My experience as a homeschooler

I love the first day of school. Summer break was the perfect amount of time to make me long for the tedium of learning again. Mom would purchase new binders; I would begin to dream about that perfect first-day-of-school outfit; friends would discuss frightening future assignments and school supplies would be gathered. I would wake up that morning and have everything ready for me — only to arrive sleepily at the kitchen table in my pajamas, with my six siblings and our not-so-beloved Saxon Math books.

My high-school experience as a homeschooler included a hodge-podge of extracurricular activities… orchestra, soccer, debate, church responsibilities and a bunch of random classes in things like graphic design and Polynesian dance. My mom, an excellent X-ray technician in the early years of motherhood, taught us math and science. My best friend’s mom taught us American history. My dad showed me how to build a computer and how to be normal.

In the early years, my siblings and I hopped from co-op to co-op, leaving when things got too big or political, slowly learning how to get school vouchers without having to partake in too much drama. Our longest stint included meeting in a barn once a week with fellow homeschoolers from around Utah County. Never fear: there were no farm animals present. It was there I memorized the Declaration of Independence, met some of my dearest friends and learned who Ansel Adams was.

The homeschool community is vibrant in Utah, but come 2013, my family moved to Texas. For some reason, we arrived at our new home before our furniture did. We suffered two weeks with no television, no cell phones — not even books. We were bored to tears. Weirdly enough, all we possessed was a large red stuffed Angry Bird. We chucked that up and down from the stair balcony for hours… days. That stuffed animal still haunts us.

After being ripped out of our beloved co-ops, my siblings and I spent a lot of time on the trampoline. We passed the days with copperhead snake spotting, badminton competitions and plant-based diets. When our belongings arrived, the boredom eventually drove us (most of us) to our books and studies. It’s a lot easier to love learning when you’ve got nothing else to do.

I look back on my haphazard education with great fondness. I didn’t go to prom — and I didn’t study ferociously to take the ACT. But I road-tripped across America with my family, castrated and branded cattle in the hills of Cache Valley and learned how to shoot a handgun with my mom in Nevada. My bookshelf is full of well-thumbed treasures. I know so many songs for so many things — the states, presidents, prophets, the USSR, bones, muscles, the Gettysburg Address, you name it.

When I look back, I wonder if there were days when not one of us knew what we were doing. But my family was given the liberty to slowly figure things out the way we wanted to — and that’s the beauty of it.

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s September 2024 World edition.