Homeschool

Homeschool.  What do you think of when you hear that word?  Is it a positive or negative thought?  Maybe extremely conservative and/or socially awkward children?  Eh, I never really thought about it much. Until I had kids of my own.  

I suppose it was only normal that I was headed in this direction after doing tot-school with Tanner.  I thought it was because I wanted to teach him his basics and incorporate play, you know, to prepare for school.  That morphed into thinking it was ridiculous to pay for preschool when I can teach him everything he needs to know. (And yes, I can STILL socialize my kid and not have to send him to a "structured" class setting).

And then I started researching.  Oh researching.  I feel like I've spent a quarter of the past 4 years doing that.  Along with trying to get a child to sleep and stay asleep, playing, and nursing...

I had gathered plenty of information to sway me more towards homeschooling my kids.  I'll save my reasonings for myself, because there are so many, and this post would be ridiculously long.   Until we visited our close friends I was probably around 80% sure I was homeschooling.  (Preschool was a definite 100%).  My friend's mom (a 30+ year experienced public school teacher and administrator) pretty much said "Do not send your kids to public school", in the nicest way possible, of course.  She completely validated every single thought I had and then some.  Every fear I had she just squashed it! I left our friend's house that day feeling like God was trying to send me a message.  For the few days before I was still trying to sort the pros and cons in my mind and feeling overwhelmed.  It was an incredible feeling!

For some reason I was worried about how Nick would think about it.  But he shares every thought I have on the topic, as well.  He knows the public school education is not the same as it was when we were in school.  And he knows how much potential our kids have to becoming something great.  We don't want them to lose that spark and the capability of becoming a leader.  My biggest fear was that I would fail my children as their teacher.  But a friend of mine said it perfectly-we believe public school will fail our children. So we will be a homeschooling family!  (I do want to add that learning the location we will be moving to next was a big player in this decision, as well. So in the future, if we were to move to a location with an amazing school system we may change our minds.)

Homeschooling has come a long way since the 80s and 90s.  More and more people are doing it because of personal beliefs and the government's Common Core curriculum. (Once again I am being fairly vague on this as to not "offend" anyone).  There are huge communities of homeschool families.  They have their own extracurricular activities, field trips, and even prom! I'm not saying we will homeschool all through high school, just that there are a lot of options out there.  

My next post will be on my plans for preschool.  We are starting a curriculum plan the first week of January.  I plan to document everything here (to have for memories and to reference back when Wesley is ready to start).