99 Reasons and Yours Won't Be One of Them

I feel like I should elaborate our reasoning for homeschooling.  If nothing else it may be helpful for someone else.

1.  Early Wake-Up Time.  We have to wake up at 6:30 am to catch the bus.  We ride the bus so we aren't tardy.  I don't even have to wake up by 6:30 am to go to work.  The girls are exhausted.  D#2 still sometimes requires a nap.  I know I do.

2.  Sick Days.  We seem to catch every cold that goes around.  Maybe we can cut down on that a little.  Germ-X anyone?  Oh, and don't get me started on head lice.

3.  Homework.  Oh, the homework.  We've been pretty lucky this year with homework.  Our current teachers only send home work that wasn't completed in class.  Reading is their only true homework.  The problem is that D#1 doesn't get her work done in class.  She says she doesn't have enough time.

4.  Packing Lunches.  I hate packing lunches at 7:00 am.  Enough said.

5.  No crowds at our favorite places.  Ever try to go to Target on a Saturday with three kids?  The park?  The Zoo?  Disney World?

6.  Drama.  Bullies.  Peer Pressure.  There's always that one kid on the bus.  That one girl that loves drama.  This kind of "socialization" is not what I want for my girls.

7.  School Clothes and the Dress Code.  No short shorts or tank tops when it's 105* with a heat index of 115* in Oklahoma in August?  No snarky tee shirts because it might offend someone?  Also, no school clothes shopping in August.  Good-bye!

8.  More time with family.  Grandma and Grandpa live close but for how long?  The only time I spend with my girls is telling them to clean up, do homework, and get ready for school.  We hardly have time for fun.

9.  More opportunities for teaching home living.  Gardening, pet care, cooking, cleaning, budgeting, menu planning, bill paying, etc, etc, etc.  Real life stuff, y'all.

10.  No more sending money to school.   Fundraisers, yearbooks, class tee shirts, field trips, parties, school photos.  So long!

11.  No more Fluff.  No more vision screenings that my kids don't need.  No more head lice screenings.  No more sing-a-longs.  No more Jump Rope Man.

12.  No more tests.  The only test I plan on giving is a learning style assessment.  Maybe spelling tests but only because the girls requested them already.  Goodbye, various tests that tell me nothing or what I already know!

13.  Movies.  The girls come home a LOT saying they watched a movie at school.  A movie in PE because the gym was being decorated for a program.  A movie in the library because the Book Fair was going on.  A movie in class because teacher was testing.

14.  Field Trips.  We went on a field trip this year to one of our favorite places.  It was a lot of standing in line and waiting since we had to wait on 200 other kids to see exhibits and use the bathroom.  We hardly saw anything.  Now, we can take ALL DAY to thoroughly explore every nook and cranny.

15.  Lockdowns, Weather, Etc.  I want my kids with me if there is an active shooter or tornado bearing down on our city.  Also, we make our own snow days.

16.  Policies, Policies, and even more Policies.  I know they are there for a reason but when I can't pick up missed work for my kid that has the flu or bring cupcakes for my kid's birthday or check my kid out early without being penalized, or talk to my kid's teacher whenever I want...the list is long.

17.  More time to eat and play.  The lunch hour at school has been reduced to about 40 minutes including recess and standing in line for your food.  Scarf your food down, girls.  We need enough time to run to the playground equipment so we can turn around and come back in.

18.  That parking lot though.

My Family Isn't Good at Secrets

The cat's out of the bag.  The girls went to a family party this weekend and got let in on our little secret.  It's not a big deal, really.  I was afraid they'd give up on public school before I was ready to have them home full time. 

We sat on our bed last night and talked about our plan for homeschooling.  They all three seemed excited about the way we're going to do things.

Daughter one's biggest complaint about public school is the pace.  She said she gets upset when she only has x amount of time to complete work before the teacher moves on.  If she's at home she could work at her own pace.  Done.

Daughter two's biggest complaint about public school is her teacher is mean.  I'm not sure what she means by this.  I've met her.  She's great.  And I'm mean too.  She was also excited that she didn't have to wear pants to school at home.  She's totally my daughter.  Done.

Daughter three didn't have many complaints.  She enjoys school.  She was excited about getting to sleep in.  Done.

They were all three pumped about extra family time and getting to help me out around the house.  And getting to play more.

So, all in all, I think we're ready.  4 months and counting.

We've Decided to Homeschool

We drank the Kool-Aid, so to speak.  Here's our story.

I've been anti-homeschool for most of my life.  I attended public schools in the 80s and 90s and excelled.  However, I never felt like I fit there.  Most of what I learned up until high school, I figured out on my own.  I taught myself to read with the help of my older sister when I was 5.  I looked over her shoulder when she did her math homework and I worked alongside her.  She's 6 years older than me.  I read my mom's Danielle Steele books when I ran out of my own age-appropriate books.  Algebra and Chemistry were fun.  I enjoyed memorizing bones and muscles.  But I'm still considered a success story because I made good grades.  I set the curve on the tests.  I went on to college and completed a degree in Physical Therapy.  Public school worked for me.  Why would it be any different for my kids?

Fast forward to our own children.  When our oldest started preschool at our church it was because I needed a little more time to take care of our newborn twins.  She would come home upset that her teacher was mean and made her do things she didn't want to do.  She had friends but didn't always get along with her classmates.  She was exhausted  She began to act out.  At the time I blamed it on sibling rivalry.  Now I know it's because she wasn't getting enough time with me, regardless of her sisters being present.  And she wasn't being taught the way she needed to learn.  We finished the school year there and enrolled in public school the next year.  She did well in preK and Kindergarten.  She was one of the smartest kids in the class.  In first grade her and a couple of other kids needed more advanced readers.  They had mastered the current curriculum.  She was bored a lot.  She didn't understand why she needed to do worksheet after worksheet on material she already knew.  In second grade, 6 weeks in, her teacher told me she was having trouble with reading comprehension.  She had never had trouble in reading up until this point.  She was one of the top readers in her class, remember?  What changed?  They had taught her to read the words but she wasn't taking it in.  She scored high on their tests so they didn't recognize the problem.  Since then, she's fallen farther and farther behind.   So much that we thought she wouldn't pass the OCCT test at the end of her third grade year.  She did, luckily.  Passing it meant she wouldn't need remediation the next year.  Or would she?  They began pulling her a few weeks into fourth grade.  I didn't know.  She would bring home phonics worksheets.  Phonics.  In fourth grade.  She needed the advanced reader remember?  She began failing chapter tests.  More remediation.  Then she got the Flu.  She was going to miss an entire week of school.  I called on our way home from the doctor to request her work so we could work on it at home.  Their "policy" states I can't request until the third day absent.  Three days she sat in front of the TV.  On the third day she was organizing my pantry and cleaning out my car.  She was bored.  And she was becoming more and more upset at the thought of her work piling up.  She was already behind.  What was this going to do to her?  This is where we are now.

Daughter two is 6 1/2.  First grade.  She played hookie yesterday because she was exhausted.  Getting up at 6:30am everyday to catch the bus is tough for her.  She read an entire chapter book and watched a DVD from Popular Mechanics.  She was happy.  She brought home her report card this semester and has "exceeded expectations" on almost every skill they've tested.  Where does she go from here?  Does the teacher have the time and energy to devote to giving her extra, more challenging work?  If the teacher is able to give her extra attention, what happens to the other kids in the class?  The "average" kids?

Which brings me to Daughter three.  She is "average".  She's doing well in most areas.  Struggling a little with "sight words".  She's been to a reading coach.  She's had her vision tested.  She's a little test shy, which may explain a few of her low test scores.  But she'll fly under the radar for a few years like her older sister did until they start testing different skills.  Then she'll be behind.  She'll be labeled as such.  She'll grow more and more frustrated because she isn't like the kid next to her.  She isn't like her twin sister. 

All three kids learning in different ways, on different levels, but their tests are all the same.  Tests written by people who've never met them...or any other kids in their school.  How can they be expected to succeed?  They might; I did.  But what if they don't?  What if they completely shut down and begin to hate learning?  What if they become satisfied with being "average"?

I could write more.  There are so many instances of homework that didn't make sense.  Right answers being marked wrong on tests.  Methods that are too confusing for even the smartest of kids.  Kids being made to sit still and be quiet all day.  Shortened lunches and recesses.  The reasons are many.

We will finish this school year and begin our homeschool adventures in July.  I'm planning a year round approach because learning never stops.  We'll do three weeks on / one week off with extended breaks around the holidays and a month off every summer to just relax and be free.  We won't sit at our desks for 7 hours a day.  We'll spend a few hours here, a few hours there.  Lots of hands-on learning inside and outside our home.  I'm not buying a curriculum.  I know this is scary for a lot of people, but curriculum is expensive and there is no guarantee it'll work for all three of my girls.  We'll constantly reevaluate what we need to be learning and change things as needed.  We won't take tests.  There will be no assigned homework.  Everything will be done together as a group.

I plan to update this blog every week once we begin. We want to share what we're learning.  We want a digital log to look back on...a yearbook if you will.  We want to help other students who may be struggling.  The girls may even guest post from time to time.

That's our story.  This is our adventure...