Schooling

Homeschool, Public School, or Private School?

January 27, 2025January 26, 2025 Rebekah Matt1 Comment

If you’re looking at different schooling possibilities for your children, or if you’re wondering if the grass really is greener somewhere else, you’ve come to the right place to think through your different options.

Now, this doesn’t mean I’ll tell you what to do. There are lots of people who would love to tell you exactly what you should do—you may have run into them already. But I don’t believe there is only One Right Way to educate children. There are too many variables (among families, schools, children, circumstances) to make such a sweeping statement. What I will do here is to help you think through all of your options, honestly and hopefully without bias.

The Holy Work of Teaching

August 12, 2024January 13, 2025 Rebekah Matt2 Comments

This fall, I get to teach again.

That’s been the case every year for the past thirty or so, but the hopeful anticipation never wears off. I’ve taught preschoolers through adults … in public school, homeschool, Sunday school, and Bible study … with countless lessons of my own as well as other teachers’ lessons as a sub. Like writing and theatre, teaching is in my blood.

For the past several years, I taught women’s Bible study—I had been terrified to teach adults, but now I’m so glad I had the opportunity. For many years before that I taught high schoolers, both in public school and in Sunday school. I absolutely loved their honest opinions and insights, their sense of humor, and their natural curiosity for all they needed to know before heading into adulthood. Both the high schoolers and the adults kept me on my toes intellectually and pedagogically, and that’s something I’ve really enjoyed.

And now very soon, I’ll be back in the classroom with much younger students—two classrooms, actually. One preschool Sunday school class and one class I’m teaching in a local Christian elementary school. I know without a doubt that over the next year I’ll have moments of joy and laughter, moments of disappointment and worry, moments of shared excitement and success, and moments of what might look on the surface like utter failure. If you’re a teacher, you’ll also have those moments.

Schooling

Big Moments from 23 Years of Homeschooling

June 10, 2024January 13, 2025 Rebekah Matt2 Comments

I’m retiring this week from a job I’ve had for the past 23 years. It’s a job I chose willingly and have loved. I’ve been a homeschool mom.

Now, homeschooling isn’t for everyone, for lots of reasons. I believe strongly in good schooling options and parental choice, and I’ve written about that a few times already. But I was able to homeschool, I believe God called us to homeschool, and I very much wanted to homeschool, so I did.

I wonder how other moms celebrate or commemorate the end of homeschooling? Here’s my method: First, I had a good, long cry. Then I sent a family text with a picture of a completely clear dining room table (see above), telling everyone that my 23 years of homeschooling had come to an end and how much I loved them. My husband and I went for a walk and got ice cream. And then I sat down to write this highly personal (but maybe a little bit universal?) list of big moments, along with a few pictures from homeschooling in the Matt household:

Schooling

Why You Don’t Need to Worry (So Much) about Your Schooling Choices

June 26, 2023January 13, 2025 Rebekah Matt4 Comments

Some parents seem to know exactly how they’re going to school their children from a very early age—whether homeschool, private school, or public school—never second-guessing themselves at any point from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

That’s awesome. Terrific! I applaud those parents and commend them for their commitment to whichever school choice they’ve made for their kids. But this article isn’t for those parents.

Schooling

Homeschooling and the Gift of Time

May 30, 2022January 14, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

Back in 2007, while watching Meet the Robinsons with my family, I got choked up hearing “Little Wonders” by Rob Thomas. Before I knew the actual title, I thought it was called “These Small Hours,” because it was all about time—how we spend it, how we look back on it, how our memories are made of it.

Our lives are made

In these small hours

These little wonders

These twists and turns of fate . . .

For many years, I took time for granted in our homeschooling. We were homeschoolers, we always had homeschooled, and I didn’t know any differently. But when two of my sons entered (and one later left) the public school system, I began to greatly appreciate the gift of time that homeschooling had provided to us. And time, as most of us in the modern world would agree, is precious—precious like gold or diamonds, to be treasured and protected.

Faith · Schooling

Glue Sticks and Bible Songs

January 17, 2022January 14, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

The sweet smiles of two- and three-year-olds … a catchy song written for preschoolers that I still sing to myself decades later … the feel of a tiny hand in mine, clutching a fat glue stick with intense focus … the shining eyes and serious faces of little ones as they hear parts of God’s great story for the first time …

In his wisdom and grace, God gives us people, situations, and experiences that we often don’t recognize as priceless gifts at the time. Some of those gifts were given to me 20 years ago, and it’s only recently that I’ve begun to truly appreciate those busy days of teaching, corralling, discipling, and loving the lively and earnest little children that were entrusted to my care every Sunday morning.

* * * * *

Schooling

Welcome to the Annual Mid-August Homeschool Mom Freak-Out

August 9, 2021January 14, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

Every year for many years now, my August experience has been the same.

I start the summer joyfully (as do whichever of my kids are being homeschooled at the time, even the poor older guinea pigs I subjected to minor “summer math and reading” in early years—sorry, kids). I’m full of hope, relaxed expectation, and plans for catching up on all the things I had no time for during the school year. I even have a list of what I intend to accomplish in all of the “free time” I’m going to have.

Parenting · Schooling

Homeschool to Public School … and (Sometimes) Back Again

July 21, 2021January 15, 2025 Rebekah Matt2 Comments

Tips on making the transition when you’re considering public school

We’re an 85.9% homeschool family (I did the math). We started out intending to be a 100% homeschool family, and in my heart I’m a 100% homeschooling mom, but Child #3 and Child #4 required different approaches to their education, so we’re going to end up at 85.9% overall. Kids will throw you a curve ball like that sometimes.

During the time that I was considering other schooling options for my two out-of-the-homeschool-box boys, I searched in vain for real-life experiences, examples, walk-throughs—anything to guide me in uncharted territory or even just encourage me in taking these huge steps into the unknown. I couldn’t find much, so now that I’ve walked this path myself—twice, in two different ways—I decided to write about it in order to help others who find themselves in a similar situation.

Schooling

Sharpening Social Skills Using Norman Rockwell Paintings, Part 2

February 24, 2021January 15, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

In my previous post, I explained how and why you can use Norman Rockwell paintings as resources to teach social skills and inference to kids on the spectrum, as well as neurotypical (NT) kids. I also provided a walk-through of a lesson based on one of Rockwell’s early paintings.

In this post, I’ll go into more detail on the kinds of questions to ask your child, what to anticipate during the lesson, and what to do about a resistant child or one who seems to be in over his head.

Schooling

Sharpening Social Skills Using Norman Rockwell Paintings, Part 1

February 22, 2021January 15, 2025 Rebekah Matt2 Comments

How to use classic illustrations to teach social skills to kids on the spectrum.

For many years in our homeschool, we did “artist/composer study” every Friday, studying one person each month. For most of those years, we simply focused on the artist’s life and their most important works. But when I was teaching my youngest, I realized an amazing thing during our study of Norman Rockwell: his paintings are incredible teaching tools for developing social skills and inference for kids who struggle in this area. And as a bonus, they’re really fun to talk about.

Both this post and the next are for the benefit of those who are homeschooling a child on the spectrum, as well as those who teach or provide social skills therapy for kids with ASD, or want to use these techniques with neurotypical (NT) kids just for the fun of it.