Home Schooling

"You home-school?"  

It is a sentence that is usually followed by looks of dismay, or dropped mouth stares.  The answer is yes, I home-school my children. I am a mother of 5 gorgeous children, and their ages range from 3 to 9. My oldest  daughter , Emily, is 9 years old, and currently on the honor roll in the 3rd grade. She is very much a tomboy and loves to play softball, but pretty as a sunset on a summer's day. Mary is 7, the diva, the girly girl, and she is in the 2nd grade.  Jacob is 6 and in kindergarten, and he is the clown.  Then there is Luke, he's  5, he is my little athlete.  Benedict is last, but certainly not least. He is 4, and he is still stuck to me like glue!

There was a time, several years ago, when I rarely had very many positive things to say about home-school.  Then my sister-in-laws began to do it. I vowed to my husband at that moment I was never going to do it no matter what. I thought these people (home-school moms) were insane! I was absolutely sure of one thing! I couldn't stand school the first time around, there was no way I was going to voluntarily start it over again.  Plus, on what on what grounds was I qualified to teach them? No way! Let them have their fun.

Fast forward to Emily's first year of school. Now we are not a wealthy family by any stretch of the imagination, but we really wanted to be able to provide a Catholic Education to our kids. So we enrolled her in the local school. She attended and she had a wonderful teacher who will be in our hearts forever.  But with this also came the untimely beginning of gossip and lies and "I'm not your friend" and "I hate you".  I remembered thinking to that kindergarten was so early for this.  Her heart was so full and it was just so sad the way those girls jumped on it.  She also learned some "adult phrases" and this was about the time I was starting to think hmmmm, this home-school thing might not be so bad.   We were at the end of the year and I had the whole summer to think about it, and that is what I did.

By the end of summer, my husband and I still couldn't agree, so back to school she went, with little sister, Mary, in tow.  Emily, now in first grade, and Mary in Kindergarten, we set off for another year of misery.  On the second day Emily was assigned 2 hours of homework.  I remember thinking how crazy it was.  It did not stop. The trend continued. Every night there was 2 or 3 hours of homework assigned.  My thoughts were always, well, you have them all day and then send them home to me for 3 hours of homework. No way. Not to mention my sweet and innocent girls were becoming snobby, mean, and even selfish.

So that was just enough. I pulled them out. I ordered my curriculum. I started our new life. People have this preconceived idea that a typical home-school day is like "ok, today I guess we can learn about pronouns, and then we can talk about multiplication..." It's not.  Well, I am sure it is for some; however, it isn't for most. There is an actual lesson plan that comes in your curriculum that says exactly what you are going to do every day.  If it is math it would say: Math lesson 1 week  1 day 1 do pg 2 problems 1- 15. So everyone can do it. Well, I say that. Not everyone. But those that really and truly care about their children's morals and values.  The parents that can sit back and say to themselves, absolutely this is going to be a gigantic sacrifice, but I am more than willing to make it for the sake of my child or children. 

The changes you will begin to see will speak for themselves. I can tell you that my children do not worry about the name brand inside their clothes or shoes. In fact when given a very expensive name brand shirt with the name across the front of it, my daughter had to be convinced to wear it because it had a name on it. She had no idea, nor did she care when I told her. You have the opportunity to actually let your children stay children. My daughter gets embarrassed when she hears the word thigh! THIGH! Isn't that hysterical? I realize that is completely extreme, and that is how her little mind works, but she is modest, as we have hammered home, and I know in a school classroom all that can be taken away.

I used to look at home-schooling as something completely crazy. Send them to school! Get your "mom" time! Then I realized that they are more important than me. I need them to grow up in an environment that is safe and warm and filled with fantastic learning and love and I knew they wouldn't get that at school. Times have changed since I was in school, and from where I am sitting there are not going back to how they were. So, to answer the question one more time.

"Yes I home-school!"