8 Ways A Homeschool Education Makes Learning Meaningful and Fun!

When most people hear the phrase homeschool education, they think ugh, boring. But not me. I love learning. I’m the kind of nerd who listens to The Great Courses in my spare time! And believe it or not, it is possible to cultivate that same of love of learning in your kids (and even yourself) when you stop trying to check all the “right” boxes, and start letting school be easy and fun!

Now don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t always a model student. It wasn’t until college that I really understood the value of an education, and it wasn’t until I had kids that I figured out why I was so unengaged in middle and high school. 

Because it actually was, dare I say it, boring.

Sitting at a desk all day long. Zoning out while teachers lectured about facts that I had zero interest in. And all the while daydreaming about what my friends and I would do once that final bell rang.

So what changed that made me so passionate about education and learning? 

Firstly, it was when I got to college and realized that I had some control over my education and could tailor my academics to my interests. 

Secondly, after growing up with a less than ideal childhood, I discovered the agency that an education gave me to change my circumstances. 

I wanted that. And I want it for my kids as well.

I want to give them a solid foundation and a passion for learning while equipping them with the skills they need to seek their purpose. I want them to have every opportunity to step into and embrace the calling that God places on their lives.

And I knew they wouldn’t get that in a traditional school setting. Not because I think public school is the enemy. I don’t. I just believe that an individualized education by someone who knows and grows with a child will always be able to provide more opportunities.

So why is it that I believe a homeschool education is about so much more than academics? 

Because a person is more than just their head knowledge. One of my favorite things from the Waldorf school of education is the focus on head, heart, and hands. It’s about educating the whole child. 

Here are eight ways that a homeschool education helps make learning meaningful and fun!

1. It’s About Following Passions

How many times did you sit in a class and wonder, how will this help me in real life? And let’s be honest, so many of those uninteresting subjects were forgotten as soon as you finished the exam. 

One of the biggest advantages to a homeschool education is the freedom it allows your kids to learn more about the things that light them up. When you engage your child in interest based learning, they’re doing more than preparing for a test. They’ll remember what they’ve learned because they actually care about the information that’s being presented. 

Obviously there are some subjects that have to be learned regardless of passion, but even those can be presented in a fun (and often hands on) way that will at least engage your child on a deeper level than simply preparing for a test would.

2. It’s About Learning To Do Life

Too often kids are given an academic education in school, but their life skills are being neglected. What happens when they go off to college or get their own place and they’ve never learned to cook, do laundry, or clean? 

It’s just as important to set our kids up for success in their home life, character, and habits as it is to set them up for success in their professional life. 

3. It’s About Cultivating Connection

Homeschool education provides a unique opportunity to build strong trust and relationships because you’re walking alongside your children and teaching them. 

Some of the biggest role models in my life were teachers. Imagine how much more of an impact you, as a mom, could have when you use education as an opportunity to cultivate closeness with your kids.

4. It’s About Knowing Our Creator

As parents, it’s our job to make sure our children grow up with a strong foundation, and in my opinion, that foundation has to start with knowing God and His Word.

Christ is to be our cornerstone, and while devotions and Bible study can always be added to a traditional education, there is a certain beauty in the way we, as homeschoolers, can weave God and His amazing story into every facet of our child’s education.

Whether including Moses in the story of the ancients, David among the great poets, or Christ when we study philosophy. Homeschooled children have the opportunity to know their God in a very personal and practical way.

5. It’s About The Beauty of Nature

Do you remember looking out of a classroom window on those first days of spring after a long, cold winter? Not being able to pay a lick of attention because you were dreaming of the final bell, knowing you’d get two solid hours of time to play outside with your friends before mom would come home and make you do your homework?

As homeschoolers, we can use the beauty of nature as our classroom! We aren’t confined to desks and chalkboards. Or even rigid schedules or final exams. How much fun would it be for our kids if they knew that school was something they did in the place they loved to be most of all – outdoors!

Not to mention that childhood is the time when we, as parents, have the biggest opportunity to introduce our kids to the beauty of creation. Being out in and studying nature reveals God’s heart to our children.

We are able to see how every detail was lovingly tended to. How God provides perfectly for every flower and sparrow. 

The natural world provides a beautiful canvas for our children to see, feel, touch, and experience the beauty and wonder of our God and His masterpiece.

6. It’s About The Power Of Words

Our words are powerful and they matter. We were created in God’s image. The same God who created the entire universe with His words.

As you read great works of literature, your children will learn how words have staying power. How even hundreds and sometimes thousands of years later, they can move someone. 

But we also have the opportunity to use our own words to build our children up as we teach and train them. And with any luck, this is something they will carry with them throughout their lifetime, blessing others with their own words.

7. It’s About Learning How to Navigate Relationships 

People skills will be just as important to your child’s success in life as their academics will be. 

By leading them well, you’ll help them learn how to respect authority figures and submit to leadership while also knowing when it’s time to step up and lead others.

Homeschooled children often have an advantage when it comes to learning how to navigate relationships with those who are both older and younger than they are. But it’s also important for them to learn how to connect with their peers. Especially when they enter the workforce. 

By helping your child first learn how to treat the ones who love them unconditionally, they will be able to fail and try again in a safe environment, preparing them to launch well when the time comes.

8. It’s About Learning To Create

We know how important it is to educate the head. And we’ve just covered many ways to nurture the heart. But I think an area that is often neglected is making sure we also train the hands. 

Kids love to create. But so often, as parents, we just don’t want to deal with the mess. However, when we leave out this crucial step in the learning and developmental processes, we’re robbing our kids of both their enjoyment and the sense of accomplishment that comes with achieving a goal they’ve worked to complete.

People need a purpose to thrive, and so often we forget that we are creators. When we learn to draw, paint, garden, build, or even cook, we are doing something that creates a tangible reminder that we were given talents that contribute to the beauty of this world. 

There’s satisfaction in starting a project with our own two hands, seeing it through, and watching the fruit of our labor bloom. 

It’s much like parenting really. We invest into these precious little lives and watch, wait, and pray as they grow up and move on.

This is why I’m so passionate about homeschool education. I want to be able to shape the education my kids receive while creating a love of learning, not a scorn for academics and an allergy to test taking! I want to be the one who walks beside them as they learn and grow, creating fun invitations that both enhance their learning and help me connect with them. And I want to make sure they have all the skills they need when they step out into this big, crazy, beautiful world. 

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