I came across Sarah Wall in one of my many chats with homeschool moms around the world and just loved her story. She found the strength to leave an abusive marriage with the littlest of her 6 young children in tow and go on to launch a successful business that supports bloggers, coaches and mompreneurs. Her core belief that you can achieve your goals with the right support has guided her through some hard times.
Her oldest has ADHD, and my second oldest is ASD. She’s been homeschooling for 14 years now, and as a single parent since 2013.
What inspired you to start homeschooling?
I started homeschooling, initially, because my oldest had a late birthday. She was so tiny and just 3.5 years when she should have started kindergarten, I couldn’t bear to send her. I kept her home, and we didn’t do a whole lot different, but what we did must have worked because just after she turned 4, she was reading.
By the time it was time for school registration again (4 going on 5), she was reading fluently, and I had a new baby, and it was just easier to keep her home. And…. the babies kept coming lol. I had 4 girls in 5 years! I could not figure out the logistics of lunches and homework and school bus runs with naptime and diaper changes and feedings. Especially in winter, when it took me 45 minutes to just get everyone’s snowsuits on! So ultimately.. I took the lazy parent’s way and just kept my kids home. It was just easier!!
When my marriage ended in 2013, homeschooling became the stability and normalcy we craved. It’s what held us together and helped us through the transitions. By then we’d been homeschooling for 10 years, and I had fallen in love with the lifestyle. It was working, and it was easy, and it was what we knew. The last thing we needed was another big change, so I was determined to keep homeschooling.
What are some of the benefits you have found with homeschooling?
So many benefits. Because we aren’t tied to a “school” schedule, we’re able to live in tune with our physical needs — sleeping and eating on a more natural cycle. The flexibility allows us to pursue so many passions — music and math, art and literature, friends, sports, swimming — and we love it! And I can tailor education for each child’s strengths and support where they’re challenged.
So my ASD daughter is succeeding far beyond what her doctors thought possible, my ADHD daughter can adapt her environment to best support her focus and planning challenges, my middle child (suspected gifted) can accelerate where she excels without being held back and my younger kids can just be kids! The bonds we have as a family are beautiful, and watching my older kids play with and care for their younger siblings makes me cry with pride. I love that we can be a family together, and support each other to reach our dreams, both together and individually. And I can’t wait to see what the future holds for my girls.
What has been a surprise in your homeschooling?
I think the surprise for me has been that homeschooling has just been so natural. I never planned on homeschooling this long, or at all, but it’s really just been the natural next step in parenting. We started with teaching them how to walk and talk, how to feed and dress themselves. Moving on to ABCs and 1+1 was as natural as breathing. I love learning, so I guess it was inevitable?
What tips can you offer single parents?
Homeschooling as a single parent can have some added challenges. First, for best results, you really should have the agreement of your co-parent. Lacking that (or even with that!) have educational decision-making ability — preferably legal sole custody.
Second, separate out the need for child care from the need for education. Public schools provide both, so it can be hard to wrap your head around the logistics. But when you realize that education can happen anytime, not just from 9-3, Monday to Friday, and all you need is childcare, it gets easier.
Third, prioritize. You can’t do all the things when you’re both the sole income and the sole homeschooling parent. Choosing to homeschool means you’ll have to sacrifice something else to honor that. Whether that’s time, money, energy or all of the above (probably all of the above), there’s a sacrifice involved. But that’s always the case with a lifestyle change 🙂 It’s worth it! And the benefits of flexibility and thriving happy kids more than make up for anything you might give up. There’s always a way!! Please email me if you need help finding your way.
Do you feel there is a stigma to homeschooling?
20 years ago, maybe. These days, even pre-COVID, it was becoming more and more a viable option. Especially as the non-fundamentalist-Christian homeschooling population grew.
Now families choose homeschooling for many reasons, and only ~20% or so are strictly for religious value reasons. Family bonding, academic challenge, supporting talents in sports/dance/arts, medical/health reasons, and even simply a difference in belief in how children should and do learn, all make the top five list of reasons why families choose homeschooling.
Homeschooling no longer looks like traditional one-room-schoolhouses either. Online schools, non-traditional education like Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf, etc, and even unschooling, make homeschooling a truly custom educational experience. Really, homeschooling has become less about educating our kids, and more about choosing a lifestyle that better fits an individual family than the one lived in the margins of a 9-3 school day.
What tips can you offer those who are considering homeschooling?
If you aren’t ready to start, immerse yourself in the homeschooling research. Read the blogs, join the groups, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you are ready to try it, but you’re not sure you’re ready to start, pull your kids now. Then take your time and “deschool” yourself and your kids. That deschooling process is ESSENTIAL and cannot be skipped. Oh.. and it takes about 3 years to find your groove, so give yourself some grace and go in without expectation.
What curriculum do you use or have used that you enjoyed and why?
We use whatever works for that child, topic, skill, concept or ability. I’m not tied to any particular curriculum, program or style! We tend to use workbooks for the skill-based areas — reading, writing, math, etc — and unit studies or projects for content (science, history, etc). Our unit studies are fun, multi-media, year-long topical studies, and I post some of the materials and activities we’ve used on my blog.
Can you offer tips for homeschooling in your area?
I’m in southern Ontario, Canada. Ontario is one of the easiest places in the world to homeschool, because we have *no* regulations. If you’ve never registered your child with a public school in Ontario, you don’t have to, and you can homeschool with no reporting, testing, grading or attendance required. (If you have registered, you simply withdraw your child, and then homeschool happily, as above).
We have a vibrant, active, growing network of homeschool groups, and every major city has at least one group, if not multiple. I run one of my city’s local support groups, as well as a province-wide coop for field trips. Each province in Canada is different, as we don’t have a national education law or policy, so check with your local provincial homeschool group for local support and laws.
About Sarah Wall
Sarah Wall is a virtual assistant, homeschool blogger and single mom of six girls.he has spoken at several homeschooling and work-at-home conferences, including the Canadian Online Homeschool Conference, the Ultimate Blogging & Work from Home Conference, the Reimagine Education Conference and the Grow Your Blog virtual summit.
She blogs about her homeschooling experience on RasingRoyalty.ca. If you are a mompreneur, check her out at XeraSupport.com.
Find her on facebook at @RaisingRoyals, on Twitter at @RaisingRoyals, and on Pinterest @RaisingRoyalty. She offers an ebook on “Homeschool 101: How to Get Started Homeschooling” for a low cost in her store, that works anywhere in the world, with references to find your local supports and laws. Take a minute to persuse her 100+ posts on how to start homeschooling.
