My oldest daughter started school this year, and instead of sending her to a traditional public school, we are have decided to homeschool her. This has been an ongoing discussion in our home for a while now. I have a Masters in Education and was still nervous about teaching my child. But ultimately the pros outweighed the cons and we started this journey.
Here are some of the things that made it on to our pros and cons list, and I feel like they might surprise you. I don’t feel like we have this negative outlook on public school. I spent 6 years teaching in all different forms of schools, so I was very aware of what public school looks like. I also don’t think our reasoning is the same for a lot of the homeschooling families I have met. Here are some things we considered:
We truly like spending time with our kids. Are they feral and crazy most days? 100%! But we wanted to be able to spend as much time with them as possible. I realize that most parents could say this about their kids too, but with me being a stay at home mom it didn’t seem like a great idea to rush into public education. We have two younger children at home, which meant I wasn’t returning to the workforce, so why not take this extra time we have been given and spend it as a nuclear family. We love that we get to go on vacation whenever we want. We can have lunch dates with dad. We can go and beat the crowds on a random weekday. We don’t feel like we are living for the weekend. We get to experience their life first hand and that is really special.
My biggest goal as a parent is to safeguard my kids childhood. I LOVE the fact my kids don’t know what a Stanley cup is. I LOVE that my kids don’t know who Taylor Swift is. I LOVE that my kids are getting to be the age that they are, and not having to mature early. My kids don’t know what divorce is, or what abuse is. They have no idea they aren’t “cool” or “popular”. They don’t understand the concept of a boyfriend. They still play with dolls and toys. They pretend to be dinosaurs and chickens, and they live for being outside and playing with their friends. Their imagination is amazing, and I love that they are still able to play so well. I knew that if they went to public school, no matter how hands on I was, I still couldn’t control, protect, or explain the things they were learning. I don’t always think that maturity in a 5 year old is a good thing.
My oldest is such a free spirit. She would love nothing more than to sit and talk to someone for hours. She would wander around outside all day long if she could. She has a million questions and a million more ideas. She has such a creative mind, and I don’t want to see it dampened. I want to encourage creativity and exploration, but I know in a school setting that isn’t always an option. At home we can explore all of those avenues; and with enough creativity (and quick planning) on my end we can input those ideas into a lesson so that she can explore as many avenues as she wants. I LOVE that about this way of schooling. I love editing the lesson plan to fit my kids.
Now that we have been homeschooling for a few months, I have added another reason to our pro list. My daughter is quick to give up. At this point in the year I’m not sure what her learning would really look like in a school setting. She is very quick to give up, or get frustrated. We have to have lots of conversations about how we are smart and capable while learning. As a former teacher I don’t think my daughter would be at the head of the class, but I also don’t think she would be falling behind. I feel like she would be in the middle of the pack, and as a teacher I know first hand the, well-behaved, kids in the middle can often get overlooked. I didn’t want that for my kids. So while I am not coddling her at home, I am glad that I can be a constant source of encouragement for her. I know that I am allowing her to succeed at her own rate, and not at the rate of her peers. I don’t think my daughter is behind by being homeschooled. But I don’t know that kindergarten would be going very well if she were in public school.
Ultimately, we have the luxury of being able to live on 1 income. Its not always easy, but it is something we are very thankful for. This also means we have the luxury of schooling our kids in an alternative manner. I am so grateful for this gift. I love getting to witness their lives first hand, and not having to wait until they get home to tell me about their day. I am not oblivious that not everyone gets this same luxury.
Now of course there are other personal reasons as to why we like homeschool. Things that we want to teach our kids, our opinions on various things, the issues in our current county we don’t love, and a whole host of other things that will be different for every family making this decision. But the ones listed above are what tipped the scale for us.
We have been homeschooling for several months now and we love it. It’s not easy, but we have loved this extra time together. My daughter is really enjoying school and loving the time she gets to spend at home. I honestly didn’t think we would enjoy this as much as we have, but it has brought a new bright spot of creativity to motherhood, and I hope it continues to grow and I get better at this as time goes on.
Leave a Reply