Why Homeschool

Some people think of home-schooling as a negative thing. Some may even think that a family who chooses to home-school could be guilty of neglect. Though this could be true in some cases, a family with a sincere devotion to home-schooling--one could argue--is doing more for their child/ren than public (or even private or charter) school can offer. I don't mean to say that home-schooling is necessarily better than traditional schooling. I went to public school and am fine. But, in my case I feel like the best choice for our family is to home-school.

We looked into public school but found it's not a good fit for us and I would not feel comfortable sending my kids. The school system in our area has been having problems for a while, like many public schools, due to federal and state regulations. In one report I heard, teachers were caught helping students cheat on standardized tests to get better overall scores which leads to better funding for the school. I feel like the focus has shifted and the students and teachers are caught in the middle. At our nearest elementary school some classes were cancelled (I'm guessing due to funding) and the students had to be transfered to another elementary school along with all the students who were already attending that school. The school is not that big so I can only imagine the issues they are having with class size. 

We looked into private schools in our area after deciding public school wouldn't work for us. Unfortunately, the ones in our area are either way too expensive or just not up to the standard we would like for the money we would be paying. 

I have several friends who home-school and have had the opportunity to observe them and their kids over the last few years. One thing I've realized and come to really love about home-schooling is that formal home-schooling is really just an extension of what we're already doing at home. It is at home that I'm teaching my kids motor skills, cognitive skills, social skills, etc. Why not continue with academic skills? Sure, there will be times when I run into a subject that will be difficult to teach (like math). But these are the times to use my resources. I can either get my husband to do math lessons after dinner, utilize the many online resources for learning math, or call on my friend who has a PhD in math to teach my kids advanced math while I teach her kids about the fundamentals of psychology or how to play volleyball. 

I love the one-on-one interaction home-schooling provides. That way if my kids struggle in a subject we have the freedom to slow down and keep doing it until they get it. This is something I wish I had while in school. Math is something that really gives me a hard time and I think a lot of the reason is that I got a little confused somewhere in elementary school but since I was part of a bigger class the teacher kept going. So I started middle school still a little confused. I was able to make it through but not with a full understanding of what I was doing. I also love that we can spend extra time on a subject that the kids really enjoy. 

I also really enjoy the ability to take school anywhere. Last week some friends and I got the kids together and went to the zoo. One of my friends is home-schooling her 1st grader and as part of his science work he brought a notebook and filled out a table of habitats and listed which animals belong to which habitats. When reporting school time, she is able to use our fun time at the zoo as science time, PE time, writing, and spelling time. I also like how this encourages kids to learn everywhere, not just in the classroom. 

Some people claim that home-schoolers don't get the same opportunities to socialize as kids in traditional schools. But, I would argue they can get equal or better socialization. Home-schooling is much more time efficient which leaves more time in the day for playing with friends or other extracurricular activities. 

There are many more reasons why I am happy to have the option to home-school and why I feel it's the best fit for our family. For anyone interested in more on home-schooling I would recommend this book

Good Advice

Like most  moms, I worry if I'm doing right by my kids. Sometimes I wonder if I'm totally messing up. A while back I found myself getting more frustrated and questioning myself more than usual and at the very worst of it I received two simple lines of advice that were totally unsolicited and not really even meant as advice toward me, just women talking, but I soaked them in.
At one of our weekly get-togethers some moms were talking about our kids' and the reactions of some people. Like when a kid is acting up in public and then someone says, "oh, you need to train your kid better", or something like that. At this same time I was really battling with Karim and his sometimes-undesirable behavior at home and outside. Karim is awesome. He also has A LOT of energy, curiosity, and excitement. He likes to be the center of attention and is not a fan of sitting for more than a few minutes at a time. These traits are not always easy for me to deal with.
So back to the advice. My friend was talking about her son acting up at a restaurant and a stranger coming and telling her she's not doing a good job with her son, who is 1 (this also happened to us on a an airplane that was stalled on the runway for over an hour when Karim was not yet 2 and a man with no kids tried to give us parenting advice). So another friend said, "you know, everything about our kids comes from God, their temperament, personality,etc. and as moms we're all doing our best to teach them".  I really took this in and thought, "Karim is who he is, not because of something I did or didn't do but because God made him that way, and as long as I'm teaching with patience and mercy the learning will come soon enough".
The second piece of advice came from another friend when we were talking about taking care of the house with tornado-like kids living in it. Anyone with young kids knows what I'm talking about. While cleaning one room, another one is being destroyed. A friend from high school put it well here. While discussing the impossible job of having a clean house when young kids are living in it my friend told us about advice her mother (who raised 4 kids) gave her: "lower your standards, lower your standards, lower your standards". Really, what's more important, having a super clean house, or having a sort-of clean house and having fun with the kids?