Homeschool Mondays – Reassurance

 **There are days we just need to be reminded that we aren’t ruining their lives.**

There was a time when I was a new homeschooler who wondered if my children would ever be able to get into college. Would the universities want someone who hadn’t graduated from a traditional school? Would they accept a diploma hand-water colored by mom? Was I harming my children’s academic futures with the educational choices I was making today?

Eleven years later, my eldest is a junior in high school and I know better. Not only can she get into college, but the universities will chase her. Just today we received 15 letters from institutions of higher learning who are all eager to talk to her. Even her protestations of “Thank you, but I have no interest in moving to Michigan, New Hampshire, Colorado, etc.” will not stop their pursuits. The recruiters think she is playing hard to get and double down on their efforts.

The colleges have learned the value of a home-grown education.  They recognize that students who learn at their kitchen tables have higher graduation rates, need fewer remedial classes, and are generally better prepared for the university style of learning.  Our children should be, the university model is what most homeschoolers instinctively do at home.

There are many fears we tackle when we undertake the challenge of teaching our own children. We fear that somehow we will not equip them for life in the same ways and institutional school would. We fear gaps and holes in their knowledge base.  We worry about the kind of people they will become.

This afternoon (most afternoons) in the mailbox was a bit of reassurance.  The universities have taken a long hard look at the results of a homeschooled education and have resoundingly agreed that it is a very good thing indeed.