Posts Tagged ‘homeschooling’

My Story: My Education

July 15th, 2010

I want this to be a place where people can really get to know me and I them. I don’t want to be an impersonal blogger who’s writing is disconnected from her real life and story. So, I’ve started this little series called my story to help you get to know me better. Today’s segment I want to tell you about my education, but I don’t want this to end up sounding like a resume. I’ll try – we’ll see how it goes.

My memories of elementary school include things like a field trip to make bagels at a bakery, and going to see Plymouth Rock and walking on a recreation of the May Flower, following deer tracks through the forest, copying scripture, painting a world globe on a pumpkin, doing math problems with my dad in the kitchen, and reading tons of books, but especially Lewis, Tolkien and George MacDonald. Yes, you guessed it. I was homeschooled. And I loved it. Well, that is I loved it until I hated it…and then loved it again.

I loved homeschooling when we were doing it, but when I started going to school again in six grade I found the transition incredibly difficult. It was a private Christian school and they were pretty adapt at working with homeschooling families. But, it was still hard for me. I’m naturally very introverted anyway and the transition from learning in a free atmosphere with close family and occasionally close friends who also homeschooled to being in a big school setting with lots of people I didn’t know – well, it was a bit of a shock to my system. I withdrew a lot and sort of hid into myself for most of that first year. Eventually a few other girls really drew me out and befriended me and before I knew it I was doing great and loving school once again. But, throughout most of junior high and early high school there was a part of me that resented my parents for homeschooling.

I felt like they had put me at a disadvantage socially and like it was their fault that I had such a difficult time transitioning into a social school setting. I resented the fact that it was easier for me to socialize with people twice my age then it was to socialize with my peers. I think there have even been times in my life when I have used the fact that I was homeschooled as an excuse for my own fears and insecurities when it came to meeting new people. Thankfully, I eventually realized that my difficulties meeting new people weren’t my parents fault or the fault of homeschooling. My parents had given my siblings and I lots of opportunities to socialize and in homeschooling us they had give us other gifts that were invaluable for our development and overall success in life.

Now that I’m older (and hopefully more mature) I love the fact that I was homeschooled. I love that the schooling I received was truly unique for my needs. I love the fact that the schooling I received instilled in me so many of my current values. I love that it enabled me to see so much and experience so much from a very young age. In fact, when the time comes to put my son in school I will seriously consider homeschooling him because overall I have such positive feelings toward my own experience. I am so grateful now that my parents homeschooled me and I know now as a parent myself the sacrifice that it involved for them.

I’m also thankful that they put me into a Christian school for junior high and High School. Once I settled in I had an amazing experience there. Especially by the time High School came around, I felt like I fit in there. I had close friends, and knew everyone in my class. I was involved in nearly everything. I felt like I had a place and a purpose there and I loved that feeling. I had a very positive high school experience and I’m so grateful for the education I had.

But, I did go to a private Christian school, and as anyone who has been through that can tell you, there are definitely some negatives associated with Christian schooling. I lived in a bubble for high school – it was a bubble I loved, but it was a bubble that would inevitably be broken and I for one did not take the braking very well.

When I graduated high school my parents had only one requirement: I had to go out of state for college and I had to live on-campus. Going away and living on campus was something they never really experienced and I think they thought it would be really important for my siblings and I. In some ways they were right, going away was incredible significant for me, but it was also one of the most difficult things I’ve ever been through.

I went to a university where I didn’t know anyone and suddenly I felt like I was in six grade all over again. That first year in college really shook me. It shook my faith, my health, and pretty much everything I believed about the world and my place in this world. Now I am so grateful that I went through it, but at the time it felt like a long nightmare.

After the first year I moved home and changed schools. After that I went to three different universities and took classes at three different community colleges. I changed majors three times – from Theatre to Education to my final major of History. I think in some ways during that time I was searching for some place to belong, some place where I fit, a community I could call home. I never really found it in school again, like I had in high school.

In the end I finished my bachelors degree in four years with an above average GPA and I was so glad to be done with it. I felt completely relieved to be finished with school, which I had started to hate by the end (28 credits a semester might have contributed to that).

Sometimes I wonder what it was all for. All the stress, all the rush to finish, all the money spent. For what? So, that I could get married, run off to Europe, have a child and do work that in no way utilizes or requires the degree that I received. Other days I’m grateful for the experiences that pressing through allowed me to have. I’m proud of the fact that I’m the only one in my immediate family with a college degree. And I’m thankful for the experience getting a degree gave me. My dad used to tell me that getting a degree wasn’t so much about the information you learned or what degree you got as it was about the process and how that process shaped you. Now I know he was right.

So, what is your education story? If you were homeschooled how do you feel about that now? If you have a college degree do you use it? Are you glad that you have it even if you don’t use it?

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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Saturday Links: All sorts of Goodness

July 26th, 2008

I guess I’ll just jump right in…

My friend Tara, wrote a prayer on her blog this week. She drew from the Psalms of Ascent and the result was a beautiful psalm of her own. I encourage you to check it out as well as her other blog entries.

Chad at Blooming in Bullock wrote a blog titled A New Thing this week.  It is basically about different reactions people have to God doing “a new thing.” He writes about Isaiah 43:18-19 and I found it to be a really interesting and challenging post.

Kathy Escobar wrote on her blog this week about being safe people and safe communities. I thought she had some really good points and it was challenging to think to myself, “am I a safe place for those around me?”

Julie Clawson wrote on her blog, Onehandclapping, about Questioning God. I loved her thoughts on this. I have for a long time been a firm believer that questioning God and wresting WITH him can be a very powerful and necessary experience in the life of the believer. I also love Julie’s honesty in sharing her own life.

I recently started reading a blog called The Margins and I have really enjoyed the thoughts that I’ve found there. This week there was a post called Narrow is the road. It was a story taken from a driving experience and I found it to be a really interesting analogy. I encourage you to read it.

The Homeschool Diva is a blog that I am quickly coming to love. This week she wrote two posts about Giving children perspective on Jesus. You can find part one HERE and part two HERE. I found these very interesting and I really respect how thoughtful and intentional she and her husband are in the spiritual formation of their children. I want to be that kind of parent some day (when I have children).

I found a new blog this past week and so far I’m really enjoying the thoughts shared there. The blog is called Stepping Out of the Grey. I especially liked this post entitled Change of Plans. The thought that really stood out to me in it was “How many times do we drive or walk past someone who is experiencing the hardest or worst day or their life?”

 

Alright, I think that is it for this now. Hope you enjoy!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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My new crazy idea…

December 10th, 2007

Last night I couldn’t sleep. As I lay in bed a lot of thoughts bounced around in my head…one of those things was the future…what would my life look like 3 years from now 5 years from now 20 years from now etc. Then I started thinking about someday when we have kids and where I would want to raise my kids (Prague, the states, etc). I also started thinking about how I’d want to raise my kids and I got an idea… It’s sort of a crazy idea for a curriculum for my kids, but I sort of liked it…

Basically the idea is to home school the kids and travel once around the world every year from the time my kids are between 5 and 7 until they reach junior high/high school age. We’d start the year off somewhere in South America (most likely Costa Rica since we know people there). We would spend 3 months there. On top of normal curriculum classes (reading, writing, arithmetic, and all that) the kids would focus on learning Spanish while in South America and would also focus on learning a little more about South American history and culture. We would also devote a good portion of the time there to studying science and taking them to see rain forests and things like that first hand. We would also spend time serving the communities of South America – for example building houses in Mexico, etc.
The next three months would be spent in Asia (probably mostly in the Philippines since we know people there but maybe somewhere else). On top of normal curriculum pursuits the kids would focus on learning the Chinese language. They would also spend time learning about Asian history and culture and philosophy. We would take trips to see the Great Wall of China, to serve at an orphanage in India, to see the Samurai fighting fields of Japan, etc.
After that we would spend 3 months in Europe (most likely Prague). The kids would, on top of the normal curriculum, learn one European language (besides English) for example French or German. We would also spend a great deal of time during these 3 months teaching them about European history and culture and traveling around to give them firsthand experience of the places they were learning about. We would take trips to see Athens and Rome other famous European sites, as well as trips to Africa, Egypt and the Middle East (depending on the political climate and safety).
We would then spend the last 3 months in America and the kids would focus more intently on mastering the English language and learning about American history, culture and politics. This time would also include firsthand experiences – going to Washington DC, or to Plymouth Rock, etc.
We would continue to circle the globe like this each year until they reach high school (at that point we would sit down and decide whether to continue doing school this way or to give them the normal US high school experience). Each time we circled the globe the curriculum would get more in-depth and they would learn more in-depth information about the continents/countries they were visiting. It would be a fairly intensive year round schooling but we would keep things at a calm (though steady) pace so as not to get boring or overwhelming. Really it would be school all year, but it would also be like vacation all year too, since we would be going to see some really exciting, unique and interesting places. The kids would also be required throughout the year (where ever we are) to learn at least one musical instrument. They would also be required throughout the year to participate in serving in some capacity the communities that we visit/live in.
It’s sort of a crazy idea but I liked the thought that by the time my kids reached high school age they would have a basic understanding of 3 or more languages on top of English all of which they would have learned from native speakers in the native country (or at least close by it). They would also have a broad view of the world and a wide understanding of various world cultures. They would have friends from practically every ethnicity and nationality and would have experienced firsthand the fact that not every where in the world is like America. They would have seen poverty first hand and been a part of serving those in need in places less fortunate. They would also be experienced travelers, comfortable on planes, in airports, and dealing with the hassles traveling can present. Over all they would have a balanced and well rounded education that gave them a solid foundation for the rest of their lives.

Anyway, that’s my crazy new scheme… Anyone want to join me?? If we could get a few families to do it together we could pool our abilities and skills and hence be able to teach our kids even more – not to mention it would just be fun to travel around the world with a few close friends J

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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