Homeschool

I am taking on a new adventure this year. Isabelle has been asking me to homeschool for the last 2 years. As a teacher, it is one thing to teach kids. It is another to teach your OWN. I often considered it but felt a lack of confidence doing it with MY kids. Something changed this summer. Being at the rink with many families who homeschool and learning about over 200 curricula and the over 200 families in Traverse City who belong to a homeschool co-op here, as taught me many things. Maybe I had the wrong impression of homeschooling? Or that the kids missed something? I will tell you that the children I have met certainly to do fit the "mold" I had thought. After talking with many teachers, administrators and other professionals in the area, I have learned the oh-so-many positives of homeschooling. The attitudes, intelligence, motivation, ethics, and more of these kids blows me away. Even talking to a local dentist the other day, he commented "good for you. that is amazing. the kids that I see who are homeschooled are sooooo smart. i can tell a difference." I have researched dozens upon dozens of curricula, read reviews and gotten opinions. I have decided to mix traditional with christian with environmental based. Here are my choices: Saxon math, Catholic Heritage, and Charlotte Mason. For those of you interested, you can google these and look at them. My initial plan was to homeschool all but Oliver just for 2 days. He needs to be in a structured environment for a bit with other children. And, maybe I need a bit of time too? Haha. Amelia, on the other hand, has fought me tooth and nail. She will by no means stay home. She wants the continuous playdate. So, we went back to the drawing board and really mulled it over. I had visited Holy Angels (our Catholic school here) last year per friend request. This particular person has 6 children and had been to our school prior. Her words to me were "once you see it, you will never look back." I kind of took it with a "grain of salt" and figured I would see for myself. You have to understand, I went to Holy Angels. I had nuns for teachers. I had my own preconceived ideas. Scott, on the other hand, was not sure he wanted the kids at the public school for middle and high school. Mainly due to size. We really want the sense of "community." I had some reservations about the school we were at. So, I was IMPRESSED. The values, faith, academics, tracking system, uniform, organic homemade lunches, small classes, etc. The list goes on. I went home and told Scott: we need to talk. Amelia had friends there from skating and she WANTED to go. We felt like if we were going to change, we do it now. With the changes going on at our current school and wanting the kids to change anyway in middle school, it made sense. And man oh man school shopping has NEVER been easier. I LOVE it!!! Sorry for the long post, but I know many of you who read this have had many questions for me. Yes, you think I am crazy. Maybe I am. But life is too short. If my kids want to stay home, all the better. I am a teacher. I can do this. What do I have to lose? They are going to get more from me one on one than they will get in the mix of 30 kids. NOT saying that kids that go to traditional school are not intelligent, well rounded, etc. I am just saying that there is much more that can be done one on one. If at any point it is not working, they will all go to Holy Angels. If they like it and do this for a while, they will eventually join Amelia when the time is right. Now, I had an abundance of calls and texts yesterday either from friends who knew what we were doing or from friends at school who did not. For those of you who called asking how the first day of school went: that will be a later text. Stay tuned...