I Homeschool

I homeschool my kids. My oldest, who is eight, participated in the public preschool program, which was great. At the time he was a little behind in his development, but through speech therapy and participation in this preschool, he caught up. It was a great program and I loved it. I enrolled him in the kindergarten the year he turned 5. It was a tough year for me. I was not happy about having to schedule my life around the bus, and I was not thoroughly impressed with #1's overall progress. He was pulled out of the classroom almost every day for the special education class and speech therapy. I hated forcing him to do meaningless homework, which taught him nothing, and only caused tension. My #2 stopped taking naps, because the whole bus thing messed up her schedule. Towards the end of the year two incidences that were very serious occurred at school, and I started thinking seriously about pulling him out entirely. I went to the homeschool fair that year and learned that there were THOUSANDS of choices for teaching school. It was very overwhelming. I read many books, trying to get a good idea of which curriculum I should use. My dh was not totally thrilled about the idea of homeschooling. When I presented him with the idea of a public virtual school, he felt comfortable in letting me be #1's teacher. So, I enrolled him in a virtual academy.

The first year was rough. I think overall, #1 liked being at school and being around his friends. It was hard for him to "do school", but I allowed him to move around, and did not force him to sit in his chair, except when he was required to write.

ONE OF THE COMMENTS I HEAR FROM PEOPLE when I tell them I homeschool is, "I DON'T HAVE THE PATIENCE TO HOMESCHOOL." I simply reply, "I don't either." I don't have patience for a lot of things, but it's something I'm learning. I don't know very many people who are born patient. I'm sure there's the rare exception, but patience is mostly learned. One of my favorite quotes is, "PATIENCE IS LEARNING TO HIDE YOUR IMPATIENCE." That's what it boils down to. Hiding my impatience. There are times when I feel like screaming, and I do, or I don't. I still work at it, but I have been gaining perspective as I venture on this crazy journey called homeschooling, and I think I'm making progress. My #1 isn't the only one learning here.

That first year was hard to hide my impatience. The lessons were too long, in my opinion, for a 1st grader, but he learned a lot. We switched academies in 2nd grade to one that was more flexible and allowed me to choose my own curriculum. 2nd grade was a lot smoother. We still had a few bumps in the road, but things were way better than the year before.

Now I am on my 3rd year of homeschooling. Some of my curriculum has changed, some of it hasn't. I don't know if it's his age, or what, but this year is so much better than the other two years. I still struggle with getting him started with school in the morning, but once he starts, he usually sticks to it, with a little prodding. He does his assignments with little complaining, and finishes them quickly.

#1 took the MAP test last year and scored 99th%ile for reading, and about 93% for math. I've thought that if he were still attending the local elementary, he might still be in resource.

SOCIALIZATION is a biggie that people bring up when I mention homeschool. I HOMESCHOOL BECAUSE OF SOCIALIZATION. I don't like the socializing going on in public school. I try to give #1 plenty of opportunities to socialize with kids. He has church, cubscouts, homeschool PE, co-op groups, group piano lessons, and his friends in the neighborhood and town.

My friend wrote a couple of blogs on why she chose to homeschool, and I share many of her sentiments. You can read them here and here.
I hope you don't mind, Jenny!