Today we are SO very blessed to have a current homeschool STUDENT sharing her perspective on being homeschooled as our 10th post in this series!! Thank you so much, Reilly, for taking the time to share with us from your perspective!!
Hi my name is Reilly. I have just finished my second year of my home education. I am 15 years old and live in Connecticut. I want to start by saying that I have had wonderful experiences in public school. I had teachers in my elementary school years that allowed me to bloom. They let me follow my path and encouraged my talents. Once I got to middle school, I felt like I needed to fit into a box. I just couldn’t do it. I tried…really I tried. My grades were fantastic, and yet I felt stagnate. I wanted to soar, but just couldn’t do it in the environment that was provided. My parents and I discussed homeschooling. I was intrigued. My first assignment was to write down the pros and cons about going back to middle school. Every day I thought of something on each side. No snow days or sick days balanced out when I could be done with 180 days by the end of May. Homeschooling had more pros.
My education this year comes in 3 parts. I take some classes at home. This year it included English, math, biology, 20th Century history, and American government. At noon, I get on a bus and go to The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. Here I take all my arts classes. My major is musical theatre. My classes include ballet, acting, and voice. The 3rd component of my education is taking classes at a community college. I have completed my second semester of Spanish. I am proud to say I made Dean’s List for both semesters. In the fall, I am signed up for chemistry. Now if you think my life isn’t busy enough, I enjoy 3 nights of dance, piano and voice lessons, church youth group, and I am part of local theatre company.
I am a goal driven kid. It takes a village, and boy do I have a village helping me in my goals. I have a “board of advisors” which includes my family, a high school honors English teacher, high school guidance counselor, high school math teacher, Christian educators, music and dance instructors, and my librarians. With the help of my advisors I plan on continuing my education at our community college until I transfer to a four year college as a sophomore.
Do I like homeschooling? Absolutely! Is it for everyone? No. My brother does not want to be home educated, and is doing very well in public school. I am fortunate that my parents allow me the flexibility to soar at my own pace. I have a lot of different interests, and homeschooling allows me to indulge in those subject areas. I don’t have to wait for a class to catch up. If I need help, I can take my time and get it. I don’t have to fit into the norm. I have plenty of friends both homeschooled and public schooled. I am part of my community though my church and volunteering at an elementary school 2 hours a week. I have to say my life is pretty great! I am proud to say I am homeschooled.
Click over to read all of the Real Life Homeschooling series.
Guest Posters wanted: the response to this post has been so great. ya’ll are great. 🙂 SO, I’m going to open up this series for GUEST POSTERS!! If you are a homeschooler and want to contribute your own “real like homeschooling” post, please email me with your post! I would like to have a picture to go with it. And if you have a blog, I will link back to you! 🙂 If you want to “grab” the picture in the top of this post, I will let you know when your post will go live and you can use this graphic as a teaser and point people here to read! I really think these will be encouraging to all of us as homeschooling mamas! I hope to share one post per week on this series!!
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