Category: Learning Lifestyle

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Why Silence Me?

I was banned from Delaware’s largest homeschool group on Facebook. I wasn’t given an explanation. I haven’t posted there in many months, although the last I checked, I had more than 700 posts and comments over nearly a decade as a member and two years as an administrator.

Recently, I have only added encouraging or resource-sharing comments.

As an invested member of the Delaware homeschool network, I have directed my online efforts toward bolstering and growing my home education community.

In 2020 there was a shift in leadership and direction. I felt the strain as the mission of the group became less clear to me. Even so, I felt it important to direct new homeschoolers to this useful place: Delaware’s Best Source of Homeschool Information.

A year later, they chose to enforce gubernatorial dictates meant for K-12 facilities for ALL events posted on their page. I posted openly against this new policy, citing that home educators in Delaware do not have to follow the same rules as K-12 facilities. Many of us are doing this because we see K-12 policies as contrary to the wellbeing of our children.

They deleted my post.

A month later they changed the policy, yet my post remained deleted: Support for All New Homeschoolers.

I knew many people who left the group after that. I decided to stay because I felt I had a lot to share with the community. I believe my track record of “Liked” comments there lends some credence to that statement.

I don’t quite know how to feel about the ban. I knew I wasn’t welcome by some, but that was personal drama that I didn’t let get in the way of helping families who needed it.

But I’ve got a visceral reaction to being silenced without explanation. I know others will go quietly and that is unjust. I’m going to pray, then sleep on the dilemma.

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An Unschool Moment

My younger son found this amusing book while helping me clean.

Although there is plenty of strong language, there are many new words to challenge my sons and references to important historical figures.

Having books available for discovery might be my best unschooling trick.


Disclosure: The link below is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

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The Guys

We’re an unusual bunch. Home-educating dads aren’t often seen in the wild. They tend to work long hours and jealously guard their time with their families.

Our weekly meetup group has attracted a larger contingent of dads as educational facilitators than I have seen elsewhere. We may be growing as a demographic, or the fact that a dad cofounded this particular group may be a significant factor.

There are more than four of us, but a friend caught this moment today and it is a telling sample. Each of us come from a different perspective and background. We live in different ways, but share a passion for preparing our sons (seven boys among us) to be men.

I’m blessed to have these men in my life.

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Saturday Night Study

My sons are performing in an adaptation of Don Quixote this fall. The director was lucky enough to find a local performance of Man of La Mancha, the musical version of the Spanish novel.

I love these opportunities to dive into our interests. And the production was impressive. A small and highly talented troupe brought the tragic hero’s tale of the Knight of the Qoeful Countenance to life.

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What Would I Change?

If you could do one homeschooling year over again, which one would it be and why?

This question was asked in a lifeschooling group I belong to and, before I could jump in to the conversation, this comment summed up my thoughts better than I could have:

“Only one? While I say that with a little bit of sarcasm/silliness and I do have a full understanding that Christ has redeemed my past and is in control of my future, I truly do have moments where I grieve over how I handled homeschooling for many of the early years. If I could go back to the first years when I believed everything traditional homeschoolers told me, I would burn all the workbooks, close my mouth and hug my kids when they struggled instead of telling them they just needed to try harder, I would let them enjoy every single thing without having to turn it into a written lesson, and I would spend more time praying for their hearts and minds than trying to come up with new plans every time something didn’t seem to be working.

I have over 23,000 pictures saved in an online account from 2011 until now. If you were to look through them, you would see what looks like an incredibly happy family having adventures and really getting out there to experience life. Would you would not see is a mom who was so filled with anxiety that she almost didn’t enjoy any of it. If I could go back, I would give my kids a mom who cared less about planning and keeping track and more about being with them in those moments and resting in the Lord.”

I would hardly change a syllable. I first approached homeschooling with a conservative ideology and I needed to unlearn many of my assumptions through exploring deschooling and unschooling.

Home education showed me a path that only required love to travel. That loving journey led me to find Christ in my heart and release myself from political ideology. The freedom I crave for my children is the freedom have found in God’s love.

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Minibuilds Are Back!

This is the second month that Lego Stores have been hosting free minibuild events since the Lockdowns.

I’m unclear about official sources for the Lego Store calendar, but Toys N Bricks has been a reliable source of information on sales and events.

I love the colors of this space shuttle and I’m amazed how this shape still fascinates people years after the shuttles were retired from use (I’m ready for a Concorde).

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It Has Been A Privilege

This is an expansion on the thoughts in another post, The Dreaded “Privilege.”

Homeschooling is a privilege. Public school is a privilege. Private school is a privilege. That we live in a place where these options are available is a rare privilege in history.

I was supposed to be homeschooled. Life circumstances and the homeschooling laws in 1980s Pennsylvania kept it from happening.

I didn’t learn this until I was 35 and told my parents I was choosing home education for my son.

Although my parents chose public education, they didn’t pretend it was something it wasn’t. It was in opposition to our religious choices. It was in opposition to our holistic lifestyle. It was in opposition to many of the ways we lived.

My privilege was seated in honest observation of the circumstances of our decisions.

To point at someone else’s choice and call it “privilege” is to not understand the complexity of their circumstances. It is a judgment on another’s life employing an infinitesimal amount of information.

It is not helpful to pretend homeschool is 100% wonderful and it is not helpful to pretend public school is 100% wonderful. We must be honest about both if we are to live in truth and make the best decisions. Truth is uncomfortable.

I have close friends with families who have children in both arrangements, my girlfriend’s daughter is in public school, and most people I know have their children in public school. I am compassionate towards all choices, I am not shy about mine, and I believe strongly in selling home education as a lifestyle.

These things can exist together in a loving way. I’m not talking about “tough love” or “telling it like it is” without empathy. I’m encouraging everyone to celebrate the privileges of their individual situations in order to inspire and educate.