Homeschooling ROCKS!!!

I know, this post should probably be on Life After Diapers, but since it involves Karyl I think it is appropriate here!! For those of you who aren't aware, we have made the decision as a family to homeschool our children. Before you start typing any comments, let me save you some time....I've heard it all, "you're crazy" - "but what about their social life??" - "I can't wait for my kids to start school so I get my 'me' time back...when will you have your 'me' time?" - and my personal favorite "you're just going to screw up your kids"


Well, I have lots of great comebacks to those comments, but this is a family-friendly blog and I like to at least appear to be a sweet and kind person, so I won't tell you what comments go through my head every time someone gets nasty about our decision to homeschool. I should point out that we are homeschooling through a Charter School, so we are held to the same basic academic standards as a regular public school (basic....VERY basic...) and we are accountable to the school for what work gets done. So don't go thinking that we are just going off the deep end and just letting our kids frolic through the woods and just learn whenever they want. I have a list of things a kindergartner should know by the end of the year, and lots of books to use to get us there. The beauty of Charter School is that they give you the money to buy curriculum (hey, it's MY tax dollars, at least I get to spend them on what I want!!) and the curriculum has to be on an approved list from the school (no religious curriculum is allowed because it is a public school).

What's great is that we can teach however we want and do it in a way that makes our kids excited and eager to learn. Every day I have Karyl asking to "do school." It's great because for instance, Karyl already knows most of the stuff that's in the Harcourt Kindergarten Math Book that most schools use, so we can go through quickly, check for understanding and move on without her having to be bored with doing something she already knows over and over!! We have it planned out so that by January she will be starting 1st grade math and we're super excited!! We get to read books and really dive into all aspects of they story (history, geography, math in the book, science...etc...) and use all the lapbooks we are willing to print out and put together!! I love that in the 5 weeks we have been doing Kindergarten, Karyl has gone from maybe knowing 5 sight words to knowing well over 50 and being confident in sounding out all the basic consonant-vowel-consonant words (cat, mat, dog...). She will actually get a piece of paper when we're not doing school and "practice her words" and write all the 3 letter words she can think of, then bring me the paper and make me read all of them - the most amazing part is that not only does she spell the words right but I can easily read them in her writing!!

I just love that her thirst for knowledge is still going strong and that I can be the one to fuel her fire for learning. She really is an amazing girl, and I feel so blessed to be able to be her teacher and watch as she learns everything she will ever need to know. There is something very special about being able to see that moment when the light bulb goes on and something is learned for the first time.

Another thing I love about homeschooling is that we can take education back to its roots, which is something that has been lost in the public school system. What ever happened to teaching our kids the basics....reading, writing and arithmetic?? It seems like nowadays they teach everything BUT those basic subjects. I love the analogy that our public school system is a conveyor belt type of education...everyone is taught the same things at the same time based on age and just sent through the system...there is no room for kids to explore or learn about what interests them. I love the idea that my kids can think and be creative and let their imaginations run wild instead of having a teacher tell them what to think and when to think it. If Karyl suddenly wants to know more about dinosaurs I can add that to our studies for the week and we can spend our time gathering information and learning about dinosaurs when she is interested in them, as opposed to her having to wait for a teacher to decide it's time to learn about dinosaurs.

It's a tough job, and it requires time and effort that students won't appreciate until years later, but homeschooling is totally worth it!! There are so many amazing resources out there online for us homeschool parents that make our jobs infinitely easier, and they even make it fun!! I can't wait to see where this journey takes us!!