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Is homeschooling the right choice for your family? Part 2

Making the decision to homeschool is not easy. There are so many questions- from you, your kids, your spouse, friends, family. It was a decision that scared me so much, I shut down and refused to talk about it for any significant length of time for year. I told my husband I wasn’t ready for that. I said the kids couldn’t learn from me. At least not to read anyways, so we should send them to kindergarten first. I tried and failed miserably to teach my oldest how to read. Looking back, I was expecting too much of her too soon, but it left me so frustrated and defeated that I thought I couldn’t do it. I quit trying to teach her before I did “more harm than good” and figured her teacher could teach her to read. She excelled in kindergarten. She is now in second grade and reads entire Harry Potter books on her own.

Because of that experience, I wouldn’t even try with my younger daughter. She learned to read just fine in kindergarten. She also loves reading now, and is reading slightly above her grade level. In the 4 years that have passed since my failed first attempt, I’ve learned that I can teach kids to read. I’ve done it online for over 2 years now. My mistake with my daughter came when I was expecting her to sound out words, but she didn’t know all of the letter sounds yet. I forgot about the very basics, and was frustrated when she couldn’t get something that I thought of as easy. My takeaway from that experience is that the teacher has the benefit of knowledge. It makes sense to you and is easy to you because you already know it. It’s a foreign language to the learner, so it is imperative that the teacher break it down to the smallest concept possible. I’ll implement this when it’s time to teach my sons how to read.

Once I overcame my fear of teaching my own children, I had to ask if homeschooling was really best for them. After 9 months of them being home, and 6 months of me as their primary teacher I have to say it is. The stability and predictability we have found with homeschooling has been needed by all of us. My younger daughter has a difficult time with transitions. Morning routine- wake up, dress, eat, out the door, was often rough on her. She’d oversleep, which led to chaos, and well, you know the story. While I liked the school my children attended, I like our relaxed morning routine more. The stress of wondering if they made the bus is gone. I don’t have to anxiously watch out the window while feeding the boys to check for the bus. Or wonder if their bus made it to school okay. Mornings are less chaotic for all of us now. And we control our schedule. I can plan trips to family whenever I want, and we can take school with us, or take a break. We’ve adapted a 4 day book work/traditional schooling routine and a day of hands on learning. This has been something we all look forward to. We’ve visited local museums, parks, done science experiments, crafts, service projects and more. Having a dedicated day to step away from the books and continue learning has been a great application of our homeschool goals.

That all sounds great, but what about socialization? Well, if it weren’t 2020 I’d have a different answer. This is one of my biggest concerns too. The pandemic certainly affected our decision to homeschool. Public schools became too uncertain and too unreliable. My kids and family needed something predictable and certain. Unfortunately, my family has two medically vulnerable members. Public school, regardless of precautions in place, significantly increased our chances of someone becoming severely ill. We’ve had to say no to a lot of things this year. We’ve had to see less of our friends, as have many of you. Our normal social activities- church and playgroups- have been switched to online streaming or not happening at all. While we’ve been taking extra precautions, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I expect we will be able to find new socialization routines in coming months. We will pursue homeschool groups, play groups, sports, community service, and church activities with a new vigor. My kids love people. Keeping them away from others has been the most heartbreaking part of 2020.

I expect to continue homeschooling for the 2021-2022 school year. Pandemic aside, we have grown to love being together. I enjoy being a vital part of my children’s education and watching them get excited about learning. I love watching them explore. I love when they share what they’ve created with me, or make a new connection about a concept we’ve been discussing. I love making opportunities to connect to learning after the school day is “over.” The three hours we had between them getting off the bus and bed time just was not enough. We stopped the hamster wheel, and I don’t intend to get back on it.

What does your family value? How do those values translate into your children’s education? This free goal planner will help you start implementing your family’s goals today!

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