Meet Charlotte

Friendly. Poised. Stylish. If I had met Charlotte Bradley on the sidewalk, I probably would have thought she was a typical Christian/private schooler like myself. "Homeschool" never would have crossed my mind.

But that's exactly what Charlotte was—homeschooled. And she was kind enough to tell me about her experience being educated at home.

First though, let me introduce you to Charlotte. She is a senior humanities major from Florida. She focuses on writing and history within her major (both of which she loves.) Right now she is looking at graduate school after she graduates in May. Charlotte was homeschooled for all of her pre-college education, and she also has a brother and three sisters who were/are being homeschooled.

Charlotte enjoyed being homeschooled, but she said she appreciates it even more looking back on it now. Homeschooling had only one drawback for her—a lack of social interaction. "Otherwise, I loved it!" Charlotte said. "I liked having control over my own schedule."


Charlotte's parents decided to homeschool their children due to the lack of good Christian schools in their area. Public school was not an option because both her parents had gone through the public school system, and that was not what they wanted for their children. I'm sure another small benefit is that homeschooling was cheaper than trying to send 5 kids to a Christian school. Although, Charlotte said that if you want to give your children the best education that you can at home, it won't be cheap.

Charlotte said her experience with homeschooling isn't typical. Doing school in pajamas and going on a lot field trips (like some of her friends did) is not "normal school, not 'real life,'" Charlotte said.  Maybe if it were more "normal," people would be less apt to ridicule the homeschooling movement.

School for the Bradley family was very structured, and honestly, like a "normal school." It went something like this: get up around 7 a.m., have family devotions and breakfast together, then start school at 8. They always had to be fully dressed before starting school. They worked at their own pace, but the work load never changed. And they would finish whenever they had worked through everything.

"It was good," Charlotte said. "It made me find my own inner drive."

Also, her dad, who was a registrar of a college, hated seeing transcripts from "homeschooled" kids because they're always "all As."  Because of that, her parents were/are hard teachers. "We were never allowed to get all As," Charlotte said. They had to work hard for them. Her dad wanted his kids to have a good education, and since he was involved in college level, he knew what it would take to prepare his kids for college. "That was an advantage for our family," Charlotte said.

Because she received such a solid education at home, she didn't have any problems adjusting to college. "Education wise, I was fine, if not ahead," she stated.

Charlotte's mom taught her one-on-one until Charlotte was in the 4th grade, and then she used distance learning videos from then on.

With each child, Charlotte's mom learned and experimented with new ways to help them learn. Because there are only 5 kids, and not a classroom of 15-30, she can customize the teaching. She tailors the education to each child and the way he or she learns. Her mom also looked for other ways her children could socialize more. Now all 3 of Charlotte's sisters are involved in 4H where they learn leadership skills and how to work together.

Also, her mom always wanted them to have hands on experience, rather than just watching it. She would order animals for biology class dissections, have her children do leaf and insect collections, and other projects. One time when her sisters were learning about the burning of London, they made a representation of London and lit it on fire to see how the fire would spread.

According to Charlotte, the Bradley family is very close, and she attributes that closeness to being homeschooled. "Always being together teaches you to work through problems and get along with other people—a practical life lesson," she said.

Her only caveat is that homeschooling is very time consuming—a full time job. She thinks it'd be hard to have a side job and still homeschool your children properly. If you want your kids to have the best education they can have, you're going to put a lot of work into it. A lot of long nights, a lot of crying, and probably a lot of "what have I gotten myself into?" 

But all-in-all, Charlotte said depending on the situation and whether a good Christian school is available, she would choose to homeschool her children. "I think it'd be cool to homeschool my own kids because I know what it's like."

For Charlotte (and I'm sure many others) being educated at home was a good experience. And personally, I think her parents did/are doing an excellent job with it!