Why I Homeschool

This post is part of my thoughts on educating the kids.

If you would've asked me just three years ago if I would be home-schooling my kids, I would have said, "No, I think the kids need to learn the social skills available in a school setting and I don't know the first thing about teaching school!"

Spice was in kindergarten at the time.  I loved her teacher, her school, and she was done by 11:30 am every day.

Then she went to first grade (and Bud started preschool)  The teachers were still great.  I liked the school, but Spice didn't get home until 4pm every day.  This gave her enough time to do her homework, play outside for a little bit sometimes, eat dinner, and go to bed.

(wacky hat day - 1st grade and preschool)

When I would ask her how her day had been, the usual report was, "Good."  I tried to get details, but she was worn out from socializing all day so she didn't want to talk much with me.  Occasionally, she would tell me about peer situations and asked how to handle them.  That was good - that was one big reason I was  sending her to school - to learn how to resolve problems in social situations.

Then I started running in the mornings with a friend, Angela, who had decided to homeschool her son because of problems with his teacher.  She would tell me about ideas she had come up with to teach her kids and some of the projects they were working on.  I was inspired by her and I wished I had time to do some of those kinds of things with my kids.

Little Miss with Angela's Daugher:

Still, I didn't think I would be able to handle having my kids home all day.  When would I go shopping? When would I have time to myself?  Looking back, I was also nervous about taking the full responsibility of educating my kids upon myself - there was something comfortable in feeling like I shared the responsibility with the State - after all, they have committees and such things that figure out what is best to teach children and when.

Then we moved to Texas.  The school had small class sizes and the teachers were great.  Still, as I would tuck them into bed at night, I thought about how fast they were growing up and I was sad that I would have to send them to school the next day and miss out on so much.  Also, I didn't feel like I had time to teach them the things I wanted to teach them.  They were still so little and they were being influenced by their teacher and their friends more than they were by me in some ways.  I just wanted more time!

I looked at half day options and found a charter school in Texas that did a half day program.  It was a bit of a drive, but I thought we could listen to books on tape on the way and not waste all that time.  It wasn't ideal, but it was worth it to me if I could see them a little more often.  I sent in my application.

Then we found out we were moving again.

During that summer, I read A Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bower and I had started reading to the kids from Story of the World (also by Bower).  I figured if I didn't have enough time to teach them during the school year, that I would make the best of my summers.  A Well Trained Mind is a very structured and intense curriculum and I don't homeschool that way, but it gave me a sense that I would be able to homeschool if I chose to.  I saw that homeschooling wasn't beyond me, that there were plenty of resources to help me, and that I could give my kids a better education then they were getting at school.  Yes, I did like the school, but, honestly, did they really need so much time to teach them the things they learned there everyday?  No - most of it was spent standing in line, cleaning up, reviewing things they already understood, and waiting for others to finish something.

I talked to Rock about the possibility of homeschooling. He was also concerned about the socialization thing. I asked him to let me try it for a year. After that, if things were not going well, we could always put them back in school. He agreed, and the adventure began.

How did our year go?  Well, I was pregnant and sick for the first 4 months, then pregnant and exhausted for 2 of the months.  We moved in the middle of the year, which required house shopping, packing and unpacking; and we had a baby at the end of the year.  Did we manage to learn anything?

Well, we got to go to the mountains quite a bit and drew pictures of nature, Bud collected many bugs and researched everything about each one before he fed them to his praying mantis (which he also found in the mountains), the kids became avid readers with all the extra time they had, it took us about 15 minutes to do their math everyday instead of the hours they set aside in school.  We attended plays which we had read; we went to festivals, fairs, re-enactments and cultural events; we read all of the stories in the Old Testament; we learned about ancient civilizations and heros, and read some of their myths and legends; we read many classic books together; the kids learned to help more around the house (I just couldn't do it all myself), they learned how a baby grows inside the womb (they wanted to know his size and development every week);  we memorized hymns, scriptures and poems; and there were so many teaching moments throughout every day - about getting along, being patient, helping one another, speaking kindly, and many such things.

Rock and I both agreed that this is what we wanted for our children.  They love it.  It is so great learning and growing together.  We feel so close to one another.  I feel less busy than I did when they were in school because we set our own pace and learn the things that interest us.  There is so much purpose to everything I do because I am teaching through my words and example all of the time.  Even things that used to be mundane like cleaning the bathroom, now have more purpose than just a clean bathroom.

I have nothing against public school.  My experiences with my kids in school have always been positive.  I just wanted the fun for myself!

What about socialization?  I better talk about that on a different post...