We Love Homeschooling

We began homeschooling the kids this past fall. L is pre-k and J is preschool. There were several factors that led our family to this decision, and honestly it is still on probation status. Coming from a family full of public and private school teachers we caught quite a bit of flack about this decision, but ultimately it was one made between Hubby, the Lord, and myself.

Initially I began asking Hubby if we could home school about a year and a half ago. He was adamantly opposed. For good reasons, he was concerned about the kids missing out on the fun memories he had of his school days, wanted to make sure they were getting a quality education and didn't want our kids to turn out to be spelling-bee weirdos! I didn't press him, I just prayed and prayed and prayed about it. Those were valid points - although they were not the same concerns that I shared.

I wanted to home school to ensure that my children received a strong foundation before being exposed to the world. I know that to some people that sounds like a religious zealot's mindset, and maybe it kind of is, but I am not saying that I want to raise them in isolation. For me the concern was that my children were going to be exposed to views and beliefs so different to our own for more hours in a day than they would to the core values of our family. While I don't view public school as evil in anyway - so please don't misunderstand - I did not want to have to undo 8 ours of what my kids were exposed to when they got home. It has been brought to my attention SEVERAL times that public school does not push a religious view on children, it is my belief that what you are not allowed to learn or discuss is a form of religious teaching.

Anyway, all this to say that we have been having a blast these past few months learning together. We used ABEKA curriculum this year and I won't be using it again. It is not bad - but we found it boring. So next year we are putting our own together - not that I am designing my own lessons, just taking math from one place, language arts from another -stuff like that. I am very excited. I have been spending a lot of time looking into our options and talking to others about what works for them. Being that we will be moving in the next few months I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row for next year before life gets too hectic!

(Wish I had a pic. I'll take one and add it later)