You May Be a Homeschooling Family If…

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Let’s face it – homeschool families can do and say some, um, unique things. No, I didn’t say weird. (I didn’t really think I had to.) The part that makes it so weird – I mean, unique – though, it that many of these things are not necessarily unique within the homeschool community. Do any of these sound familiar to your homeschooling family?

Do you fit any of the homeschool stereotypes? Check the clues and find out!

You may be a homeschooling family if…

1. Any slightly unusual animal or reptile happening has ever been cause for an impromptu science lesson. This can include, but is not limited to occurrences such as:

  • Finding a snake in your basement or garage, hiding behind your outdoor trashcan, or sunning itself on your patio
  • Rescuing a bird or rodent from your dog or cat
  • Discovering that your two male gerbils are, in fact, not both male as evidenced by the gerbil babies that have suddenly appeared in the gerbil habitat (This may or may not have occurred on one particular Christmas day and it may or may not have been a slightly traumatic discovery for a certain kid.)
  • Observing the road kill on a frequented route over the course of several days because you’re currently completing a science unit on decomposition

2. You’ve ever had a kid complain (or been the kid who complained) that you woke him up on his only day to sleep in – when his normal wake time is 10 a.m. or later. {ahem}

3. You can turn a trip to the grocery store, the bank, or the doctor’s office – or even an entire vacation – into an educational field trip.

4. You have ever gone to a butcher shop and asked for a cow’s eyeball.

5. Family birthdays are school holidays.

6. You can brag to your friends that all of your kids are, have been, or will be valedictorian (unless you’re the parent of multiples).

7. Teacher In-Service Days can be declared at 8:00 a.m. without notifying the media, and no one complains.

8. The only reason you would consider the need to take a snow day is because you live in the South and your kids, who rarely see snow, want to go outside and play in it.

Do you fit the homeschool family stereotypes? Check the clues and find out.

9. You sometimes take “sun days.”

10. The UPS man, FedEx guy, and/or mail lady know each of you by name.

11. When your school has Grandparents Day it doesn’t involve cafeteria food and divided lunch trays. Instead, it means a trip to the grandparents’ favorite Chinese restaurant.

12. You have ever been verbally or virtually harassed about your educational choices.

13. You know that learning can happen anywhere –and you know that anywhere means that no place and no event are off-limits for being turned into educational fodder.

14. You have ever –with great enthusiasm – dissected an owl pellet.

15. You have ever successfully located the used book sale by knowing only the general area, then following the sea of minivans.

16. Your unique family doesn’t fit neatly into the stereotypes and you just enjoy being you.

If you need a funny reminder of the stereotypes, check out this classic video from homeschool dad, Tim Hawkins:

 

How do you know yours is a homeschooling family? Play along in the comments. You may be a homeschooling family if…

This post is linked to the Hip Homeschool Hop.

images courtesy of pixabay

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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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19 Comments

  1. Case in point for #1. Last night we noticed a lizard eating a moth. All the kids were fascinated and ran to the door to see.

  2. I would love to add more to #1 and observing nature;
    You might be a homeschooler… when a bird feeder is considered a school supply!

  3. Great list!! There are owl pellets being dissected on our kitchen table right now. I am sharing this post with our local homeschool group, I am sure they will appreciate it!

  4. The local library is your second home. The librarians all know what you are studying by the stacks of books and videos, and the projects that your child wants to “show and share.” Oh and your library fines have been enough to add an entire room.

    You never seem to be at home. . . and your car is almost a fully equipped classroom. Can’t let those long rural rides between classes and co-ops, or running errands go to waste!

    1. That’s got to make it at least a little better. One time, I had a friend administer standardized testing for our small homeschool group. When the kids came in, she had candy and gum on everyone’s desks. She told them they could chew gum and eat candy at any time during the test, as long as they were quiet. Her whole demeanor really calmed the kids and made an otherwise boring week just a little more fun. Incidentally, Brianna scored better on that standardized than any previously. I totally attributed that to the fact that my friend’s attitude made all the kids so much relaxed. I bet PJs help, too. 🙂

  5. Clever. I enjoyed it. You may want to correct a slight oversight in your introduction. In your third line “necessary unique” should be “necessarily unique.” I am assuming that you can correct it.

  6. You are both annoyed and confused about the number of kids running around on a school day before realizing public schools have the day off. (This confusion occurs even though you have been informed of the day off by a public school parent/friend trying to make plans in advance.

    You think it’s perfectly normal to send kids to Grandmas for 3 weeks in April.

    1. {grin} Yeah, my kids had a shock when we walked into a packed indoor trampoline park yesterday afternoon. I told them that’s what happens when you take spring break the same time as the entire rest of the world and reminded them that I tried to talk them into waiting until next week to take our break. (I won’t lie, though – I’ve enjoyed our week off!)

  7. Love this! We are new to home schooling this year — started this past fall. I am only teaching one child at the moment. Hoping to get the second one on board soon. 9 years old and very reluctant about wanting to be home schooled. Everyone says the kid has to be “on board” for it at this age or I will have trouble. :-/

    BTW, I am a grand-parent, raising grandkids. I get questions like: “Why do you want to do this (home schooling) at your age?” “What about teaching them technology?” “What about their socialization??” “What does their mother think about this?” ??? (I’ve been raising them since they were babies). I was at the grocery store and a neighbor asked me: “So…is this a FIELD TRIP??”

    LOL! Love your site and blog!

  8. My kids are learning Home Ec with mom weekly, cooking, cleaning, budgets and comparison shopping. 🙂

    My little ones have informed employees and me at various stores “your commercial lied that isn’t low prices. $50.00 for a teddy bear is wayy to much.” the giant bear at valentines…. or “Mom don’t buy that here its cheaper at……”

    My 3 school aged kids got on board when a teacher was bullying my eldest son. Now All 3 school aged kids want to be homeschooled and are. Soon our youngest (she is 3 year old) will join them. From the older kids playing school with her she is working on counting (counts to 12 but misses a couple of numbers) and knows the last half of her alphabet (no clue why she skips the first half).

    We take birthdays, valentines, and halloween instead of Presidents day, and other boring ones.
    I sent my 12 year old to the corner store for bread one day and he got pulled over walking home so the officer could ask why he wasn’t in class. lol he was picking up the makings for our lunch…. oh well my son thought it was funny

    We check out the max allowed books at the library (15) all the time… All the library employees know my kids and myself by name now.

    you might be a homeschool parent if you use History channel DVD’s as history class lol.

    We watched jurassic park for science class learning about various dinosaurs, DNA, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and more. The kids LOVED that lesson!!

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