Why Homeschool??

I only get one shot at this. My child is in his swim trunks waiting to jump of the high board into the pool below, his preparation will determine how he lands. When I was younger (not that I am old) I would have never imagined homeschooling. I had so many great memories of public school and I wanted my children to have the same experiences. I desired for them to have my special moments because it felt secure to me, I thought "if only they have the same great memories I do, they can't turn out worse than me.". I grew to realize what was really important in life. The uniqueness of my children, and the potential in a young mind.

As my son, William, approaches school age I start to feel a panic. Is he ready? Will he meet expectations? Will he make enough friends? But, How silly is this? The one thing that I always struggle to remember is my children are little people, not that different from young adults. They struggle with right and wrong, greatly desire control and independence, they need assurance from others and need to feel wanted. Most importantly one child is not like the other. Yet, here I am already trying to conform my son to meet expectations not set for him. I suddenly had this yearning to get to know my child, and to view my role as a mother and member of society differently. My son needs to learn how to be himself, that is the only way he can be the best him. I now believe that my job is to teach him to be as self sufficient as possible, good lifestyle habits, to respect himself and life, and most of all to love him unconditionally. Respecting others is a huge lesson that will get him far in life, and learning to communicate will help him to be heard. I do not believe in controlling my child, I want to give him as many choices and options to become himself as I can. This way he will start learning from life experience earlier in life. Actions have consequences. Once I started parenting this way, it became less stressful and everyone felt the relief. But now my son is about to go off to the place that causes the most stress, school. It would be one thing if schools could have more individualized education plans and standards for everybody. This is simply unrealistic with the teacher to student ratio. How can a child grow to be wise if he is spending most of his childhood trying to be like everyone else instead of learning to be himself.

I love spending time with my kids (most of the time) and the more time we spend together the more practice we get learning how to get along and live in close quarters. This is such a valuable skill to have that will benefit them in their future careers and relationships. Kids often get grouchy and forget how to get along with those they live with after spending at least eight hours a day at school with other children. By the time they are ready to leave the nest hopefully this skill will be a lifestyle and prepare them more for the workforce than public school. They can't learn to much from their peers who have roughly the same sized brain. Being around mostly adults and children of all ages will not only give them a chance to teach and be proud of what they know but also give them a chance to learn from those much older than them.

The idea of homeschooling started to feel more and more comfortable as I broadened my views . The deeper I thought about it the more it felt right. Open schedule, freedom to learn any subject at anytime, freedom to play and be goofy, and to my surprise even more time with friends than I could have thought possible. My list for the reasons I want to homeschool now is so long that I could not possible fit it into this blog. I also do not want to be misunderstood, I have the privilege of having a lifestyle that allows me to homeschool, and I think that a large part of how a child experiences public school comes down to the parenting and love when they get home. So if you are choosing that route please do not beat yourself up. If you love and invest in your child that is the most you can do, the rest is up to them. For me, homeschooling has turned into a passion and we are just barely starting Kindergarten! My only shot, will my kids be ready for the plunge into life?