Thinking Out Loud (well, at least in type)

Those who have been around me lately may or may not know, but I'm thinking about homeschooling our kids. Ryan is completely bored in school and he is there (including the bus ride) 6 1/2 hours a day. That may not seem like a lot to some people, but when you think of the time left over that's not taken up with dinner, bedtime routines and homework it's not much and of course the morning is just getting ready for school. The boy wants to learn. He's not bored because all they do is work. He bored because he doesn't feel like he is learning anything. I don't blame him, a lot of the work he brings home is far too simple. I worry though. I worry that he won't learn the right things if he is home taught. I worry that I won't be able to teach him music because I don't even know how to read music. I worry that he will become what Jay calls "one of those pod people" that don't seem to quite fit in to what we think of as normal society. I worry that I might go crazy being home with both kids all day long every day for the foreseeable future. I worry that I might start with good intentions and then want to give up when it gets hard.
Then I talk to my homeschooling friends and I look at their kids and I think it might work. I was at a meeting last night for Sunday school and as we were leaving I saw my friend, Deb, who has been a great example for me of home-school life. I went over to say hi and she told me she was going to invite me out with them that night- She was with some of her home-schooing friends. They invited me to sit down and we talked about homeschooling and lots of other stuff. It was great to talk about my fears and hear some of their stories. It's funny how God keeps pointing my way. Just this school year I've met 3 moms(not including the ones from last night) who have given me all kinds of great information and encouragement about this. And last night during my meeting one of the ladies shared that she teaches a home school Bible study for kids that they go to while the moms go to their own Bible study. How great is that? I didn't even know that existed. Then one of the other coaches said that his wife home-schools their kids. I've been learning all about the social activities, co-ops, group field trips, weekday play dates, etc. that offer great opportunities for socialization. A friend gave me a book written by a lady who didn't finish high school until her last home-schooled child did. All of her children went to college and are doing well in their chosen fields. I've been reading the blog of a really amazing photographer, Jasmine Star, who was home schooled. She has the most amazing stories and she is really cool. Oh, by the way, she went to law school, but decided law was not what she wanted to do. So she became an international wedding photographer instead.When I started reading her blog the home-school stuff was just a side note to me. I wasn't thinking about home-school then and her talking about homeschooling didn't make me want to home-school my kids, but seeing a good product of homeschooling makes me happy now that I am thinking about it.
So I've written about my fears and other people's successes and even all the nudges and arrangements God has made toward homeschooling, but what I haven't really talked about is why I want to do it. I don't think the public education system is failing my kids exactly, but I do feel like they could be learning so much more. Well, at this point I'm really only talking about my experience with Ryan and what I expect will happen with Lily since she is not in the public system yet. I can cater their learning to their needs. I feel like Ryan's love of learning is getting squelched in the system that says every child needs to be up to this level by that time. So all the focus seems to be on kids who need more help. I understand with limited budgets that they need to make choices about where they put their resources, but meanwhile some kids are sitting in class bored out of their minds because they've known how to do this stuff for 2 years. I keep hearing "as they get older there will be more separation in classes and he will be with kids with similar abilities." Well, I'm tired of waiting for that to happen and he is, too. If we kill his love of learning in these "in between" years what good is it to be with those kids in however many years? He needs to form good study habits now or he will never think he has to work to learn anything. Believe me, this will cost him dearly when he is older. In getting to choose our curriculum I will get to explore their loves and interests with them. We can go in depth about things they are really interested in instead of glossing over a bunch of stuff they won't retain because it was just a small bit they learned. I have so many ideas about studying how things work together. Studying each state, one at a time, but in groups (i.e. Northeastern states) during a block of time. So they can relate where they are on the map, etc. We can learn about so many things by doing them instead of reading about them. Composting is a great example, or growing plants from seeds(yes, I know they do this one in school). The opportunities are endless. I love that about homeschooling.
Another big issue for me is scheduling. I believe our kids today are way over-scheduled. I understand why parents want their children to experience many different activities, but I really believe they need free time, too. With them being at school for so many hours five days a week it seems like too much to schedule more than one or two activities/sports. With homeschooling I can build those growing opportunities into our curriculum. Piano lessons and dance classes for music; soccer, gymnastics, baseball, etc for P.E.; pottery classes for art; the list goes on and on. I'm also a firm believer in family dinners. Doing these activities during the day would allow us to still be able to come together for a meal every night.
Perks that are not good reasons to home-school, but I will really enjoy- awesome! Being on our own schedule. That means we can sleep later if we want, we can take vacations in the middle of the school year means smaller crowds plus we save money for it being the off-season and we can start our lessons when we are ready. Less wasted time waiting for everyone to be done, walking quietly from place to place and riding the bus for half an hour to get somewhere 5 minutes away means that we will probably not spend 6 hours on school a day= more play time. Picnic lunches together when it's nice outside. I get to choose the school supplies. More family time. I can see the interactions my kids are having with other children and act accordingly. For example if the get along really well with some kids we can make play dates, but if someone is a trouble maker I won't make my child sit next to them while they are trying to learn if they don't want to. We can learn about whatever we want with no time limits. If Ryan wants to spend 4 hours in making a craft, as he has been prone to do lately, he can because we have lots of time in our day.