A Nontraditional Approach
For most of the past 15 years, Nancy Robbins has run a night school. Not the back-to-college kind, though — the Robbins family’s homeschool has taken on an unusual look because of Nancy’s husband’s night-shift job. “We did school at night and field trips during the day so he would have a quiet house to sleep in,” Nancy says. “We would have an early dinner together before he went to work and then we would do our table work.”
Their nontraditional approach to an in-itself nontraditional approach to education has been an ongoing challenge for the Robbins family. “[I’ve struggled with] feeling like I have to look, act and learn the way other homeschooling families are looking, acting and learning,” the Coral Springs resident admits. “It was our biggest trial not having the ‘perfect’ homeschooling lifestyle.”
With an 18-year-old daughter graduating this year, and with a 17-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son, the Robbins family lifestyle appears to have worked well. Nancy describes their approach as a “lifestyle of learning. We have always used an eclectic variety of resources for our academics, including 4-H project books, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, co-ops, formal classes, dual enrollment, traveling, etc.”
Nancy first heard about homeschooling through radio programs right after getting married. That and a conversation with a homeschooling mom at a bridal shower helped convince her to seriously look into homeschooling when she had children. When her oldest daughter was not yet 3, “all my mommy friends were putting their kids into preschool,” Nancy recalls, “but I felt I wasn’t ready to drop my little girl off anywhere.” When Nancy called a friend to ask if she knew anyone who homeschooled, the friend thought of someone who at that moment just happened to call her about something. “Next thing I knew,” Nancy continues, “I was signed up for the [FPEA Florida Homeschool] Convention and well on my way to homeschooling!”
The annual Convention has been just one of many sources of homeschool support. In Nancy’s early years she attended multiple groups in Broward and Palm Beach counties, and with two other homeschool moms began HOPE Homeschoolers in 2005. Nancy credits the Convention, though, with “giving me encouragement, peace and security in knowing I’m not alone — [thousands of] other families are proof of that! It also empowers me each year that I have so many options, curriculum and different methods available, instilling that there isn’t only one way to homeschool. Such freedom!”
As Nancy reflects on 15 years of homeschooling, she finds that the learning process has been decidedly two-sided. “While I thought it was all about the learning for my kids,” she declares, “it was actually an amazing learning experience for me! God has taught me more about myself, history, friendships, trials, illnesses, alternative ways of doing things and most of all how blessed we have been to see what God can accomplish when we think things aren’t being accomplished!”
THANK YOU for your *beautiful* testimony! We adjust around my husband’s schedule, too, but differently then yourself – I really truly LOVE that about the Home Education Community – there is such a vast array of options, ways of “doing” Academics – just to have all the CHOICE means the world to our family! I appreciate your journey and the inspiration, encouragement, and assurance it brings me!
What a brilliant way to homeschool! It truly is a way of life, isn’t it?
Thank you ladies for your encouragement! I had to learn and accept early on that we weren’t going to ‘look’ or ‘learn’ like the traditional homeschooling families and after doing that things just seemed to fall into place and speed up! I blinked and my kids grew up! Hoping to see you all at the convention! –Nancy
Nancy, wow this was so encouraging to read. I applaud you and your husband for having the fortitude to stick with your convictions and not compromise, even when you had a substantial reason to “school” your children. So many times we give in to what we think we should be doing, or allow finances to determine our decision to have our children back in a school setting, but God truly blesses when we step out on faith, and how evident it is with your homeschool journey, thanks so much for your example and sharing,
Diana LoPresti ( Relationship Ambassador)
Hi Diana,
I can say honestly that there were many people, and many times, when I was told I should go get a full time job and put the kids in school. Even the grandparents thought this at times.
We did learn to not listen and stay with our convictions that God had laid on our hearts. We just knew we were supposed to homeschool even in the toughest of times. We are still going through tough times and we are still getting the full time job comments, although I have actually been applying God has shut each door for the full time positions so I just take multiple part time jobs and work it around the kids schedules. No regrets at all about this decision as God knows our hearts and He knows we are trying to do what’s best for the kids and what He wants us to do!
Thanks so much for commenting!
–Nancy