I can't believe it's been over 30 years since I started homeschooling o_0

[Ellie]

The only people I knew who were homeschooling were neighbors who were...weird. They drove a funky Ford Pinto. They dressed slightly slovenly. They were vegetarians (I had never met a vegetarian before, lol). The refrigerator had a lock on it because the children would...eat the food. o_0 The only furniture in the living room was two chairs; when the children were in there, they could sit in the chairs, but they had to get up when the parents came in (apparently the children used to schlep all over the furniture, so the parents decided they could just schlep on the floor). They were really *into* science fiction; I enjoyed sci-fi, but these people were really *into* it. And the were really *into* computers, which in 1982 was the Vic 20.

 

And they homeschooled.

 

We were all basic middle-class, white-bread people--church three times a week, little girls dressed in pretty dresses with white ruffly socks and black patent-leather shoes, parents in dress and suit for church, planning to send the children to Christian schools...completely different from our weird homeschool neighbors.

 

And then older dd began, after Christmas vacation of first grade, to change, and melt down at odd random times, and I knew in my heart of hearts that something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I decided to let her finish the year at that school and send her to a different one the next year.

 

And then she came home from school two weeks before Easter vacation, and cried for 40 minutes over half a page of arithmetic homework. So I went down to my weird homeschool neighbor and asked her about homeschooling.

 

For the next two weeks I read everything John Holt had written, and spent hours talking with my neighbor, and praying, and dumping everything on Mr. Ellie when he arrived home from work. I finally decided that I could teach my children to learn, and that we would homeschool. Mr. Ellie said, "You're with the children all day, and you see things I don't see, so if you think that homeschooling is the best thing, then let's do it." Bless his heart.

 

So me weird homeschool neighbor and I went to the San Diego County Office of Education during Easter vacation, and asked for the form, the whatever it was called, so that I could, you know, homeschool. The woman looked at me and said, "You mean a private school affidavit?" [insert her rolling her eyes]. She gave me one and my neighbor helped me fill it out. But see, there was a place where I was supposed to write the name of the school. NAME OF SCHOOL???? :svengo: We brainstormed and came up with "Freedom Learning Center. :-) And so I was a private school.

 

On the next Monday, I took my dd to school so she could say good bye to her teacher and friends, and I went to the office to withdraw her. The secretary was flabbergasted. No one had ever done that before. Really. I was the first (although several didn't send their children back the next year). The next morning, when my dd realized that she was actually NOT going to school, she cried for forty minutes. ACK!!

 

I decided that we would just be taking an extra long summer vacation, and that we would be Official in September; if we were all still normal and all still liked each other at Christmas, we'd continue on. Talk about commitment!

 

And so here we are, lo, these many years later. My daughters have mixed feelings about having been homeschooled, but I'd do it again, in a heartbeat, without hesitation, even knowing that my dc wouldn't love it.

 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[OneStepAtATime]

Wow, one of the pioneers!  :)  My heartfelt gratitude to those of you in the trenches before there were even trenches to jump into, paving the way for the rest of us to make the leap.

[PollyOR]

Thank you for sharing.  :)

[alef]

Thanks for sharing your story :)

[ErinE]

What a lovely story! Thank you for continuing to post here.

[Serenade]

Thanks for telling your story.

 

And thanks for all the advice you share on the forums.  It helps more people than you will ever know.

[scrapbabe]

Wow, one of the pioneers! :) My heartfelt gratitude to those of you in the trenches before there were even trenches to jump into, paving the way for the rest of us to make the leap.

Yes!!! So grateful for all the Ellies in the world!

[kubiac]

Thank you for pioneering and for sharing your story here!

[Melissa in Australia]

:hurray:

[FO4UR]

:hurray:

 

 

Thanks for sticking around and sharing your wisdom here.

[Mommyfaithe]

I've " known" you for years, but didn't know your story. Thanks for sharing! You were a veteran when I started, over twenty years ago! Where did the time go??? And thank God for weird neighbors! They often turn out to be the best ones.

[MolleenCarie]

I enjoyed reading this post. You put so much color into it, and now your memories are in my head forever. You should write some books. You'd be good at it.

[Another Lynn]

Thank you for sharing your story.  (Love Mr. Ellie's answer -  what a dear!)

[Ellie]

Thank you for sharing your story.  (Love Mr. Ellie's answer -  what a dear!)

 

Oh, Mr. Ellie is the best! I always cringe when women say their husbands are adamantly opposed to homeschooling, especially when the husbands say they don't think their wives can do it. :-(

 

Another story: I used to own/administer a PSP (for non-California folks, sort of a cover school); new families had to come to my house for an "interview" (I don't like that word but i could never come up with something better, lol). Once, a woman said she just wasn't sure she'd be able to do what her children needed. Her husband put his hand on her arm and said, "I have to rebuke you." And I thought, oh man, we are in for it now. He continued, "I can't think of anyone who would be more capable of teaching my children." Another Mr. Ellie reply! :001_wub:

[Twigs]

What great testimonies!

[pollo_la]

Thanks so much for sharing.

[twoxcell]

:) I think my mom could relate to you. She began homeschooling about the same time in Oregon and people thought she had three heads at times. The PS just could not understand how someone who had the honor of having two kids accepted into the gifted program(my brothers) would say no thanks and remove her children. :lol:

I'm very grateful to my mom for what she did and I'm sure that your girls are too. I'm curious Ellie if you are schooling anyone now or do you just like to talk with others about it still? Thanks for sharing your story.

[strange_girl]

Awww, Ellie! Thanks for sharing! I loved reading your story!

 

My parents were also the first in our community to pull their kids out of school...and I am so grateful that they did!

[Farrar]

I love that we have your voice here, Ellie, to share this story.

 

My mother thought about homeschooling me.  Our public school was truly horrible.  My parents struggled so much to afford private school in the next county (and the financial strain eventually led to our leaving our beautiful rural home).  She resolved to do it...  and then chickened out because there was no one else who was doing it.  It was too new.  So my hat is always off to all the pioneers.  You had serious guts!

[happypamama]

That was lovely -- thank you for sharing!

 

You could have been my mom. Back in 1982 when I started Kindergarten, my parents only knew "weird" people who homeschooled and not many of them at that. I wasn't unhappy in K, just bored, and my mother said she prayed and prayed about pulling me out. The answer was always "no," but later it was "yes" for two of my younger siblings, and my parents are two of my biggest supporters about keeping my own children home. It must have been so much harder in many ways; now we have tons of community support, the internet, e-books. . . Thank you for being a homeschooling pioneer, Ellie, and paving the way for the rest of us.

[Targhee]

Thank you for sharing! Sometimes I think HSing is difficult because of the logistical and social constraints it poses, but really HS is more "normal" now than ever. Thank you for being a pioneer, and giving HSing a good name :-)

[Ellie]

:) I think my mom could relate to you. She began homeschooling about the same time in Oregon and people thought she had three heads at times. The PS just could not understand how someone who had the honor of having two kids accepted into the gifted program(my brothers) would say no thanks and remove her children. :lol:

I'm very grateful to my mom for what she did and I'm sure that your girls are too. I'm curious Ellie if you are schooling anyone now or do you just like to talk with others about it still? Thanks for sharing your story.

 

Your mother and I invented homeschooling. :laugh: 

 

I will always be a homeschooler, whether I have actual children at home or not. :-) But no, there haven't been actual children in my house for 20 years or so. And I cannot believe I'm old enough to say that... :blink:

[Erin]

"Thank you for sharing???"  Puhleeze, people.   :001_rolleyes:

I want more!!

 

 

 

 

Eillie, what do you see as some of the biggest changes that have occurred in homeschooling in the last few decades?  

You said you would do it again, even given your kids' mixed feelings (which makes me feel far more confident, btw), but is there anything you would have differently?  

What was *your* favorite aspect of homeschooling?   What do you kids say was theirs?

And anything else you might be willing to share...  I hope you're still in a mood to reminisce.  (I can't believe the previous posters didn't beg for more while the iron was still hot!   ;) )

[Erin]

To the aspect of those weird neighbors--

I wonder how many of us have been blessed by similarly weird neighbors, who did nothing more than just jar a marble loose in the backs of our minds that, 'hey, there's this other option...'   

[Ellie]

"Thank you for sharing???"  Puhleeze, people.   :001_rolleyes:

I want more!!

 

 

 

 

Ellie, what do you see as some of the biggest changes that have occurred in homeschooling in the last few decades?  

You said you would do it again, even given your kids' mixed feelings (which makes me feel far more confident, btw), but is there anything you would have differently?  

What was *your* favorite aspect of homeschooling?   What do you kids say was theirs?

And anything else you might be willing to share...  I hope you're still in a mood to reminisce.  (I can't believe the previous posters didn't beg for more while the iron was still hot!   ;) )

 

There are way more things to have to decide between, and way more places to look at them. We were overwhelmed back in the day with choosing between ABeka and CLASS, lol.

 

The Internet has become the support group for many people.

 

We only had support groups, not "groups." Co-ops and on-campus classes didn't show up for, IDK, six or seven years. KONOS co-ops were the first that I heard of.

 

My favorite aspect of homeschooling? I don't think I have just one. Being home with the dc and a full-on part of their lives, enjoying their interactions with each other, learning all the time. We did far more things as homeschoolers than we would have otherwise, because I would not have let them do dance and soccer and all the outside activities they enjoyed if they'd been in school. I know that most children do both, but wow...the pressure of spending six hours or more in school plus dance classes and extra rehearsals and competitions, and marching band (20 hours a week of practice!), and all that...no, we would not have done it:-)

 

I don't know if my dc had a favorite aspect, lol. It was really all they knew. I am sure, though, that especially my older dd benefited from hsing more than she thinks she did. She is an introvert--not shy at all, you understand, but an introvert--and when she was 16, she consciously made a career choice that would make her be involved with other people: she went to cosmetology school. She finished her AA at the community college after graduating from cosmetology school, and worked her way through San Jose state to graduate with a BA in English Literature. She took LSAT and got a decent score, but decided that she really likes doing hair. :-) I don't think she would have made that choice if she'd been in school, which would have been fine, of course, but homeschooling gave her the freedom to even think of doing that in the first place, KWIM?

 

And homeschooling was growth for *me.* I have done things I wouldn't have done otherwise (and poor Mr. Ellie...his life was radically changed, too!).

[DianeW88]

Awesome story, Ellie. I relied heavily on people like you when I started homeschooling twenty years ago.  I don't think I could have made it otherwise.  Although we did have more curriculum choices.  BJU, Konos, and Calvert had shown up by then as three new "biggies". ;)  I remember going to the homeschooling conventions (when they were actually about teaching your children at home), and just soaking up info like a sponge from folks like Ruth Beechick, John Holt, and Jessica Hulcy.  It was new and scary, but also so exciting.  And back in the old days, when you mentioned that you homeschooled, people raised their eyebrows nearly off their foreheads.  That's why I needed folks like you, who could tell me that everything was going to be just fine, and that I could do this.  And now my two oldest have graduated.  And, yes, I did it!!!

 

Thanks again for sharing your story!!

[twoxcell]

 

Your mother and I invented homeschooling. :laugh:

 

I will always be a homeschooler, whether I have actual children at home or not. :-) But no, there haven't been actual children in my house for 20 years or so. And I cannot believe I'm old enough to say that... :blink:

It is crazy how time flies. I appreciate having veterans around to offer advice. :)

[Mommy22alyns]

To the aspect of those weird neighbors--

I wonder how many of us have been blessed by similarly weird neighbors, who did nothing more than just jar a marble loose in the backs of our minds that, 'hey, there's this other option...'   

 

I had a weird online friend.  I literally never thought that you could dress your kids in Gymbo and homeschool too.  Go ahead and laugh!

 

Ellie, I'm glad you homeschooled and I'm glad you stick around to help the rest of us out!  Thanks for paving the way.

[Alessandra]

When I read the title of this thread, I just knew it would be you! Thank you for sharing over the years and for all your excellent advice about WRTR and everything else.

[Hunter]

"Thank you for sharing???" Puhleeze, people. :001_rolleyes:

I want more!!

 

Eillie, what do you see as some of the biggest changes that have occurred in homeschooling in the last few decades?

You said you would do it again, even given your kids' mixed feelings (which makes me feel far more confident, btw), but is there anything you would have differently?

What was *your* favorite aspect of homeschooling? What do you kids say was theirs?

And anything else you might be willing to share... I hope you're still in a mood to reminisce. (I can't believe the previous posters didn't beg for more while the iron was still hot! ;) )

I'm not Ellie, but I'll tell my story and comment on the changes I have seen. Back in…maybe 1986(?) my entire church started homeschooling, except for 3 families, and that was when I was first introduced to the idea. I was a newly married teenager at the time, and left the church before my oldest was school aged. But the seed was planted.

 

By the mid 90s my 2E kid was a total mess. Despite having the highest IQ score in his grade at a low income school, he boycotted the first year of 4th grade MCAS tests and well…it was all downhill from there. The only part of the test he completed was an essay prompt he tweaked as an opportunity to vent about the "low academic standards" at his school.

 

My little asthmatic and undernourished 9 year old, who was mostly banana curls and giant eyes with dark circles under them, had been going head to head with a principal for awhile. After screaming at my son so loudly that the 5th graders upstairs heard it, the principal declared that my son "had won". Then a staff member called me and told me to get my kid out of the school "before ... hits him".

 

I told her I wasn't all that worried about it. It was certainly getting possible, but I didn't think the principal would hit him hard enough to damage him before he regained his composure. Then she told me she was worried about the principal not my kid. She really resented the school losing a great principal, because my kid was driving him over the edge. She said the other children who were there to learn didn't deserve to lose their principal who was a very good low-income school leader. She was right.

 

A charter school opened up that year, and we tried that for the first few months of 5th but that was a disaster. My kid went on strike and wouldn't even eat at school. This led to migraines. Then one of the teachers decided to start punishing the whole class for my son's behavior, because he was such a protector of the underdog, and she thought that would motivate him to obey. That is when we yanked him.

 

The older son was not yanked until almost 2 years later. It was supposed to be a catch up year to fix the charter school mess, before starting high school, but…life is funny, and this is the kid that most benefited from homeschooling. If it hadn't of been for already homeschooling his younger brother I never would have yanked the older…but…thank God I did! It changed his WHOLE life.

 

Okay, so for changes. It is SO much harder for you ladies! Seriously! The PRESSURE!!!!!!! The only pressure we had was to do something equivalent to the local PS, which was not doing much of anything. We had less resources, but every study indicates that resources have little to do with results, so…it was easier. And being isolated, meant we had less to compare to, and we focused on OUR kids, and not how they compared to others.

 

We were poor and I was sick, but I have good memories. There were no extra curricula activities. I never attended a convention even once. We never attended any support groups or co-ops or anything. After a couple years we did get the internet and that was such a change, but I don't think it improved things for us, and over all I think it might have been a bad thing. Except that is how I learned about American School for my oldest, and THANK GOD for American School is all I can say!

 

As Ellie said. Once a homeschooler always a homeschooler. Now I self-educate and tutor. And prepare to be a grandma.

[Lilaclady]

Thank you Ellie and Hunter for sharing your stories. Inspiring

[Susie in SWVA]

I loved reading your stories!  We began homeschooling in 1984.  That was back in the day, when people found out we homeschooled, would look around and whisper, "Is that legal?"  haha  I am still homeschooling - we adopted a boy in 2000 and I have four more years to go.  Aside from that, I am now the homeschool advisor to two of my daughters who are teaching my grandchildren.  So fun!

[Hunter]

I loved reading your stories! We began homeschooling in 1984. That was back in the day, when people found out we homeschooled, would look around and whisper, "Is that legal?" haha I am still homeschooling - we adopted a boy in 2000 and I have four more years to go. Aside from that, I am now the homeschool advisor to two of my daughters who are teaching my grandchildren. So fun!

I'm really hoping to be smarter by the time the grandkids need me to give mom and dad the best advice possible.

[homemama]

You inspire me Ellie! I love to read your posts here and at homeschool reviews. Keep on keeping on!

 

fun@home

[Professormom]

Love your story, Ellie!

 

My kids always tell me that the are going to build me a Hobbit-hole (because I love them) in Rivendell (because it is sooo beautiful) where we are all going to live (together) so that I can homeschool their kids. It doesn't get any better than that! And all because others paved the way:-)