I haven’t shared much about homeschooling until now…..but, today I feel compelled to share some of our experience. This will give you a background into why we are currently homeschooling.
(Picture of hooks from Anthropologie.)
First and foremost, I ask each parent out there to be understanding of others. When you hear someone say they are homeschooling, please don’t respond with – “I could never do that.” Instead say an encouraging word such as – “that is great!” Don’t judge. And, likewise, if you are a homeschooling parent, please don’t act surprised when someone says their children attend a school, rather it be public or private. I have to say that first hand I am frusturated by the judgements that go both ways, from both parties.
Frankly, we probably have too many choices in education and therefore keep questioning if what we have decided for our children is the best decision or not. When I was growing up I don’t remember any stress around the decision, I went to public school K-12, and did just fine. Now, we find ourselves, as parents asking if we should look into charter schools, or private options, it is confusing and somewhat intimidating.
As parents we need to be confident that what we decide for our children is the right choice, we know our children the best and what their particular needs are. In our home we have taken the approach of – one year at a time. We don’t have to plan where our six year old might attend High School, we just need to focus on her current year in first grade.
Our children have each spent time in a wonderful private Christian preschool. My older two children have each attended several years at our neighborhood public school. Then, since spring of 2011, all three have been homeschooled by little old me. I get asked, were you a teacher? No. I simply answered God’s call to homeschool, which was also prompted by my eldest almost two years ago, because she wanted to be challenged more educationally. (Something that I can totally not relate to, I mean if school is easy for you, you can just sit back and cruise right?)
We are now looking ahead to January when all three will jump back into a traditional school setting at an International private school in Portugal. We feel that they are ready for a change and the social benefits of connecting in a school will help to ease their transition of moving to a different country.I love that we have peace in our decision, and that we also know we can always pick up homeschooling again if a different season calls us to do so.
Be sure to check out the following posts – I cover my love and lack of love for Homeschooling.
