by Jennifer Eager

Created on: January 12, 2008

I have been homeschooling my children since they were born, and so have you! Maybe you never thought of it that way before, but you have. Since the day your baby was born, you have been the most important person in the world to that new little person. I always laugh when people ask me, "Don't you think your kids would benefit from a real teacher?" My answer is, what teacher could possibly care more about my kids than I do?

In fact, homeschoolers have many opportunities that children who go to school never get. Most people would never think very hard about it, but it happens to be true. What you need to remember is this: reading, math, history and science are all very important subjects in school-but they are not the only things that one should learn. Homeschoolers have a unique flexibility in their lives that allow them to take advantage of so much, without the "burn-out" factor that schooled children have. When you realize that for eight or ten hours a day kids are in school, riding the bus, and in after-school activities-and then have to come home and do homework, have dinner, bathe and maybe spend a few precious minutes with family, you'll see what I mean. Here are some of the things my homeschooled family gets to do while everyone else is in school.

1. We can do school in pajamas. Never underestimate the power of this. What could be more relaxing than sitting at the dining room table on a cold winter day, eating fresh, hot muffins from the oven while working on an English assignment? No alarm waking you, no rushing to wash, dress and eat, no gathering books and papers and lunches and racing to the bus stop. Just some quiet time in the morning and then sitting down with your mom and learning. Easy. No stress.

2. We can go to museums, zoos and attractions when they are empty. Imagine it's school vacation-whether that means summer, Christmas recess, President's Day or spring break. You told the kids it would be a fun day, you'd take them to the zoo. Then imagine that a thousand other parents had the same brilliant idea, and you all showed up at the same time. Lines, crowds, whiny children, crying babies, cranky parents. Not for homeschoolers! We avoid those places like the plague when schooled kids are there. We prefer to have a good time on field trips-and we like to read all the plaques and information, which you can't do when people are pushing to see.

3. We go on some really neat field trips. Forget about the garden variety trips like you took in 4th grade.

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