Is It Possible to Be a Single Parent and Homeschool?
There is a lot I can say about this topic so I think I will make it into parts and this will be part one!
I often get stunned looks when I say that I am a single mom as well as a homeschooler. I realize that in today’s times, those are two things that are both hard to deal with, let alone when they are combined with each other. I was a full-time mom and housewife for about ten years before getting a divorce. I have three children under eight and it was hard to try to send them to school and for me to start my own life. I decided with God’s guiding hand that I would continue being who I was, because that is what God wanted me to be. I did not want my change of relationship status to determine who I was. Now I will say that it has not been the easiest journey, but it has been the most rewarding.
Struggles! There are so many that my kids and I had to go through. We had a pretty good life in the finance department when I was married, so losing that was a big blow to us all. We were all used to things and not worrying on how to get what we needed. I guess in a way I am lucky my kids were young, because I was able to remold them in a sort of way. We learned what we could go without and what we couldn’t. No more eating out, cable, expensive clothes, and such.
The first thing we ditched was cable and that also meant that we had no channels whatsoever. We could have gotten a set of rabbit ears and a converter box, but those were two sets of money that we decided we would rather spend someplace else.
We moved to a very remote town that is more boring than sitting in a seminar for something you care less about and just went to get something free :). Rent here is crazy cheap so we make it work. We all practice saving energy in the home so our electric bill is not expensive, and our water and trash is covered in our rent.
The kids no longer beg for meaningless toys like they used to. Sure, we have some here and there that they think they have to have, but all in all they will pick the educational ones that will fit in with a homeschool curricula. They also find more fun in science projects than in toys anyway. Then we have the great outdoors to explore and rocks and dirt to play with.