I have been reading around the bloggy world quite a bit lately and I keep running into the same theme over and again; Why we homeschool. It is funny to me because most of them hint around as to why their family has chosen to homeschool. Most say God called them or lead them to it. Of course most of the blogs I read have a religious spin to them anyway, so it makes sense to say that God called them to homeschool. I kinda think we are all lead to homeschool by the influence of God, whether we know it (or Him) at the time. That is just my thinking. I tend to believe our actions are guided by either God or some variation of the Adversary. I'll leave that alone for now as not to offend anyone.
Anyway, all of these posts have made me think about why we chose to homeschool. In the beginning, 9 years ago, when our oldest was 4, I couldn't imagine putting him in a classroom with people of the same age for kindergarten. Not because public school is evil, or anything, simply because academically he was way too advanced to be with kids who did not already read, write, and do arithmetic well. When I looked into having him skip kindergarten and begin in first grade, the requirements were what we thought to be ridiculous. He needed to be tested academically, we thought that was understandable. He needed further independent testing by a psychiatrist to determine his mental and social maturity. That included dropping my child off with a stranger for eight hours of rigorous testing, including a psychological evaluation.That seemed to be too much for any child his age. Not to mention the cost would be our families responsibility. It really felt like the school district was less than accepting of the idea to skip kindergarten, which in our state is not even required by law.
After talking it over with my husband, we decided that I had been homeschooling him since birth, and he was doing really well. Why not continue through "kindergarten" and revisit the public school idea when he was old enough for first grade. We figured we could encourage his love of learning and wait until he was older and kids typically get broken down into groups based on ability at some point in or after first grade. Make sense?
We of course prayed about it, talked about it and rediscussed it over the next few years and in fact continue to discuss it. At some point in morphed from " We'll homeschool a year at a time" to "we'll homeschool for as long as we can make it work". I believe God has called us to homeschool. I believe we ran into issues with our original plan as a way to get us here. God is smart. He knows what each of us needs for motivation and encouragement. He rewards us for our efforts.
I think it is hard to homeschool some days. Some days, not so much. :0) I love our life, as different from other people's lives as it is, our life as a homeschooling, foster parenting, work from home, 24/7 together family has blessed us beyond measure. (Even if my dear hubby cringes when the word "blessed" is tossed around:0)) We have grown as a family and it is great.
Do I have days where I question our decision to homeschool? You betcha. Those days are usually more frequent when it is nearing a testing day. We are required to have our kids given standardized tests after 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grades. I have issues with getting nervous toward the spring of those years. Nervous that I haven't taught the boys what will be on the test, not that my kids haven't learned what I've taught. I could change my methods to teach what is on the test, but I don 't actually want the state dictating what I teach. My kids usually do really well on their tests. So I should probably learn to let that fear go, but I probably never will master that one. :0)
So there it is... Why we homeschool. Any questions? Please feel free to ask.
Anyway, all of these posts have made me think about why we chose to homeschool. In the beginning, 9 years ago, when our oldest was 4, I couldn't imagine putting him in a classroom with people of the same age for kindergarten. Not because public school is evil, or anything, simply because academically he was way too advanced to be with kids who did not already read, write, and do arithmetic well. When I looked into having him skip kindergarten and begin in first grade, the requirements were what we thought to be ridiculous. He needed to be tested academically, we thought that was understandable. He needed further independent testing by a psychiatrist to determine his mental and social maturity. That included dropping my child off with a stranger for eight hours of rigorous testing, including a psychological evaluation.That seemed to be too much for any child his age. Not to mention the cost would be our families responsibility. It really felt like the school district was less than accepting of the idea to skip kindergarten, which in our state is not even required by law.
After talking it over with my husband, we decided that I had been homeschooling him since birth, and he was doing really well. Why not continue through "kindergarten" and revisit the public school idea when he was old enough for first grade. We figured we could encourage his love of learning and wait until he was older and kids typically get broken down into groups based on ability at some point in or after first grade. Make sense?
We of course prayed about it, talked about it and rediscussed it over the next few years and in fact continue to discuss it. At some point in morphed from " We'll homeschool a year at a time" to "we'll homeschool for as long as we can make it work". I believe God has called us to homeschool. I believe we ran into issues with our original plan as a way to get us here. God is smart. He knows what each of us needs for motivation and encouragement. He rewards us for our efforts.
I think it is hard to homeschool some days. Some days, not so much. :0) I love our life, as different from other people's lives as it is, our life as a homeschooling, foster parenting, work from home, 24/7 together family has blessed us beyond measure. (Even if my dear hubby cringes when the word "blessed" is tossed around:0)) We have grown as a family and it is great.
Do I have days where I question our decision to homeschool? You betcha. Those days are usually more frequent when it is nearing a testing day. We are required to have our kids given standardized tests after 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grades. I have issues with getting nervous toward the spring of those years. Nervous that I haven't taught the boys what will be on the test, not that my kids haven't learned what I've taught. I could change my methods to teach what is on the test, but I don 't actually want the state dictating what I teach. My kids usually do really well on their tests. So I should probably learn to let that fear go, but I probably never will master that one. :0)
So there it is... Why we homeschool. Any questions? Please feel free to ask.
I may have been led by God to homeschool, but I will tell you it was not gentle leading by the hand...NO! He had to drag me kicking and screaming to that end! I didn't want to homeschool, I thought kids needed to go to public school to prepare them for a life that would eat them alive if not properly prepared! Was I ever so wrong. When homeschooling became the only option I was fortunate to find a curriculum that made it easy for me (Time4Learning!) and that my daughter loved. Then I saw her blossom, she learned so fast I had trouble keeping up. Six years later we are still at it and I can't imagine any other way of life. I am thankful for homeschooling on a daily basis! I appreciate you sharing why you homeschool. Happy homeschooling and Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by and commenting. It is nice to know we are not alone on this journey! I'll check out your blogs also:0)
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