I am a Black Mother and I homeschool my children. If that sentence does not seem like a major statement, then please tell me where you live! Being a homeschooling mother is already met with funny looks from many people. Slap on this brown skin and you’ll really confuse the crowd.
My eldest is currently in kindergarten and my middle son will be starting pre-k this fall. I started homeschooling my TJ last year. When people learn that I’m homeschooling my children I get many repeated questions and I want to answer my top questions here. 1. How does that affect them socially? Ok, This truly is the number one question I get all the time. It usually goes, “That’s cool you homeschool, I would too, but I’m concerned that they would not be good socially, and kids need interaction with other kids, but that’s good for you”. The strength it takes for me to not throw on my hood, I could cut you right now face has grown tremendously. When people think of homeschooled kids, they automatically think of some weird kid who has been isolated from society and acts awkward around people. My kids are the complete opposite. I told hubby the other day, weird kids are from weird parents! My children are social butterflies as the term goes. They love going to playgrounds and I love watching them play and talk to all the kids. Kid conversations are absolutely hilarious. My middle son (Beans) always does this introduction, “Hi, I’m Beans, this is my big brother TJ, that’s baby Timmy, there is Mommy and Daddy, what’s your name? Wanna play?” So how are my kids so great socially? I teach them how to introduce themselves and how fun it is to be kind. Also, we leave the house people! Ha, we love going on adventures and doing fun activities, and along the way they have made so many awesome friends. 2.How do you do it? This is the, “Girl I couldn’t do it” moment in the conversation. Having three small children I get creative on when school time is, and how to teach different ages. TJ is my main student and his brothers love going to school with him. If I have TJ working on his phonic sound for letter A, his younger brother Beans will be working on recognizing the letter A, while baby Timmy recognizes the red color of A. They all learn at the same time, but on their level. Somedays while TJ is in school Timmy may be napping, and Daniel is doing educational games on the tablet. Those are some examples, I’ll be sure to go into detail in a later post. In the end, how I’m able to teach is by, a prayer life, time management, and finding joy in what I do. 3. Why? This one always gets me in my feelings. I have to control myself on not feeling like I have to defend a choice I made. In this moment of questioning sometimes I feel the pressure to say things that will make a compelling argument to persuade people to understand and respect choice. Like I mentioned earlier, being a Black Homeschooling Mom is rare in many areas. I didn’t know of and understand homeschooling until I was older, and when I did, it was presented as something wealthy white people did. And many still believe that. Before I had children I knew that I wanted to homeschool them. I made the decision to be a stay at home mother, and decided I wanted to be that big influence in my children's lives. I get to teach them about reading, writing, math, science, music, art, the bible, black history, and so much more. To me its precious memories I get to share with my children, and an honor to be able to instill core values into them. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to teach my children and watch them learn and grow before my very eyes. If you're on the fence or need support, I'm here =] ❤️Vyse
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