Well, here we go!
This is my official launch of the commitment to homeschool Ginger, my first grader next year. This has been a 4 year journey and from the folks I have talked to, there seem to be a tremendous amount of moms out there who are interested in the choice of homeschooling but are completely overwhelmed by different aspects of the notion.The initial research alone is like drinking from a fire hose so, I will blog my thoughts/ideas/research here and if you see something you want more info on, please email me and I'll try to help.
Why did I decide to homeschool?
- Well, I honestly was bothered by divine intervention for 4 years. I am not the "homeschool" type. I am not patient. I don't fear the world. I don't wear doilies of any kind on any occasion. I don't own goats.
- However, I continued to meet homeschool families - not seeking them out - just "randomly" over the years. My daughter asked me to homeschool her, even though she LOVES her school. I became very curious about the efficiency factor, the international factor, the foreign language factor, the possibilities are continuing to open up as I research. The sky, it seems, is the limit!
- Only 4-5% of the US population is home schooled and that population increases by 75% every year.
- Though I love public schools and private for a bajillion reasons and think teachers are amazing, the schedule and approach to the traditional school system seems a bit antiquated. It is, at best, limited.
- My husband was interested in it from the get-go
- It allows for tremendous curiosity and creativity to flourish
- It doesn't foster an attitude of compartmentalizing education into a specific location/building/time frame. - - Education becomes part of every day, every thing, every where and every one.
- It fosters family and the maturation process occurs in a natural environment - organically.
- There are incredible opportunities not just to provide academic enrichment, but life-lessons/character development skills that would be otherwise missed opportunities.
The list could go on and on...
What am I afraid of/hesitant about?
- I am impatient and a terrible teacher
- I'll hurt our relationship
- I won't have "me" time
- I won't know where I start and she stops
- I'll yell
- She'll yell
- I'll miss something critical that she should have had
- I'll be lazy
- I'll yell
- She'll yell
- the Judgement of others
- I'll have to be with other weird homeschool moms who I judge
Why those fears aren't stopping me?
- If a teacher is in charge of 30 kids - I can at least cover 1 kid in the way I need to in a shorter amount of time.
- If it gets too dark and stormy - she's back in school :-).
OK - so, that's a good start - I'll post about my curriculum/daily schedule research next....
Oh! Thanks for talking about your journey. I'm not patient either and have actually yelled. But, I had another unschooling mama remind me that we'd have the exact same battle if my kiddo was in school, except it would be over homework (first graders are getting an hour and a half's worth these days!?!?), at 8pm when we were all tired, and it would be our only time together. In that time, I could cover all of the day's school "work" and we can do it at 9 or 10 in the morning when we are fresh. And if it's not working, we can move on and try again another day. What a relief!
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