Our Military Homeschooling Life

Posted: 9:55 AM, May. 12, 2006

Homeschooling on its own is a subject of curiosity. Homeschooling while your husband is an active duty Marine brings on even more curiosity!  I’m not sure why it is any different than my hubby doing any other job, but there is always curiosity about the military lifestyle.  We seem to be an enigma, with our wandering off every few years, daddy being gone most of the time and mom left to run it all. 

 

When we decided to homeschool, we honestly didn’t give much thought to the fact that we would then be “military homeschoolers.”  Our focus at that time was to get our son out of the public school system as fast as we could.  I went from being a stellar PTA mom to being a homeschool mom literally overnight.  I was terrified.  My hubby was unsure of the whole thing, but trusted me to know what I was doing.  Originally, the plan was to homeschool our son for the rest of his third grade year, and then put him back in school for fourth grade.  Sounds like a plan, right?  NOT!  I’m not sure what happened during that last six months of the school year.  I went from being an unsure, timid homeschool mom to really loving the time I was sharing with my son.  We had a blast!  We had so much fun that my poor daughter, who was still in public school, came home and stated that SHE wanted to be homeschooled for the next year, too. 

 

My hubby and I sat down to discuss it.  Could we do this?  What would that mean for us as a family?  What would that mean for me?  I would have to give up going to college.  I had spent the last 4 years just trying to get through community college, and had been accepted to Cal State Fullerton.  Could I give that up?  What did we have to worry about on the military side?

 

After listing all these things we needed to worry about, it suddenly seemed crystal clear to me.  Of course I could homeschool these children!  I am an intelligent, resourceful and determined woman!  What about my college?  Well, I had my chance for a degree.  At this point in my life, the education of my children has to come before mine.  I could always go back to college later.  On the military side, we didn’t have to worry about a thing!  The military doesn’t care if you homeschool.  They care that the service member shows up to work every day! 

 

We have learned that there is so much freedom in being military homeschoolers.  My hubby doesn’t have to worry about a mid school-year PCS (Permanent Change of Station) move.  (Which we have done twice since our homeschooling journey began!)  We could take as long as we wanted to get to a new duty station, which is fortunate, because there are so many incredible things to see as you cross this county!  So many friends and family members scattered all over to stop and visit!  So many adventures to be had!

 

We have also learned that being military homeschoolers gives us another type of freedom:  the freedom to NOT do school.  “WHAT?” you say?  Not do school?  When is that okay?  Well, I’ll tell you when it’s okay.  When daddy is on pre-deployment leave, getting ready to go God knows where for God knows how long, it is WONDERFUL to put the books away and spend all that time with daddy.  We will have lots of time while daddy is gone to get caught up on school.  Another time it’s okay to not do school?  When daddy gets HOME from deployment!  Most families go through so many adjustments to daddy coming home.  All of a sudden this man who hasn’t been an active part of the family is back and changing the dynamics of the way things worked.  What could possibly be more important than getting reacquainted with daddy?  Nothing.  No book, no math, no history or science is more important than spending that family time together.  The day daddy gets home is notoriously a LATE night.  Who wants to go to bed?  The kids are so happy to be with dad, they have so much to share with him and show him.  How awful would it be to say at 9 or 10 o’clock, “sorry kids, stop spending this precious time with dad because you have to get up to go to school tomorrow?”  How awful is it for them to know that daddy is going to be home all day long, but they have to sit in a classroom where they really don’t want to be?  To me, THAT is torture! 

 

Overall, military homeschoolers aren’t any different than any other homeschooler.  Our lives may be a bit more chaotic.  Our children may have been born in far away countries, or lived a few more places.  The reality is though, that we still have the same concerns all homeschoolers have.  We want to raise healthy, well adjusted children who have a strong love of God and family.  Homeschooling is the answer for us. 

 

**If you would like to learn more about the military homeschooling life, please feel free to subscribe to the HomeFront.  It is an online e-newsletter written by and for military homeschooling families.  The link is at the bottom of my blog page! Even better, it's totally free! 

Comments (7) Add Comment Link

Posted by writmm on May. 12, 2006

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Cindy, I enjoyed your post. Would you consider submitting it or another post to the upcoming Homeschool carnival? I am hosting next week. You can get the details from my blog!

Posted by on May. 12, 2006

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Cindy, that was a great post! It really helped me get to know you a little better and also get a peek inside a family with a different life than my own. I love your heart for your family to keep the daddy time precious. We had two children down the street last year who came to live with Grandma and Grandpa while both Mommy and Daddy were deployed. The day Daddy walked in in his handsome uniform to see his little girl at our Co-Op preschool, there was not a dry eye in the house! It is so wonderful that you just set things aside in order to treasure that time. Your children will ALWAYS remember that. I also love the flexibility of homeschooling here in our "civilian" life... it is great to be able to drop everything on a beautiful day and just head out for the zoo!
Your start of homeschooling story sounds interesting... I would love to hear all the details sometime!
Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day!
Jen

Edited by MrsIncredible on May. 12, 2006 at 6:34 PM

Posted by Rysmom on May. 12, 2006

Wonderful post!

I loved reading this! Isn't it amazing how homeschooling seems to blend in so wonderfully with military life? Our upcoming PCS will be the first one in 7 years that we won't have to stress about how much time it's taking us to make the trip, how much time the children are missing in school and so on. My daughter is also still in public school for the rest of the year, and she has fimly stated that she wants to be homeschooled just like her brother next year too. I only wish I would have had the confidence to start earlier and been able to have more family time before my dh's deployments. I remember stressing about the few days that we did keep the kids home so they could spend as much time as possible before Dad left.

Posted by ButterFly4Him on May. 12, 2006

Right On, Cindy!

What a great post. I soo feel the way you do about not really thinking (at first) of us being "Military" Homeschoolers. I didn't realize there was a difference. I suppose somehow there is. I do love the fact that we can drop the "books" to spend time with Dad before he's off etc. I also like not having to worry about moving mid year.

~Renee~

Posted by Rysmom on May. 14, 2006

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Happy Mother's Day ;-)
thank you for the kind comments on my blog. I've enjoyed reading your blog and finding out so much more about how other homeschoolers are doing.
~D~

Posted by HeartnSoul on May. 14, 2006

Freedom is wonderful

Be sure to thank your dh for helping with that.

Happy Mother's Day! I'm having a contest over at my blog.. come check it out :)
Denise T

Posted by FaithfulGrace on May. 14, 2006

thank you

so much for sharing about your choice to become a homeschooling family.
You seem such a natural, I thought you'd been homeschooling all the time.
Happy Mother's Day,
God bless,
Linda

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