Homeschooling - To do or Not to do?

It's been a full year since Mike and I made the decision to home school and I've got to say that I'm still not completely sold on the idea.  We made this decision a little late in the game - one graduated from public school, one went through 8th grade and the other through 5th grade.  I guess you can say that our family is conditioned for public school and the rituals and routines that go along with it. We loved the football games with halftime performances. Oh, and the anticipation for any holiday or 3 day weekend....we could sleep in!!

But when we started to dissect HOW the kids were learning and WHAT they were learning - that was what led us to consider homeschooling in the first place.  The biggest problem was that Severn was spending most of his days in the Principal's office - not because he was in trouble - but always for some injustice done to him.  Some were too trivial to mention, but others were valid, HUGE problems that no parent ever wants to deal with.  The bullying, the disrespectful punks who wouldn't allow teachers to do their job, and let's face it, the teachers that didn't want to do their jobs didn't invite a love of learning.

Mike and I really hesitated when it came to Miranda because she did quite well in public school.  She loves to learn, loves to socialize, and basically thrives in the public school setting.  But the girls were starting to get catty...the name calling was beginning...why is it that the first thing children learn how to insult in today's society is sexuality?  Well, shoot - hang on a sec...I think we did the same thing in elementary and middle school.  Sigh...but I think the term "gay" was really all that we used. 

But I digress...

The girls were now dating or "going out" with boys, wearing make up, and super tight jeans.  The simplicity of Childhood was basically drop kicked out the window.  There were more days than I can count that I had to send Miranda into school crying because she couldn't get a grasp on those crazy emotions - OR that she couldn't tell me what was wrong.  And that is no way for anyone to start their day.

So they were learning - their test scores always proved that, but at what cost?  Is their sense of self worth really something to sacrifice?  And what other self destructive patterns would have been in their future?

The first thing that Mike and I noticed after we moved to NY and began homeschooling instruction was that Severn could walk by a group of boys without worrying about being messed with.  Miranda stopped biting her nails.  The anger that Severn had always carried around slowly began to melt away. (We thought this was just his personality.)  We still had to deal with residual behaviors like Severn calling Miranda names when we weren't around to build himself up, etc, etc.  But once we drilled into him that all he's doing is tearing her down and we are in charge of building her up, he started to treat her with more respect.  That was a trait learned from other children because I like to think we are pretty respectful in our household.

I'm not going to say instructing my own children has been easy either.  As I mentioned earlier, we are conditioned to the public school system.  Thus, I get really frustrated when it's time for them to wake up and get started for the day and they feel no sense of urgency.  And adding Bailey's to my coffee every morning to alleviate my frustrations wasn't going to be a solution.

I imagine that as we move into our second year of homeschooling we will see even more growth. Their test scores still prove they are learning. And there is a sense of excitement.  AND, my coffee is just coffee.