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Just like I wouldn’t want someone judging or making assumptions about our lifestyle decisions I don’t do it to families who choose to have their kids in traditional classrooms. I Know there are excellent teachers. Heck I follow many teacher blogs who are just fantastic! We each have our own reasons and I actually think it’s pretty cool how diverse things are these days.
Safety
We have talked about homeschooling ever since Little Wright was a baby. Part of it has to do with fear. Fear of her safety. Fear of who will influence her and what types of things she will be influenced by. Fear of the crazy kids who shoot people. Fear she could be bullied. Fear she isn’t get the best education. Fear she could be kidnapped or harassed. I know it may sound extreme to some people, but we tend to heir on the cautious side. It’s not unrealistic at all for any of these things to happen. We’re I’m a control freak.
Education
Unless you can afford private school or can get your kid into a charter school, the school your child gets into depends on where you live. In Colorado anyway. I’m not familiar with other states laws. I want our daughter to have access to the best education. We are a learning family. We love watching documentaries and reading about science and technology and going to museums. We are hardcore geeks. We want our kids to be hardcore geeks too. So far, I absolutely LOVE teaching kindergarten. Teaching is more than just having the knowledge, it’s knowing HOW to get your child to connect the information and to help them “get it”. It is the greatest feeling knowing I have taught our daughter how to read and write and do math.
Aside from these things I love that we don’t have homework in the evenings.
Values
I’m involved in all our coop activities, groups and playdates. I know exactly who our daughter is around and is being influenced by. We are able to minimize the risk of bad influences and maximize her exposure to people with values similar to ours. This is not to say that parents who have kids in traditional school aren’t involved. I have several friends who are very involved in all of their kids school activities. I’m not comparing and hope it doesn’t come across that way.
It isn’t glamorous. I tend to showcase the good and exciting parts of homeschool, but it is challenging. It will test your sanity. It will wear you out sometimes. But man, do I love when I get to witness my child have her “aha” moments. It’s so worth it.
Any of you homeschool? Anyone thinking of homeschooling? Anyone with questinos about homeschooling?
Becca
