Homeschooling Normal!?

                                

 I once read an article that stated that no one “normal” homeschooled their kids. Ha!


So first ......  Let's Define Normal

nor·mal

   [nawr-muhl] 

adjective

1.

conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

       I consider myself pretty normal; traditional, certainly. We’re a family consisting of a married man and woman, with 3 children, 2 dogs and some fish. We live in a single-family home in a small quaint American town. My husband works as a mechanic and is the breadwinner. He works a "normal" work week.  I am a homemaker and we are a homeschooling family.
 That’s normal for us, but I’m used to being different from others in certain respects. What is normal for us may not be the norm for someone else and in that respect I'm okay with being abnormal to them.

     As a homeschooling family, we’re right in the middle. We’re not too rigorous, nor are we totally relaxed. For the most part, I feel ‘normal’. There are times though, that I feel like we're really abnormal. I think that the determining factor is who I’m surrounded by in that moment. As a homeschooling mom, I feel that I should be part of this enormous and growing community of women who support each other and reassure each other in their endeavors to educate their kids. Like the women who band together, since their children attend the same public or private school.  I mentioned I'm from a small town. No enormous community of homeschooling women exist close to me. Many of my friends don't homeschool. I'm sure they think I'm a little abnormal for choosing such a lifestyle. I'm okay with that as long as they understand that this is my "normal".

     It's exciting to see that more and more people are accepting of homeschoolers. I still wish more were. I don’t want to go overboard on the value of “seeming normal”, because if we feel that it is the right thing to do, it doesn’t matter whether we seem normal or not – we do it.