Unschooling: Why I Chose to Homeschool

I never went to public school. It was an idea my mother proposed before I, the oldest of 6, was ever born. My mom was smart enough to see the landscape of the public school system and started teaching her kids at home.

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Now, I am not going to be one of those homeschool people that says public school is evil. You can earn a good education in public school, and all my cousins did. The crux of the issue was character, and the young adults my mother envisioned her children becoming.

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Again, I am not going to say that public school nurtures young minds into terrible people. However, it is much easier in my experience to raise a solid kid through homeschooling.

Growing Up Early

When I was 13, myself and 2 of my younger brothers began delivering newspapers. Because we were homeschooling, we had the flexibility to build our own little business and service our customers better than they ever experienced.

In the 5 years we ran our business, we had one of the best customer reviews and tip totals of any delivery folks in the area. Hayden, who was 6 at the time we started, was earning $200 a month through the year and $700-$800 at Christmas (his customers loved him). My mother made sure that he was doing the deliveries that were within eyesight of our home.

My dad helped us with our books each month as our customers paid their bills, and left the delinquent customers for us to talk to. "It is your business," as he used to say. We learned from a young age what income, expenses, and difficult customers were all about.

Running a Household

The experience with our paper route became a great foundation for us to run a household. My mom and dad decided to have more kids and number 4, 5, and 6 came along. In the midst of that, mom relied on me, Corbin, and Hayden to run the household.

When mom was raising the babies or teaching the younger kids their lessons, one of the older kids was making lunch. When my mom was sick in bed and dad was off at work, the teaching came upon my high school shoulders (granted it was 2nd-3rd-grade material). We worked as a unit with the goal of a top notch education and even better morals.

My dad was gracious enough in his budgeting to include the older 3 children in his accounting. We learned what it meant to raise a family and balance the checkbook each month. Since my dad was great at stocks, he showed us his own portfolio month to month and encouraged us to invest our paper route money for the long term. Each of my siblings has been able to save 40-50,000 dollars till they finished high school. My dad was not someone who believed in giving out an allowance. "I pay for the roof over your head" he liked to say.

EntreLeader Mentality

You may wonder why I said that I chose to homeschool in the title. The reason is that my mother asked us each year if we wanted to homeschool - the decision was completely ours. Did I want to play sports at the high school level and take advantage of D1 coaches offering to mentor me? Sure I did, but I saw the vision of what my parents were doing.

The family is the backbone of any society, and teaching kids how to be EntreLeaders is the economic catalyst for a nation. What do I mean by EntreLeader?

Dave Ramsey wrote a book by that title a few years back. The premise of the book is to develop an entrepreneurial mentality whether you are a manager of the business or the business owner. You are a leader in the company, and you are the business owner of You Inc. Your client is either the business you work for, or the client you are blessing with your product and service.

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My parents recognized that some of their children may choose to do other things than the family business, and that was ok. My gifting is in business, so I work with my dad there. Corbin chose to be a Marine and work as a personal trainer on the side - a darn good one at that. The point was to homeschool so that the academic skills we learned were coupled with a worldview that looked beyond the petty present that surrounds you in public school.

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Like I said, you can earn a good education in public school. You can also come out of public school with a decent head on your shoulders and be respectful to the people around you. In my experience, there is nothing that prepares a young man or woman better for the real world than homeschooling. Let's face it, schools have become a place for indoctrination. Homeschooling is brainwashing by parents. Do you want the government or you to be in your kid's ear for the better part of their life?

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