It's been 4 months since my last confession...LOL!  Okay, seriously.  It's been 4 months since my last blog, which is unacceptable.  Luckily, not too much has gone on in my world of home schooling, but I have decided to do things a little differently starting next semester.

I'm getting some help.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am an ideas person.  In other words, I am great and creative when it comes to the idea of something, but I am not so wonderful when it comes to the follow-through of said ideas.  I am not an organization guru.  My office/school room is a mess, and that's putting it very mildly.  The kids are learning every day, but let's just say that an audit would be a disaster!  I have promised myself, my husband, and my kids that 2010 will be different.

For starters, I have accepted the truth about myself.  Reread the previous paragraph for that ugly truth.  In that light, I started with investigating some learning options that will help keep me on the straight and narrow and keep the kids moving full-steam ahead.  After sifting through numerous options, I settled on  a Virtual Academy.  While it follows state standards (which can leave something to be desired), it is a move at your own pace program (which I love!).  The curriculum and supplies are all free, and it can be done anywhere there is a computer.  I am still the teacher in the room, and I still have to report attendance, but I don't have to spend time and energy searching for materials and resources. (Without spending all of my energy on the ideas, perhaps I can focus on the follow-through!) Plus, I can still embellish the curriculum with the things we enjoy doing.

Secondly, as part of our writing curriculum, the kids will contribute to this blog by writing about their experiences with homeschooling.  We are all quite excited about this aspect, and I can't wait for them to begin expressing themselves!

For the record, I am still in love with home schooling.  I love not putting my kids on a bus every morning, and I am blessed beyond measure that I don't have to worry about what they might be learning from other kids when they are away from me.  But I am not naive enough to believe that I will be able to keep them to myself forever.  One day (possibly soon) they will go back to school and associate more with their peers than with me, and I would like to rest comfortably in the fact that they didn't miss a beat while they were with me.  So, I'm taking a different tack in 2010.  I am going to get by with a little help from my friends (both real and virtual).  As for the organization part...well, keep hope alive!

It's early, and the kids are not up yet. They've missed the bus, haven't laid out any clothes to wear, and will likely be extremely late to school today. Breakfast will probably consist of something they can eat on the way, and I'll need to make myself presentable for walking into the building and signing them in. But I am not worried about any of these things at the moment. I am actually enjoying these last few minutes before everything kicks into high gear. For God's sake, I am taking a few minutes to blog about this instead of running around the house barking orders at everybody in hopes of salvaging this day gone off track!

No. I am calmly sipping my coffee and checking my email instead of concerning myself with the aforementioned melodrama because I made a decision in the spring of 2008 that already released me from it. I decided to home school my two children, to take the road less traveled if you will, and it has made all the difference.

The Situation
The hubby and I actually began discussing this as a possibility in 2004, when our work-life balances were starting to spin out of control. Our kids were 5 and 2, and I worked in a local school system as a teacher. It was a frustrating time for all of us. I spent so much time managing the education process of over 100 kids that I had little energy to manage the process for my own offspring. I came home stressed out and tired most nights and dreaded getting of the car some mornings to go to work. I had to miss the first day of school drop off for both boys because their start times conflicted with the time I had to be at work, and I was shown no mercy. It was disheartening, to put it mildly, to have to hear about how brave they were from the hubby (who likely would have stifled any drama anyway!). Increasingly, I had to start making some tough decisions--my kids come first, and I won't miss their awards programs because of my job--and suffering the consequences of those decisions (docked pay, disciplinary write-ups, etc.).

At first, we made the decision for me to stop working. We left the kids in school, and I was there to receive them off the bus and be their aftercare provider. One was in kindergarten, and the other was in third grade. My being at home was great! I got to participate in ways I hadn't before--having lunch with them occasionally, going on field trips, volunteering in the classrooms--and I was able to see things through an unfiltered lens. The work my kindergartner brought home was beneath him. This kid could already read (and read well!) but the librarian was insisting that he bring home kindergarten level books. He was bored in school and starting to become too chatty and too bossy in class. My third grader was struggling to find balance between turning in perfect work and just finishing his work so that the teacher could keep up with her pacing chart. He, too, is an excellent student, but he's type A, and there's no room for that in a classroom with twenty other kids.

The home school theme started coming up more and more in conversations at night. And to the hubby's credit, I was the one who had to come around to it. He was already there and waiting for me to arrive.

The Critics
When we announced to our friends and family that we had decided to pull the kids out of "normal" school, the reactions were variations on the same theme. Gasp--are you sure you want to do that? Raised eyebrow--how is that going to work? What do you do? Shrug--y'all are the parents. Raised eyebrow--what about socialization?

We, of course, had expected those reactions, and had answers at the ready. We'd had those same questions, in fact, but we had done our homework. I'd bought and read books about it, and talked with some parents who did it, but the final nail was my recollection of a student that I'd taught who had been home schooled until 8th grade. He wasn't like all the other kids--he had great study habits and a solid work ethic. He was polite and respectful to his teachers, and he understood his purpose for being at school. I had spoken with his mother a few times, and she had asserted on numerous occasions that it was the best decision she'd ever made.

It's funny to me that critics always want to trot socialization out as a reason not to home school. I suppose I can understand the line of thinking...to a point. Most people's idea of home schooling includes shades of cults and backwoods behavior. It's what the media has shown us, after all. Who can forget the Branch Davidians or the polygamist colonies or the religious cults. Home schooling was used to isolate those kids. Our kids, I can assure you, are not isolated. They have no problems making friends or socializing on their sports teams. And lately, many athletes and celebrities are starting to weigh in positively about home schooling. The Jonas Brothers, Tim Tebow (University of FL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner), and Will and Jada all extol the virtues of home schooling. (Besides, most parents abhor the characteristics their children's school friends exhibit, so why should I be concerned that my kids are not socializing to that norm?)

Now
We began this adventure last year. There have been many trials and tribulations. The hardest part so far has been letting go of the constructs of government schooling. We don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn and work until mid afternoon if we don't want to. Quite frankly, we don't need to. With two pupils, we can get so much more accomplished in a week! By the end of the spring term, my first grader was multiplying! My fourth grader was ready to begin learning Spanish. There are no limits on what we can do with our curriculum, which is neither prescribed by an arbitrary governing body nor set to mediocrity. My children work at their own paces, get the opportunity to study what's interesting to them, and they can do it in their pajamas if they so desire! They are not viewed as freaks, and neither are we (the parents). In fact, I get a lot more questions about how it works and hear a lot more lamentations from moms about how they wish they could do it.

Today is the first day of Year 2 of this adventure. There will be some additions, some deletions, and some things will remain the same. Stay tuned to hear all about it!