Why are you homeschooling?!

While I have been asked (only once), "Why are you homeschooling?!" this post is to answer my own questions, "Why am I homeschooling?" "What do I want for my kids?" "What is important to our family?"

First there are a few practical reasons that have a lot to do with my own personality:
1. I really like to have Luke at home with me.
2. I like freedom. It would bug me to be accountable to attendance policies. Also, the schools I'd be most interested in sending my child to are a good twenty minutes away and to get him there before eight o'clock each morning would be difficult and not worth it. And I'd spend a lot of my life driving. I would like to postpone the chauffeur-era of my life.
3. I think the public schoolday, especially for kindergartners, is way too long. And at our neighborhood school (which I've heard is a great school, an arts magnet) the day is even longer. And they do not have regular recesses, which for me is a deal breaker. Free and unstructured time is essential, in my opinion.

Then there are these, more philosophical reasons.

Reasons I Homeschool My Young Children:

I want my young children to be at home more than they are away from home.

I want to ensure that my children read and write for real and meaningful reasons (even and especially while they are still learning to read and write.)

I want my children to grow up outdoors as much as possible.

I want the time to help my children find and develop their talents, without taking time away from important family rituals, like dinners together and family outings.

I want my children to play. I want my children to avoid schools where play is crowded out by insubstantial substitutes, and is not given significant, consistent time.

I want my children to be cared for, looked after, but not smothered by supervision or a multitude of well-meaning, but seriously stifling rules.

I want my children to be taught gently.

I want my children to grow by being nurtured in a friendly, even loving environment.

I want my children to learn things that are interesting to them.

I want childhood for them to be unhurried.

Each of the above desires is rooted in both my personal mother-sense, but also by what I learned in college from professor-practioners. But, I am finally understanding that mother-sense came first, before the science of teaching. The best early childhood classrooms emulate the home. While doing the dishes tonight, I thought of example after example where this is the case with widely accepted best practices in pedagogy. The home is the first and most natural place for a child to learn to read, to serve, to tally, to problem solve, to sing, to dance, to experiment, to cook, to build, and even to get along with others.  And the best, most appropriate classrooms for young children imitate, as much as possible, that natural and caring learning environment. I really do believe that early childhood matters and can set a trajectory for life. So, I want Luke's early childhood years to be as positive as possible.

As kindergarten approached, I didn’t feel capable of finding that best, most appropriate classroom for Luke. But now that I’ve kept him home, I’ve realized that I was looking for a home away from home –which can and should and does exist in lots of great classrooms, because of warm and gifted teachers! But, I’ve realized that I don’t need to find a home away from home, I can just provide the home.

There is one last reason I homeschool and it is probably the most pertinent: I have a desire to homeschool. And the desire is growing. At this time, it feels right for us.

Becoming a Cement Man

Last week, some men dug out an old driveway and laid a new one at the house across the street. Luke spent a great deal of time watching them. After they were done working on the first day, Luke went across the street to collect rocks from the work site (small chunks of cement they hadn't carried away.) At one point, he ran inside to "get a bigger bucket!" Then he lugged bucketfuls of rocks over to our side and made a pile and a mess. That night, he and his dad hauled the rocks to the backyard and swept. Luke wanted to examine the rocks with a magnifying glass and I couldn't find it for him, so the next day, we bought two -one for Luke, and one for Pete. The day after that they spent lots of time examining the rocks in the backyard.

I love that curiosity. In his bedroom, he keeps a small box with all the things he calls his treasures: rocks, shells, a feather, silly bandz, etc. Anyway, he always stuffs things in his pockets so he can put them in his treasure box. Today, he stopped riding his bike to pick up and examine acorns still in their hulls. (Is that what they're called?) Anyway, he was stuffing them in his pockets, but they wouldn't all fit. So he was going to try to ride and hold one in his hand. No big deal for you and me (well, you) but it was a balancing act. Anyway, I hope angels keep moving snapshots (video, duh, Carrie) of the boys' lives so that Luke can look back and see what an interesting and adorable child he was. (And yes, I know that's my job. But you can't be good at everything.)

PS and totally off-topic: today we read a book about Christopher Columbus. We looked at an apple like it was a globe to show how people went East to the Indies and CC wanted to go West.
I told him, "People used to think the earth was flat. And that dragons lived at the edge to swallow you if you fell over."
Did I make that last bit up?

After the book, I said something like, "How about that?" And Luke's response was kind of like, "That's an okay book."
Then I said, "And it's a true story." 
Luke's response: "It is?!"
I guess I should have mentioned that at the beginning.

a good day

I planned our day last night. Before I planned, I prayed for help to know the important things. 

Here are the plans & how the day actually went:

Personal prayer: me, encourage the boys to say their own (they didn't.)
Read scriptures: me, out loud in the family room, sometimes ignoring Pete yelling.
Brush teeth. (This needs to be written on the schedule because my children brush their teeth once a day at night. That must change. I wish it was because I was really worried about their teeth. I am concerned. But mostly my motivation is the dread of getting yelled at by a dentist one day.)
Breakfast.
Piano. We forgot.
A Morning Walk (bike ride for Luke) to Lowe's Grocery Store, about 8 blocks away. To replace Luke's toothbrush that had fallen in the trashcan with dirty diapers the night before. (Oh, he didn't brush his teeth this morning either.)

Clean the bathroom.
Clean the kitchen.
Dust and Vacuum (if you can figure it out. We bought a new vacuum. I didn't even attempt to figure it out.)
I did clean the bathroom and the kitchen. I'm just not sure when. And the kitchen is dirty again.

A Healthy Lunch. The kids boycotted the healthy lunch and had PB & honey. But, I had a salad. I felt guilty for giving them regular peanut butter, not no-sugar and oil added. And then I looked at the 2nd humongous canister of Peter Pan in the pantry from Sam's and thought, "Maybe after I use that up I'll go back to buying the other kind.")

Read stories to boys. Love.
Petey naps. Thankfully.
Luke and Mama read Henry Huggins. I love Henry Huggins. He's so respectful to Mrs. Huggins. Tonight at dinner, Luke said, "May I be excused?" Maybe it's rubbing off on him.
And plan Family Home Evening. We didn't.

Yoga-together if Luke would like to. Or independent time. (Luke drew pictures. I ...? didn't do yoga.)
Bake a treat together for F. H. E. (Um, YES - apple cake cupcakes.)
Make a good dinner. Ask Luke for help. (Luke & Pete were outside and out of the way. Asked Brandon for help once he got home.)
Practiced piano while his buddy from next door sat on the floor with Pete and listened.

Dinner, After-dinner walk, and FHE

Oh! I just remembered when I cleaned.
The boys ate lunch outside on the back patio, afterwhich they turned on the hose and made a mud bath...in which they bathed. I was cleaning the kitchen.
I cleaned the bathroom later while Luke and Pete were outside playing. They didn't get muddy again. I guess one naked soak-down with cold water was enough. Their clothes are still strewn across the patio. After they were washed off, they ran around naked --Pete avoiding the spray, Luke pretending to avoid it.

For me, this was a really good mothering day.

Word Wall

Luke picks a word. Together, we add it to the Word Wall. (Butcher paper on the wall above his bed? Honestly, haven't purchased it yet.)

Skills it addresses (hypothetically): phonics, sight words, print

Will probably never happen but...
As he gets older, could also use this concept for new vocabulary words with columns for taxonomy or sorting: noun, verb, adverb, etc. Could be a list of words he/we come across in reading and need to look up. Could be a spelling tool.

P.S. I once saw a child's bedroom where the walls were ringed with 4x6 cards, each with one word printed on them. I think they were "sight words."

Family Tree Ideas

1. Fill out Family Tree with Luke.
2. On a world map, locate the countries our ancestors came from/came to.
3. Learn about those countries. Read books about. Read authors from. Recipes. Movies, music, internet. (DVD-Nature's Ireland). Also, landscape.
4. Make postcards from each country with what we've learned (Can you order postcards?)
5. Invite returned missionaries or others over to share their experiences with us in those countries, including culture, food.
6. Learn more about grandparents. Create and send a questionaire.
7. Visit Grandparents at Thanksgiving. Record experiences in journal and photos.
8. Share love for grandparents by telling stories about them.
9. Plant bulbs in memory of Grandma Petersen and others.
10. Begin collecting family recipes again. Compile & share. Try.

The things I hope to store here

My core values as a teacher and parent.
Ways I'm trying to be an example to my kids of an interest-led, and lifelong learner.
Reading Lists for my Children--especially storybooks I fall in love with and chapter books we read aloud.
Links to the sites I find most helpful.
Brainstorming for project-approach learning and unit studies, also ideas for teaching specific skills: reading, number sense, etc.
What we're doing for homeschool.