Making the Decision

Wow.  I can hardly believe it.  It started as a suggestion at a violin lesson--we chewed on it, prayed over it, considered the possibility, then thought some more.  For about the fortieth time Mr. Moes said, "you could homeschool."  He has been telling us for two years that Emily would have more time to practice her violin if she homeschooled.  

Homeschooling is familiar territory for us.  We did it for Emily's kindergarten through 6th grade school years.  School--the traditional classroom kind--cropped up and surprised us as the right thing to do for 7th grade.  Now, once again, just when we thought the final transition was made, and we were locked in for two more years at the local junior academy, we find ourselves in the homeschool world once again.  And excited about it!!

It's hard to pin down the decision to a single factor.  Emily's two years in school were GOOD.  She had excellent teachers.  Besides traditional academic subjects, she learned non-academic things she wouldn't have learned at home.  And some of them were good ;-)  She had the opportunity to work on projects cooperatively in groups, the chance to mentor peers, exposure to different teachers, and the chance to experience a highly structured environment with strict deadlines and concrete parameters.  Emily really enjoyed receiving recognition for her achievements (by someone besides mom and dad--yawn!).  She learned to type with correct fingering!  She went from a super-fast hunt-and-peck typist to clocking in at 110 wpm.  Mrs. Johnson, her keyboarding instructor, still doesn't believe Emily came to school not knowing how to type.  Emily's finished work in math turned out much neater for school work than it had for homeschool, and she learned that she is profoundly motivated by grades.  Wow, she's turned into a super-organized person!  That would have surprised me two years ago; not a big profound surprise, but an eyebrow-lifting one.

Some of our decision to homeschool was based on our warm memories, and the desire to be in charge of scheduling.  It is so fun to plan schedules and curriculum!  I love scanning resources, reading reviews, evaluating samples, and figuring out what will work best.  When Emily went to the classroom two years ago I had severe withdrawal pain as homeschool catalogs arrived, and there was nothing to buy!  It was hard, too, to be fairly uninvolved in the educational process for two years.  She is such an independent student that her parents had almost no part to play!  I guess that is what we were paying tuition for. . . but I love learning along with her.  I hated history in school, and now I love it.  I'm still waiting for that to happen with math!

It was hard to tell Emily's good friend Heather that she wouldn't be at school with her in the fall.  I think it was harder still to tell Lance, her homeroom teacher.  He has become a cherished mentor.  I've always been good at doing what people expect, and it's hard to swim against the current.  It's funny, though, because at this point we're not wondering if we've made the right decision--we believe we have.

The next entry will be about curriculum choices.  We won't address the "s" word in this entry--that's bound to crop up in the future.  "Socialization" (with a capital S) is one of the favorite criticisms of homeschooling, and we're homeschooling an only child!  Loneliness, and solitude, and boredom, oh, my!!