I have had it asked of me in the past if I have any regrets in regards to my homeschooling. I do have regrets. I think everyone does. I am going to share my regrets in this post but before I do I first must give you a bit of background information.

   We began homeschooling when my oldest was 6 years old. After we had been homeschooling about a year, I was very fortunate to have a telephone conversation with a gentleman who sold used homeschool curricula. He encouraged me to read real books with my children and have my boys (when able) read books to me.  A year or so after this conversation, I came across a few books by Ruth Beechick. This lady is a God-send to the homeschooling community. If you want to know how we did what we did, read “You Can Teach Your Child Successfully” by Mrs. Beechick. Although we didn’t do every single thing she mentioned in her books, we used her method by in large throughout all our years of homeschooling. Today my sons are 21 and 18. One is very scholarly and intellectual (he is an avid outdoorsman as well). The other is a hands-on type guy. He loves to work on his car and build things. He loves to read car manuals and Popular Mechanics magazine in his free time. One son is soon to be a mechanical engineer, the other plans on being a mechanic. I think both career choices are wonderful and I am proud of both of the career paths my sons have chosen. I am thrilled that my oldest son is studying for a career he enjoys and I am thrilled that my younger son plans to study for a career he enjoys. I am so happy that my oldest son is in college and I am so happy that my younger son plans on joining a branch of the military.  I do NOT think that a mechanic is a more worthy individual than a mechanical engineer or vice versa. My one true heart’s desire is for both of my sons to love the Lord and serve Him. Period. If one of them became a CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation and turned his back on God and the other became a janitor and loved the Lord and His Word, was active in his local church, and led his family to worship Christ, I would grieve over the CEO. Money and status in this world are nothing. They are dust.

 So, back to the original question, would I change anything about how we homeschooled? Would I incorporate a more rigid schedule? Would I buckle down with more intensive curricula? As far as the schooling itself is concerned, truthfully, honestly, after much soul searching, I can’t think of what I would change in our method.  I don’t wish I had used a different math book or even wish we had stuck with the same math curriculum for several years. (We switched around using a curriculum for a few months then moving on to another. It made no difference. As I said before, one son is a studying to be a mechanical engineer, the other a mechanic and neither one is hindered by this switching that I’m aware of.) I don’t wish we had done grammar workbooks for years (what good would this do?) I don’t wish we had used more history or science textbooks. My sons have read hundreds of books on many subjects, far surpassing what is contained in a few textbooks. If I could go back and change anything concerning our homeschooling, here is what I would change. I would take away those times I was impatient and lost my temper. I would erase all the times I worried if I was doing it right. I would spend more time in prayer for my boys and with my boys. I would sing more songs with them.  I would sit on the couch and read more to my boys (and I would not fall asleep when they read to me!) And, I would tell them more often how much I love them.