The Journey to Homeschooling
I'm sure you've read stories of families who chose to homeschool because of dreadful public school experiences, or for religious reasons, or for health, safety, or learning issues. These are all valid reasons to choose to educate at home, but they are not singly the reason we chose to homeschool.
The journey to homeschooling began in earnest some years before we took the plunge. In 1999, we enrolled our oldest child (Julia) in our parish school. Although I had started to research what homeschooling was all about, we sent her off to school because we just thought it was what people do. While pregnant with our second child (John) in 1996, I went through training to be a childbirth educator. One of the books I had read was You Are Your Child's First Teacher
While Julia was at school, I casually used the Little Saints Catholic Preschool curriculum with John to see if I could handle this homeschooling thing. Since it is such a time-intensive program (you need to make a lot of the learning materials), it wasn't very successful in our household (by this time we had added a third child to our family). Julia started first grade at the same school and I was beginning to see how different her experience in that grade was from the great Kingergarten classroom. She struggled in math, excelled in reading, didn't like her teacher, and would often get sick to her stomach immediately upon arriving at school in the morning.
It was around this time, though, that the topic of homeschooling just kept coming up randomly from neighbors and strangers alike. We had built a new house and the guy who came to do the 1-year inspection (to see if anything needed to be fixed under warranty) started talking about how his kids are homeschooled. Another conversation with a neighbor, who was a teacher, was how she had been asked to do a homeschool evaluation. It was like God was pointing us in the right direction. In May of 2001, we welcomed our fourth child (Connor). A week following his birth, John and I headed to Julia's school for Kindergarten orientation with baby Connor in tow (sleeping in a sling). The principal (of a Catholic school, mind you, and a mother herself) did not utter one single word to me regardying our baby (how old? congratulations? thanks for coming? nope!).
So, all of these factors kind of piled together and by the end of that school year I knew we would not be coming back. Why shell out money for an "iffy" private school education? Couldn't I do just as well myself, if not better? And, to boot, I wouldn't spend my days missing my children dearly. I prayerfully approached my husband with my proposal, and he agreed to a trial year. That was 12 years ago, and we haven't looked back.
Why Do We Continue to Choose to Homeschool?
So, that's the story of how we got here, but it doesn't fully detail why we made this lifestyle choice. The decision was kind of a leap of faith, since we really didn't know how much it would change our lives and how we approach things on a daily basis.
We didn't choose to homeschool for academic reasons, although our daughter's challenges were a motivator for looking into alternatives.
We didn't choose to homeschool for health, social, safety, or financial reasons, although our daughter's mysterious tummy troubles cleared up as soon as she came home and although we are able to provide a customized education at the fraction of the price of private school tuition.
Simply put, we continue to choose homeschooling because it allows us time together as a family and to enjoy one another (for the most part <lol>).
The Grind
Now, I'm not saying that homeschool families are immune to the time constraints that are placed upon families whose children attend school outside of the home. Many of us still have the challenges of outside activities taking time away from the family. However, what's missing for most of those busy homeschool families is the routine grind of school-homework-dinner-activities-bed, only to start it all over again the following day. Even for the most rigorous homeschool programs (school-at-home) which may take hours during the day, there is still the main fact remaining that they are home together.
Parents of my children's friends often state how they don't know how I do it (homeschooling) with all the kids I have and get them to where they need to be for after school activities. Frankly, I don't know how they do it, day in and day out, and still have the energy to be a pleasant person at the end of the day. I remember the early rising, the making sure there has been nourishing food for breakfast and lunch, the waiting for the bus, the running to the school to volunteer or to retrieve a sick child, the homework (and inevitable frustration/tears), the rushing through dinner (ok, we still do that during baseball season), the running out to activities, and the preparing for the next day. Folks, personally, I think we took the easy way out!
It has been such a pleasure to be in this homeschooling journey together. We have taken many adventures, learned through some challenging times, and have really come together as a family. No, it's not ideal and it's not for everybody, but for this family, homeschooling is a way of life!
(Photos: top:2001, our first year homeschooling; middle: 2007 Mardi Gras ; next: 2008 St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption; Bottom (l-r): 2012 Connor and Drew fishing; Julia, Cate, and AJ at the Butterfly show; Lizzy, Julia, Cate, Drew, AJ, and Connor at Niagara Falls; the whole gang on Christmas)