Homeschooling Family Interview: Kim

Kim is a California girl and lives with her family on a 10 acre farm. They have a lovely cream-colored Himalayan cat...

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

I have been homeschooling my eleven-year-old daughter since birth. She is a single child.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

My daughter was an early reader (at age three.) We didn’t have to wait until formal schooling began to indulge her love of learning. Also, my husband’s work commute takes him away from home from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every weekday, and sometimes on Saturdays. If my daughter had to get up and go to school at 8:30 a.m. every morning, she would be in bed before her father got home, and would never see him in the morning, either! Homeschooling gives us the flexibility of nighttime hours together as a family, without hours of homework or early bedtimes to interfere. If we want to get up in the morning to keep him company, we can always go back to bed and catch another forty winks!

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Field trips spring to mind for the answer to this question. We’ve gone to the Grand Canyon, combined with a Phoenix resort in September, when everyone is back in school, and we practically had the whole place to ourselves! We take advantage of weekday “homeschool” days at amusement parks, movies on a Tuesday afternoon, non-existent ski lift lines on a Wednesday, and even trips to Costco on a Thursday late morning when their samples are hot and fresh, and no one else is in line to eat them!

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

When my daughter was three years old, and in the throes of fingerpainting joys, she decided one day that our Himalayan (cream-colored) cat wasn’t fancy enough. Thus, she proceeded to paint lovely, swirly patterns of blue and purple all over him - with which, of course, he eagerly complied because someone was paying attention to him! Fortunately, it was water-soluble, so we were able to bathe it off him without too much difficulty.