Homeschool?

It’s interesting. Although homeschooling is becoming a bigger movement in education it’s still relatively scarce. Right now we are on our second time of homeschooling. The first was when Monkey was in 2nd grade. This year both Monkey and Tiger were in school for a little more than the first half and then we decided that it was time for us to pull in a bit and try homeschooling again.

To be honest as much as I had been frustrated with the education system that I had growing up homeschooling had never really occured to me at all. The year before Monkey was in Kindergarten I found out that two families at our church homeschooled and that another with a child the same age as Monkey had planned on beginning homeschooling for their family that following year. As I listened to them talk about some of the different activities and curriculum I thought it was interesting and there were definitely some aspects that appealed to me but overall I didn’t really think of it as something that would work for us and just put it toward the back of my brain as something interesting.

Monkey had a fabulous kindergarten year. She loved her teacher and loved school and despite the usual minor bumps she really enjoyed it. First grade was much harder for her and was complicated by some pretty intense family losses. As we considered 2nd grade it just fell into place where I felt like homeschooling was at the very least something worth trying. This year has been somewhat the same - lots of little things from multiple directions that ultimately left us pulling them from traditional schooling again.

There are definitely ups and downs to homeschool. Sometimes it’s really hard to get them to do work or get them occupied with something long enough for me to get work done. They miss friends from school and things like that. There are really awesome moments too - moments when they’re excited to learn something new or help with Bear or the housework. I’ve also noticed that they get along with each other a lot more than they used to (not perfectly but much better than they were). They can set the pace for their learning and choose to focus on things that they might not get the chance to with a typical classroom setting.

Anyways, I’m not sure what our plan will be for next year. I just know that right now choosing to homeschool has been a blessing for all of us. I’m just thankful for the people who have helped us to realize that it wasn’t as big, scary, and different as I had first thought and helped us to realize that it is possible.