Photo courtesy of Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels

You know how the saying goes: “if it’s important enough you will find a way, or if not, you will find an excuse.”

I think of that every time someone reminds me of how privileged I am to be able to home school. The reality is that I know zero home-school families who are privileged, including ours.

Eighteen years ago, our family made a life-changing decision. I walked away from a tenured teaching position. We sold our new cars and recreational vehicles and pulled up our bootstraps. We soon went from a two-income family down to one, with three kids in tow. Everyone thought we were crazy. Home schooling in our area wasn’t popular or trendy all those years ago and we were swimming against the tide. From our church, to our family and friends, they all thought we were making a big mistake.

Even though we were convicted, every time life threw us a curve ball, the unsolicited advice was always the same. It was always, “just put them back in school.” Their solution was intended to make life “easier” for us. After all, that’s the American way.

Thankfully, we didn’t listen to that advice. We continued on through chronic illness, two more children, a work injury that put my husband out of work for six months, and the deaths of our parents. We made sacrifices, tightened our purse strings even more, and kept going.

When we first began our home-school journey, home-school support was limited. Trying to find other home-school families was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The only social media we had in our arsenal was email. Today, home schoolers are fortunate to have a plethora of support services available. With the click of a button, they can connect with home schoolers locally and all over the world.

Our calendars are filled with local events and there are home-schooling options to fit the need of every family. It is truly a customizable educational model that prioritizes the family, if the family is willing to prioritize the family.

Our story isn’t special or unique in the home-school community. It’s actually one you will hear repeated over and over. Time and again you will hear families explain how they have made major sacrifices to home school their children. In our local home-school support group we have single parents, parents with chronic illness and disabilities, parents with children who have special needs and parents who struggle financially, and they are all phenomenal home-school parents. They have all found a way to home educate their children. Many have only one car or drive older cars, have downsized their homes and drastically cut their expenses to make home schooling a reality. I plan to interview many of these parents and share their stories. Each one is inspiring, offering proof that home-schooling families are anything but privileged, and yet they have found a way to do what some say can’t be done.

What most people mean when they say they can’t afford to home school is that they aren’t willing to give up their standard of living. They don’t want to sell their new cars and recreational vehicles, they don’t want to give up their luxury vacations, new clothes, trips to the salon or their “me” time. They don’t want to give up their privileges. The real cost of home schooling involves dying to self and rearranging your priorities. It’s about sacrifice. So, when someone reminds me of how privileged I am to be able to home school, I always respond by saying, “It was important enough to make a way.”