On a 12 day trip with my parents visiting relatives from Texas to Tennessee, my dad said that he felt that my grandkids (his great grandkids) have a better chance of turning out okay since they're being homeschooled. I was floored when he said that. He has never verbally supported homeschooling in all the years I was homeschooling my children. But over the years, he's personally seen the value in homeschooling. We never really talked about homeschooling while my kids were young. He knew I was doing it, but we never really had a conversation about it.
Back in September, 2009, I asked in a blog post if your family was supportive of your homeschooling. Let this be an encouragement if you don't have support now, that it may come in the future as the onlookers see your children doing well academically and growing into confident, responsible adults.
Do you have the support of your friends and family? Share your story.
Comments
This is so encouraging, as I am personally confidant that homeschooling is absolutely best for my family, but have no support from family or friends.
My support came when family and others saw the huge change in my son’s demeanor and ability to communicate.
People need to “see” the results to believe that homeschooling works.
Fortunately, my family was supported from the very beginning. I was deeply appreciative of their support because when I second guessed myself, they would encourage me to keep the good work up and that my child needed me to homeschool her.
In the beginning of our homeschooling adventure, we had limited support but as time went on we now have the full support of both our families. It does make a difference. It makes all your worries and fears about whether you have made the right decision melt away. This was especially true when recently I was also given full approval from my son’s neruopsychologist. He said that without my help my son would not be doing as wonderfully as he is. He gave me a lot of credit. I needed that!
Most of our friends homeschool. But my wife and I both have parents who view it as quite strange and would prefer their grandchildren be educated by the state as we were. We try to educate them about the advantages of a Christian home based education, pretty much to no avail. It is odd, since our children perform wonderfully, are engaged in the community, and relate well to all sorts of people while their other grandchildren have struggled with many behaviors. We hope they’ll come around.
Family and friends were horrified when we first took our children out of Public School. Now those same friends come to me and ask how to do it for their grandchildren. All of our children are successful and very happy in their lives. Home School gave them the moral, ethical, and educational standing that they needed to be awesome!