Ask the Grad – Rachel Ramey

I am pleased to introduce Rachel Ramey, a.k.a. The Titus 2 Homemaker. Rachel is not only a homeschool graduate, she is also a homeschooling mama of 2 (with one more on the way!).  She is the proud wife of Michael Ramey, director of communications and research for parentalrights.org.  I am thrilled this busy second-generation home educator is taking time from her busy routine to share her own perspective with us.  She also has a free download to share!

When I was eleven, my parents pulled me and my sisters out of the government schools and began homeschooling us.  Though they would eventually develop biblical reasons for educating us at home, at the time the reasons were largely pragmatic: one sister (who had been miraculously healed of cerebral palsy, but was working on making up for a previous lag) was at risk of being permanently “labeled,” one was failing to learn to read effectively thanks to the local school’s lack of phonics, and I was being regularly teased.

I hated it.  The curriculum was one factor.  Over the years, as Mom grew more comfortable, our “style” relaxed.  By the time I graduated, we were using unit studies.  But in that first year or two it was not only textbooks, it was a “satellite” school, and that setup was just not a good fit.  There was a separate subject for everything – even subjects I’ve still never heard of anywhere else.  I felt like I never finished my schoolwork.  The way the grading worked there was no way to find out what I was doing well or poorly at before completing the whole year’s schoolwork and turning it in for a grade – not necessarily good for grades, and not really good for learning, either!  More significant to me than the curriculum, though, was that I felt that I was missing out on so much.  I had been just about to enter middle school, and I was looking forward to yearbook, choir, maybe cheerleading.  (This was back in the “old days,” before there were enough homeschoolers to gather together and do these things.  Now they’re available most places!)  And I really hated being “stuck” at home with my mom and my sisters all day, every day.

This really didn’t change until perhaps the last year or so of my high school education.  For years my mother had to listen to me complain about how much I hated being home.  Fortunately for me, she persisted, because, in hindsight, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I got to study things I never would have studied in school.  Some of these things were whole units or subjects; others were simple “introductions” to the topics.  My education was definitely unique to me!  I had time to participate in other activities I wouldn’t have, had I been in school six hours a day.  I had opportunity to minister during the day, as well.  My family provided foster care and, during those years, we primarily took in