Why home schooling?

My oldest child is 5. He began kindergarten this year! For us, there were no gut wrenching moments at the bus stop, anxious breakfasts wondering how he will do in a new setting, or tears as we left him at a school building. There was a week of reminders that school would start on Tuesday and reviews of how our schedule and house rules would change. The first morning of school brought about excitement and smiles and "Bibles with Breakfast". We are a home schooling family.

Day one included coloring and scissors and glue and pencil work. It also included measuring and science and following directions as we baked fresh potato bread for the first time. We learned about yeast and what "1/2" means on the half cup measuring cup. It was a good day.

Many people have recently asked me "Why are you home schooling?" A lot of our acquaintances assume that my children's life threatening food allergies are the reason. While it certainly tipped the scales, home schooling was always an option my husband and I considered. Truth be told, my husband was the one convincing me early on in our marriage that home schooling was the way to go. As a public school teacher, I felt a little like a traitor supporting home schooling as a viable choice. The full answer to "Why home schooling?" is complicated. So, here we go:

1. We want our children to be able to think for themselves. Unfortunately, we live in a standardized test driven educational society. Teachers are not allowed to truly teach to the interests and strengths of the students in their classes. By virtue of the rigorous testing schedule that NYS has set in place, teachers have little choice but to teach to the test. We don't want this for our children. We want them to love to learn and to learn to think critically. We want to teach to life, not to the test. (I would bet that most teachers would like to do this too, if NYS ever got out of their way.) When I taught 12th grade, I was appalled at the number of my students who simply couldn't think their way through an assignment. If it wasn't in the specific form of a regents task, they did not know what to do with the question. Scary.

2. We want our kids to be kids. The current curriculum / testing schedule leaves scant room for learning through play. Just because we can teach something at a young age does not mean that we should. Children develop at different rates and there is a surprisingly large range of "normal" that is not accounted for by most public/private school curriculum schedules. While we want our children to do well academically, we also recognize that the "push, push, push" mentality of many schools does not allow them time to enjoy childhood. We also want to limit exposure to that which we find morally questionable or offensive or cause our children to "grow up" too quickly. This is a tender age and God has entrusted our children to us. Protecting their innocence and youth is important to us as a family.

3. Life threatening food allergies are scary and serious business. I have heard too many horror stories from allergy moms regarding schools and epi-pens to count. Until my kids are old enough to carry the epi, self-administer and call 911 (or get someone to), they stick close to me. Period, end of story. As I said, this was the clincher. Home schooling was always on the table. I would like to think that we would have prayerfully chosen home schooling on our own, without health concerns playing a role. I honestly don't know if that is true. The allergies have caused us to be bolder in our choices for our children than we might have been. Every event, sport joined, family outing attended is carefully, meticulously planned and considered. We are deliberate in what we choose to participate in and what situations we put our children in. I am blessed that God has shown Himself time and time again in our lives in this arena.

So, for all of you wondering "why", I hope this is an answer. I just ask you to really begin to consider "why" you make the choices you do for your family. Is God calling you to be bold in some area of your life? Answer Him, listen to Him. He is faithful and with His grace, you can do anything He calls you to.

Lord, bless this journey that we are taking. You are wise and I pray that you bless mothers everywhere with the wisdom to do your will in their families. Amen.

Place Setting placemats

My husband and I recently had a very "intense discussion" about whether or not our five, four and two year olds should receive an allowance. We are NOT in agreement on this issue. In an effort to come to some sort of compromise, we will be instating the use of chore charts with goals such as "extra bike time" or "pick an extra book at bedtime". To this end, I am coming up with ways to give them some concrete responsibilities. They have always had to clean up their toys and they do toss their clothes in the laundry pile, but I wanted to add something that would help me at dinnertime. So we decided that they could set their own places at the table before dinner (and lunch). To make this easier, we made place setting placemats together! This craft spanned several days while the baby took his morning nap.

First I had them each choose two colors of large construction paper. (I did all the prep cutting and measuring at night after they were in bed.) I cut one of each of their papers into strips 1 1/2 inches wide, the short way. I cut the other color lengthwise with 1 1/2 inch slits. Be sure to leave at least 1 1/2 inches border uncut so the paper does not fall apart while weaving the papers together.

Second, I taught the kids how to weave the short paper strips onto the large paper. I recommend taping each strip on the back side of the paper as they finish each one. This prevents the strips from slipping out as you weave other pieces.

Third, we picked a plate and cup from the kitchen and each child traced the shapes onto white cardstock. They practiced their scissor skills and cut out their own tracings. Perfectionist moms: let go of the fact that the circles will be far from perfect. It is more important that the kids do this themselves!

Because I want to encourage word and letter recognition, I wrote the words "plate", "bowl" and "cup" on their shapes. (I also cut out and labeled the forks and spoons because the fine motor skills just aren't there yet in my kids for that kind of tiny cutting. Again, just do them at night and have them ready for craft time.)

The kids then glued all the pieces where they belong on the placemats. We took the placemats to Office Max and had them laminated.

The finished projects have a home in a low cabinet in the kitchen along with kid plates, bowls, forks and spoons, and cups! The kids love to set their places and I've crossed a chore off my own dinnertime list!

Now, I do know that one can purchase placemats from some kids catalogs that have place settings on them, but having the kids create their own has given them a sense of ownership. They practiced fine motor skills, weaving, tracing, cutting, and gluing. We spent time together and they love to show off their placemats to anyone who is joining us for dinner!

Lord, give me the patience and wisdom to choose to spend time creating with my kids! Amen