learn to deal with life on their own at some point, but I think to be forced to sit in a building to be pressured or ridiculed is NOT real life! Amen, sista! :)
Being made fun of for wearing a dress: Just like me, my daughter loves to wear dresses every single day. I was mocked by other children, teachers, and even the school principal (on a megaphone in front of the entire middle school during a school activity) for wearing dresses. Girls should be able to wear dresses without being mocked! How ridiculous.
My children aren’t missing out on sexting when other children pass cell phones around.
My children aren’t missing having “permanent subs” to teach them because the school district can’t hire enough certified teachers (this is a real problem here with literally hundreds of teachers in our district).
My children aren’t missing out on the “new math” of estimating answers the majority of the time, and using calculators in early elementary school.
I recently answered a similar question from a reader on my blog. Honestly, I think what WE think they are missing are memories that are specific to US. They will have their own memories that as you said, won’t involve all that “extra” icky stuff! Yay for homeschooling!
.-= Amy @ Raising Arrows´s last blog ..Keeping a Pregnancy Journal =-.
Thanks for the encouragement and more reasons to give my husband why I should homeschool…we are not there yet (our little one is just 19 months) but we will be soon enough!
.-= Jackie ´s last blog ..Buffalo Chicken Calzone with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce =-.
I so appreciate your list! My childrena r ebut preshcoolers – and we ar ehomeschooling with the itnent to continue all the way through. I am already tired of hearing, “What about what they’ll be missing?” already and also so aware of what they are NOT missing and what theya re getting instead. Some ideas:
Being forced to explore topics that are boring or rote for them as typical preschool themes – they love to dive into certain itnerests, which I note and help them explore.
Bad influences – our son, especially, models “bad” behavior when we are in socal situations with kids that are acting up. While I still ensure they get lots of social time, I can step in when I see this happening and change venues as needed, ratehr than having him see (and model) the same behavior day after day.
Physical closeness – My kdis love hugs – big, bear hugs – and kisses. With the no-touch policy at manys chools, they would miss these.
Understnading of uniqeness – We just elarned of my son’s mild SPD and are “treating” it with understadning and ready, isntant changes to sensory stimualtion, plus awareness of sensory diet. At a school, i think he wouldn’t get as much attention, exacerbating his “naughty” SPD -related behaviors and not highlighting his positive, unique qqualities.
“Fake” learning – My kdis love the real thing – from my daughter really baking and doing dishes, to real vaccuming, to real hammering to… At a preschool they could only “play” with make beleive items for many of these endeavors, I think. (Mind you, they lvoe make beleive, too!)
I could go on and on…
:)
Great list!! I completely agree! Can I add competitive materialism to the list :)
.-= Melissa´s last blog ..Vote and Help Build A Park =-.
Thank you so much for this post. We have been debating homeschooling for our two youngest daughters and this actually answered a lot of our questions (by the way, those worries seem silly now). I will be coming back to check out your blog. I have started to look at homeschooling materials and am completely overwhelmed!
a super heavy backpack full of boring text books! And having to share a teacher w/ 20+ other kids!
GREAT LIST!
Stef
.-= Stef @ Layton Family Joy´s last blog ..Great Week =-.
I’m a school teacher who is getting tired of reading posts like this.
My students go to the bathroom, and carry water-bottles all day. I treat them all with kindness and dignity. (No “liking or disliking” or “teachers’ pets.”)
Furthermore… Your kids are going to have to wake up early for a job someday. They are going to have bosses who are mean, co-workers who are mean, and even deal with bullies in the workplace.
Not that this excuses this behavior in public schools. BUT. Bullying is dealt with at my school, as are cliques, etc. Not every school is bad.
I keep reading blog after blog on this topic assuming that we teachers sit around yelling at kids, forcing them to go too fast or too slow, and wasting time all day. It seems disrespectful of a tough job.
Andrea – I agree that it is generalizing to say this happens in every school, but I don’t think even Angela believes it happens in every school. I am a former teacher whose now homeschooled kids used to go to public school. And, we did deal with things like bullying, cliques, and at least one teacher that just didn’t like one of my kids (and often complained about him, even when the other teacher he had at the same time fell over herself saying how wonderful he was). That’s not to say that all of these things were their experiences all the time in public school, but they are certainly things that happened. (Plus I walked by their classes many times while helping at the school to, indeed, hear teachers yelling. The same sometimes happened at the school I taught at.)
And, then our main reason for taking our kids out of school was because our oldest just couldn’t keep up, even with accommodations for a disability. Now that he’s home, he is so much more calm. We can whip through things he gets, and take more time on things that are difficult. That’s just the nature of more individualized instruction. I think it’s simply not accurate to think that in a class of 20+ kids that there aren’t kids that are falling behind or kids that are in need of more challenge in any given lesson. I know when I taught, there was a wide variety of skill levels with the kids, and so it just happened. Not because I, as the teacher, was at fault. Just because when you have to teach a certain lessons, that was just bound to happen with the 19 kids I had in class — some gifted, some special ed, some with English as a second language, etc.
I can see why you are upset though. It sounds like you are doing a great job being fair with the kids, and making school enjoyable for them, so it’s hard to hear when people make blanket statements. Trust me — I’m sure most of us who have commented are also tired of hearing all of the blanket statements about homeschoolers.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Andrea,
I’m the one who wrote this post and wanted to respond. First of all, this post was meant for homeschool moms. It is a response towards people who tell us our kids are “missing out.” I think it’s pretty clear here that this post isn’t about teachers at all, but rather about what my kids AREN’T missing about school.
Of course there are awesome teachers, but in the 7 years my oldest was in school, we dealt with some bad ones. That’s why I said “Getting STUCK with a teacher that doesn’t like them.” Because sometimes that happens, and I’m sure you’ve seen that in your career.
A year ago, I wrote a post about how homeschoolers can sometimes bad-mouth teachers and I shared some personal stories of people I knew that were making a difference in schools. You can read it here:
http://homegrownmom.com/mamamusings/a-light-in-the-halls-a-tribute-to-school-workers/154
As for getting up early, one day my girls may have a job in which they’re required to do so, and they may not. All I know is that for right now, sleeping in until 7 is a luxury we didn’t have when they were in school. And at 6 and 13, I’m not too worried about it. In all honesty, I’m not raising them for future careers, I’m raising them to be whatever God has planned for them, including being keepers of their homes and hopefully even homeschool moms themselves. Shocking, I know, but future job placement isn’t really a concern for me. They’ll have the skills and knowledge to be responsible, productive adults no matter what their lifestyle may be.
Bullies, cliques, etc? No one can argue that this isn’t a bad thing to miss! Even the teachers I know and love agree with me on this one… bullying to the extent that it occurs these days is far beyond what previous generations allowed and forgive me for disagreeing with you, but I do NOT think it is a necessary part of growing up.
I haven’t come across any homeschoolers in our groups that “assume all teachers sit around all day yelling at kids,” and I can’t find any place in this post that provoked that comment. Maybe you’re basing it on other posts and this is the last straw for you. But I think if you look at it objectively, you’ll see that it was a pretty light-hearted post about MY kids, and what they DON’T miss about school.
Just like if you had a week off work and listed all the things you WEREN’T missing… I’m sure there’d be a few things your co-workers could agree with you on. That wouldn’t mean you hate teaching or that you didn’t like your class. It just means there’s good and bad to everything and it’s okay to admit that.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, I find it very interesting that you’re reading homeschool blogs!
.-= Angela @ Homegrown Mom´s last blog ..Wednesday Workbox Day =-.
No, no. Bullying and cliques are not a necessary part of growing up! I think bullying is horrible! No child should have to put up with that. What we teachers often see is parents seeing normal conflict among kids as bullying. Sometimes kids are mean. Sometimes adults are mean. That’s NORMAL.
Bullying is when someone consistently harrasses a victim. There’s a huge differnece here.
What I am saying is that my school deals with that, and strives to have a bully-free environment. As for the other conflict, the sometimes mean behavior, this is normal and important for kids to learn. Not that they couldn’t learn this from their own siblings!
And it is interesting that I read home-schooling blogs. I often teach students who go in and out of homeschooling and think it’s important to understand their life experiences. I also like to open my mind by reading from others who are different than me even though I may respectfully disagree.
What I don’t do is write a blog that thinly veils criticism of teachers.
I find it rather amusing that (some) public school teachers have such thin skins. The organization that you work for bombards homeschoolers with their rhetoric…and indeed many teachers are QUICK to announce that homeschoolers are receiving an “inferior” education.
Frankly, I’m tired of the holier-than-thou martyr attitudes that I’ve seen *so* many public school teachers have.
The fact is, if you look at the implied message, this list is absolutely a great representation of what kids all over the US experience EVERY SINGLE DAY.
It was exactly what I experienced for years in a public school.
I peed on myself in 1st grade…twice, because the teacher wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom.
I was bullied for years…my entire public school career in fact.
I woke up every morning at 4:30 or 5am so I could catch a bus at 6 am…and it didn’t help me as an adult with work. ANY.
I was never allowed to drink or eat in class.
Starting in Kindergarten, my teacher, Miss Hamilton, taught me the fine art of screaming. She was the first “screamer teacher”. But rest assured. EVERY SINGLE teacher I had afterwards screamed at his/her students.
My kids have FAR more self-confidence than I did, not having been bullied all their lives. They try out for things. They perform in front of audiences. They will give a public speech.
Public schools as a whole, follow this list very carefully. Public schools as a whole BASH homeschoolers a WHOLE LOT WORSE for our choices, often saying that we are “abusing” our kids.
So if these lists offend you, I suggest that work hard to change your reaction and that of your fellow teachers towards home schoolers in general. Because until the perception and attitdude of the NEA, public schools in general and teachers change, you can expect us to fight back….defending our reasons for homeschooling and point out flaws in the system of public schooling.
Attention Teachers, public schools and NEA: Don’t go on the attack of Home educators if you don’t want home schoolers to defend. We don’t want a fight, however, we won’t back down from one either.
.-= Michelle´s last blog ..Parties, Parenting, and Pain =-.
Michelle,
I’m sorry that this was your experience in public schools. There is no excuse for that.
Andrea –
I have to say it’s a little unrealistic to claim that you treat ALL your students with kindness ALL the time. I would open my own vein and bleed to keep my children safe, but can I say I treat them kindly ALL the time? Sadly, no.
And, sure, most likely my kids will get jobs and have to wake up at a reasonable hour some day. So? Is going to school the only way they will learn to do that? I think not. Some day my daughter will wear makeup. Should I be preparing her for that at the age of 3? No. Someday I will be old, should I get a walker and start practicing? No. Some of these arguments are so devoid of a connection with reality, and yet so common, excuse us if we seem frustrated by constantly having to answer them.
And as for the bullying… I hope it’s true that your school does not let it go on. If so, it is almost certainly in the minority. And it has occured to me recently that dealing with bullies in school and dealing with them in the outside world (aka real life) are two entirely different things. In my life, if I am confronted by a bully, I have lots of options – walk away, quit that job, get a restraining order, even defend myself physically if necessary. Children in school don’t really have those options. For a child to learn to “Deal with bullies” seems to be code for “learn how to tolerate it.” I see no value in that, nor any connection to a real life outside of school. And in any event, I’d like to be there for my child if he is confronted by a bully, giving him tools and encouragement. Not leaving it up to busy other’s who may not share my values.
You can’t deny that some students are behind the pack and some are ahead. That’s just the way it is when you have a large group of people. Not everyone is going at the exact. same. pace. I don’t necessarily think you, personally, yell at the stragglers, but they are there. And a huge chunk of a teacher’s day is taken up by getting the kids to settle down, be quiet, turn to this page, work those problems, wait until everyone is done with the quiz… that’s not BAD, it just IS. Homeschoolers don’t have to deal with very much of that and it is a huge perk to for us.
I don’t see any thinly veiled insults aimed at teachers in this column. We are all simply bragging about the positives of our way of life. We are not, just by virtue of homeschooling, somehow condemning all public schools, or all teachers, or those who choose to send their kids to school. It’s kind of….dare I day arrogant?….to assume this column was somehow about you.
Deb,
Yikes! Read what I wrote again, please. You have mis-read what I have written.
I really enjoyed this post. I knew I would homeschool before I ever got married and had kids and it was one of the first serious discussion my husband and I had when dating. I had a lot more to say but figured it sounded more like venting. :)
Bullying is not a necessary part of growing up. Shame on the adults that think it is normal. My kids are taught Peace Making. (Ken Sande) My kids are taught to be honest, truthful, humble, and to discern the events taking place before them without overreacting. My son made me so proud last week. I saw him take part in conflict resolution and go so far as to make his best attempt to apologize even when the situation was not his fault but he felt bad that the other boy was even upset over the whole thing. (the older brother of the upset boy confirmed all this and said his brother was out of line and that my son was being very gracious in the situation.)
I don’t think bullying belongs in the workplace either…there are laws for that. The funny part of all this…within the 150 homeschool families we do things with, there are no cliques, no bullying, no vulgar language, everyone respects everyone, and all ages play together. The benefits of homeschooling far outweigh those of not doing it.
I just think your post was fabulous!!! :)
As a home schooling mom, I don’t see a few of these as true. Unless you hide your kids at home all the time, 3, 9, and 10 aren’t possible. They’re facts of life and need to be experienced. As for 5 and 6, I haven’t met a mom yet that allows her child to just walk away mid-lesson without asking first. Yet another essential life skill, that I hope the rest of you aren’t avoiding teaching your kids. Home school doesn’t mean no rules or discipline! These are the kind of things that turn out those “creepy home schooled kids”.
Again, this was a light-hearted post. I’m sorry you didn’t see it that way.
You’re certainly entitled to your opinion.
Rest assured my kids aren’t hidden, lazy, or creepy. But thanks for your concern.
.-= Angela @ Homegrown Mom´s last blog ..Wednesday Workbox Day =-.
You say you haven’t met a mom yet that allows her child to just walk away mid-lesson without asking first. Well you haven’t met me. I homeschool and my kids do not have to ask permission to get up mid lesson to get a drink or use the bathroom. But then again I’m an unschooler so my kids are probably the creepy homeschooled kids you referred to. I agree you can’t shelter them from all media, lifestyles, advertising, celebrities, etc. but we sure can censor most of it. I think our children need to be children, they can deal with all the grown up stuff when they are grown.
Ok so they have to be sheltered to be able to avoid peer pressure? If you know your kids friends and know how you raise your kids then peer pressure is a nonissue. How is peer pressure a fact of life? and why does it need to be experienced? again with 3 and 10. Why does the media have to be a fact of life? I know that my kids only watch movies that I approve of, we have pretty much gone unplugged in the last 2 weeks. I have a converter box and lost the remote. So the TV stays off during the day, we limit Wii time and movie time. If my boys are sick, they don’t have to go outside and play (for PE) real life is that they need to? that doesn’t seem right. If my child needs a bathroom break, I would hope that he would go and then when he is done he comes back to his lesson. I don’t make him ask me to go. I am his mom and his teacher. It doesn’t matter at this point, why does controlling him important. That is the main reason I pulled him out of PS. My kids have rules, but have freedom too. They have friends and involved in scouting. So your depiction of a homeschooler that has a little more freedom than a rigid strict environment is unfounded.
Thanks for posting it. I love it!
Loved this!! I agree with all of it. We aren’t missing being stuck inside all day when we could be out enjoying the sunshine and learning from nature. We also aren’t missing making up snow days in June when we’d rather be swimming. My favorite though is we aren’t missing waking up early. My kids and I (when my 2 yr old allows it) sometimes do not get out of bed till 9 or 10. (Gasp!) We love our homeschooling life and wouldn’t change it for anything. Gosh I hope that wasn’t a thinly veil attempt at criticising teachers. LOL you gotta laugh!!
Isn’t it funny how people read the same words but get different meaning from them. I think your post was lighthearted and those that construed it otherwise must just be sad people with an axe to grind. I know we are all entitled to our opinion, but if you can’t say something nice…sheesh..
Wow, even before reading the comments, I took the post lightheartedly and simply nodded my head and smiled as I read it. A few thoughts on the comments . . .
As far as being a “thinly veiled attack on teachers”, I don’t find any of the items in the list to really be under a teacher’s control (other than a teacher not liking a particular student), so I don’t see how it could be an attack on teachers, veiled or otherwise! It’s just simply the way that a system with that many students and that many individual needs has to be controlled. For example, I recently taught a year of sixth grade Sunday school. Those kids came in and asked to pee. It was unbelievable. I say yes to one and then ten more ask, but with a few minutes between. If I allowed students to leave during class for the restroom whenever they asked, we would do nothing else!
As for preparation for “real life”, our children are living real life day in and day out. We are out in the world, rather than being sheltered away; and we are mixing with all sorts of people. Our children may have to get up early to head to work every morning when they are grown, but for now they are getting to be kids and enjoying their childhoods. I find it highly unlikely that they will be adults who can’t hold a job one day simply because they slept until 8 or even 9 as children. Will they have to deal with mean adults when they are grown? Sure. But in my experience and from what I hear from every adult I know in my life, the experience of “school socialization” simply makes kids feel insecure so much so that it can take years of adulthood to recover. Or it makes kids hard and mean themselves and then they become the abusers. In the workplace, laws protect against harassment. If a boss or coworkers are simply “mean” on a regular basis, then my children have the option of finding a workplace that makes them happy. I am not homeschooling in order to turn out quiet, complacent factory workers (or office workers, for that matter) as compulsary schooling was created to do. I am sheltering my children during their childhood as they grow into strong, independent, intelligent adults who have skills in conflict-resolution (they get plenty of practice with siblings and neighborhood friends, but under my guidance where I can teach them real skills). Like hot house transplants, they can face the elements when they are big and strong enough to face them with the emotional maturity, confidence, and skills they need to do so. If they are forced into a bad situation as adults, I hope they have the spirit to overhaul the situation for themselves! As John Holt says, “It is the duty of a citizen in a free country not to fit into society, but to make the society.” I want my children to be the next movers and shakers, not quietly sit back and take abuse!
Angela and Angie, as nearly everyone who has ever changed history or changed lives for the better has said in one way or another, if you want to avoid criticism, then do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. And if you want to do something great (homeschooling your children day in and day out counts!), then be prepared to be thought of as foolish and stupid. Don’t let it get to you! When someone gets that offended from a short little article on a blog, it’s not really you or even your article – you have obviously hit a nerve that was already raw from something that has nothing to do with you.
God Bless,
Tanya
Tanya,
No axe to grind and I’m a quite happy person and teacher! It’s okay to disagree with someone and even critique a blog post. I am not attacking her personally for writing it or making assumptions on her disposition. I am simply stating that not all schools have all of these problems.
I’ve discovered a lot of privileges with Homeschooling, as well as some obstacles specific to this chosen path of educating my children.
This is a cute post. It’s brief and clearly not meant to be an in depth commentary on Home School or Classroom Schooling. No matter what you post, there’s always going to be someone who’s experience contradicts yours. That’s life.
I appreciate those who can consider the heart intent behind a post and not just over analyze the text.
Maybe the discussion in the comments here will however be beneficial to someone beyond what can be learned from just the post itself.
Thanks for the post!
Blessings
Rachymommy – MommyTopics.com
.-= MommyTopics.com´s last blog ..How Is Your Child’s World Being Framed? =-.
Hi Rachel, in regard to the heart intent of the post, I certainly agree that this wasn’t meant to be a big serious dissertation on the topic, just a fun encouragement to homeschooling parents. But I think the reason people are analyzing the text is because there is an undertone of defensiveness in it — even though that was not the intent at all. But it’s understandable. Too often, discussions about education devolve into arguments about who is parenting their kids best. (And to be sure, homeschooling parents have received a lot of unwarranted criticism in this regard.) I think that perhaps emphasizing the universally recognized benefits of homeschooling (such as individualized attention) over the more controversial or subjective aspects of it (such as the relationship between kids and culture) might not only help to (re-)envision and encourage homeschooling parents, but also help other parents to see why this is a choice some families make.
Not to over-analyze this myself, of course! :-)
Awesome! Love this list! I posted it on Facebook! :D
.-= Sherry´s last blog ..What makes a son? =-.
Great post. My home schooled dd was a night owl and slept late every day. Now, at age 23, she works nights and overnights as a caregiver for people with alzheimers. Not everyone in the “real world” needs to get up at 7a.m.. Mean people and bullies are not allowed there, laws protect people in”the real world”. Public school is so far off from real world living it’s ridiculous.
I appreciate this post! The things people come up with to discredit homeschooling are maddening to me, mostly because they’re based in ignorance: the ones asking those same old questions have never spent a single day homeschooling their child. But I actually lived through 12 yrs of public school, and while it wasn’t all negative, it was definitely not a positive experience, and it certainly wasn’t nurturing and warm, like that of a home learning environment. I would’ve loved to have been homeschooled.
I like that your list covers both the lighter issues and the deeper issues. My favorite things “missed” are peer pressure, bullying, and exposure to things/people/ideas that are contrary to our belief system. Those are the big hitters. But I also have to say that I personally looove not having to get up early, myself! We all sleep in till at least 8am every day, and we’re all happier and healthier for it! It also allows for extra time up at night that is spent playing with their daddy. Win/win. :)
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