Today the chimney sweep came to clean the sooty buildup inside our chimney and flue. He also needed to inspect a crack in our firebox to see if he could re-seal it or if it needed replacement altogether; it needed replacement, of course.
I asked a lot of questions, and Mr. Chimney Sweep was patient, informative and seemingly more than happy to answer. It was just one more arena where I saw how everyday life is a learning experience. How else would I have learned there is such a thing as chimney deodorants, and that some people use baking soda or even kitty litter to offset bad odors that creosote deposits can give-off in a chimney?
My conversation with Mr. Chimney Sweep took a turn as Kenny entered the living room asking to play Minecraft. The man asked if our kids were heading back to public school, and I pointed to the schoolroom and said, “Nope, we homeschool.” This insight turned the tide of our conversation as he talked to me about how he and his wife homeschooled their daughter through her Junior year of high school, when she began courses with an online university. He talked about the blessing of homeschooling and how frugal it required them to be during those years.
It is an exciting time for homeschooling. More and more families are considering it a viable option and not just that crazy thing the family down the street, at their church, or on their sports team is doing. What is even more exciting is the increased enthusiasm of those who are homeschooling. It’s almost as though the homeschooling community has stepped into the light now that the first- and second-generation homeschooled students have navigated college and career paths as successfully as their public and private schooled peers.
Homeschooling’s upward trend is most recently evident in North Carolina; their homeschool student numbers surpassed those in private schools. In addition, their homeschools increased 14.3 percent from last year and 27 percent from two years ago.
Still considered a “break” from the norm, The National Center for Education Statistics reports “approximately 3 percent of the school-age population was homeschooled in the 2011-2012 school year.” Of course, that IS an approximation since not all states require families to report how many students they homeschool, or even that they homeschool at all; our state, Texas, is one that does not require such reports.
It is true, there are family logistics that make it nearly impossible to homeschool, but contrary to popular belief, homeschooling is not just for the wealthy. One father writes about how his family homeschools on a modest adjunct professor’s annual salary of $30,000. They make sacrifices to be certain, but choose the trade-off of struggling on a “shoe-string budget” so they can live by their core values to “foster familial bonds” and “honor their children’s dignity.”
In my conversation with Mr. Chimney Sweep, he was quick to point out that they began homeschooling when their business was in its baby stage, so finances were tight. We know homeschooling families all over the financial spectrum; so, we are readily aware it is an alternative option for more families than may realize it.
While not every family homeschools the same, and homeschooling is not a good fit for all, I agree with Gracy Olmstead’s conclusion that “the next generation faces a daunting educational and career hurdle…Parents and children may need to bend, or even break, the customary ideals and stereotypes associated with a ‘good’ education in order to succeed.”
Are finances an issue with your choice to homeschool or not? Does homeschooling fit into your family’s finances easily or is it a struggle at times? We have been on both sides of the spectrum while homeschooling and I’m curious how others manage it.
Heather Sanders is a leading homeschooling journalist who inspires homeschooling families to live, love and learn. Married to Jeff, Heather lives in the East Texas Piney Woods where she currently home schools two of her three kids.