Used with Permission
\nBy Carrie Daws
\nwww.TOSMagazine.com<\/p>\n
With its ups and downs, homeschooling is like being on a roller coaster. Some moments you rush at high speed as you cherish your children and can\u2019t dream of ever doing anything else. Other moments drag on as you doggedly remind yourself of the reasons you\u2019re doing this in the first place.<\/p>\n
Military life isn\u2019t much different. Sometimes the downs outnumber the ups and the rehearsed lines of patriotism are repeated more frequently than the occasions of pride occur. Like 9\/11 when our household goods were packed on a boat heading to our new duty station and I\u2019m pregnant, looking at my 3- and 4-year-olds wondering if we\u2019ll be able to cross the Canadian border in three days. Or like the time we awaited orders and found out just five days prior to leaving whether or not we would go with my husband across the country. The first incident was in the early days of homeschooling when it was easy to teach while relocating. The second, not so much.<\/p>\n
Of course, not everyone in the military moves quite as often as we did. In just under ten years of active duty, our family saw two technical schools, three duty stations, six homes, and more hotels and temporary housing units than I care to remember. Now with my husband working as a DOD Civilian, we live just outside of Fort Bragg in the heart of Airborne territory. Although many jobs on Bragg move frequently and the various schools on Post keep families coming and going, it\u2019s not unusual to find a few who have been here most of their career. For these active duty families, homeschooling is no more or less challenging than it is for the average civilian. The area is learned, resources narrowed to those that fit the needs of the family, and relationships within the community developed.<\/p>\n
But what about the rest of us?<\/p>\n
What if you find out that orders are coming and your RNLT (Report Not Later Than) is mid-January? What if you move every two to three years and have to start all over finding the best park and cool field trips? What if you get sick and have no one to help care for your little ones?<\/p>\n
The neat part about military life is that we tend to have friends all over, particularly if we keep in contact with friends from prior duty stations. These families can be a great source of comfort and strength in stressful circumstances. One of my dearest friends currently lives more than 4,500 miles away, but she is one of the first I turn to when life is too much. And she\u2019s quick to empathize and help me refocus on the fact that God still reigns, even in the midst of my current situation.<\/p>\n
Finding new places to go can seem daunting, but this is one of the best parts about constantly moving. When my kids learn about Lewis and Clark, they remember or can be shown pictures of themselves standing on the very land that these men traveled. They\u2019ve seen with their own eyes the residual damage of the great earthquake of 1964 and stood at the grave of two unknown soldiers buried in the middle of nowhere because they died while Major General Kilpatrick faced Lieutenant General Hampton in the battle for Fayetteville in 1865. They\u2019ve walked on the lands of the Little Big Horn, traversed a glacier, rolled along in a North Carolina railroad caboose, and walked through Independence Hall.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let the unfamiliarity of the local area intimidate you! For those of you who don\u2019t mind talking to people, look around the next time you step outside your door. Your neighbors, those you worship with, cashiers at local stores, and the lady who cuts your hair could be a treasure trove of information. One friend of mine loves to talk to the shoppette cashiers, many of whom have lived in the area for several years.<\/p>\n
For those of you who don\u2019t find it so easy to talk to strangers, try a simple Internet search for \u201cthings to do in [name your city].\u201d Once you arrive at a museum or tourist location, volunteers often will fill your students with great information and need very little encouragement to do most of the talking. At one train museum, a guy sat with us for fifteen minutes telling us the local railroad history, and then one of the kids got to ride with him in the engine as they hooked up to the front of the train. At a fire department museum, a volunteer told us about three other places in town that he highly recommended, including the best place to eat lunch.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m feeling particularly brave, I load the kids up in the car and we just drive, stopping at any place that looks interesting. One of my favorite places to relax at our first duty station was discovered this way, as well as some great little shops near the place we lived during my husband\u2019s second tech school.<\/p>\n
Homeschooling while on active duty can be challenging, but don\u2019t be afraid to think outside the box. Learn to focus that same flexible attitude that you apply to your military member\u2019s work hours. Relax. Accept that sometimes the book you want is going to be packed and sometimes you must go on a field trip without your spouse. Make it a great adventure, one that teaches your kids from real life rather than just books.<\/p>\n
After almost ten years in the military, Carrie\u2019s husband medically retired from the U.S. Air Force<\/strong>. They now live in central <\/em>North Carolina<\/em> with their three children. Carrie stays busy homeschooling, working at her church\u2019s office, and volunteering within its military ministry. Her first fiction book, <\/em>Cross<\/strong>ing Values<\/strong>, will be in bookstores this month. \u00a0Read more at CarrieDaws.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n Do you know any active duty home school families? \u00a0How can we best serve them?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Used with Permission By Carrie Daws www.TOSMagazine.com With its ups and downs, homeschooling is like being on a roller coaster. Some moments you rush at high speed as you cherish your children and can\u2019t dream of ever doing anything else. Other moments drag on as you doggedly remind yourself of the reasons you\u2019re doing this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-informative","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1081,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}