The Secluded Home School

I was reading an article titled “Homeschooling High School… at Home” early this morning in Home School Enrichment. The author, Kim Lundberg, stated that home school families “should laugh at those who wave the ‘inadequate socialization’ flag in our faces”. I don’t necessarily disagree with that statement but she went on to say, ”Every day we watch our children have interesting, real-world interactions with a variety of people. Whether an orchestra rehearsal or an art group, a baseball game or a drama club, it seems there is always something enriching that irresistibly beckons us to fill in all those little squares in our monthly planners.” I simply cannot relate to that last statement because I do not have my planning calendar full of activities such as she described.

The author obviously comes from a locale that has an active home school support group of some type and a wide variety of enrichment activities to choose from. I don’t live in an area that offers the enrichment activities she describes. At the same time I have come to the conclusion that a lack of the aforementioned enrichment activities does not mean my children are being deprived of something necessary to their education and, for that matter, their socialization.

For a time I did feel like we were missing out on something vital to our home school experience. I felt envious toward those who have a wide variety of options open to them simply because they live in a more populous area of the United States. Yet, as a Christian I believe God places his children right where he wants them and for us that means he wants us here in Montana. If there is anything we truly need, God will provide that for us right where we are at.

At one time I did belong to a large home school association that provided activities throughout the month such as Ms. Lundberg described. In those days we lived in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Now we live in Montana which has a total population spread out all over this big beautiful state that is equivalent to the entire population of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. 

The home school association I left behind in Texas offered field trips, history and science fairs, camaraderie with other home school families. I have thought wistfully at times how nice it would be to live near an area with a wide variety of cultural events which are only a short drive away from home or how nice it would be to fellowship with like- minded home schooling families with like-minded children, to relate to them on a personal level having our minds sharpened by each other with the word of truth.

What we have instead is a handful, three families to be exact, of home school families in our northern location. My children are the oldest in the bunch, high school age. The others are elementary school age. We have discussed possibly doing something like a history or science fair at the end of the school year. Of course it wouldn’t be too involved with prizes and such like the one in Texas.

We may not have enrichment activities on our school planner but we certainly do have a full calendar. Much of our calendar is taken up with church work and regular work in addition to our school work. My children help out on Wednesday night with the young kids at AWANA. My sixteen year old twin sons work with the younger children, Sparks. They listen to them recite memory verses and discuss the meaning of those verse to the kids to make sure they understand what they are memorizing. Our boys are also responsible for setting up the microphones and sound board for Sunday morning service. Our daughter makes sure that there is no trash left in the auditorium after the service.

Our sons have owned and operated their own yard care service for the last three years. This has given them not only experience in managing their time and finances but they have learned how to deal with their customers. If socialization is an issue, there is no better way to learn how communicate effectively than trying to keep a customer happy and coming back. Some customers are so happy with their service that they also get called upon in the winter for snow removal as well.

This year our sons are trying out a new job experience over the winter months. They were hired part-time at our local radio station to run the sound boards and broadcast the local high school games. This job is giving them a whole new set of skills and experiences. It seems that every time they go to work a new technical problem arises that they have to try to figure out in order to get the game broadcast over the air waves. It can be stressful at times but I think they feel a sense of accomplishment when they get things figured out. As parents, my husband and I think it is neat to hear our sons broadcast the call letters of the station from time to time or announce the scoreboard at the end of the night.

As for our daughter, she has always loved animals and so it seems natural that she has a pet care business. She has satisfied customers who can count on her to be there for their pets, anything ranging from dogs to horses, when they go out of town. We have a wide variety of pets and she feeds and cares for all of them.  We pay her to groom our dog for us instead of taking him to the groomers. We would rather pay her twenty-five dollars which goes into her savings account than have to pay an outside groomer. She bought her own grooming table and has become quite proficient at it.

Instead of field trips we go on camping and hiking trips with our children. This too has proved to be a plus. Last year our sons took their biology books with them on one camping trip. One of our sons found gall on several plants up in the mountains. We didn’t know what gall was until that trip. There is always something new to see and explore. Our sons enjoy these trips so much that they dream of one day having jobs that will allow them to work outdoors. They are exploring possible careers in the field of science.

Our daughter shares their love of nature. She is a good artist and photographer. She always comes home from camping and hiking trips with loads of pictures. She recently got a digital SLR camera for Christmas so that she can get some of the close-up shots that she couldn’t quite get with her old camera.

One last thing that the lack of the typical enrichment activities has afforded us is more family time. We have grown into a close-knit family. I’m not sure that we would have derived the amount of a familial bond that we have if we had not moved to Montana. It would be so easy to get involved with so many good enrichment activities that we would have missed the most important thing of all.  We’ve learned that the family unit is very important to God and that godly families play an important role in God’s kingdom. All the enrichment activities in the world will not replace the importance of living a life dedicated to God’s purpose. Our secluded little home school is thriving here in northern Montana.