Why I love Home Education

The past week has been busy! Let me repeat, this past week has been really busy. Last week I felt adjusted to life with a newborn, felt like I had a handle on the housework, I even started cooking again, real meals (not breakfast foods). Then I realized how much I needed to get done for preschool. I worked hard, got tons done and even had time to go to a R.S. activity. Orientations went well and then I worked hard to prepare for the first day of preschool. This week was the first day of preschool, there were a few little bumps, but it went really well, but WOW I am exhausted. I went to bed sore last night, so I knew I would wake up sore today too. I woke up several times during the night by my 2 month old and my 5 year old woke up wet around 5:30 AM, which meant total sheet changing. My hubby woke up around 6 am, and of course the baby woke several more times, but I didn't actually wake up for the day until 8:30 AM. I woke up and the house was dark (thanks the clouds) and quite. So quite! I lay in bed, loving the lighting, the quite, the peaceful feeling of actually getting enough sleep. Can a new Mom get enough sleep if she's up all through out the night? I felt rested, happy, and thankful that my kids didn't have school or they would've been late today. Miss S came in shortly after 8:30 and we sat in bed talking, enjoying the baby. I Finally got out of bed and decided I NEEDED chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes. My little Man (who is getting too big) woke up around 9:30, just in time to help us. Instead of rushing to do some paper work or clean the house we make pancakes together. Miss S read the recipe and learned how to triple the ingredients. Yes, we tripled the recipe; it is that good and they reheat well. My little man stirred while we practiced counting. As we worked I realized this is education...my kids were learning life skills. How to read a recipe is reading, counting is Math, watching the pancakes cook, Science...you get the idea. We will still do more today, but it's been a great morning. Today as I read my previous blogs I was reminded why I teach my children at home. Today is why I LOVE it! My kids are nicely playing downstairs while I catch this moment and write it down. This is a day to remember!

2nd Grade with Mom

 

Teachers BIG helper!

Cooking her own eggs, with out help!

This past week I have seen several posts and blogs about their children’s first day back to school.  My heart has ached with each Mom as they send off their child to school.  I remember that feeling when I sent my oldest to Kindergarten.  I was so proud that she was old enough to be going to school; she walked in with no problems.  I had the problems, I left her and cried, and I couldn’t wait to pick her up again.  I worried if the teacher would love her, if she would make friends, if she would do well on her work.  Throughout the school year each day was easier…until she broke her leg and I felt like I was starting over. Would she be accepted in a wheelchair, who would help her to the bathroom (thankfully Kindergarten was short), would her friends still play with her?  Thankfully I trusted the teacher, and she became very popular with all the kids, they all wanted to push her around.   As her leg healed and her cast got shorter she was getting in and out of her wheelchair and getting around by herself.  Watching her walk again after 9 weeks of being in a wheel chair reminded me of her first steps, I was so proud of her.  Those were some tough weeks; she went for being totally independent to totally dependant on me.  I LOVED spending more time with her, taking care of her and then watching her gain her independence again was bitter sweet.

That was my turning point, when I realized that I wanted more time with my child.  Even though I helped every Friday for 2 hrs in her class and served on the PTA (a little) I didn’t know what she was learning, I didn’t feel a part of her education.  The teacher and Mom inside me became the same person. (That is a whole different story.)

We homeschooled first grade and LOVED it.  Sam is an A type of person, she LOVES school, loves doing worksheets, playing games and doing crafts (she didn’t get that from me, I do not do crafts).  We had good days and bad days; we had easy days and hard days.  She went on field trips, mostly with her cousin, thank you Celest, because I was teaching every day.  We did school before preschool, at lunchtime, after pres-school, on weekends, & holidays, whenever we could.  Some days we didn’t even do school (gasp!).   She helped me in the preschool and learned how to talk softly to the children.  It doesn’t surprise me that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up, though she can’t decide if she’ll be a dance teacher, a swim teacher or maybe a singing teacher.

This year as I read the posts I am grateful for being called to home school my children.  I know that my children will be loved by their teacher, I know what they are doing in school, how to help them & what to teach them.  I don’t have all the answers but I know with the Lord’s help I can do it.  Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but I’m grateful it’s for me.

First Day of Preschool

 

"I didn't do it!

"Honest Mom, I am telling the truth."

My Little Man is hopefully going to do preschool this year, we’ll see. Last year he was my worst student, if I could’ve kicked him out, I would’ve. He interrupted me during story time, he does not sit on the floor with the kids, and he rarely did any type of coloring, cutting or project. He wanted to play with the toys instead of do his work. He did like play time & snack time. Honestly most days I would have him watch Letter Factory or one of the other great Leap Frog videos. Thankfully he played with his favorite friend Turner a lot, so he would only be around for 1 preschool class (THANK YOU JENNY). I LOVE him, but he is a little boy who is very active, loud, silly, mischievous, curious, short tempered, short attention span (unless he’s playing with something that has wheels). Thankfully he is GREAT at church (if I’m not around) and at friend’s houses. T.J. is also so loveable and so sweet. His favorite part of the nighttime routine is cuddling. It is not enough to read a story, he wants to cuddle, sing and just be together. When we watch a movie together he wants to be on my lap, at church he sits on my lap, at soccer games, he sits on my lap. He did great when we did a little homeschooling during the summer. He LOVED sitting on my lap while we practiced the letters and sounds. Ask him what the 5 vowels are and he’ll start singing them. I learned this summer he LOVES music, he is always singing, even in time out he’ll be singing about it. He can cut and do worksheets but would much rather play. He is smart and is learning, but he is more of a hands-on, movement person. The few times he did sing with us during preschool he was standing behind the kids dancing while singing. I didn’t realized he liked dancing, I learned that this Summer when his sister taught a beginners dance/movement class (another great story). He is NOT a sit down, be quite type of student. Is that bad? Would a teacher accept him for who he is? Would he always be in trouble at school? I don’t know, but I do know that he will do great at home, even if he pushes my patience to the limit. This year I don’t know if he’ll attend preschool or not, does it matter? The teacher in me says YES, the Mom in me says NO. If he were going to public school I would push him to conform to help him with the school system. But why should he conform, he’s staying home with me and he’ll be learning while sitting on my lap, what teacher has the time to do that? Thankfully I am planning on doing just that and I will love the closeness, because I am sure someday he will no longer want to sit on my lap *I wrote the above before preschool started and I must admit he did well on his first day of preschool. He actually sat on the floor, of course he HAD to sit by his friend and his cousin but he actually sat on the floor and was with us the whole afternoon. He did disappear for a little while near the end of preschool, I think he wandered upstairs and watched T.V. for a couple min. but he wasn’t gone for long. I was very proud of him and I’m hopeful this will last, but expect we will continue to have good and bad moments.

How I'm going to do it all?

As soon as anyone finds out that I'll be homeschooling my daughter next year and teaching 3 preschool classes, plus raising my active 3 year old they ask how?

I don't have all the answers to how, but I'm working on it. Since I will be home schooling I'll do a lot of the prep and planning during the summer. I'm planning to start during the summer and do more of a year-around approach to homeschooling. That way when I'm stressed with preschool I will feel O.K. about giving Miss S the day off. Not sure how it will all work out, but I know I can take it one week at a time and the Lord will help me.

Once preschool starts in the fall, we will home-school before & after preschool, between classes, nights, weekends, etc. Everything is part of homeschooling. For example: We don't pay for chores, but we do pay for doing work for the preschool. It's my job and I get paid for it and so if she helps with cleaning or getting the room ready for preschool she can get paid for working. The other day she got paid 10 pennies (I know cheap labor, but she is only 6, I'm sure as she gets older I'll pay her more), which then turned into a tithing lesson to figure out how much to pay the Lord. Whenever we get time we'll count her money, trade it for nickles, dimes, quarters and even dollars. We'll talk about saving and even spending it. When I think of all the hands on learning she's already getting it helps me to think outside the box.

I currently don't do any homeschooling work, we tried it for a couple weeks just to see how it might be to have her doing things during preschool hours. She works well in the preschool room or in the office by herself and if she needs me I'm close by. When we started trying homeschooling she would wake up and ask to start on her home-school work. What child wants to wake up and learn? It was excited for me for her to want to play the educational games, read stories, complete mini book reviews and odd and end worksheets. I don't want her always doing worksheets so I'll have to work extra hard to get outside of that teacher box of thinking worksheets are great! I feel like this decision to home-school my children will greatly impact my preschool students lives as well. Because I'm more focused on the process of learning and I want to do even more hands on projects than I've done in the past. There are days that she'll ask for home-school work and I'll gladly give her a stack of stuff so she can choose something out of.

I'm excited to focus on her learning.

Why I'm going to homeschool LONG answers

The following has some of reasons of why I have chosen to home school. I don't LOVE long posts so sorry this one will be long. Some of my reasons are personal, selfish and might make no sense, but they are important to me. Most of these are not reason enough to keep my child out of the public system. But together they are and don’t forget my number 1 reason is I feel the Lord has guided me to this decision. With the Lord behind me I know what I’m doing is for the right reasons. I don’t know how long we’ll home school but with the Lord’s guidance I’m sure we’ll know in the future what’s best for our kids.

At the beginning of the school year I was starting thinking about Homeschooling. It seemed like every time I turned around the subject would come up. My cousin talked to me about it, a girl on my Daughter’s soccer team is being home-schooled and there were other things that made me think about it. I talked to running buddies and a few others about it. When it came down to it I felt like the Lord was leaving the decision up to me. I decided for now I’d leave miss S in school and I felt good about that decision. I decided last fall that my life was too stressed. I left her in school and she's loved it. I don't regret that decision. I do wish I would've done more to challenge her but then again, I've been busy. As the year progressed there have been several times that I’ve thought about homeschooling. Miss S broke her leg and went from being totally independent to being almost totally dependent. We spent tons of time together. Which has led me to my decision now, to home school. I know that it is what is best for our family. Knowing what I know now, I can’t send my kids to school.

My husband’s reasons are clearly political, though I fully support him in those reasons and agree with him. We kept our daughter home on Earth Day because it a political based day. We’re not against taking care of the planet and we feel it is important not to waste. But we’re not going to run out of water, unless the Lord decides to have a drought, He is in charge. I could go on, but you get the idea. Schools are getting filled with political and sexual garbage. Ideas that young children don't need to learn about at school, that we as parents are responsible for teaching. We want our daughter to know our country’s history and constitution.

The year has also been hard in volunteering. I don’t mind helping but I’ve really bitten off more than I can chew. I know how much teachers need help (I taught Kindergarten for 5 years and currently teach preschool), reliable and consistent help. Parents can help a teacher do things they can't. I’ve been in my daughter's classroom almost every Friday for two hours. Though I’ve asked for some Fridays off because I’ve needed them. However I should ask for a lot more Fridays off. Next year I was planning to help only every other week. I just don’t have the time to raise my children, teach and plan for preschool and give a ton of volunteer time. I tell others that I feel I have to help out and they ask why? They tell me I don’t have to, which is true. But I feel a strong need to make sure I know what is going on in my daughter’s classroom. To help out and be involved. I’m also on the PTA board; unfortunately I’ve only been to two meetings. I will be helping with field day. A big project that thankfully most the work is already done. But it’s another example of me trying to be involved and not having the time to do it.

Another thing I’ve had a hard time with this year is I feel like miss S started out really high, not because she is gifted, but because she had 3 years of preschool, her birthday was November 1st and I was her preschool teacher. Now at the end of the year I know she’s learned tons, but she’s not ahead like she was. The first several months were extra hard because of all the review her class did. Homework has been hard because most of it is too easy. I don’t want miss S just doing busy work, I want her challenged. I try and challenge her as much as I can, but I don’t always have the time to do that either. I’ve realized that it’s my fault she wasn’t challenge this year. I didn’t expect her teacher (who we LOVE) to challenge her or keep her far ahead. That is my job and I didn't do it. Every year is going to be the same thing, we’ll work during the summer she’ll start out high and she won’t be challenged. Her teachers won’t know her and what skills she already knows. They’ll continue to review so that all the kids catch up. I’m just not willing to accept that. She doesn’t have to be the smartest student, but I do want her challenged and since that’s my job she might as well be home with me so I can challenge her and do my job. I can continue her learning and not worry about all the wasted time at school. Waiting for other students, waiting for lunch, etc.

Another thing that I can’t handle is sending her to school all day, seriously do they need to be out of the home that long? I know this one is selfish but I love my kids and I love being around them. I’m not perfect I do need my breaks and my alone time but most the time I enjoy my kids. I quit teaching Kindergarten and started teaching preschool in my home because I could not handle letting my child go to a sitter (and I had great family sitters). I had a hard time this year letting her go to Kindergarten, and I couldn’t imagine sending her all day to First grade. Thankfully for now I don’t have to deal with that. Are Mom’s supposed to have so much separation anxiety? I’m O.K. with her going places with out me, for short times and I’m O.K. with lots of situations, but not going to school.

When I’m not working I want to be with my children. If I go on a field trip I want my kids to go too and I did pull miss S out of school to go to the Ogden Treehouse. I called the school one day and told them she wasn’t going to be at school that day, they asked if she was sick and I said no, I just didn’t want to send her. I felt a little guilty but why should I feel guilty at all for wanting to spend some quality time with my daughter.


Bottom line, I know my child, I know where she is and what she needs to learn. I don’t have all the answers on how to teach her yet, but I have a I’ve been spending hours trying to organize everything and I still have tons to do, but I’m getting there. With the Lord's help I know I can teach my daughter the things she needs to learn to succeed in life.

Why I'm going to homeschool Part 1

Yes you read correctly, I am going to home school my 6-year-old daughter. The first question I get after I tell someone that I'm going to home school is Why? (Imagine their shocked face.) Then I have to think, do I tell them the long answer or the short. Today I'm going to start out with the short answer and then when I have time I give write down the LONG answer.

I am home schooling because I know that for right now, in my life, it is the best choice for my daughter and my family. I know the Lord has been preparing me for the past year to accept this challenge. In the past I've either been unwilling or not ready to accept the challenge to home school. Through hours of research, pondering and praying there is no doubt in my mind that I will be home schooling my daughter this Fall. Knowing what I know now I cannot and will not send my daughter to First grade in the public schools.