Homeschooling an Only Child | Emily Answers Your Top Questions

Hey everybody. Welcome to the walled off way. I'm Jessica. I'm Emily. And today's video is going to be a homeschooling and only child question and answer, but it's going to be with me asking Emily and her doing the answering. When I first started homeschooling an only child, I remember wishing there was a way for me to be able to like ask the actual child what they thought about being homeschooled. And so now that we've been doing it for almost 10 years and successfully might I add, I thought I would do what I wished I could have done or could have had for myself. So I have some of the most popular questions that you guys asked and I'm going to be asking Emily and we have not practiced this. So this is just kind of her honest answers when it comes to being homeschooled as an only child. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. Do you feel lonely being homeschooled without, without siblings? Like by yourself, do you ever feel lonely being homeschooled? Just you? Not really. Okay. Why not? Well, I feel like I have enough with y'all and I have friends that I can talk to afterwards. And um, with y'all I feel like I get a lot more one-on-one attention. Okay. Uh, how do you make friends as a homeschooler of an only child? Like if as somebody who's an only child being homeschooled, how do you make friends? Well we go to like do a lot of different things like archery, karate, and that's how I meet a lot of people. And do you have, because this is going to be another follow up question, uh, not just surface level friends. So not just like acquaintances. Do you have any friends that you feel like you've made like those deep connections that you've been friends with for a very long time and you could see being friends with even when you're an adult? Definitely. How many? Three right now. Okay. Or well, um, one I met at karate. The other one I met at archery. And um, the other one was actually a daughter of one of your friends. Yeah. So she's been friends of mine for, from homeschooling. We met through homeschool. And then you guys really started to get along. So and archery is 4-H. So that's the thing that she does, which is 4-H archery. Karate was just an extracurricular. So just a sport that we tried. And then like she said, a friend of mine's daughter. And I agree. I think those three are friends that you would, I could see you being friends into adulthood and y'all definitely have that like deep connection. Um, okay. What is your favorite thing about being homeschooled as an only child? I like how we can really dive deep and get into interest led learning. Okay. And um, and we really make some deep connections together. We do. So you like that you basically can learn whatever you want, whenever you want. Totally. But at the same, I feel like we're both learning. No, I'm, yeah, I'm always learning, but it's still always what you want to learn. Yeah. And it's usually based around animals. It is. Cause that's your interest. Do you ever wish that you had someone to do school with? Like outside of me and dad, do you ever wish you had somebody besides just me and dad to do school with? Well, I think if I did, I would get very distracted and I would talk more than I would learn. Okay. And this is something that you know, because you tried to do school one day at your friend's house. Yes, I did. And we just joked and talked. I'm like, Oh no, I need to do my school. And you had a really hard time doing it. Yeah. Okay. Um, do you like working one-on-one with me and dad? Or would you rather be in a group sometimes? I'm not really the group type. I just, I like people, but I'm not that much of a people person. I enjoy more with y'all, I feel like. Okay. Um, what do you, what do you think you do or what helps you stay motivated to do your schoolwork when it's just you? Well, I have something to look forward to, like crazy hobby I have is swinging. Um, I love to swing while listening to an audio book. Um, and sometimes I love to listen to music as well while I'm working. So you try to stay motivated by like what you can do to get through it. Like when I get done, I can do this. Okay. Um, has being homeschooled help you explore more interests? Like, do you think that being homeschooled as an only child, because you said that you get more of me and you get more of dad, um, so do you feel like you have different interests or different things that you've been able to explore because you have more time and more dedication and more, does that make sense? Yes. Like you get more from us. So has there been things that you've been able to explore or develop because of that? I would say a hundred percent because like we have dug deep into a lot of concepts. Okay. And not just concepts, but other things like what are like some hobbies or interests that you have that are not just necessarily like educational that maybe you wouldn't have been able to do if you weren't an only child? I'm not entirely sure, but I know there's probably some. I'm going to say this because you probably don't realize the financial part of it. If there had been more of more kids, you probably would not be doing archery. Oh yeah. I wouldn't be, we wouldn't be doing that many trips either because we've had some really cool trips and loads of awesome animal experiences. Yeah. So because of the affordability of it, archery, karate, the cross country road trips, the guitar lessons where you just got a brand new guitar for those. Oh yeah. I'm really excited for those. All of that probably would not have been, or you would not have been doing all of it at one time because we would have had to have spread money a little differently. So you definitely have had at least more opportunities as an only child being homeschooled that you probably, like I said, wouldn't have even realized otherwise. Um, let's see. Do you ever feel like you get, like, do you feel like even though you're homeschooled and you're with me and dad pretty much 24 seven, do you feel like you still get enough time with kids your own age? Yes. I feel like in my free time I can play with my friends and um, yeah, I'm really saying I do. I think you do too. I would say that if you're not seeing them in person, you do a lot of like talking to them, like you do like video chats or FaceTimes or whatever you want to call them, zoom, zoom type calls. Um, so I do, I do think you get a good balance. I also think one of the things, and this may not just be that she's an only child, this can be just homeschool in general, um, is that your friends aren't necessarily just your own age. I feel like you have like a very wide range of friends. Like some are a few years younger, some are a few years older. Like it's not just 13 year olds for example. So that's pretty cool. Um, let's see. What advice would you give another child who's going to be homeschooled as an only child and might maybe be like a little nervous, like maybe they feel like they're going to miss out or it's going to be lonely. Like, what would you say to them? Um, I would say that you shouldn't be nervous because it's actually really fun and there's some amazing perks and you get to do all of these cool things and you do make a lot of friends. Just be you. That's really cool. Now, at the end of the day, if you had a choice between being homeschooled as an only child, being homeschooled with other kids your age, or maybe going to a more traditional school setting, what would your choice be? I feel like homeschool because, not that I'm just biased or anything or have a personal preference, but I feel like the learning setting is more helpful. Okay, but would you choose to be homeschooled by yourself or with other kids? By myself because what we have really works. I agree. I think what we have really works too. I'm glad to hear you say the same thing. Thank you so much for spending time with us today. We both really hope that this helped you feel more comfortable and confident in homeschooling an only child and just know that you've got this. It's something that can be done. It's something that can be done successfully. It's something that can be done in a way that you and your child can both enjoy it. And if you ever have any questions, always know that you can feel free to reach out to me at any time.