Here's a little about my experiences with education:
I am the eldest of 6, and nobody was more happy than I to get out of school.
I really loved school when I first started at age 5 - a private Christian school in Wellington.
But by contrast I hated the next one I went to, even though it was the same kind of school.
Since beginning homeschooling, the only time I ever wondered about going back to school was when
I wanted to know how I would compare with my peers - other than that I loved every minute of
homeschooling and recommend it to anybody and everybody.
There were other homeschooling families nearby from time to time, but invariably no kids my age.
Consequently I made friends from all over the country after attending seminars, rallies, camps,
etc, and eventually even in other countries after attending a camp in Australia.
At the age of 17 I went right around the world, stopping in Holland, Poland, and Thailand on
missions. Due to the cost of this trip, I stopped studying for 6 mths to fund-raise, and when I
came back, schoolwork was no longer interesting for me. I had been a year ahead (a 14 yr old in
5th form - 10th grade), but since I continued to work part-time I didn't actually formally
graduate till I was 19 - and I had already been a volunteer fireman for a year by that stage.
As a family we were involved in local music and dancing classes, I was a member of the local
brass band and the high school orchestra, we went to Every Boys/Girls Rally, and I worked my way
up through Cubs, Scouts, and Venturers.
I sat the SAT test when I was 15 and got an excellent score, and some of the subjects I took in
my final secondary years were actually first-year university level (English and Accounting).
I have held the position of treasurer in three different organisations, spent 4 yrs as a fireman,
ran Dad's computer network and various other things for him for 8 years, spent hours and hours
counselling families who needed help with homeschooling, and I'm currently a youth leader,
assistant home-group leader, English teacher, and computer teacher here in Kaharlik, Ukraine.
