Why Homeschool?

Homeschooling was something that our family fell into very easily.

I was already for the most part a "stay at home mom," teaching piano and voice lessons during after-school hours to supplement our income.

When our oldest daughter was the right age to enter kindergarten, several factors affected our decision to keep her home. We had just moved to a new job/city/and state, and the move had affected our daughter more than we expected. She was depressed. She didn't eat well, she cried a lot. We were expecting another sibling in December. For some kids, the entry into school and the possibility of meeting new friends would have been a positive change, but though she made friends easily and wasn't at all shy, she was not able to sit still for any amount of time and we knew that the stress level she was just beginning to come out of made transitions extremely difficult.

We decided to keep her home, allow for a little bit more maturity to set in before we entered her into a classroom situation. We didn't want her to be labeled as a "bad kid" when we knew she was bright and had every reason to be successful in school.

It was a great year. Lots of reading out loud, which the two year old loved as well, and the beginning of creating an environment where learning was the focus not just of school time but play time as well. It was fun!

But all too soon it was time for first grade. When the offices opened for registration, I called our local public school and the two private schools in our area. "My daughter is entering first grade, she's a fluent reader and she has finished the first grade math book -- what will you do with her?"

The answer was universal -- nothing. Megan would be expected to sit down, shut up, and pretend to learn phonics and adding. "Bad kid" label? I might as well have sent an engraved invitation.

I had an infant and a toddler at home, my after-school studio was thriving, and homeschooling had suited our schedule of evening rehearsals and performances, so my husband and I talked it over and decided to go for another year. "As long as she's ahead, we might as well keep it up."

She stayed ahead. My son completed his two years of preschool and it was time to make the decision again. Cameron was different. His preschool teachers loved him, and he adjusted well to classroom life. He followed directions. His attention span was great, and he met every expectation.

That's what made me wonder. He was smart, too -- just not as obviously as his sister, because he wasn't talkative. But he met whatever expectation was given to him. What if the expectations didn't meet his abilities? We experimented over the summer. We expected him to read. He learned to read. We expected him to match his second grade sister in Rosetta Stone Mandarin and in math games. Okay, if that's what I need to do...

Cameron stayed home, and we raised his bar. He's still the same, rising to every expectation.

So this past fall, we finally had the conundrum. Our youngest thrived in her preschool classrooms, was very social, and was driven to always do more than was asked. Our entire lives revolved around homeschool, and now we had the child perfectly suited to a classroom.

Our compromise -- charter school. Megan and Cameron attended last year and Erin could hardly wait to join them. They have interaction with a wide variety of kids from different school backgrounds. Some have been educated at home for their entire school careers, some failed in the public school system and are trying to catch up. The teachers are great, encouraging and compassionate for the wide variety of kids represented in their school of 130 some students. The kids attended "elective" classes every friday -- algebra, math and science labs, computers -- and meet with a teacher who is responsible for overseeing their progress once every two weeks. The kids take the star tests at the end of the year so I have a piece of paper that says they have at least mastered skills expected by their age. It's good.

However, now that all three are old enough to be successful in a public school classroom and here are no more small ones coming, I have to ask again, why?

At this moment I feel that education at home is the best option for my family and will help my children emerge into a world that looks drastically different from the one I graduated from high school into.

Why? Well, that's the next post... Homeschooling for a Global Future... :)