Thursday Thirteen: What We Don’t Miss About Public School

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1. Not having enough time to eat lunch. I can’t tell you how many times my daughter came home from school with a lunch box still full of food. She still (six years later) says that one of her favorite things about homeschooling is that she has time to eat lunch.

2. Getting up early. We are so NOT morning people. My kids grumble about having to get up at 10:00.

3. Homework! My oldest would come home from school with 2 or 3 hours of homework each night…in first grade! When you homeschool, you don’t have any homework. (Or, it’s ALL homework if you’re a “the glass is half empty kind of person.”)

4. Field trips. We don’t miss them because we still take them…only, we actually get to enjoy them since we have time to really look at things without 29 other kids in front of us.

5. Class parties. Yeah, we have those, too…except we just call them parties and they’re with our support group friends. Last year, my poor, unsocialized homeschooled kids exchanged Valentine’s with fifty or sixty of their closest friends.

6. Square pizza. My oldest missed that for about four months. Then, she told me and I started making our pizza in a rectangular pan. Problem solved.

7. After school tutoring. Funny thing about a self-paced, customized, one-on-one education. You don’t really have to stay after school to stay caught up.

8. The big playground. The park that’s about ten minutes from our house has a really big playground…and we have it pretty much to ourselves during the week, though we do like to share it with a few friends.

9. Friends. We don’t miss those because we have lots of them, too. Good friends with whom we share actual interest, not just desk proximity.

10. School food. Seriously, is there any need to elaborate on that?

11. The extras. We have a music class, a music/art/nature study co-op, rec league sports. We’re pretty busy folks from September to May.

12. Desks. We prefer the couch, the screened-in deck, a comfy bed…and the kitchen table when we have to.

13. Going to bed early. We love having lots of relaxed family time in the evening. No homework, no rushing to get dinner, baths and homework out of the way so that we can get into bed early. We really enjoy being able to hang out and enjoy each other’s company.

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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5 Comments

  1. I home schooled our oldest son until he went to college, and he turned out fine (currently works at Microsoft and still likes to spend time with his brothers and sisters!).

    The things you list were all true for us at various points in time, too. Currently we are back in school with the youngest ones, but I treasure many things about those old home school days.

  2. I almost laughed out loud about the square pizza. Kids are a hoot!

    We like to sleep in too, so homeschooling is perfect for that. That’s actually probably right up there in our top five favorite things about it.

  3. I will not miss #1 and #3. It is not going to hurt one bit saying so long to all the things on your list.

    Kelly

  4. We homeschooled our kids as well… and they are all doing very well. One thing people always commented on was how well they dealt with people of all ages. I think that’s one of the best reasons to homeschool…school time is the only time in most of our lives that we spend the majority of time with people our own age. How does THAT prepare us for the real world? Okay.. getting off my soapbox and slinking back to my corner.

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