Coming Home- Part 1: The Decision

I have this new thing...I am waking up EARLY every morning around 2am and laying there wide awake.  Occasionally, after being called in the middle of the night for a birth it is hard for me to get back on track.  I am also pretty sure that I have Restless Leg Syndrome.  It is super cool feeling like you must run a marathon at 2:21am while you are supposed to be lying there motionless in bed.  Good thing my husband is a heavy sleeper.  I would probably drive anyone else nuts.

So, here I am.  It is 3:06am.  I have already eaten a peanut-butter english muffin and now am ready to chat. I thought this might be a good time to talk about my decision to homeschool. Before reading on please hear my disclaimer.  I am not trying to convince anyone of anything here.  This is simply about a decision we made for the betterment of our family. Homeschooling may not be for everyone.  I have a lot of friends who are teachers and who's children remain in both private and public school.  In no way is this meant to offend anyone. Okay, here I go...ps: all the pictures are left over from our vacation. I just thought I would throw them in to break up all the words.

My girls attended a pre-k through 12th grade classical christian school last year (and the year before).  In terms of academics, you can't really get much better than that. Nearly all of the graduating seniors score in the top 5% nationally on college entrance exams.  The school's population is somewhere around 160 students and the culture of the school is very sweet. The upper grade students are so gentle and caring for the younger students- reading to them, holding doors for them, playing with them at recess. The average class size is probably around 13 kids or less per grade so the kids are extremely close with their teachers (who all have an aide working with them as well) and their classmates. In general, it is a splendid little place if you ask me.

Obviously, tuition at the school is not cheap. Carl was teaching art there one afternoon a week and instead of being paid- we were given a full tuition waver for one child.  This helped a lot but still the expense was great. Whenever we thought about expanding our family the question was always asked, "how could we afford tuition for more children?" It was definitely a limiting factor but money was not the main issue. So, if the school is great (generally speaking- no school is perfect) and we could afford the tuition....why am I bringing my kids home?

For me, the issue was time. For the kids, the issue was time. It seemed to happen so suddenly.  One minute you are basking in the long unscheduled days of playing with and enjoying your toddler and then the next minute they are off to school (and piano lessons and sports and every other activity) and you hardly see them in a day. I am not into suffocating my children and I have tried not to make this about me resisting the process of letting go, but our relationships were breaking down.  You can't build strong family relationships in the carpool line.  At least we couldn't.  I was sometimes making 3 trips a day down to the school (each trip was 40 minutes round-trip) for picking up and dropping them off.  Poor Laurel was beginning to think that all eating/drinking/sleeping was to be done in the car.  I missed having the best part of their day.  Instead, they would come home tired, grumpy and strung out. Each morning I would crumble a little as we all went our different directions. It felt so disjointed and separate- not at all holistic.  We needed to simplify.  I wanted them to come home.

 

At first mention my husband was reluctant to homeschool. "All the homeschooled kids I knew were weird." he said.  He is such a great balance to me.  Just when I was ready to sell the house, move to the mountains, buy some chickens and hunker down with the kids, he provided a helpful debate.  I set out to research some of those homeschooling myths for myself.  Are homeschooled kids sheltered?  Do they develop in a normal way socially?  Are they smarter? What will they miss out on?  What will they gain? Are they generally happy and successful in life?  After a ton of reading (a very small amount of it represented on my sidebar) and meeting with several homeschooling families I felt at ease with the answers I received.  As I passed along what I had learned on to Carl and as he saw me really thinking this thing out (vs my frequent tendency to make rash emotional decisions :) he became increasingly more supportive. I am thankful for his willingness make this decision with me.

So, here we are a homeschooling family- for this year at least.  We are committed to one year, and after that we will re-assess.  I am so enjoying our summer and don't feel sad at all when I think about it coming to an end. For the first time in long time there is no sense of dread when fall approaches.  I think I understand the huge undertaking that this is...but I have perfect peace.  I am so thankful that my girls are coming home.

**Come back tomorrow for Part Two which includes blather about curriculum and the making of our "classroom".

Comments

[grace]

LIbby, I am so excited for you and your family in this decision.

I took think there are pro and cons to both home schooling and good christian school and different things work well for different families. My husband and I were both home schooled. And we have decided early that we would like to home school our own children. With the personal experience we have each had, and the wonderful curriculum advancements we are very excited to take the homeschool reformation to the next level. I'll be praying for you all as you adjust to this new change. I hope all works out well! IExcited to read part 2. Curriculum.

[Jessie Earth Momma]

L,
I think you have made a wonderful choice! It seems you are right: it suits your family.

As you know, we chose to homeschool our girls this year as well. We went from a Catholic school with superb academia and the same gentle upper grade children, to a radical alternative waldorf-style non-school, to home. (Home again, home again, jiggidy jigg.)

I look forward to reading about how your girls feel about home school.
Love,
J

[inga]

Wow, that's a big decision, Libby!! And sounds like the right one for you guys right now.

[Lindsey]

I think you'll really like it. We homeschool our kids and my hubby's family was all homeschooled. He went to the collage and was always strait A's. And he never felt like he missed out socially. Our kids still play sports, go to awana, and I dont feel like Im streatching them thin. My SIL is the most popular person in the room, and she was homeschooled. The old school house magaizine is really good and they send out e-mail newsletters that hit on the myths of not being socialized and other things. Plus good tips too. And you can always do the co-op too. A friend of mine passed along your blog I hope you dont mind :)

[Kristen]

Libby,
What a big and exciting decision for your family. It is amazing to me how far homeschooling has come. You are such a talented person and I know that you will embrace this opportunity and probably make us all envious that we aren't homeschooling too :)
Can't wait to hear more!

[Heidi]

Libby, wow what a major and exciting decision for you and your family! I admire you for having the courage to take on homeschooling. You will do great and I'm sure your kids with flourish! I'm anxious to read part 2 and can't wait to hear how it all goes...once you're started! So...when does school start? :)

[Alicia Chavez]

What a blessing to be able to do this...it won't make them weird because you're not weird! I'm starting to cry everyday thinking about having to go back to work in 2 weeks and not be with my baby boy!

[julie]

I'm so happy for you Libby... you have a wonderful sense of family and I just know this is going to be a blessing for you all! I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of your plans.

[hanna]

Well I'm glad you were up at 3am this morning writing this post :o). We are considering homeschooling too. Our children are 2 yrs and 8 months so we have a little time to think about it yet. You have reminded me again of the reasons I want to. It was something I was a bit unsure of at first and a bit aprehensive about but as time goes on I am feeling very settled on the idea, it just feels right. I'm looking forward to maybe reading about what you guys get up to.

[jessica]

I'm an up really early girl myself, but not that early! I really enjoyed reading about your decision to homeschool. It really made me long to do it myself someday in the future! I'm looking forward to reading about your curriculum and such tomorrow. For me, as a teacher, designing the curriculum is one of my favorite parts!

[melissa]

this was fun to read. i love how the decision sort of evolved over time, as you and carl both agreed. awesome.

i must chime in with the masses in saying that i have no doubt you will do an amazing job.

i'm having a bit of fall dread right now....realizing just how close it is to school starting up. :)

i wish you guys a delightful journey as you make this transistion.....and i hope we can not completely lose touch with one another----clearly, I suck at this keeping in touch thing. :)

[Darcy]

This was fun to read! You put into words exactly why we started homeschooling 4 years ago. My little kindergartner always came home grumpy and tired after a long day at school and many times I thought 'Is this the way it's going to be now?!' My hubby had several concerns with homeschooling as well when we started discussing it. I signed the kids up for homeschool swim lessons at the YMCA right away in the fall and after the first lesson he asked, 'So, was everyone normal?' :) It was funny.

We still take it year by year. I do not know how long we will homeschool. For now though, we are loving it and the kids actually want to be home. We've made some really great friends that also homeschool and enjoy doing activities with them.

I look forward to reading part 2!

[Jana Gilchrist (Price)]

Libby,
I am so excited for you and your family, what a great oppertunity for all of you.
I understand your "sleep" problems, at work I come back from a call and just lay there...for hours or until we get another call, I just think about how tired I will be the next day. Some days are better than others.
Keep us udated...oh and will the girls still get "new school clothes" because that is the best thing about going back to school! ;o)

[malka]

I found your blog through flickr and I had to comment on your homeschooling decision. We have been homeschooling our girls (11,14, and 16) for 7 years. My eldest is about to be a junior in high school(at home). It's not always been easy, but when I compare the kind of relationship I have with my girls to what I see among their peers, I'm happy we took the time to really know each other and grow together.
Good luck to you as you and yours learn and grow together.

[wendy]

I think I found you through flickr as well. I have been homeschooling for 3 years now and we love it. I had to laugh when I read your post because initially we had some of the same thoughts...homeschoolers being weird, etc.

I hope you have a great year together!
Love your blog and your pictures!

[wendy]

I think I found you through flickr as well. I have been homeschooling for 3 years now and we love it. I had to laugh when I read your post because initially we had some of the same thoughts...homeschoolers being weird, etc.

I hope you have a great year together!
Love your blog and your pictures!

[Lisa]

I found your blog through a comment on houseonhillroads flikr. I too started homeschooling this year. For a lot of the same reasons as you. We have been homeschooling now for about 2 months and it is going great. I was so pleased to find your link to the free curriculum site. I am using explode the code, horizons math, and doing a spelling curriculum. It is a great resource.

[Lori]

a friend of a friend echoed my exact sentiments when she responded to the "but homeschooled kids are weird" commment - she said "i think people say homeschooled kids are weird because they don't care what other people think - they don't bend to peer pressure, and they're their own people. so if that's weird, i hope my kids are weird." and i agree 100%! :^) good luck with your homeschooling!