“Your son was so cute tonight. Is he betrothed?”
The question was asked by one homeschool mom to another, the former with obvious intentions of hooking her junior-high-aged daughter up with a quality junior-high-aged boy. The match fell through when the girl’s family offered a paltry dowry – only a half-dozen sheep! (That last part is false, but only barely.)
My homeschool experience wasn’t always that strange. I did my best to avoid the Civil War dances and I never competed in spelling bees. Despite the occasional oddity, I thoroughly enjoyed life as a homeschooler.
I always had good friends in homeschool groups. My high school years were done through an independent study program with 20 other homeschool students, and we were able to read classic books, debate ridiculous ideas and practice lab sciences together. I never felt like I missed out on the ‘high school experience’: I didn’t care for dances or relationship drama, and I got to play sports and music and be intellectually challenged without any public structure.
My one regret is that I had, and still have, only Christian friends. The sheltered upbringing mostly meant a church-based social life, and I never engaged non-Christians. (I learned the F-word at church in fifth grade, for example.) Homeschooling did not prepare me to share the gospel with unbelievers, and that is a real shame. But when all has been said, I can hold high my Saxon textbooks and proudly say: I am a homeschooler!
6:04 PM
Yay homeschooling!
As a homeschooler my social life was church based too but as a missionary I had access to heathen friends… So yeah it depends on individual experience.
I totally agree with you that I don’t regret missing out on highschool. I feel it does more damage than good actually…