School

I posted about this before, but I feel my thoughts about homeschooling have morphed a little, so I’m posting almost the same message again!  After much prayer and discussion with a lot of people, Greg and I finally decided this past summer that I would homeschool the kids, at least for this school year.  We’re taking it year by year.  Here are the majority of my reasons:

1. I’ve heard some great statistics about homeschooled kids and some not-so-good statistics about our state’s public schools (and we can’t afford private).
2. I want my kids to be really family-centric, and this is one way to help that happen.
3. I want to be able to teach them information they wouldn’t be able to learn in school.
4. Mr. C is super observant and has his eyes firmly on his peers, worried about what other people think of him at a younger age than what is developmentally normal.  I’d like to surround him with family, well-brought-up peers, and well-behaved kids a little older than he is.
5. My tendency is to focus on my own work around the house and let my kids play on their own.  Homeschooling forces me to be more involved with my kids.
6. I have a background in education (although I still have a lot to learn).
7. I did most of the preschool teaching for Mr. C and Little E at home, and most of the time, I really enjoyed teaching them!

I did feel strongly that we should be involved in a co-op, though, because I want my kids to have a place to form strong bonds with other kids whose parents I know and trust.  After looking at different ones around our town, and after much deliberation, I decided that Classical Conversations was the best fit for our family.  The more I learn about classical education, the more excited I get about it.  Since I love teaching and also wanted to help with the cost of the co-op, I decided to become a teacher there.  I only teach two and a half hours one day a week, so it’s not too bad, but it pretty much pays for my two kids’ enrollment there, and I end up learning the material and teaching it to my own kids much better.  I have Little E in my class this year, but Mr. C has a different teacher, and I hope I can let them both have someone other than me teach them if we continue in the coming years!

So far, it’s going pretty well, although I get frustrated sometimes.  I’m doing much better now that I have a good schedule that’s working for me, and the kids know more of the routine.  I’m also learning to let go of some of what I want to teach so that I don’t overstretch my kids.  That’s helped a lot!  I wish I were more creative with my teaching so that Mr. C wouldn’t have to do worksheets for Math (even though he actually enjoys the worksheets), but I’m learning, and he’s learning.  Little E’s learning a lot, too–a lot more than Mr. C knew at that age! I don’t know about the coming years, but so far, I’m happy with the decision!