My Pro’s and Con’s of Home Schooling list

Been thinking and reading so much lately. I’ve been keeping a list of advantages and disadvantages of home schooling as I go along and here it is. It’s a list for me, and not necessarily how others will see it, or how their experiences may be. They are in no particular order. I may add to or edit this as we go along.

Home Schooling Pros and Cons

PRO’S
· We determine curriculum
· Easier to fulfil biblical requirements e.g. Deuteronomy 6:6-7, 11:19
· Less daily travel
· Tailor teaching style to child’s learning style
· Develop close relationship with the children
· Character Emphasis
· Instil a life long love for learning
· No school fees
· More time for child to pursue interests/talents
· Freedom to travel anytime
· Can do things during school hours
· Can protect children from bullying or other negative influences
· Less peer pressure related to academic performance
· More efficient use of time (e.g. not waiting for 30 children to be quiet, 1 hour lunch breaks etc)
· We are with our kids 24/7
· Children can learn life skills e.g. house, baby, car, home maintenance, money,
· Impartation of our values

CON’S
· Less child free time for me.
· Loss of potential income
· Fewer same age peers
· Messy home
· Home schooling expenses
· Less concrete feedback on progress
· No school photos
· Harder to run errands
· Extra stuff in our house – e.g books, material
· With my children 24/7
· Having to justify our decision to others
· Requires my full commitment to encourage, motivate, instruct etc.

Read read read read read

At risk of repeating myself, another post about reading.

“The biggest secret to homeschooling, I believe, is to teach your child to read. Ignite the fire of learning underneath the seats of their little pants when they are just toddlers – and continue to expect them to read throughout their lives…and you won’t have to worry about their achievement tests in high school. This is true for any method of educating your child – not just homeschoolers. (Although as homeschoolers, you have the potential to know just how much and what they are reading every day. Sometimes you have to force them to stop reading…)” From Seeking Faithfulness.

Tonight I read The Little Yellow Digger to B about 7 times in a row. He didn’t appear to be listening to me as he was busy with a puzzle at the same time, but each time I finished he said “Again, again!” By about the 5th time I would leave a word out and prompt him to finish the sentence. Once he got what I was trying to get him to do , he managed to remember this from the first page: “poured and poured with rain“. Which sounded more like “Pile and pile to rain!”

When his Daddy walked in through the door he shouted “Daddy, we reading DIGGER!!!!”

Don’t Wrap the Gifts

I came across this post called Making Edisons and thought to post it here to remind myself to stop having entirely unrealistic expectations about the messes my children make. It’s a beautifully written piece about ‘giftedness’ by a home schooling father of 5. If I am going to survive home schooling then there’s a lesson I need to learn here. The author points out that stifling our children’s creativity is like keeping their ‘gifts’ wrapped.

I find that I get quite fanatical about keeping control of the mess when they play, and I think it just comes from a fear of not being able to cope. Orderliness helps me cope with the busyness of family life and while our home is far from organised, I still feel like I’d rather keep it as it is than mess it up entirely.

Mess for the sake of it is not good, but I need to lighten up when the kids are busy cutting up magazines for a collage (as they did today leaving tiny bits of paper all over the floor after I just vacuumed), or outside playing with the hose and getting wet to their socks. I find myself letting it go so far and then being the kill-joy by telling them “that’s enough” and “tidy up all this mess”.

The way I see it, there’s something to be said for everything having a place and putting things away when finished with, and it’s important for the kids to learn to be tidy and organised. If they know how to tidy up afterwards, then mess in the course of play and fun and learning is a good thing.

Letting go a bit is going to be a stretch for me because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m a bit of a control freak. I really don’t think this all means we just let it all go and live in dirty, disorganised homes. In fact, I think that a clean and organised home is the way to nurture creative children. However, kids are messy by their very nature and I certainly don’t want them growing up under my constant disapproval of their play. I’m sure there’s a middle ground to be reached here.

Much of my ‘fear of not coping’ comes from a general lack of discipline. I don’t mean that my kids run riot and get away with anything, but I have been guilty of almost always picking up after them because I’ve been too lazy/tired/foolish to require them to do it themselves. I can see that many of these parenting issues when corrected will facilitate a happier house, more relaxed mother, more responsible children, and these things will support the home schooling lifestyle I hope for.

Storytime

Everything I have read regarding home schooling young children always emphasises reading aloud to them. A lot. Mindful of this we’ve been making regular trips to the library and coming home with a pile of picture books and a few non-fiction. E has enjoyed books about birds, plants, human body – senses, and most recently Common and Garden Birds of New Zealand. I have found it interesting to note her interest in biology.

However, I’ve been finding she’s less interested in the shorter picture books, and rather chooses longer stories from her bookshelf, which have been read so many times and getting a bit boring for me, and aren’t really very stretching for her either.

So, on a whim the other day I grabbed C S Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia off my bookshelf while the kids were having lunch and started to read. Her attention was captured from the opening line of the first book The Magician’s Nephew: “This is a story about something that happened a long time ago when your grandfather was a boy.” Since then we have read everyday and while I think some of the language is difficult for her to understand we’ve been making steady progress. I think we are up to chapter 9. Most days when I tell her we have to stop, she says “Oh please….a bit more, I want to know what happens next.” She’s so enjoying the adventure and the rich fantasy. I’m also enjoying reading it. I’m so excited that she’s growing up and I look forward to other books we can enjoy together.

I think I had underestimated how much she enjoys being read to, as well as her understanding. I’m so glad I took the plunge to attempt these books.

More Home Education thoughts.

E will be 5 in 5 months time and I’ve done nothing about finding a school for her. Mostly because I don’t want to send her, and also because I’ve been so busy as always. Despite leaning towards home education, I feel that it would be irresponsible to not at least look at the schools. Then, as I write that I think it’s a stupid idea. If I am going to home school, I must be convinced it’s the better option for us, and if so why research the lesser???

I have been considering home education for a while now, and keep coming back to it. The more I read the more I can’t leave it alone and it’s a bit like what a preacher once said (don’t know who for sure) : “Light rejected is darkness embraced”. I can’t plead ignorance anymore and sometimes I think I should never have started researching it because then I could just be part of the status quo. I guess I’m just plain scared.

My concerns:

1) Do I feel supported enough in this world to do something that is not mainstream, and is often completely misunderstood? (This from another blog but I forget where…..sorry)

2) I worry that it won’t be the best thing for my children if I am stressed and frustrated all the time and unfortunately I am too often that way now. I’m fairly sure that some better parenting skills (read discipline) would help me here, and some days I’m confident that we’ll get there. Other days I feel so completely overwhelmed by the sheer workload, that making changes seems impossible. I feel like a clown spinning plates at the circus and while I know that there’s a better way, I’m too busy spinning to implement change.

3) E says she wants to go to school. We know of home schooled families and I’ve said to her…do you want to go to school, or do you want to learn at home like the C……. family? Her response has been ‘ I want to learn kindy at home and then go to school.’ I realise that it’s not her decision, nor one she can make at her age, but I have those niggling doubts that if I keep her home and she wanted to go to school, it’ll come back to me in years to come.

4) To a lesser extent I fear other peoples opinions and judgements and while I know it’s not their decision how we educate our children, I’m human and it does affect me. Along these lines, I also worry people (particularly friends) will think that I think I’m judging their decision to send their kids to school, or that we think we are superior.

5) Similar to number 3) is I worry that E will struggle with being different to her friends, as they are all getting excited about going off to school and some have already started. I know this is only a temporary thing, as it will settle down once home schooling is normal to her, but never the less, it’s a concern I have.

Having stopped kindy a while back, I don’t get as much child-free time anymore. I’d never wanted to send my children to school to get rid of them and maintain that there’s something wrong if I can’t wait till they turn 5 so I can ’send them off to school’. I cringe when people say things like…’I bet you’re busy…still, E’s turning 5 soon and then you’ll only have two at home’. Anyway…..here’s some questions I need to answer:

How much time is reasonable for me to have alone? (referring to the home schooling mother)

How to manage your day/week so that you get some time to yourself?

(This could turn into a whole other post, but lately I’ve found our days just too unpredictable and I’d like to implement some sort of routine.) What are some good ways to implement a routine and what are some good things to include?

Some recent reading that inspired this post: Rachael’s Soft answers to Hard questions ,this post on Why we homeshcool my regular visits to Just Enough, and some reasons for home schooling from Hawkhill.

School nightmare

My eyes popped when I read this post on another blog about a faked gunman attack (reported on CNN) to teach the children how to respond in a real life situation. The problem being they didn’t tell them it was a drill! A hooded teacher apparently even rattled at locked doors. I tell you what, I’d be beyond angry if that happened to my children.

I’ve taken my daughter out of kindy for much lesser reasons and there is no doubt that if my children were involved, we’d take them out immediately. I’d be interested to know what happens in the aftermath. I feel so sad for those kids. I know that my daughter would have nightmares from that sort of thing. (She has nightmares about the cats in Stuart Little! ) And while she is much younger (4 and a half) than those involved (around 11 years I think), I’m sure there will be quite a few traumatised children from that ‘Prank’/'Educational Drill’. (Which was it by the way??? The school seem to be giving confused explanations)

As an aside, how sad is it that they feel the need to drill the children on how to react in the case of a gunman? What’s going on????????? It’s madness!

Told my mother

Today I told my mother that we are considering home schooling. It went a bit like this:

Me: We are considering home schooling.

Mum: Long silence.

Me: Well, it something I’ve been doing alot of reading about lately, and we think it might be the best option for our family.

Mum: Hmmm ..Do you know anyone who home schools?

Me: Yes, two families…good friends of ours.

Mum: The thing I’ve always worried about with homeschooling is the lack of interaction with other children.

Of course from here I explained that our kids would be getting plenty of interaction with children and adults of all ages. She could see my point. To her credit, she was actually quite interested and open minded about it all. I was expecting some sort of reaction and it wasn’t that bad really! I am sure we’ll get mixed opinions from people but it’s probably becoming more widely accepted now as homeschooling seems to be a growing trend.

Interestingly, by the end of the conversation, she commented, “Actually, you really do teach your own children quite a lot by the time they’re 5 anyway.” Good on ya Mum…my point precisely!

If I find this funny, am I already a home schooler at heart? Oh, and what is the connection between large families and home schooling?And, yes we already have our van sorted.

No more kindy

Well, we’ve taken E out of kindy now. She seemed so much happier throughout the holidays and the several times we asked her if she wanted to go back, she said “No”. So it’s done. I was too chicken to tell them, so got D to ring up and explain ourselves. Not sure what was said yet as we’ve hardly had a conversation these last few days. It sure is busy at the moment, but I’m happy.
We have been having fun together doing stuff I never felt I had the energy for when she was at kindy every day. I don’t know how some Mum’s manage it really, I just don’t think I have a very big capacity for heaps of events in one day.

D said I could put some of the money used for kindy fees towards getting a nice collection of books and today I found one at the Warehouse for $4.50, so I couldn’t resist. It’s called Mr Large in Charge by Jill Murphy. It’s about an elephant family, and Mrs Large is not feeling well, so Mr Large looks after the children while Mrs Large has a rest in bed. I can sadly still relate.

Today we did some water colour painting, and B made such a mess (on the carpet!) it stressed me out sooo badly. I often think I’m so much a better mother to just one child at a time. I do enjoy each of them better alone and give them better time. I’m looking forward to the next opportunity to spend some time with B alone. Poor boy gets the rough end of the stick sometimes. Middle child syndrome already? Maybe we’ll have to have another one?

On another note, related to home schooling, I’ve been watching a DVD series by a guy called Kent Hovind…..It’s basically creation science, and while I’ve never believed in evolution….. I’m realizing that it’s yet another contributing factor to my desire to home school. I just don’t think it’s fair on young children to be getting such mixed messages. Let me explain what I mean. We expect our children to obey their teachers and respect their authority, and then their teachers are telling them something that is in conflict with what we say. I don’t think it’s fair to make a young child choose between two authorities in their lives. When they are older, they will be able to reason for themselves, and recognise the different types of authority and their contexts etc. but for now I think that is not fair.

I need to go and bath R….he’s been cranky today cause he’s overtired, and hasn’t slept nor fed well.

By the way, I’m still fat.

Mum, can you read to me?

E4 just asked me to read to her and I just realised how lovely it is to hear her ask me that. I have been making an effort to read to the kids more, and also to read more myself. I have hardly read in the last 7 years!

This has all come about related to my thinking about home schooling. I am almost certain that we’ll be taking E4 out of kindy from this term. She hasn’t been happy there most of this year. She used to love afternoon kindy, but I think the 5 mornings have been too much for her. There are a number of reasons. And a big factor for me was the last day of term.

The children had participated in a fundraising walkathon. We were unable to attend….(I was 37 weeks pg and it was at 5:30pm….D only finished work at 6pm). Those that had participated were given certificates. I don’t have a problem with this….recognising the childrens acheivement. So…E didn’t get one. I could handle that. Then (and this is where it gets really good!) children whose parents had given an additional donation were given a certificate! I could have cried when I saw E’s face.We hadn’t given money towards this fundraiser….we were only just managing to pay her fees donations anyway. She came to me looking completely shattered and asked why she didn’t get a certificate. I told her we couldn’t go to the walkathon. Then she asked why we didn’t give money. I was so angry I had to leave, and when we got home, I made her a certificate that told her she was a star in my eyes.

Am I over reacting, or is in completely inappropriate to reward/not reward children based on their parents ‘voluntary’ financial contribution????

An intersting point is that she hasn’t had nightmares all these holidays. Previously she was having them regularly. Poor little mite….think she was quite stressed out. (Get’s that from her Dad. )

Anyway, last night I told her she didn’t have to go back to kindy and she flung her arms around my neck and kissed me.

I’m so glad that instead of heading off to kindy every day, we’ll have the time and energy to do other things, like go to the library, visit friends, make stuff, baking. I’m already collecting a whole list of things we want to do.

Why is the Sky Blue?

Went off to the library today and got some homeschooling related books. Also got a huge pile of books for the kids, including some non-fiction for E4 about plants. One called Why is the Sky Blue by Sally Grindley and Susan Varley. It is about a Rabbit who wants to learn and a Donkey who knows a lot, and the Rabbit wants to learn from him. The Donkey is willing to teach him everything as longs as the Rabbit sits still and listens which he promises to do over and over, but never manages to as he wanders off to discover wonderful things. It’s on one of those distractions, that Donkey finds him and teaches Donkey that lady bugs all have different numbers of spots. And so, Donkey rediscovers that energetic curiosity, and learns something new from young Rabbit. It was so very sweet and though it was an interesting co-incidence to stumble across such a story while I can think of little other than home education. (I didn’t even read the story until we got home so it was completely unintentional. ) Anyway, it reminded me of the way kids see the world and how they love to learn, and how they don’t always like to sit still and listen to learn. E4 certainly doesn’t and I’m learning to relax when I find her jigging around or drawing or doing other things when I’m reading to her. I need to remember that it doesn’t mean she’s not listening.

I’ve started reading her chapter books – Little ones, and last night it was such a joy to hear her laugh out loud as we read Piglet Meets a Heffalump. She thought the following bit was hilarious…

“And all the time Winnie-the-Pooh had been trying to get the honey-jar off his head. The more he shook it, the more tightly it stuck. ‘Bother!’ he said, inside the jar, and ‘Oh, help!‘‘OW!‘ And he tried bumping it against things, but as he couldn’t see what he was bumping it against, it didn’t help him; and he tried to climb out of the Trap, but as he could see nothing but jar, and not much of that, he couldn’t find his way. So at last he lifted up his head, jar and all, and made a loud, roaring noise of Sadness and Despair… and it was at that moment that Piglet looked down.

‘Help, help!‘ cried Piglet, ‘a Heffalump, a Horrible Heffalump!‘ and he scampered off as hard as he could, still crying out, ‘Help, help a Herrible Hoffalump! Hoff, Hoff, a Hellible Horralump! Holl, Holl, a Hoffable Hellerump! “