First Week of University to my Master’s in Education: Ellen Martin’s Story

In May of 2014, I graduated with my Bachelor of Honour’s Degree, with a major in Sociology. As I prepared to walk across the stage to receive my degree, I reflected on my experiences that had brought me here to this moment — from kindergarten through my final project in my fourth year of my undergraduate program. This was an

I’m One Of the Lucky Ones: Muriel Sylvanus’ Story

Muriel blogs at StoryCache. As I’m sitting here contemplating my homeschool-to-college story and how to write about it, I think of all the other stories my homeschool brothers and sisters will have to tell alongside mine, and I think… “I’m one of the lucky ones.” For all the positive stories of a seamless transition, I expect there to be war

Intellectual Traditions: Molly Dodd’s Story

Molly Dodd blogs at Sticky Green Leaves. After some eleven years of homeschooling, overlapping with three years of local community college Gen Eds and art classes, my parents drove me and a few suitcases up to a medium sized public university, where they had met, married, been enchanted by ideas, and baptized as Christians. In the car, I read them

Dear Moderate Homeschoolers, This One’s For You: Arielle’s Story

“Work to destroy that dark narrative, not by dismissing its existence, but by opposing the ideas and structures that allow it to persist.”

Homeschooling, A Means to an End: R’s Story

“Homeschooling is just a tool, a method of instruction, a means to an end. All the positive homeschooling stories combine with the negative stories to show that. Like any tool, homeschooling can be misused and abused. It is important to remember this as we chronicle the stories of our youth: that responsibility does not lie with the method of instruction but with the instructors themselves, whether they be our parents or those our parents look to for guidance.”

A Week of Joy: An Index

The following is an index of our Week of Joy series about homeschooling positives. Stories range from why the decision to homeschool was made (ranging from bullying in public schools to medical necessities to love of teaching) to what children appreciated most about their experiences.

I Am A Testament To Homeschooling’s Power: R.L. Stollar

“Do you want proof that homeschooling can be awesome? Then look at Homeschoolers Anonymous. Seriously. Along with Nicholas Ducote, I have organized an online community that — in less than five months — has received national media coverage, garnered almost half a million views, received both the praise and the wrath of educational activists, and engages in dynamic social media activism. I don’t attribute that to myself. I attribute that to homeschooling.”

Can’t You Say Anything Good About Homeschooling?: Libby Anne

“I’ve been fairly critical of homeschooling in a good number of blog posts over the past two years. One thing I’ve been asked a number of times is whether, looking back, there was anything about my homeschooling experience that was positive…So here it is, my attempt to write about the positives side of my homeschool experience. But I’m going to warn you up front that I don’t think this is going to go all that smoothly.”

Ninja Training: Chloe Anderson’s Story

“I would never give back that experience. The glue that held it all together and kept my parents from being dysfunctional task masters, or chronic busy bodies with a messiah complex was that they loved us kids and wanted the world for us. And they sought every day to live out a faith that convicted them to serve, love and empower. That is perhaps the greatest example that they left me. “

Learning Together: Emily

“I thrived in self-directed, participatory learning. I’m reading Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed this week and I missed out on what he terms the banking model of education, where the student is an empty account into which the expert teacher makes deposits (till high school and college, at least). In contrast, my mom always talked about how we all learned together.”