Welcome to Home School Hope where you will gain information and inspiration to equip you in your homeschooling journey.
Less than 5% of the kids school age are homeschooled but that number is growing all the time and I hope that Home School Hope will contribute to its growth.
The main resource of Home School Hope is a Podcast which features people just like you who are on or have completed the homeschool journey. You will hear their struggles, their victories, what they did, what they have learned, their best resources, and what advice they would give. Periodically the Podcast will also feature some product or service or news item that is of value to the homeschool community.
The Host Answers His Own Interview Questions
1. Tell a little about yourself and your family.
- I am a father of 5 children (4 boys and a girl) a husband, pastor, and businessman. I live in Virginia on a small farm.
2. What made you decide to homeschool?
- I grew up in the public school system and even though my parents were very involved in my education and choice of teachers I do not feel I got the education that I could have. I still am trying to make up for some deficiencies in my education to this day. So when my wife and I started having children we were considering homeschooling but were not convinced that was the best option. However, when we looked around and the compared the result of those who homeschooled in terms of character of the kids as well as quality and flexibility of the education we concluded that homeschooling was to be our choice. Since that time, I have come to the conviction that it is the best means to train up the next generation for everyone.
3. How many years have you been involved in the Home Schooling Community?
- My oldest son just graduated May 2014 at 18 years of age so that would make it about 13-14 years. But really homeschooling started from infancy of each of our children.
4. What has been your biggest challenge?
- We have had several but probably the biggest has been finding the right curriculum for our different children and then teaching them the discipline to learn.
5. What did you do to overcome that challenge?
- We have settled on a curriculum that is eclectic but we still haven’t perfected our homeschool by any means and I hope that by hosting this podcast and talking with many other homeschoolers I can improve our situation even more.
6. What is one success story you have about your Home Schooling journey?
- I would say that our oldest son graduated with good character, direction regarding his future, and the skills to go in that direction. That is success in my book.
7. What has been something that your family has been able to do because you have Home Schooled?
- My kids have been able to work with me in my businesses and still get school done which has given them skills they would not be able to get from formal schooling because of the time constraints alone.
8. What is one thing you would have done differently in your home schooling journey knowing what you do now?
- I would have been more involved as a father from the beginning in interacting with the kids and helping to acquire a workable curriculum.
9. What is one resource that you have found most helpful in your Home Schooling journey?
10. What is it that you are really excited about right now?
- Vocabulary.com I have had trouble getting my kids to learn vocabulary until I cam across this site. It is an interactive and intuitive vocabulary training tool that even has motivational rewards and achievements.
11. What is the best advice you could give to other homeschooling families?
- “Parents don’t need to spend more time with their children but children need to spend more time with their parents”. Gregg Harris. I first heard this in a seminar that he did about incorporating the family in church. The idea is that usually when parents spend time with the kids they end up doing child’s play whereas when the kids spend time with their parents the end up maturing.
12. Why did you want to start HomeSchoolHome.com?
- I wanted to provide a resource for homeschool families that is informational and inspirational. I believe that many don’t think that they can homeschool their children but would really like to if they could. My goal with this podcast is to get these same people to believe that they can homeschool successfully. I wanted to give hope particularly to those who are just starting out and who are considering it and are overwhelmed or don’t think they could do it. I want to help thousands of families start homeschooling and have success at it. Since most families are extremely busy but can listen to a podcast for 30 minutes a day while they do other things I chose to do a podcast rather than a written blog.
13. What is the contact information you want everyone to know? (Blog, business, webpage, etc.)
- To learn more about me head over to my personal site.
