Home Schooling
I need to dump some thoughts. I''m not sure if this will be all in one post or end up multiple posts....we'll see how much time I can devote now before dinner time.
I WANT to homeschool Edward and by default, John too. My heart keeps telling me it's the right choice. And that is hard to actually articulate. You know, out loud. To people whose opinions truly matter to me.
But I have a lot of things holding me back from it.
I think bullets will work best for the moment. I may expand more later.
- I'm scared of people's opinions. I grew up being told that "those people who homeschool are (insert any number of negative words)" from my mother. She never had a high opinion of those that homeschool. She thought they were not progressive, they held their children back and they had 'weird' kids. I think that, at times, is still true...but I hate the judgement. Each of those parents made the choice. She thought it MADE kids weird. My honest opinion is that those parents realized their child, who had tendencies that weren't maybe "normal", recognized that 'away school' would be detremental to their child and so they chose a different route.
- I'm afraid I would fail my child. It's easier to blame a broken school system than to accept that I can't do something right
- I'm afraid I will not provide the structure we all would need to do well at home schooling.
-I'm afraid I'm creating this option as a way to hide from the problems Edward is having in school, not as a solution for them.
-I'm afraid I would use the issues he has at school as the reason to home school but the issues will still be there.
- I fear the socialization he gets in school would be limited. Though this one goes the other way to- the negative socialization would be more controlled.
- I fear I would not get the household stuff done too.
- I fear I would try to over do home school in an attempt to 'do it the best'. I tend to obsess over one thing to the mutual exclusion of other things that are important, burn out and stop.
- I am afraid to do this with a new baby at home. Baby #4 would be 2-3 months old if I aim to start in August, though I could start sooner. Or later.
- I don't know how I will continue what I do throughout the day while also homeschooling. Groceries, LLL, Storytime with Patrick, all seem harder if I have all four kids with me all the time.
- Burn out. I LOVE my family. I adore them. But I do burn out if it's a bad day. And there won't be anyone to hand them off to for 6 something hours a day.
-I'd have to give up my Facebook time. Okay, totally ridiculous. But again it goes back to how I do things now and how those would need to change.
- The amount of work to keep us all on task. Literally, the keeping all the subjects straight and covered because they still would need tested like regular school kids. And I'd have to be organized. Did I mention, that is hard for me.
- Space. We would need classroom type space. Our downstairs is not suited currently for that. Though the attic might work. And be free of distractions if Joe and I worked on it a bit to make it so.
- The cost of materials. I don't know what that would be. Less than private school I would assume. LOL!
- Discipline. Would there be discipline issues? This leads to my burn out.
-Everyone keeps telling me to slowdown, not do as much, that I'm doing too much already. Would this add to or eliminate that? I do not know.
- Would Edward be bored? Would he need more stimulation than I could provide?
So reasons that I like the idea:
- I like the flexibility it offers. There is nothing flexible about having to have one on the bus at 8:30 and one in school by 9:15. And to ability to take weekends off that start on a Friday or end on a Monday? Without guilt of having to write an excuse.
- I get more time with my children to help develop their character.
- I get to be the influence.
- I can control their friends a bit longer but still have them exposed to all types of people though the local homeschoolers and extra activties like baseball and swim team.
- I can accelerate Edward. He won't need to wait for the other kids to be finished before he moves on to another subject. When he's done, we move on.
- I can slow down when he needs more help.
- I can add more enrichement activites. We can do the Children's Museum during the week. We can go to the zoo on a warm November day and use it in lessons we are working on, for both children.
- I can start Patrick on preschool next year while I work with the other two.
- I can acknowledge what my heart is telling me is right.
- I can use Edward's enthusiasm for a particular subject as a launching pad for discovery. When I was teaching, or preparing to teach I suppose is more accurate, this was my goal. Not to teach strictly from a book but to use the book as the reference point for learning.
- We can go all year. I don't like traditional school giving summer off, because I think kids lose too much. But I also like to enjoy the beautiful weather. We can do both if I homeschool. We can have outdoor class time. We can measure speed of our bikes. We can count butterflies at the part. We can do so many things.
- We can take family trips any time of year. I think I kind of said this. But they can include educational things too. Planning that would be fun.
- I could teach Edward in a way he can do better (maybe) because it would be more tailored to him.
- My heart wants to protect my boys from negative influences, not forever but until they can understand better how to cope with them. The world is not what it used to be.
- My hearts wants it.
- http://www.giftedguru.com/?p=494 This. Nothing more to say.
- I don't know that the gifted program that the school district has is going to be enough for Edward. It's not every day. It's not accelerated pace for things. It is what it is. One day a week enrichment. Not going to help his behaviors that are there, I believe, because of boredeom.
- No more stupid PTA. ;) As VP at E's school - it sucks.
-------
I want what is best. I don't know, intellectually, what that is right now. I know what my heart says. And each point has counterpoints and further explainations that can go with it. I don't want to mess him up. I have high expectations and high demands.
I think I need to think more about what I want to write.
I WANT to homeschool Edward and by default, John too. My heart keeps telling me it's the right choice. And that is hard to actually articulate. You know, out loud. To people whose opinions truly matter to me.
But I have a lot of things holding me back from it.
I think bullets will work best for the moment. I may expand more later.
- I'm scared of people's opinions. I grew up being told that "those people who homeschool are (insert any number of negative words)" from my mother. She never had a high opinion of those that homeschool. She thought they were not progressive, they held their children back and they had 'weird' kids. I think that, at times, is still true...but I hate the judgement. Each of those parents made the choice. She thought it MADE kids weird. My honest opinion is that those parents realized their child, who had tendencies that weren't maybe "normal", recognized that 'away school' would be detremental to their child and so they chose a different route.
- I'm afraid I would fail my child. It's easier to blame a broken school system than to accept that I can't do something right
- I'm afraid I will not provide the structure we all would need to do well at home schooling.
-I'm afraid I'm creating this option as a way to hide from the problems Edward is having in school, not as a solution for them.
-I'm afraid I would use the issues he has at school as the reason to home school but the issues will still be there.
- I fear the socialization he gets in school would be limited. Though this one goes the other way to- the negative socialization would be more controlled.
- I fear I would not get the household stuff done too.
- I fear I would try to over do home school in an attempt to 'do it the best'. I tend to obsess over one thing to the mutual exclusion of other things that are important, burn out and stop.
- I am afraid to do this with a new baby at home. Baby #4 would be 2-3 months old if I aim to start in August, though I could start sooner. Or later.
- I don't know how I will continue what I do throughout the day while also homeschooling. Groceries, LLL, Storytime with Patrick, all seem harder if I have all four kids with me all the time.
- Burn out. I LOVE my family. I adore them. But I do burn out if it's a bad day. And there won't be anyone to hand them off to for 6 something hours a day.
-I'd have to give up my Facebook time. Okay, totally ridiculous. But again it goes back to how I do things now and how those would need to change.
- The amount of work to keep us all on task. Literally, the keeping all the subjects straight and covered because they still would need tested like regular school kids. And I'd have to be organized. Did I mention, that is hard for me.
- Space. We would need classroom type space. Our downstairs is not suited currently for that. Though the attic might work. And be free of distractions if Joe and I worked on it a bit to make it so.
- The cost of materials. I don't know what that would be. Less than private school I would assume. LOL!
- Discipline. Would there be discipline issues? This leads to my burn out.
-Everyone keeps telling me to slowdown, not do as much, that I'm doing too much already. Would this add to or eliminate that? I do not know.
- Would Edward be bored? Would he need more stimulation than I could provide?
So reasons that I like the idea:
- I like the flexibility it offers. There is nothing flexible about having to have one on the bus at 8:30 and one in school by 9:15. And to ability to take weekends off that start on a Friday or end on a Monday? Without guilt of having to write an excuse.
- I get more time with my children to help develop their character.
- I get to be the influence.
- I can control their friends a bit longer but still have them exposed to all types of people though the local homeschoolers and extra activties like baseball and swim team.
- I can accelerate Edward. He won't need to wait for the other kids to be finished before he moves on to another subject. When he's done, we move on.
- I can slow down when he needs more help.
- I can add more enrichement activites. We can do the Children's Museum during the week. We can go to the zoo on a warm November day and use it in lessons we are working on, for both children.
- I can start Patrick on preschool next year while I work with the other two.
- I can acknowledge what my heart is telling me is right.
- I can use Edward's enthusiasm for a particular subject as a launching pad for discovery. When I was teaching, or preparing to teach I suppose is more accurate, this was my goal. Not to teach strictly from a book but to use the book as the reference point for learning.
- We can go all year. I don't like traditional school giving summer off, because I think kids lose too much. But I also like to enjoy the beautiful weather. We can do both if I homeschool. We can have outdoor class time. We can measure speed of our bikes. We can count butterflies at the part. We can do so many things.
- We can take family trips any time of year. I think I kind of said this. But they can include educational things too. Planning that would be fun.
- I could teach Edward in a way he can do better (maybe) because it would be more tailored to him.
- My heart wants to protect my boys from negative influences, not forever but until they can understand better how to cope with them. The world is not what it used to be.
- My hearts wants it.
- http://www.giftedguru.com/?p=494 This. Nothing more to say.
- I don't know that the gifted program that the school district has is going to be enough for Edward. It's not every day. It's not accelerated pace for things. It is what it is. One day a week enrichment. Not going to help his behaviors that are there, I believe, because of boredeom.
- No more stupid PTA. ;) As VP at E's school - it sucks.
-------
I want what is best. I don't know, intellectually, what that is right now. I know what my heart says. And each point has counterpoints and further explainations that can go with it. I don't want to mess him up. I have high expectations and high demands.
I think I need to think more about what I want to write.