This bright young lady will start kindergarten this fall.

When Maggie was born, homeschool never even crossed my mind.  It wasn’t until a year or two later that I began throwing it around in my head.  Then, over time, it just felt like the right thing to do.  I fell in love with the idea and knew that it was what I wanted to do for our family.  The next step was getting John on board.  Ha!  He was extremely against it and tried to just shut me down right off the bat.   I let him have his fit against it and brought it up again at a later time and date.  And repeat multiple times.  Fast forward a few years.  I have asked him, over and over why he is so against public school.  His reason:  he went to public school and it went great for him.  Let me be the first to say that that is the absolute worst argument he could have possibly made.  Some of his family heard that and busted out laughing about it.  In all honesty though, aside from all of that, he has it in his head that school today is the same as it was when he started school 30 years ago.  {Holy smokes, that makes me feel old}.  He started to express concern about our daughter being social enough.  I gave him a goofy look and he kind of just put that argument away.  She is very social.  One night at dinner, the conversation came up again and instead of arguing with me about it, he asked a few questions.  Could she still join sports and if she chooses to go to public school, could she?  We talked about those things and he was finally okay with it. I won’t say on board because he still thinks she is missing out on so much by not going to public school all day long but he is coming around.  {And I’m still puzzled by his sudden love of public school, he hated school from what I have heard}.  Anyways, I don’t have a problem with public school, nothing crazy anyways.  I just feel like homeschool is the right fit for our family.

Schools are crazy these days.  Teachers can be overwhelmed with large class sizes, students are pushed to know more, know it earlier.  I’ve watched my friends and family with school-aged kids.  I see how exhausted they are part way through the week because they are wiped out.  Long school days, after-school sports or extracurricular activities, so much running.  I love the sports, the extra activities, it’s some of my favorite things to do with my days when I can watch them all participate in what they love.  I love that being a work at home mom allows me the ability to give my daughter the very best.  She can get her school work done in the morning, or the afternoon.  She can spend more time with her friends and not be bogged down with homework { I am so shocked by how much homework some of our friends’ kids have in kindergarten and first grade already}.  We have the flexibility to really dig deep into the things she is so interested in while still making sure she is learning the things she should be learning about.  Yet, we only have to spend a very small amount of time doing actual book work.  Her education can be focused on field trips, hands-on learning and just life in general.  She doesn’t have to face early morning wake ups.  For that, I am ever so grateful.  Since giving up her naps, I feel like I could just pour her into bed at night, she is so tired.  I can’t imagine how beat she would be if she had to get up early for school every day.

I’m beyond excited.  The early childhood teacher in me loves knowing that I can instill the love of learning in my kids as they grow.  I love knowing that we can tailor each child’s education to fit their needs and interests.  I would love to say that there is one big, shocking reason for my desire to homeschool my kids but there isn’t.  But in this day and age, I feel like this is the best thing for our kids.  Aside from things like the growing number of school shootings, the rapidly spreading viruses, bullying, the real reason I am choosing to homeschool is my kids.   The truth is, I really enjoy spending time with them.  They won’t be little for long, it has already flown by, how on earth do I have a five-year-old already anyways?  I don’t want to have to ship them off to school for eight hours a day.  I want to spend quality time with them while encouraging and teaching them in a way that works for them.  I love this next great adventure that we are beginning.

I am, however, nervous.  I haven’t even told my family that we are going to be homeschooling the kids.  I’m nervous about their reactions.  I think they will think I’m crazy.  Or ridiculous.  Or who knows what else.  So I’m avoiding the topic entirely.  It won’t change my mind or our plans but it still makes me nervous.  {Update – nobody was really against it.  They asked some questions but they are all supportive.}

To my fellow homeschool readers, what reasons did you have for beginning to homeschool your kids?  Were your families on board or did they think you were making a mistake?