First Day of School

for our school district anyway.
To be honest, now is the time to be clear -I am actually homeschooling my children. I know ......weird.

When telling people of our decision, here are the top responses I have received:

"Are you crazy?"
"Wow, how are you going to handle that and your four boys?"
"What about their socialization?"
"How are you going to teach them how to read?"
"Give yourself a break"
or - I'll just pretend that I didn't hear you correctly and change the subject

I know it's not normal to homeschool, but I've never been one known to conform just to fit in. I have always liked the idea of homeschooling, but never thought I could do it. "I'm not capable of it", "I appreciate my independence too much", "Maybe if I didn't have my kids so close together" are all the stories I told myself. But as time went by, as I was taught Joy School, as I spent time with my kids, as our life got adjusted to the four children that we had, the more I realized that I could actually do homeschooling.

Just like anything major I take on, I started doing all the research I could do. (This is just me and my personality, if I make a decision I make an informed decision). I looked up everything I could find, went to a homeschool convention, talked to many homeschooling moms, talked to a preschool/kindergarten teacher that has been teaching for 30 years, studied it out in my mind, and prayed. In the end it is such a positive thing for me and my family. The more I have learned about homeschooling, the more benefits I see and appreciate.

There are many reasons to homeschool, but I'm not going to go into that right now. But I will tell you the core reason I have decided to homeschool.

Simply stated: I want to spend time with my kids.

I once asked a friend that her youngest had just started all-day school what she did while her kids were away. She looked around, searching for an answer, and said something like, "I stay busy, it's just... I don't know, it goes by".
My personality is to stay busy, and I know that if my kids were to go to school I would be just as busy as I am now, if not busier. I would find something to do with my time. It just kills me that I would trade spending this time with my kids for whatever I would spend my time doing. Our time with our kids is so short...18 years is all the time we get. I only get one opportunity to raise my kids, and I want to experience it to the fullest.
As my kids have gotten older the more I realize how quickly they are growing up. With the short amount of time I have with them, I do not like the idea that they would be spending a majority of their waking hours away from home. I love seeing the "ah-ha" look come across their face and the look of curiosity shining from their eyes, and do not like the fact that I would be witnessing that less and less.
Now, honestly we're not sure how long we will be homeschooling (yes, WE, Todd is very supportive and encouraging of this all). It may be just for a few years, maybe longer. We're taking it day by day and may even take it kid by kid. But it really is what is best for our family and our situation right now.

Now, to answer the responses from others:

"Are you crazy?" - Apparently

"Wow, how are you going to handle that and your four boys?" - When I was in 4th grade I remember going into the 5th grade classroom and seeing their homework assignments on the board. I thought to myself "There is no way I could do 5th grade.... it's way too hard". Guess what, I made it through 5th grade....I even ended up graduating from a university with my bachelors. As we go through life we are able to take on more and more things as we grow. My kids came one at a time, and now I am use to running a household with four children. To someone with two children, four looks difficult. I feel the same about someone with 6 children....it's all a matter of perspective.

"What about their socialization?" - to say that kids learn how to be social by going to school is like saying we learn how to eat by going to restaurants. True, social interaction is a major thing that occurs during school just like eating occurs in restaurants. But if school teaches social skills - why are there so many "weird" kids in school? I believe that, for the most part, children learn their social skills from their parents. Think about it.... you and your parents probably have very similar social lives. You learned how to interact with people by witnessing your parents day by day interacting with the people around them.

"How are you going to teach them how to read?" - Believe it or not, I know how to read (amazing, I know), and isn't the best way to teach someone something is by showing them, being an example, working with them? Schools may "teach" children how to read, but it's the students who have their parents reading to them everyday at home that really excel in reading.

"Give yourself a break" - this was one my Grandma told me. I had to just give a little smile because in reality she knows far too well that eventually I will get my break, and when the time comes I will probably be sad to take my break. We only get these little ones in our homes for so long, only a short opportunity to raise them. I understand that motherhood is difficult, it's not always fun and games, but it's what I signed up to do (willingly). I don't need a break for this IS the time I'm doing my greatest work.

or - I'll just pretend that I didn't hear you correctly and change the subject - this is actually the response I get the most and like the least. It's almost hilarious how even the mentioning of homeschooling makes people uncomfortable. Homeschooling is a different choice, but just because it's different doesn't mean we can't talk about it or that it has to be ignored. Nevertheless, this is the choice our family has made, it is not for everyone, and I firmly believe that EVERY family needs to do what is best for THE FAMILY as a whole. This just happens to be the best choice for OUR family.

P.S. Today we went to a farm and picked raspberries. Then, seeing that we were so close to the zoo we stopped there for a couple of hours. Mikey got really excited about the zoo map and so he mapped out our entire trip. We got to just sit back and watch the fish, laugh at the monkeys, and see the dinosaurs. A lot of learning took place, and this is just an average day for us.