Homeschooling | Is educating at home worth the personal sacrifice?

This was one of my recent (personal) Facebook status updates:

“Educating my children from home seems to require some real stretching of myself. Though I didn’t choose this path for that purpose, I’m seeing it happen… it’s not easy being ‘responsibly’ accountable for educating kids at home. But its a good work-out.”

Another homeschooling mom shared that homeschooling her children was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do.

Expecting it to be hard when you’ve never done it isn’t the same as actually experiencing “the hard” of it, in my opinion. I guess that is true for most things, though.

What does a homeschooling mom sacrifice to homeschool her children and is it worth the sacrifice? I can only answer from my experience.

So what do I sacrifice?

My time.

One or both of my 5 and 7-year-old boys are usually up around 7 a.m. I am not an “early bird” because our lifestyle currently leaves me a bit of a night owl. My husband works long days on four of his work days, so it is just me and the boys for about 13 hours a day — that’s 13 of the WAKING hours, mind you. Plus, I work from home when I can squeeze in work between interruptions, meals, laundry and, well, you get it. I have to either stay up late or get up early before the boys to have uninterrupted time to myself.

Money.

Because I’m home with the boys I cannot work a regular job outside of the home. This means no regular paycheck. Although we pay taxes, which I assume help public schools in our area, we get no tax breaks or extra money to help offset costs of our homeschooling needs.

Due to the strain on the budget, I’ve learned to be very creative and choosy about what I buy. We don’t attend any co-op classes that charge tuition. Fortunately, we have an exercise/pool facility nearby that offers “homeschool” swim classes for only $23 per child (one day per week for  six weeks) and gives the kids  2.5 hours of extra free swim time.

Me.

There is less of me to go around these days since I’ve become a homeschooling mother. This is something I’m still coming to terms with in all areas of my life. Even I need to learn to set boundaries for myself which is … not easy.

Stay tuned for Part 2 soon.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://www.primeparentsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/primeparentpic.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]About the Author

“Homeschooling-mom” and “mom-blogger” are two roles Tracy Zdelar didn’t plan on owning. However, as they often do, things changed. She is the Prime Parents’ Club Homeschooling Contributor and also writes at her blog Hall of Fame Moms. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.[/author_info]

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Tags: homeschooling, sacrifice, stress, Tracy Zdelar

Category: Features, School/Homeschooling