The Highs and Lows of Homeschooling

Lani Carey :

There are so many crazy stories that I could tell! One of my favorite funny stories happened when I was teaching a 2nd grade history class at our local homeschool co-op.

I had prepared a lesson involving some geography, so I brought our globe from home. Of course, I didn’t think anything of it. As the kids in the class began to spin the globe around, they said, “There’s something inside, Ms. Lani. Come listen!” So I did and sure enough, I could hear something inside. But how could anything get inside the globe? Hmmmm…. upon closer inspection I discovered that there was a place at the equator that could be pried open, just a little. Out of curiosity, I shook the contents out onto the table. The room erupted with shrieks at first… and then giggles and exclamations as about 12 Barbie doll heads fell onto the table!

Wouldn’t you know it though – I had just recently thrown all those headless Barbies away. As it turned out, about 6 months earlier, some of my children’s friends had come over to play. The girls were inside my daughter’s room with both windows open. My sons and their friends kept running by the windows and aggravating the girls. In retaliation, my daughter and her friends would hang out the windows and hit the boys on the head with… you guessed it, barbie dolls (with the heads being the end of the Barbie clubs). So, as soon as they got a chance, the boys decapitated all the dolls and found a place where they would NEVER be found. That is, until that fateful day in history class!

Juliana Kyzar:

I have a funny story to share as well!

When my kids were young, I took them to a small, local museum (one of my favorite perks of homeschooling). As we traveled through the building and stopped to observe each display, we came upon one booth with a house record book from a mid-1800s working farm. My then second grader peered at the book in wonderment for a solid two minutes before saying, “What language is this? Japanese?”

And that is when I realized that cursive was going to be part of my homeschool curriculum.

Donna McMorris:

It’s amazing what can inspire children to learn. My youngest son, Zeke, was having a tough time getting motivated to read. We began a unit study on frogs and we had a lot of fun. We even incorporated some nontraditional resources such as a video of the Swedish chef from the Muppets cooking frog legs. This was the beginning of Zeke realizing that reading was a way of gaining more information about his interests. Thanks to frogs, his love for non-fiction is still there today.

Trudy Abel:

I have a funny story.

I was homeschooling my two sons (2nd and 3rd grade), along with my 2nd grade niece. In our study of animals and animal habitats, we decided to hike through the woods to find animal signs (ie. hair on the barbed wire fence, scrapings from deer antlers on trees, bones, and animal poop). While adventuring in the woods, we came upon a pile of small balls of poop. My oldest son, Josh, insisted it was only rocks. The rest of us knew better, but to prove he was right (as he always was!) he bit into them and discovered the flavor of rabbit poop! We all enjoyed a hearty laugh every time we thought about it, except for Josh.

Phyllis Lerro:

I had three hands-on learners in multiple grades and we used a lot of unit studies and interest-led learning… so much so, that my kids were sometimes oblivious to the fact that they were doing school in the midst of all the fun experiences.

One time we were at Walmart after a morning of making pioneer brooms out of tree limbs and pine needles (as well as other activities that went along with our unit study about the Prairie Days). As we ventured up to the front of the checkout line, the following conversation took place:

Walmart cashier: Hi! Why aren’t you kids in school?

My children: We homeschool!

Walmart cashier: Oh neat! Did you do school today?

My children (gleefully): Nope!

Me (frantic): YES WE DID!!!

I have to admit, they always kept me on my toes because I never knew what they would say!

Nikki Roach:

Homeschool stories? I have one.

When we started homeschooling my boys were in 3rd and 4th grade. One day, we were playing an educational game with question cards for various subjects including math/science/social studies and so on. I had told the boys to ask me the hardest questions that they could find in the deck. Of course, I missed a couple here and there.

I began to notice that every time it was my youngest son’s turn to ask me a question, it would be super crazy easy to answer. I got suspicious and asked to see the card that he was holding. It was the easiest level. I asked him why he was not asking me the hardest questions. His eyes filled with tears and he began to cry.

He explained that he felt bad because I missed some of the answers. So he switched to asking me easier questions. He was crying, because I was his teacher and didn’t know all the answers!

As I wiped his tears, my sons and I had a lovely conversation about the fact that no one knows EVERYTHING and that is ok! Even teachers have a lot to learn.

Mona Housman:

I think I will title my story “Parent Fail 101.”

While hosting weekly PE and play groups for homeschool families, we would take breaks from organized activities so that the moms could chat and the kids could explore the small private wooded area beyond the playground behind our house.

One day, after what seemed to be about 10-15 minutes, we heard a loud “bang.” Soon after, the kids casually made their way back to the picnic area. Behind them was a neighborhood deputy waiting to give a fairly intense impromptu lesson on Civic Duty and Hunter Education, otherwise entitled, “What NOT to do when you find a shotgun shell.” Long story short, we were all grateful for no injuries and a very understanding officer!

MEET OUR EDITOR

BRYANNA RUESCHE

Bryanna Ruesche is the communications manager for HomeLife Academy and a CAREgiver with the Homeschool C.A.R.E. Foundation. She holds her Masters in Social Work, helping families connect and thrive.