Is It Naptime Yet

My friend Elizabeth, who lives in Iowa, asked why I’m choosing homeschooling, she didn’t know that I was planning on doing this, and it’s mostly because I talk to people about it, but I guess I haven’t blogged about it a lot.

Some reason’s why I’m wanting to home school in no particular order:

• We live in a highly populated Spanish speaking area. I had a friend who taught kindergarten at a school close to us, though not the one Lilah would attend, and in a class she had in 2006 there were about 4 English speaking students, the rest she had to teach English. I know this would be a large disadvantage to Lilah, who at the age of 3 knew more than some of her kindergarteners. Plus the Spanish speaking children could not communicate with the English speaking students, so the English speakers had a harder time making friends.

• No Child Left Behind = Teach to test

• Everything, even the potty breaks, are planned to the minute for the teacher. ( I’d put a link to a kindergarten teacher here in Nevada talking about the schedule, but it’s a private blog.)

• There’s no creativity for the teacher and the students.

• Being able to teach Lilah at the level she is.

• 6 hours of school and another 2 hours of homework.

• Children will learn a subject once they’re interested. If they’re not interested, they’re not going to learn without a person forcing them.

• Kids are weird if their parents are weird. So my girls have no hope anyways… No, the excuse of socialization is weak to me.

• Parents are losing more and more power to choose what is taught to their children. Even if you’re actively involved it’s not always enough.

• Jon has talked me into it. I figure I can indoctrinate them while he’s at work. 😉

• Enjoying time and discussion with my girls.

• The girls deciding what they want to learn, in some ways, and me being able to develop their sense of curiosity.

• I’ve never, ever, wanted to be a teacher, but it is fun to see them learn something new.

• The public school system, at least to my belief, doesn’t develop a desire to learn.

• The public school system was implemented to teach the poor and the government just continued to go with it.

• It would be nice to have some time to myself during the day, but I think I can teach the girls what they need to know and get with other homeschooling groups, to help my children learn in a smaller, more adaptive setting, to their needs.

Some people think we’re totally weird for wanting to home school, even within the family, and are highly opposed to it because home schooled kids are “weird”, but others are very supportive and say how the home schooled children they know are more mature and less indoctrinated about sex, drugs, and violence.
While we’re not homeschooling because we don’t want them exposed to the “horrible world”, we are planning on homeschooling because we believe we can provide a better education for our children than the public school system.
Once our girls are older they can choose to go to public school, but we’re not going to force them to stay out or go in, I just hope we’re in a better school district by then.