Monday, August 18, 2008

More Than You Really Want to Know

Why did I start homeschooling?

I've been pondering this question of late, and have come to the conclusion:

HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER?

I decided to homeschool when ARG was four. Two more kids, lots of sleep deprivation, breastmilk brains and 8 years later..... I have only the generalist of ideas why I started down this road less travelled. Knew I'd miss my baby boy (where did he go anyway?), and worried about negative social influences from school.

When I started reading up on the subject, checking out programs and curricula....well, I just got excited about it. I wanted to give it a go.

So.....
Why do I continue slogging it out homeschooling?

As many times as I've desired to throttle my darling son, as many times as I've cried about failures (or stinky attitudes), as many times as I've thought, "I'm gonna send him to school next year" why DO I keep going? It ain't no bed o' roses being mama and teacher.

Everytime I get to the brink and consider shipping him off to military school (notice how I don't complain about children 2 & 3?) I review the reasons I homeschool. To date, they are still weighty enough to convince me to breathe, pray, take a walk, take a quaalude (just kidding!), and keep on keepin' on.

Here they are in no particular order:

- I would miss them if they were gone from me 6-8 hours a day!

- Being stuck together all the time forces us to work out our issues and have stronger, closer relationships.

- I can provide them with a better, deeper, more well-rounded education than what I see in public schools.

- If my kid is good at a subject, she can whiz through and get way ahead of grade level. If she is weak in an area, we can take our time without her getting labelled as "slow" or "behind" or "learning disabled".

- I don't trust the socialization that happens at school. Why would I want complete strangers to influence the belief systems of my kids? BTW did you know that by 5th grade most kids are more influenced by their peers than their parents? Yeesh!

- I love to dream, vision and plan out progams of study.

- We can take vacation whenever we want! Yay Disneyland in late Sept.!

- The kids have way more free time than their schooled friends to pursue their interests: reading, learning programming languages, painting, writing stories, making jewelry, building web sites, writing poetry, fencing, ballet, swimming...etc. (and can I add here, more time to just be plain old KIDS?)

- I get to spend precious time with them cuddled on the couch each day, reading classic books.

So, that's the scoop.

Think Stanford will buy it?

4 comments:

Mike said...

I DO think that Stanford will be impressed. They like something different.

Nutmeg said...

Yep, Stanford will be impressed. I have many friends who homeschool whose children have gotten into PAC-10 or Ivy League schools.

I have to mention something about this: "BTW did you know that by 5th grade most kids are more influenced by their peers than their parents? Yeesh!"

As a third grade and former fifth grade teacher I can tell you why. My students at daycare two hours before school started. They were then picked up by after school care or daycare where they stayed until about 6 or 7 pm. EVERY day. I had a hard time with this. I knew I was the most influential adult in their lives. Broke my heart.

Truly, any educational system will work, if the parents care and are involved. It sounds like you are!!!

Sue said...

Mike: here's to hoping!

Mrs. T/Nutmeg: how sad is that. why do people have kids if they don't want to spend any time with them?

Deborah said...

Stanford, Shmanford-I buy it! And that's something coming from a mother who can't wait to escort the littles off to school every day. The question is, can I send my kids to YOUR homeschool?