Reasons

When I was growing up, I never wanted to be a teacher. Patience is not one of my strong points, nor is spontaneity. And my mom will attest to the fact that I Hate to get my hands dirty. For all these reasons (and probably more) teaching anybody's kids never even crossed my mind.

These are probably the biggest reasons that I am also tempted to send my child to public school.

In fact, my daughter has even tried it. When Em was 4 years old, I researched the new pre-K program our town was starting. The teacher assured me that the kindergarten teachers had gotten together to discuss things like curriculum and "It's going to be like Kindergarten used to be." she said. I loved that! My big girl was soooo ready for Kindergarten but I was nowhere near ready to have her gone ALL day!

A few weeks into the school year, my bright, outgoing, daughter (she is really nothing like me.) started acting up and worrying more about what another child liked than her own interests. So, nice and calmly I decided to talk with his mother. I went to her classroom before school started for the day. ( She was a teacher at the school and had their class once a week.) Anyway, as I was leaving her classroom, the principal guided me out of the hallway and into the teacher's lounge to ream me out for interrupting a teacher's day. "She's not here as a parent, she's here as a teacher." Can I remind you that this took place before school had even started for the day? I didn't even know how to react. It was like being in school myself again. or a really bad job. Hello! This is MY child, not hers. I have every right to look out for her best interests.

Then, I started wondering when the kids were actually going to be learning anything at Em's level. Apparently, the screenings done for the whole class had a very low average in many aspects so the goals for the pre-K were lowered. Academically speaking, Em was ready for Kindergarten, though. Her personal screenings in the ps backed me up on this. They put her at an age equivalent of 5.1 years old.

Before the end of the first quarter, I decided that public school wasn't right for our family. Maybe someday, but not yet. We started Kindergarten at home in November of 2006.

I believe that we as parents have been given such a gift to raise our kids to their full potential. For some, that means sending them to someone else for 6 hours/day, and that's ok. Most people think you have to nurse your babies and vaccinate them for everything, too. (Who knew I could be such a rebel?) Making decisions for our family is a responsibility and priviledge only my husband and I have. Of course, that means we'll get all the blame for the screw-ups, too.

Some people think that the only way to socialize your kids is to put them in school. I admit, I worry about it. I have gone out of my way to make sure that my child is getting out, being around other kids. Em still goes to the public school for our choice of "specials." She has such a busy schedule that my life is no longer my own. Mondays we have Girl Scouts. Wednesdays she has Art. (I mentioned that I don't enjoy getting dirty, right?) Fridays she has Music. (How am I going to fit time in for Daniel's activities?) On all of those days, I take my kids to work with me, too. Not that my job is hard, but it provides gas money to go grocery shopping. Functioning in the real world is something I want to make sure my kids are used to doing. People are constantly amazed at how smart and polite Em is. She's usually better in public than at home, not unlike most kids her age.

I have been sitting here forEVER typing this post, and I'm still not convinced that it gets out all of my feelings and reasons about why we choose to homeschool. It's a lot of work, and a lot of emotion. Fear and guilt, joy and rewarding. Homeschooling is not easy. But I know by the great feelings I get when Em learns something new, that the decisions we make for our children are the right ones for our family. For right now, anyway.