Tip-toeing into Homeschooling
What does the image bring for you?
When the topic came up, we like many others, would breathe a deep sigh, and stereotypical images and thoughts often would come up.
We couldn't imagine ourselves homeschooling and like many other parents, never felt that would be a subject that we would have to deal with. However, we do live in changing times and a changing climate, and the reality was that we were going to have to make that choice whether we had planned to or not.
Sure we would talk about homeschooling, but often in a laughing tone of my husband working in some far off country or in the deep regions of Alaska (don't ask what we were thinking there other than we were reading too much Hemingway and adventure books I guess), and as a last resort, I would just stay where-ever home was and teach the kids, myself.
I was educated, I enjoyed organization too much and it was a joy each day being with the kids. I pray that you understand Gentle Reader and not start with the flaming comments, but I was just one of those moms, who, if I'm going to stay-at-home, I'm going to stay-at-home but that also meant being involved with the kids lives and not just shuttling them to one class to another each week, but getting them involved around the house and engaging in activities, play dates, and just being a mom.
Plus it was a pay cut for us, having me stay at home, but a worthwhile sacrifice to be a stay at home, but that also meant being very careful stewards with our money and not being able to afford what other families can do.
Not that there is anything wrong with shuttling kids around to one class after another or in hourly programs to give moms a break, but financially that isn't an option for us as much as it is for others so we had to do things that didn't involve money or cost us money.
Basically, our thinking and budget is, if it costs money that we had to budget in as a one income family, then I might as well be working out of the home as well to supplement it, but if I'm going to stay at home, part of being a good steward of our finances and supporting being a stay at home was making sacrifices that included doing what they use to do before hourly mother programs and classes, and we would be creative,at home. to keep busy and entertain.
So, Homeschooling wasn't something we took lightly.
It meant me not only not going back into the paying workforce, but staying in a workforce that was paying off spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically (how many of you can say you can order pizza to work and top it off with an ice cream shake...Oh, you work in a restaurant? Never mind. You get paid too as well? Wow. Want to trade? Just kidding....really...I am....o-kay...just come and cook for me for free and we're even), but without the paycheck.
However, for me....a hug and kiss and "I love you momma," is the best paycheck at the end of the day.....That and "Honey, I'm home", top with the dog making it through the day without getting peanut butter on him...and maybe the couch and kids too so it wasn't a bad idea but just something up till now we hadn't really thought about it to a large extent.
We were well prepared to consider public school and had attended a meeting at the local schools to find out more what they provided to kids on the public education level, because we really wanted to find out what public school had to offer to our kids.
These are our kids and it matter to us what they were learning, how they were learning and where they were learning and we got to find out everything to expect before our kids started public school and was it a doozy.
I was so glad we took the time to really look at both sides of the pictures, both the pro's and con's of both public schooling and homeschooling.
We were given what we thought was a well-thought out, balanced presentation of the curriculum, the expectations and the desires but as we weighed the pros and cons of me staying home and home schooling versus public school, began to realize there were more benefits to home schooling than there were public schools.
There was genuine concerns about the structure and the fact that we were concerned about how they were going to learn and to be taught and how little input we felt as parents we were able to give.
PTA is great for some, but I wanted to do more than just bake a million cookies on Sunday night for a Monday morning class, I was not told about until I did the laundry and found the neon green paper with lights flashing, stuff in the back pocket of the jeans.I really wanted to feel I had more of a choice and input on how they were learning, what they were learning and being able to challenge them when they needed to be challenge.
True they would be able to get that in a public school, but there are some things they would not have been able to get in a public school and we couldn't afford private education, particularly at a Christian private school, which for us, and not saying for everyone, but for us, was also an important factor in our decision making if they should or should not go to public school.
This wasn't an overnight decision and we didn't make the decision lightly.
We slept on it literally for several weeks.
At night, my husband and I took to the internet to research both sides of the stories....I really took extra attention to blogs I visit ,written by women who home schooled, that I didn't really pay much attention before about home schooling because it wasn't something I thought was going to be in our future at the time, and really read from their perspective, taking time and care to make sure I heard both the good and particularly any bad of home schooling.
I researched local homeschooling groups and state and national based; I talked to teachers who taught at public school to get their perspective; I talked to moms who home schooled not just the first time but who have seen their kids through homeschooling from Pre-K to high school.
It helped that there was a couple at our church, an assistant pastor and his wife who tag-team, homeschooling their children so we were able to get a perspective of how they were able to do it and not just get a woman's viewpoint but a man's viewpoint about homeschooling. They had even tried public school for awhile until both their kids personally requested that they went back to homeschooling.
The best thing with homeschooling is that there was always next year if it didn't work out and homeschooling is not just a lifetime commitment, but something to take one year at a time.
We were concerned parents who wanted to prepare ourselves for the first year and wanted to be informed parents trying to make the best decision for us and our family.
We're not talking about tackling the world's issues at hand, but when it came to little people we love, cherish and praise God for, each and every day, we wanted to make the right decisions for our family.
This will be a huge step and something that we knew we had to brace ourselves financially, physically, mentally, emotionally and most importantly, spiritually. So we did what we knew we had to do first and foremost before all things.
We got on our knees and prayed to God to lead us, lead our hearts and guide our decision as we debated, should we home school?
Proverbs 3:5,"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding"
I drill moms who home school and basically said, don't tell me just the benefits, but the pitfalls I had to watch for and prepare....talk to me like they wanted to talk me out of homeschooling so I could see where my heart really lay and if this is the path that God was calling us to take.
I praise God that when He challenges us, He doesn't take a hula hoop and say, "Jump," but that He sets it on fire and digs a moat fill with sharks and then says, "Trust me, Jump and see what happens."
We challenge ourselves and ask ourselves,"Really...what is our goal for doing this? Why are we doing this?"
We really took the time to think about the kids and weighed the pros and cons. Do they have the temperament to home school or are we better off letting them go to public school.
We set a date.
X date is when we will start homeschooling.
These past few months, we've been slowly preparing the kids to see how they would react to being home school (don't worry, no lab experiments).
Basically, we were blessed to have a spare room so we let them know with excitement, "This is going to be your school room in x months, what do you think?"
We listen to what and how they responded.
We already make it a practice that we don't have the t.v. going on particularly during the day and most of the time, me and the kids have one on one activities....if they aren't playing together, then they and myself were off having story time or we are playing with their toys or just having some type of interactive activity like..well ...they help me with my plants and I talk to them why and how plants grow.
I took the time to really get a sense of their learning style and if we could do this together. I printed out worksheets for learning the abc's and we would work on them together.
As a family, in the car, we have the i-spy spelling game.Basic ally, they spy a word, we spell it together (much more fun and sanity preserving than singing BINGO on a road trip) and we look for colors in the signs or cars that pass.
During traffic, we would "read" license plates" and play find a number or letter of the alphabet and they would have to spot it on a license plate (I wonder how many officers are taking notes so they can sharpen their skills to catching speeders this way?).
We began to realize that we could do this and could get a hang of it...after all, most of the learning done in school is based on a mixture of out of a textbook and creativity so how would it be any different at home.
In addition for a small fee, I am joining a local group and a state based homeschooling group and the only thing we are debating is whether or not it's worth to join " HSLDA " (if you have any pros or cons to joining, I would love to hear from you via comment or send me an email, please).
I have my teacher's binder setup and separated by "Lesson Plans" which is further broken down into Language Arts (Reading,Grammar), Penmanship, Science, Math, Social Science, Bible Study and Civics & Good Citizenship. In addition, under "Lesson Plans" I have "Grades & Attendance", Resource Material and Worksheets in the Teacher's Binder.
We are setting up a medium size dry erase board (not the one that fit's on the refrigerator, think bigger), a cheap bookshelf for the books and I'm on the lookout for a used file cabinet to store worksheets and records in.
I made sure to get a course of study to help me keep track of the books we will use and since I'm married not only to my husband, but to my day planner (want to really confuse me?? Kidnap my day planner...that'll throw my day off for sure) I keep a section for Homeschooling in my day planner, so when I'm away from home, I can work on lesson plans, or keep track of field trips, plus I have a weekly lesson plan that I print off from my Outlook.
This June, we are going to try and make it to the homeschooling book fair that we were referred to, to examine the different curriculum's that are out there and decide which will be the best for us to go.
For the kids, we are going to have them design their own binders to not only personalize the binders but help them get that full participation in their learning experience, so yes, we're committed to homeschooling and learning how to be successful.
Most of all, I definitely would appreciate any tips from all of you, Gentle Readers, who are seasoned home schoolers. We're excited and praying and just giving this to God to lead us where we need to be led in this new stage in our lives.
Sunflower Faith is a quiet, sometimes silly, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes serious, follower of Christ sharing words of devotion, encouragement and hope that is always about our Father in Heaven. So grab a cup of coffee and join Sunflower Faith in words of growth, hope and more all in the spirit of 2 Peter 1:5-8 .
8 comments
I know you will be a great homeschooling mom (and dad) and I feel so confident about this for you and the kids. I'm so glad you decided to go this route. I would have years ago with Kristyn if I'd had the information available I have now. (She's 23 now.) My prayers are with you as you embark on this journey of faith in God and education of your children. God bless you, Twinkle Mom!
@Rebecca: Wow..that's third time isn't it? Hmmm....maybe it means all the words are "redemption"? Just kidding...lol
We're very excited and the kids have been SO excited that they are telling everyone that "Mommy is their teacher".
I just found out that my neighbor had thought about homeschooling and was interested in what I had learned as far as guidelines because she is actually thinking of homeschooling herself and hadn't known anyone who did....so she has been asking a lot of questions too...so it's a good thing...it keeps me challenge and accountable.
Denise, Thank You and everyone else for your warm wishes and prayers; We are excited to see the direction that God is leading us in this and just praying for His strength, encouragement and guidance in this.
Hello Twinkle Mom, We have homeschooled for the last 4 years and have loved every minute of it. Our son has thrived. You will enjoy the rhythm of your own family rather than the imposed one of the schools. We have a great ISP program run by the author of A Call To Brilliance, Resa S. Brown. I highly recommend her book to all parents, teachers, administrators and anyone interested in education or in homeschooling. We haven't joined any other groups online or locally. We get our curriculum free through a neighboring public school district and our library is our best friend. Some of the kids in the program also attend jr. college classes(as young as 11-14) which will count toward their (early) college degrees. E-mail me. I'll try to answer any questions and we can talk about it more.
How wonderful! Congratulations and enjoy the journey. The biggest challenge for me was mostly related to the beginning of your entry...my own stereotypes of perfect homeschoolers. I failed at that standard and always thought we weren't doing "enough." That and I tried to copy the public school model in my home. But I learned to relax, trust God and enjoy my children more.
I wrote a bit about HSLDA awhile back you might be interested in. We were members when we started, but let it expire. It is something to be carefully considered.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask! It sounds like you know a lot of people who are homeschooling, though, so you should have a bit of support their close to you.
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