Why Do You Home School?

I have been awful about getting on here and posting. In attempt to change that, I pose THE loaded question for families who home-educate their children. Why do you home school?

Everyone asks, Mom and Dad, Soccer Coach, Best Friend, etc. Those with children in school or grown often feel the need at this point (sometimes before an answer is even given) to qualify their reasoning for taking advantage of the public school system. Possibly these parents are threatened by Home Schooling Parent, and want to make DANG sure she knows that they made the right decision for their family. Others seem to have reached a collective consciousness; school gives parents a necessary break. Inundated with stories of hyperactive children and homework tantrums, need for dual income or fear of isolating a child from peers, it becomes apparent that the questioner is inferring one of three things about the questionee. Either A, Home Schooling Parent's children are perfect, B, Home Schooling Parent is completely obsessed with her child, or C, Home Schooling Parent is some kind of zealot who is paranoid that the public education system will indoctrinate and inevitably ruin her child. We all know that A is false, leaving us with either B or C (either way - CRAZY!)

After two years of home schooling, and still lacking a quick response to that question, I found that I was asking it of myself. After much reflection I have found my answer to the question, "Why do you home school?" No one item below is THE definitive reason, but taken collectively they provided me with enough evidence to suggest that I am making the right decision for our family.

*I truly believe that parents can more effectively teach their own children than a 'teacher'
*To strive for academic excellency, not just a passing WASL test.
*To sensor material being taught for quality and accuracy
*To get to re-learn everything!
*To protect my kids from other kids (Have you ever read Lord of the Flies!?)
*To slow life down a bit and spend time enjoying the family, not just running between sports practices and McDonald's
*Health concerns (food allergies and ADD)

It Is Better to be Slightly Concerned About Socialization Than Very Concerned About Socialism

Our first week of the 2009-2010 school year is complete!

This week in history we learned all about the first men. We talked about nomads who had to wander around looking for plants, berries, and animals. Ashton and I made a cave and he had fun making cave paintings of horses and oxen - just like the nomads, although I believe tempra paint was not an option at the time... We learned that some nomads found that they could grow plants on purpose by leaving the seeds in dirt and watering them. They no longer had to wander from place to place, and became the first farmers. (This led in well with Hailey's pre-K program which is focusing on food grown on farms right now.) We blasted through talking about the first civilizations in the Fertile Crescent (the land between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers) which is located in present day Iraq. The rise of the Sumerians, conquering and falling of the Assyrians, and the gaining of the Babylonian empire.

Keep in mind this is Kindergarten, so I am not expecting him to really remember any of this in detail. He is really enjoying listening to all the reading so far though. What has been most interesting to me is the type of questions he is asking. Perhaps this is the intent of the program... it isn't so much learning about specific events in history as it is learning about the human condition. "Is an army bad guys?" Wow. Talk about a difficult question to answer! My answer is that an army is made up of soldiers, and it is those soldiers' job to do what their boss (the leader of the country) says. Sometimes the leaders have bad motives, and sometimes they are just trying to protect their people.

Math has been super easy this week. We just switched from Singapore pre-K to Horizons K. We'll see how Horizons goes, but when he is finished we will probably switch back to Singapore. I only switched because Horizons came free with the History/Phonics package I purchased. So far it seems MUCH easier than Singapore, and Ashton has a pretty mathematical mind. I think next week I will let him finish as many worksheets as he wants (he ALWAYS wants to do more math than we do in a day). It seems that he has sorta forgotten his left and right though. He remembers when I ask him which hand he writes with.

We are switching from a horizontal phonics program to a vertical phonics program, so right now reading is a bit of a step backwards. When we really have "all" the letter sounds and combinations down I think the vertical method will translate much better into actual reading of real books, not just phonics readers.

Oh, we got a violin this week too. It is 1/8 size and so cute and tiny! Ashton's first Orchestra class is next Tuesday.