Homeschooled? Why yes, I was.

"Really? You were homeschooled?" 

My friend's pale eyes widened in her pretty face on Sunday night when I mentioned the fact casually in conversation. 

"How..." she faltered. "I mean, what was that like?"

I love this question, because I love dispelling the myths that all homeschoolers are awkward, or shy, or had prom in their living rooms. Some are, and some do, but in my experience, homeschoolers are some of the most fun, interesting, and mentally alive people I've known. 

One of the most interesting effects of homeschooling is that the homeschooler usually doesn't see a sharp divide between "learning time" and "play time".  The two were so intertwined and overlapped that life is learning. Mom and Dad did a great job of making school fun, and even our vacations had plenty of teachable moments.

I suddenly realized just how true this is in my life the weekend that hubby and I were visiting his family at the beach. I was playing with our nieces, and we came up with a writing game. We made a crazy list of fun topics--vacation, puppies, swimming, gymnastics, ballet--and then rolled dice to pick one. Then I set a timer for 5 minutes, gave each of us a piece of paper and pencil, and...GO!

The idea was to write as fast as you could about the topic without erasing or correcting, and see what you could come up with.

Yes, this was an exact replica of something my college prof made us do last semester.

And yes, my little nieces loved it.

The topic we picked was "swimming", and this was the result of my five minutes (unedited!):

The nearest to weightless I’ve ever been was when I was submerged in the light-flecked water of the pool at the Wycliffe Center. My goggles pressed in around my eye sockets painfully, but I didn’t care—it was a watery forest of interesting legs down there. There were fat legs, skinny legs, lumpy legs, plump baby legs kicking near the top, and the big, hairy legs of dads. Everything had a pale, greenish tint.

 I prided myself on being able to endure the pressure of the deep-end to get the diving rings. I would grab them and then come up through the pressure zones to the breathless sunlight, gasping and wiping away the hair plastered to my face. On the ride home, my nose would be stuffy with chlorine and my eyes raccoon-like from the goggles, but I was a happy girl. 










* Addendum: While I loved homeschooling, it is only one of many good educational options. It's not the perfect choice for every family. The into on this mommy's blog is an awesome perspective on the flexibility I believe parents have in this area. As she says, "this is descriptive for our lives, not prescriptive for anyone else".