Did you “miss out” being homeschooled?

I am a stay at home mom of two girls and I am wanting to homeschool. My husband is against it so it's not going to happen. However, I was wondering with all the things that young girls get into these days how did you and your friends stay away from it? My girls will be in public school and it will be a challenge to me to be more influential than the world. Did you find that you "missed" out on anything? Like the prom or other kinds of high school things?

I know for me, my parents were a huge influence in my life--for which I am very grateful! They are my best friends and I rarely go anywhere without them. Not because I "have to" be with them, but because I enjoy being with them and enjoying doing things together as a family. Growing up, our family did everything together and made a point to be loyal to our family first, before all others (which includes peers). I'm sure that this is what kept me from being pulled into being peer-dependent, getting into worldly things, etc.

I wasn't homeschooled all of my life (I was in public school through 3rd grade). I have seen the inside of school rooms and how peer-pressure/dependency has filtered through our society--and can take such a strong hold on young people. The "voice" of the world is difficult to resist in a lot of young people these days. However, the thing that comes first to my mind is, if you are your daughters' best friend and the keeper of your daughters' hearts/loyalty, they will be able to stand up to these things more easily.

Some ways that have been helpful to me in remaining loyal and best friends with my family has been to do things as families, rather than going off with peers to movies and such (but on occasion I do go to a movie with a friend but this is not the norm). More on this in a minute.

No, I never missed prom. It is such a brief day in a person's life, and not one I would have wanted to stay in public school for! =) I've had many more opportunities to enjoy dressing up for costume parties (I even got my hair done =) ) which included folk dancing and many other fun things. Again, these were events I enjoyed with my family.

I didn't miss any public school high school things. Rather it is quite the contrary. While public-schooled kids were learning about things from just text books, I was learning them in real life by going on trips and seeing the battle fields and homes of those in history first-hand, etc.

Having tasted of the public school life for a while, I can definitely say I didn't miss anything by being homeschooled. Actually, it made my life fuller and more meaningful! At the time when my parents pulled me out of public school, I could barely read, hated history, lacked in mathmatical skills, and didn't have a love for learning or reading. All of which, and so much more, I overcame through being homeschooled.

However, your daughters' public school experience doesn't have to be like mine. Might I encourage you to sit down with them each night after school and review all of their daily lessons with them? Ask them questions about their lessons, such as: What did you learn from this lesson? Is there anything you don't understand? What did or didn't like about it? If they learned something really fascinating that captured their interest, find a book on the subject and read it together. And read other books together. We had great fun having a time of reading at night before bed when I was growing up. My mom always knew how to capture our interest by leaving us hanging at a really good part in the story each night and waiting to tell us what happened until the next evening--we couldn't wait to find out what happened the next night, and the night after that, and so on. Television wasn't a big part of our lives--and still isn't.

Discuss issues together. Keep an interest in their daily lives and make a point to spend lots of quality time talking about issues on life, etc. A daily time of reading and sharing together is a great way to keep in touch with your daughters. For me, that is probably one of the most special times of my childhood--reading books on godly maidenhood/womanhood and talking about issues of life with my mother. Share secrets together--be their greatest confidant. Let them know they can talk to you about anything no matter what it is--good or "bad."

Make an extra effort to do special things together. I heard of one mother who had tea time (using real teacups) with her daughter every afternoon when she got home from school--to visit and catch up on their day. Everything would be ready and waiting for her arrival. Above all these, I would have to say pray together each day. This will bond you together like nothing else!

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