Considering Home-School: Why It Was The Right Choice for Us!

 When I first started mentioning that we were considering homeschooling  our kids, I can’t tell you how many scoffed at the idea or tried to talk us out of it.  People have VERY strong opinions on homeschooling…  including those who have zero experience with it!  I’ve been warned to  make sure my children remain properly socialized, I’ve been asked about  our (presumably very conservative) religious leanings, and I’ve had  people with kids in public school take offense that we were considering  removing ours.  Our personal choice to home school is just that – it’s a  personal choice.  Our kids are happy, healthy, and they’re learning a lot, developing crucial skills, and growing as people.  THAT’S WHAT MATTERS.   I do not need to justify our choice to anyone; however I will explain why we made this choice as I feel it will resonate with many other  parents. 

 

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 Neither of our children (hell, nobody in our family) fits into the  neat “normal” box that society demands.  We have always found teachers  and staff very caring, but there were simply not enough educators to go  around.  Once our son entered middle school, he was handed an iPad as an  “educational tool” and spent a tremendous amount of class time  switching around different apps for digital projects.  We worried about  how much actual learning was taking place.  Our daughter was already  being picked on for her appearance in the first grade.  Both kids were  doing well academically according to grades, standardized tests, and  report cards, however we had concerns about the reliability of these  metrics.  Additionally, our son was having significant struggles  socially and behaviorally, and there were simply not enough resources to  ensure that he wouldn’t fall through the cracks.

Also, budget cuts mean that mainstream public school is seriously  lacking in arts, music, physical education, and other critical classes  that help develop our children into well-rounded young adults. (Remember home ec and industrial technology?)    The district had millions to spend on iPads, but apparently not  enough money to invest in the very people – teachers – who are tasked  with imbuing the next generation with the knowledge and skills required  to be proper functioning adults.  Don’t even get me started with how incredibly wrong it is to send marketing emails from Apple to my child’s public school email!

Of course at the end of the day, the responsibility really falls on  parents to raise their children – we cannot expect the school to do it  for us.  Many parents are not only juggling both working full-time  outside the home, but also extra-curricular activities in an effort to  fill these competency gaps.  While we participated in some  extra-curriculars, our kids suffered from lack of down-time and the  freedom to be just kids.  We are very fortunate to be able to make the  choice for our kids to step back, simplify our life, and invest in their  learning full-time. 

So why is homeschooling a good choice for us?

Flexibility

Our kids learn at their own pace.  If one of the kids encounters a  difficult math concept, we can take the time to understand it before we  move on to the next topic.  Conversely, if a subject is easy, we can  review it quickly and keep moving. This limits busywork and keeps  learning interesting, and focuses on knowledge and skill mastery. 

One-on-one instruction

Individual attention has made a world of difference for our kids’  learning.  Through home school I can take the time to individually work  with them to ensure they’re understanding the material. 

Less screen time

No more staring at a school iPad for hours at a time!  Both our kids  prefer learning the “old fashioned way” — paper and pencil, instruction  and hands-on activities, and reading from an actual book.   Through home  school, we can accommodate that.  Of course we still use technology  quite a bit, but screen time is limited to certain school projects  (PowerPoint presentations are a favorite at our house) and fun. 

Applied learning

The beauty of home school is that we can immediately incorporate  everything we’re learning to the real world.  While studying geometry,  we used a quadrant to estimate the height of various trees around our  property.  I tied gardening concepts into our life science curriculum.   We practice fractions while baking.  While planting corn kernels this  spring, we discussed the cultural significance of corn in Aztec and Maya  cultures and how they selectively bred teosinte to produce the maize we  know today.  The possibilities are endless and learning never stops. 

Freedom to pursue interests

With our schedule being so flexible, we are now free to participate  in a wide variety of activities off the property.  We attend educational  workshops and activities at our local library often, we participate in  4-H, we go on field trips that tie into what we’re currently studying,  and we connect with other home school families.  Home school is very  popular in our area! These are just a few of the reasons why we’ve gone the home school  route.  As I’ll discuss in later posts, the transition was anything but  smooth and the learning curve, for me, was huge, but so far it’s been  worth it! 

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