The Decision to Homeschool (by Heather)

When I was a freshman in college, I wrote a research paper about homeschool. I've always been fascinated by homeschooling and its many possibilities. When it's a grade level with a ratio of 1 kid to one teacher, the sky is the limit as far as education, field trips, tutoring, whatever. With the mother or father as the primary teacher, they have the pupil's best interests in mind. They know their strengths and weaknesses and how hard they can push their child. I was astonished by some of the statistics I read in the research I did for the paper, of how much more confident and knowledgable and well-rounded homeschool children are (obviously there are exceptions to every rule, but on the whole if the parents are trying their best, they get amazing results). As an umarried college freshman, I thought that would be an amazing thing to do with/for my future kids. 

After I got married and started having kids, I would do workbooks with my preschool age kids. Last summer we dedicated an hour each weekday to "learning time." Even the two year old participated. It was great fun and really rewarding for me and the kids. They looked forward to it and I loved watching them learn and understand things. I loved being a part of their education.

My sister Sarah started homeschooling her kids last year. We actually lived in the same town when she started. I watched how much she enjoyed it, she said it felt so natural, like an "extension of motherhood." I thought that totally made sense, but my husband was not living with us at the time (thanks to different rotations at hospitals all over the US for his podiatry training) so I really didn't feel like homeschooling was something I could consider at the time. I didn't think anymore about it until a couple of months ago and then I couldn't stop thinking about it. A few minor things are what really got me considering it again. Things like the "Intruder Drill" that my 6 year old had to do at his school. They were taught to barricade the classroom door, putting many student desks against it and hiding and if they were found, they should throw their pencils or whatever they had at the intruder. The paper the school sent home said other things like the children were taught to scream and run, etc. While I understand that this drill is totally necessary nowadays, it scares me to death. I started crying when I read the memo from the school and imagined my child being taught to scream and run from some armed crazy person who somehow got into the school. With all the school buses being highjacked and school shootings, I feel a little like I am playing Russian roulette putting my kid on the bus every day and sending him off to school. Would someone try to attack his bus or school that day? Who knows. 

I'm also not a fan of common core. I also know that my child is capable of much, much more than he is doing in school right now. The papers and homework he brings home now is the same stuff we did 5 months ago in our summer "learning time." My husband and I saw this, that he really wasn't learning many things that were new to him, and started talking more seriously about homeschooling. The more we talked about it, the more excited we were. We decided to run the idea by our kids as we were still praying, considering, thinking, researching, finding out more about it (Sarah was so helpful!). I wasn't sure how our kids would react. We just have a first grade and a preschooler in school. They both really thrive in school, top of their class (um, yeah, it's elementary school), very social and friendly, etc. I was sure they would have a somewhat negative reaction, but both of them were very enthusiastic about it and wanted to start immediately. We were really surprised and encouraged by their responses. It got us even more excited to take the next step of completing the paperwork to homeschool next year.

As Austin and I talked more about it, and got more excited about it, we decided that we weren't going to wait till next year to start homeschooling, why not start in January? We feel like it is such a great decision and the perfect timing for our family. So after Christmas break our homeschooling life begins. I know it will be an adjustment…huge. Just like any big change is in a family: a new baby, a new job, a new town - there's always an adjustment. But I also know that adjustment or not, the end result is going to be awesome. I'm so excited to have more of a role in my children's education. I'm so excited to be able to start off our homeschool day with a prayer and a scripture and the pledge of allegiance and be able to focus their time and efforts into some serious productive learning time. I'm excited that I'll get to see them more than a few hours a day and be able to spend more meaningful time with them and teach them other life lessons that it seems like there isn't time for right now. Of course our kids will still be involved in lots of extracurriculars and birthday parties and play dates and whatever else, and honestly once they get out of elementary school grades, we'll probably enroll them in online high school through a good university like BYU offers. That way they get a regular high school diploma and their foot in the door at a good college.

I have to say, I'm pretty excited for the New Year and the first day of school!