Planning for the Future

"I would say having an adult child, who you have seen go through all the stages of growing up, has its advantages for homeschooling younger kids still at home."

-Amanda

LIFE SKILLS

By: Amanda Huerta

We are a homeschooling family no that wasn’t always the case. We have a 23 year old son who graduated public school. This shapes how I homeschool now negative and positive experiences to adjust our journey.

The first goal is to raise independent, productive adults. Ones that not only can take care of themselves, but also have the knowledge to live a good life. As a young person, there was a lot I was never taught. This resulted in me getting into A LOT of trouble (especially financially). I simply was not prepared. My husband and I attempted to teach our oldest (like savings). But honestly, there is so much more to know.

With my younger children, I plan to focus on teaching financial literacy While we will go over common things like budgets, credits/debits, all things credit cards, and debt I would love for them to learn about investing, accounting, etc.

The second goal is to instill the love of learning instead of just “learning to pass ” . I don’t think my oldest ever had to read a book and rarely had homework. I want my kids to enjoy learning, not just because they must, but because they desire to find things out. So much freedom comes from knowledge.

I think this is lacking not only in public education but also in young adults today. I know that every subject won’t be interesting or easy, but I would love for my children to not look at education as a chore or something on a to-do list. (If I’m being honest, I still have some work to do in this area.)

When it comes to my oldest, I have some regrets. But I can’t change them, and my son had some wonderful experiences in public school. But I see all the advantages my homeschooled children have now. I wish I would have known how wonderful homeschooling was sooner, so my oldest could have had those benefits. I don’t dwell on it because when you know better, you do better.

I would say having an adult child, whom you have seen go through all the stages of growing up, has its advantages for homeschooling younger kids still at home. This also, I believe, is beneficial to the younger kids. Having that experience of having an adult son while I homeschool my littles shapes how I do that every day. It sets the path of where I want to go and hopefully corrects some of the mistakes made along the way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Amanda and I am 43 years old I have been married to my husband David, for 24 years We have 3 sons, 1 daughter, and 1 granddaughter Our three youngest are homeschooled with this being the start of our 5th year I have a heart for Jesus and an empathy for those with mental illness, since I struggle with both anxiety and depression. I love tacos, my indoor plants, raising our chickens, reading books and a passion for makeup artistry. A current goal of mine is to become fluent in ASL.