Why Do I Homeschool?
By A Member at 23 January, 2009, 12:55 am
I had never even considered homeschooling my kids. When it came time for Sweet Pea to go off to kindergarten, she did and did beautifully minus like two weeks when she suddenly decided that she was sick of school and wouldn’t go back. She was learning well and loving every minute of it. Then we sent Buttercup to preschool and things started to get tricky. Even with preschool, she was struggling. The PLAY part was great, the interactive learning part was great, but anything written was a challenge. I thought it was no big deal though, that she just needed to mature more in order to settle into being able to do written work. Kindergarten started and things only got worse. More written work just meant more struggles, which then lead to a very unhappy little girl.
Because of major work struggles for Terry, we had to move only 3 months into kindergarten so I crossed my fingers that the new school would make a difference for her. No such luck! Things just got worse. By February I was done and she was way beyond done! I had realized from working with her so much at home that the problem was definitely NOT that she COULDN’T do what was being asked of her, but more that she couldn’t in class. After consulting with the teacher, meetings with the guidance counselor, and visits to the doctor, and lots of research, we discovered that she has ADD (I say ADD because hyperactivity isn’t her issue, but ATTENTION certainly is). Between the fact that the school was being rediculous and borderline verbally abusive to Buttercup as well as 2 other kids with ADD/ADHD in the class, plus seeing that she was very capable when taught one on one, we decided to homeschool her.
At this point, Sweet Pea was starting to hate school. In NC she was barely challenged at school, but in FL there was no challenge at all. She was practically redoing everything that she had done the previous year in NC. But I did have fears about pulling her out of school and away from her friends. We decided to give her the choice and she chose homeschool. I was sooo glad!
And so the adventure began! It has been quite rocky at times, but certainly the most rewarding and best decision that we have ever made.
Along the way, my list of reasons for continuing to homeschool my kids has certainly grown! Yes, giving Buttercup the one on one attention and eliminate the distractions in her learning environment is a biggie for us. And continuing to allow Sweet Pea to excel in the areas that she can without overwhelming her in the areas that she struggles with is very important. But now there is much more.
Now I realize that my children are actually allowed to be individuals without being compared to 20-30 other children and ranked according to their strengths and weaknesses. That is not usually the case in public school. My children are able to take all the time they need to learn each thing, regardless of what speed the people around them are learning. My children don’t spend wasted hours in a classroom waiting to finally catch some useful information. And most importantly, my children get to be CHILDREN. They don’t have all of the stress and pressure that public school puts on kids. Now that isn’t to say that I don’t push them! They will certainly tell you that I am the hardest teacher they have met, lol. But they know that I am just pushing them to do their best and learn, rather than being nasty to them in order to get them to pass some stupid test to make our school’s numbers look good. They know that this teacher truly wants them to LEARN regardless of what is on paper. That is the kind of learning experience I want for my children. I want for my children to grow up and know that learning can be fun and that knowledge truly is priceless.
Can these things be achieved if your kids are in public school? Sure. Are there negatives about homeschooling?? Sure. Is homeschooling best for everyone?? Absolutely not! But for us, the negatives are definitely outweighed by the positives.
Brandee can be found blogging at her personal site, Living The Gypsee Life.
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