1. I can go on all of the field trips, and can take Molly (age three) right along with us! When my boys were in school, I felt so horrible that I missed out on so many field trips (or other fun school activities) just because I didn't have anywhere else for Molly to go, and she wasn't allowed to come with us.
2. No more mountains of homework after the boys have already been in school all day. (Seriously -- after they have been gone for eight straight hours, why did I have to spend at least another hour working on school with them?)
3. We sleep much later now, and it's better for everyone. My oldest son (with high functioning Autism) is just not a good sleeper at night. So, every morning when I had to pull him out of bed at 7 am, it broke my heart.
4. If the kids are sick for a few days in a row with a simple cold/flu, I don't have to take them to the doctor just to get an excuse for the school. As a matter of fact, there are times when they are perfectly fine to do school that they wouldn't be allowed to be at school.
5. We can spend more time on the topics that interest the boys. As a matter of fact, my eldest who has zero interest in reading was thrilled when I told him he could read Pokemon books. I think he still mostly looks, but I can see that he is reading too. And, that's more than he used to do!
6. A little distance from some of the bad influences in school. Sure, they also miss out on all of the good influences. They really went to a nice school. But, sometimes when I visited, I was amazed at the things that sometimes came out of the mouths of some of those kids!
7. We can actually talk about God during the school day! And we do...quite a bit! Just today, as a matter of fact, I read a whole chapter from Exodus to go along with a unit that we were doing about Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. (I'll be posting pictures from our unit sometime next week.)
8. We have more flexibility! After a really horrible night at our house with very little sleep, we actually just opted to shift all of our school stuff to the next day when everyone was feeling much better.
9. The kids will be able to take things like beginning Spanish, music (with a recorder), and drama in the new co-op that will be starting next year!
10. They are learning home management skills. As a gal who didn't learn to do laundry until she was 19 and married, I'm particularly pleased about this. I love that I can capitalize on their love of doing household tasks at a younger age.
11. I can give them the individualized attention that they have been needing more of. And, I do it because I want to, not because their IEPs say that I must.
12. Every single day, I am finally using the bachelors and masters degrees that I worked so hard to earn. (Okay -- I really feel I could do homeschooling without the degrees and the two teaching licenses that I currently have, but it's nice to feel like I'm using them.) And, heck -- since my masters is in special education, it's like my boys will have their very own personalized resource room, if they need it!
13. I'll get a little more time to watch up close as they grow into young men.
Angie can usually be found posting at Many Little Blessings -- a blog about faith, family, and household management -- when she isn't so busy approving all the comments from our Bloggy Giveaway post
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15 comments:
We homeschool for so many of the same reasons.:)
My sister did the home-schooling thing. The only drawback is your kids are so well educated they can't fit into public school if you decide on high school. Then, the only option is expensive private school or very early college.
The other problem, is that early college leads to early graduation! My niece had a rough time for awhile, but is no so far ahead in life at 23 it is scary.
Good luck! I think it is the only way to go.
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
First...welcome to T13!!
And my kids are now 36 and 39...but, if I had to do it all over again, I would homeschool mine too.
My 13 is posted...drop by and have a laugh or two! Won't you?
Good for you for doing what works for you!
Welcome Newbie! Home schooling is really a good thing, but what do you do about teaching your children about subjects you are less knowledgeable in. For instance, I although I have a post graduate degree, I wouldn't be good at teaching chemistry.
@pjazzypar -- At this point, my kids are really far from the chemistry stage. As a matter of fact, they are still at the age that I'm actually a licensed teacher in. I don't like to commit to what we will be doing that many years down the road, but there are at least a few colleges that have distance education or high school homeschoolers (including one in our state), and then our local community college also allows homeschoolers to take classes, many of which they can later apply to a four year college.
Plus, then we have the nice advantage that I'm considerably more liberal arts, and my husband is an engineer.
My kids are past school age, in university now.
They were in public school, and good ones. If I did it over again, I'd still do the public school. I dont think I'm qualified to teach everything.
But to teach their own, good luck, and savour the time, it goes by so fast.
Great list!
Happy TT!
Beautiful post!
Very nice.
I'll be homeschooling a preschooler this year (my granddaughter)after 25 years of teaching in a public preschool setting. I'm looking forward to it for a lot of the same reasons that you've listed. (not the least of which is that Grammy does not care to hear the words "stinky butt" at the dinner table. A little tidbit from the child's last year's three mornings a week preschool experience)
Great post. One of the advantages of home schooling you can ensure your kids will not learn what is not appropriate for them to know that liberals want to teach them. Good music here too.
My 34th TT is up: 13 comments you can make to your physician while he's performing a colonoscopy on you. Here's the link.
I am going to share you post with my husband who does not like the idea of home schooling our little girl. I don't think that I can change his mind but I will keep trying. If her preschool (Christian based 1/2 day) would offer higher grades than Pre-k that is where she would go. I hate the idea of letting someone else raise my children, and I feel that is what I am doing sending them sending them to school for seven hours a day. Sorry about the length, but I guess I wanted someone to hear my opinion. Thanks Kim
Kim -- Don't apologize for the length of your comment! Feel free to just write away in your comments here!
Best of luck in talking to your husband about it. I know that can be a particularly difficult thing from discussions with other Moms in my local homeschooling group. I was lucky that after I thought about doing it, it was my husband that was very instrumental in it becoming a reality.
Great post! After 3 horrible years dealing with the public school system where I live I will be homeschooling my 3 younger children (my oldest just graduated). I'm looking forward to it in many ways..other ways...well..it's going to be difficult. I, too, am looking forward to the sleeping in though! :-) Thanks so much for sharing :-D
Almost all of those are things I miss now that I am no longer homeschooling. The flexibility was THE BEST part of it all!
Welcome and Happy T13!
Count me in. My favorite class in school was always English. One book that was life-changing for me was To Kill a Mockingbird.
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