School Starts at Home
Yes that’s right for two of my children school will now be at home with me. Wasn’t an option I had seen myself ever doing as I believe that the only way for public education to be viable is to use it and become involved to make it what you want. Well that all works well enough until you get to bullying…..no parent can protect their child from it no matter how many hours they spend at the school or how much they involve themselves in the school unless the adminstration of the school has a plan of action and implments it accordingly. Unfortunately for me my couple hundred hours of volunteering a year plus working in the cafeteria on a daily basis was not enough to do anything but curb it when I was around, and then not always if they saw I was busy elsewhere.
Well in truth I started this post before I brought them home but figured it was important enough to finish it up. I have had them home for a little over a month now and have to say that the changes in them that I have seen is more than worth the extra work I do now. My two oldest daughters have again become the good natured, helpful, and confident girls I had felt such pride in. The nit picking and hurtful comments and actually turning to physical violence between them has stopped. And that was with only a little time home. When they were put back in the environent they held their heads up, my one daughter was asked to still perform in the winter concert so we spent a day back in the school for the last practice and school concert.
To see them now with bright eyes and acually beating me to the lessons in the morning makes it worth it. They start school by 7:30 in the morning by their choice and are ususally done no later then 2pm. So they have time to enjoy their day and when they want to delve deeper into a subject we are free to do so. Our school days typically end in a group discussion that has them sitting on my bed while I answer questions that were sarked by things they learned or have been curioys about. They can range from my girls development to my daughters name being the same as a Roman goddess to how to grow plants. It keeps me on my toes and shows how their minds just soak up information and search for even more.
I am still scared that I have not researched enough, got enough books, found enough websites, talked with enough parents and educators, and millions of other things. But the knowledge that they want to learn again makes up for all my fears. I am due for a review in Febuary so I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about this then.
For now I would just like to say that yes it is more work and takes sacrafice, I can’t write anywhere near what I used to, but then again going to school to check up and make sure everyone was on teh same page cut into it more. IT IS WORTH IT. The doors that are now open to them are far more then the ones that are closed since they are no longer in public education system. We can go to musuems when we want, see history in the making, join clubs that with a standard schedule would have stressed them out….all without worry. My children are almost in school 7 days a week because our weekends have always been for culture and now they get credit. On days they feel unwell they take off, but mostly just start late and do a light day.
So anyone thinking about it….do your research, talk to other doing it, join homeschool groups, and then take that leap of faith and go for it.