I've blogged about our schooling decision, and before that, a long post about my thought process. I believe that we are doing the right thing. But I'm anxious and afraid, and it is sometimes hard to remember all the reasons why I am making this choice. So. A reminder for myself.
Why I think homeschooling is important this year:
Jonathan needs two quiet times each day. Even when I think he doesn’t, or shouldn’t, or could get away without them…he needs them. Without that structured time of being calm and still, he gets overwhelmed and falls apart so much more easily.
Kids are mean. This will always be true, but when he’s older he’ll have learned and matured to a better ability to process and handle it. Why throw him into a situation that is guaranteed to cause tears?
Getting everyone out the door in the early morning would not be exactly easy!
Fewer issues of “he has; I want” (hopefully!)
More time for us to work on instilling character qualities.
I can educate him at his pace. He already understands far more of the basics of reading than most kids entering kindergarten. And if he’s bored, he’s more likely to act up.
He can remain part of the fabric of daily life. I think it is as important to learn to empty the dishwasher and sort socks, as it is to learn subtraction. (Note: I do not say more important than subtraction, just that they are both important.)
No wasted time – he can learn about policemen through conversation rather than “social studies”.
Lots of time to play. Because he's only five.
1 comment:
First, I was so completely clueless when I began homeschooling our now 22 yr old daught. No less in the middle of 3rd grade, not from the get-go, it was like walking into a conversation that had begun long before my appearance, and being asked, "So what do you think and we elect you to solve the problem"! It took me years to find the right combo, even now there are days....
About Gov. schools and kindergarten...there is a little boy in our neighborhood that wasn't "allowed" into the local gov. school for kindergarten, because he couldn't read! Yes, {they} want your children already reading before {they'll} take'm! I felt for the little guy, he was so sad and hurt at six years old, he was basically told he wasn't smart enough for kindergarten. Another friend has an autistic son entering middle school this year, so being the "good momma" she began conversing with the "powers that be" in that gov. school last spring...Voicing her concerns about her son being picked on, the counselor asked if she would give the names of the students to him/her that might cause potential problems to her son! My response to her was, that sounds about right, for a gov. school!
We have pretty strong negative things to say about gov. school, which tend to get people all fired up... We both attended gov. school, we've had experience with both private Christian {that's where our oldest began school} and gov. schools {we enrolled her in music for a time and some after school sports in middle school} our experiences with the gov. school were wretched...and painful, it was certainly a time of trial, thankfully, God was merciful towards us and showed us to never again have anything to do with gov. schools.
Thanks for inspiring my next blog post!
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