Getting started with homeschooling

We began homeschooling our children five years ago when our oldest daughter was 13 years old, followed by the second daughter who was 12 and our son who was 7. It was a well deliberated decision and we had taken 2 years over it before actually starting it. Believe me when I say that we have never looked back and regretted that decision. In an environment where competition is getting an ugly connotation and is undermining performance, it was the best thing we could have done for our children. Of course, it did come with its share of hiccups and are-we-doing-the-right-thing kind of emotions. The cross-eyed looks we got from family, friends and neighbours just made it worse. As time went by and all of us fell into a ‘routine’, we were glad we had the ‘guts’ and the ‘gall’ to ‘fight’ the system and take off on a path which was self designed and self motivated and not dictated by the phrase ‘the done thing’.

The children have become independent learners and responsible. Learning is no longer something that has to be achieved with someone else in the driving seat. They recognize the fact that learning is something which is the basis of all self-advancement and hopefully in the years to come will translate into success. Success as they perceive it. And hopefully as we perceive it. I will write the lessons that I have learnt and the questions that have cropped up in our short journey of homeschooling, maybe in a future post.