School has been around since the time of Ancient Mesopotamia. The first schools were started by Sumerians in Mesopotamia because they invented writing around 3100 B.C. and needed to teach it in schools. Since then, school has been embedded in our world as a mandatory form of education. But times are changing and more and more people are homeschooling. The U.S. Department of Education shows that homeschooling has grown by 62% over the last ten years.
A year and a half ago, our family joined the many families that homeschool. Homeschooling is much more individualized and effective because there are only one or two student in a class, rather than having many children in one class. Another big reason people are homeschooling – including us – is because of the concern of school violence and the risk at school of mentally unstable students. Bullying is also very serious. Homeschooling is a fun and effective way to educate children.
My mom snapped this when she caught us doing our schoolwork without being told early in the morning (well, early for us)
I love homeschooling because it’s really about learning, and not just memorization and taking tests. There’s no stress. I can actually learn what I want to learn about, instead of memorizing useless facts that the whole class has to memorize. I go at my own pace, and I can go deeper into subjects that really interest me, like history and Russian language. I really enjoy learning when I’m not forced to do it. I also like having a relaxed schedule and studying when it suits me. I can sleep later, eat when I’m hungry and learn what I want to learn when I want to learn it, as long as I keep up with the three R’s: reading, writing and arithmetic. I do CTC Math every day, I write a little every day and I read every day. I publish a blog every week or so. And this month, I did a special history project on communism. I also really love worldschooling because we get to travel for our education. When we spent a couple months studying World War II, we went to Normandy and got to experience it first hand. I love the SAS, read Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy and got to visit the SAS base in Hereford, England. Now we’re studying the American Revolution, and this week we are going to Colonial Williamsburg and Washington DC. I’m studying Russian for fun now, so I hope to go to Russia. We went to Saint Petersburg, Russia three years ago but that was before I was into Russian, so I want to go back. I read the whole Harry Potter series, so we went on a Harry Potter tour in London last time we were there, we saw a few sites where J.K. Rowling wrote the books in Edinburgh and visited the Glenfinnan Viaduct and Glencoe, where the movies were filmed in the Scottish Highlands. Next month, when we visit Orlando, we’re going to Universal Studios to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. In May, we go back to London and Scotland. We will be visiting Harry Potter World, the movie studio in London. My mom has also booked us on a Harry Potter tour in Edinburgh, and we are going to ride the Jacobite Steam Train from Fort William to Mallaig, which is the inspiration and train path of the Hogwart’s Express. We just get a deeper and richer education this way and I love it.
Omaha Beach, Normandy
Normandy American Cemetary, Omaha Beach
Churchill War Rooms, London
Glencoe, Scotland, where Hagrid’s Hut was
Glenfinnan Viaduct, where the Hogwart’s Express runs
St. Petersburg, Russia – I want to go back now that I’m studying Russian
Schools act like they care for their students, yet make them get up at 6:00 AM to get to school on time and make them stay until 4:00 PM or so even without activities and after school events. It is too much pressure and stress. Schools also give an unreasonable amount of homework each day. From personal experience I can say that I hated school. As much as they wanted to make it fun, I really didn’t like it. All I wanted to do was go home every single day of every single week of every single month of every single year. Now that I am homeschooled, I feel as though I have been freed and have a burning desire to learn. Unlike school, which made learning a job or a chore. Homeschool has made me more extroverted and as weird as it may seem, taller. Yes, I have grown almost a whole foot since homeschooling and I am at least three inches taller than most of my friends who are at least a year older than me. This is because I am able to get the sleep I need every night and I’m able to eat when my body is hungry. I am no longer a scrawny little boy but rather weigh in at about 140 pounds and 5 feet five inches tall rather than 90 pounds I was just months ago. Plus, I love learning and don’t limit my learning to just “school time.” I’m learning all the time and love it. I feel like I’m more creative now.
