>Taking Parenting to an Entirely Different Level

>I’m thinking about becoming a homeschooler.

Yes, I’ll wait while you pick your jaws up off the floor and process that for a bit.

Sorry for the bombshell dropped so unceremoniously into your lap there.  I can assure you that this thought process was just as shocking to me and Tony as it might be to you.  After all, I’ve never mentioned wanting to homeschool, or really even that I was considering it.  In fact, I’ll own up to having said – more than ten or twenty times – that I didn’t think I was cut out to homeschool my children. I’m still not entirely sure that I am.

But it seems as though The Universe is pushing me in that direction.  When we first moved here to Okinawa and I was overwhelmed with the idea of trying to find a preschool for Bear, I didn’t know about the abundance of educational opportunities for the littlest ones here; I was considering homeschooling her to prepare her for kindergarten the next year.  It wasn’t until we were partway into October that I came across the perfect preschool for us and enrolled her the next day, and later discovered that there are many, many others to choose from.

I was entirely happy with both of the preschools she attended, and I’m already making plans to enroll Bug in the school Bear attended in Colorado.  To me, preschool isn’t at all about learning letters and numbers or how to write.  It’s about learning to socialize in a more formal setting with children his age, and being around and taking instruction from adults other than Tony and me.  It’s working on gross and fine motor skills, and gaining some independence. It’s about making friends that I’m not pushing him towards, but rather because he’s naturally gravitating in those children’s direction.  Yes, those are all things I can and do work on with him at home, but seeing how much joy Bear received from going to school makes me appreciate how much Bug will benefit from that as well.

I’m also completely happy with the education that Bear is receiving in kindergarten this year.  It’s this pleasure and contentment that are still causing me to question my motives here.  To help explain myself, the following are not the reasons I’m thinking about taking on this challenge and responsibility:

• For religious reasons, either to purposefully incorporate or exclude religion as a part of her education.
• Because I don’t want Bear around other children her age.
• Because I have lost faith in public schools.
• Because I believe I can do a better job at teaching my children than trained professionals.
• Because I want to be around my children all the time.
• Because Bear has shown that she doesn’t enjoy a classroom learning environment.
• Because I think it will help us save money.

Homeschooling, for me, wouldn’t be about any of those things.  Not at all.  None of those reasons are even playing a role in this decision: Bear loves going to school, I have way too many smart and well-educated friends who teach for me to doubt that their training wouldn’t benefit her, and from the research I’ve been doing there are many ways that homeschooling could potentially be as expensive as sending my kids to private schools, but without the respite for me.

I didn’t start reading other blogs until I was blogging more myself, about a year and a half ago.  From the start I found myself drawn to blogs that weren’t about homeschooling, but happened to be written by homeschoolers.  While it wasn’t anything I was considering, I was interested in it.  I guess I’ve been learning through osmosis or the powers of subliminal persuasion since then, and have slowly been reading more and more in recent months.  Then we learned that we’re returning to Colorado, and I’ve always known that I didn’t want Bear attending the elementary school closest to us.  There is a charter school down the street, with a waiting list several years long, and while I would have the option to enroll Bear in a different school in the district I’d be responsible for transporting her.  I’m not big on that; I’d prefer to either walk her there myself or live far enough away that she’d take the bus. 

And then I started hearing comments here and there from friends currently residing in Colorado Springs who aren’t happy with either the public schools in the “better” districts or with the charter schools available.  Private schools aren’t an option for us; we have neither the money nor the interest in going that route.

Slowly the concept of homeschooling started gelling in my mind.  What with all the moving around that I foresee in our future, if I can’t guarantee that they’ll sit next to the same kids from kindergarten through their high school graduation, like I did, I can at least provide them this source of stability in their lives.  And all those ideas about independent projects that I’ve been thinking about doing with our children as they get older, to supplement what they’re learning in school?  They would be feasible and less overwhelming if it were just a part of their lessons, rather than in addition to their schoolwork and homework.

For years now I’ve been telling Tony that I have this plan to work with Bear (and later, Bug) on a ’50 States’ project, where each week we take a US state/territory and learn about it, then have her write a report on each one to present to Tony and me.  At the end of the project we’ll let her plan a family vacation to one or more of the states she’s just learned about.  That idea has morphed to include a ‘US Presidents’ project, and Vice Presidents, and our Solar System, and the Continents of the World, and world animals, and the various religions practiced around the globe, and… well, you get the picture.  Maybe it’s because I don’t feel as though I know enough about these things myself, but I want my children to know about the world they live in.  I also want to make sure that they learn to write well; that they learn to do research from multiple sources that aren’t entirely web-based, and about paragraph structure, and how to give an oral report without peeing their pants.  (Living vicariously through my children?  No way.)

Slowly, I’ve been putting aside the doubts and myths that I previously held regarding homeschooling.  They’ll miss out on interaction with other kids: No.  I can enroll them in Girl/Boy Scouts, and group sports, and attend homeschooling events. I can put them in public schools for art and music classes.  I’m not smart enough to teach my children what they need to know: As I prepare lessons (that may already be planned out for me, depending on the curriculum I choose) I’ll be teaching myself simultaneously.  And what I don’t know I’ll learn, or I’ll find someone who does to help us.  I don’t have enough patience/I’m not organized enough/I can’t stay on task to make it work: I could overcome all of those (self-imposed) obstacles.  Parents only homeschool for religious reasons: Not true.  At all.

Of course I’m still plagued with doubts and fears.  Will I be an effective teacher for my children, the kind that they want to and can learn from?  Will I get so burnt out that I’ll feel like a failure if I decide to put them back in public schools?  Will I lose my mind by being with my children so much and not getting the “break” I’ve been looking forward to?  Am I really up for being my children’s primary teacher and companion for the next 15 years?  Is this really the best decision for me and our family?

I don’t know the answers to any of those questions.  I can’t guarantee that this will work out, or that I’ll be happy with the curriculum I decide to choose the first time around.  I just started researching homeschool curricula options and – WOW – I had no idea there were so many choices.  I’m told first that I need to determine what my “homeschooling philosophy” is, and write up a “family mission statement”.  From there I can decide whether I want to work with a Classical curriculum, or a traditional one, unit studies, or a method called Charlotte Mason.  If I were so inclined I could go with  nearly any religion-based method of schooling.   The choices are endless, the resources are astounding, and it’s all completely and utterly overwhelming.

I can already see myself borrowing and reading books on the subject; that my pleasure reading will take a backseat to my pursuit of determining if this really is a good decision for Bear, and for me.  I can see myself pestering people, soliciting opinions, and changing my mind from week to week.  For now, the worst case scenario looks like this: I do all the research, decide that homeschooling isn’t really what I want to do, and Bear attends a (perfectly fine, if located in a sketchy neighborhood) public elementary school when we return to Colorado.  Best case scenario: I discover that my earliest dreams to be a third grade teacher have worked themselves out in a way I never imagined possible.  The reality, I imagine, will lie somewhere in between.  But for now, the options are endless.

---

Please click through to Critter Chronicles for pictures and more content.

Become a Fan of Critter Chronicles on Facebook

All content © HMGBlogs 2007-2011