Why I homeschool...

Lots of folks have been asking me lately how school is going....well, I've decided to write a blog post about it because I have too much to say in a 1 minute response and I'm sure no one is wanting the full story when they ask.  So, here it goes.  I know when most people heard that we were homeschooling, they thought we were crazy.  Well, yes....we are crazy.  I'll go ahead and get that out of the way.  I wanted to homeschool for the 2 school years prior but just didn't have the nerve to do it.  Once I finally made the decision to go for it, I was SCARED-TO-DEATH!!  I'm a certified teacher with a Master's degree but I was scared to teach my own child.  I don't really know what I was afraid of...the unknown, having the sole responsibility for teaching her, for what people would say if we succeeded, or *gasp* if we failed.  Probably definitely the latter.  Overall, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to teach my girls.  It's exciting to teach them a new skill and then use it throughout our day, week, month....because I know everything they are learning, I can reinforce it every chance I get.  I get to reinforce it at home, at the grocery, through literature, music, etc.....  M1 gets to learn to play 2 musical instruments....TWO!!!  We go to lessons during the day so it doesn't take time away from daddy when he gets home.  Then, we get to practice at all times of the day!  We learn about math/money while we're at the check out of the grocery, while we calculate how much time until lunch, when we measure/cook breakfast and lunch (which we now do together everyday).  We also use a math curriculum so, yes, we do REAL sit-down learning too.  We have TIME to do all the life-skills that I want my girls to know.  We are learning about weather this week and will be going on 2 different field trips to reinforce the studying.  In addition, we'll be doing science experiments to mimic how clouds are formed.  These are just a FEW of the examples of how we get to learn at home.  My girls get to sleep as late as they want each day (within reason, but they are both early-risers) instead of me having to wake them up to eat, dress, brush and be at school before 7:30.  Was there any early morning quality time?  Now our mornings begin with cooking breakfast together, Bible study, prayer and singing a hymn.  My girls PLAY together, M1 sings to M2 and teaches her colors and numbers, M1 has gotten over a lot of the "tween" things she was interested in such as Justin Bieber, Hannah Montana, Disney channel, etc....  She's happy to play and listen to things that are more "age appropriate" now that she doesn't have to impress any of her peers with her tween style.  M1 gets to do swim team twice a week because we don't have to worry about spending time in the car in the afternoon...she's been with me for the past 8 hours so I don't mind driving her to swim, watching and then driving her home.  Usually, the whole family sits and watches her. Before, I felt like I was picking her up from school, just to drop her off with someone else for another hour of the day.  We also go to Wed. night church because we don't have to be in bed by 7:30.  We spend more social time with other families than we ever did before and I'm thrilled that with this social time, all the parents are involved. The biggest fear I hear from everyone is, "what about her socialization?".  Well, M1 now spends MORE time with friends and they are all different ages.  I'm excited that she's friends with 5, 7, 8, and 10 year olds.  She's learning how to work well with others instead of her peer group being 20 other 7 year olds with only one adult influence for most of her school day.  At school, she was only allowed to really talk to her friends at lunch and recess, now she gets to spend hours hanging out with friends and adults. Now for the cons....I could go crazy some days spending 24/7 with my children.  There....I said it.  I love being a mom, but sometimes a girl could use a break.  Thankfully, I've gotten over the mommy guilt of just saying "I need some time by myself".  Doug is great to take the girls, or just let me leave.  I've joined MOPS at church and have made time for myself to go to the garage and exercise...ALONE!  I can leave the girls alone to play, or watch Little House on the Prairie while I ride the bike on the trainer or do some weights. We are together so much, I don't mind saying "it's time for you to go find something to do".  I'm learning how to let my kids entertain themselves and read alone...wait a minute....wasn't I supposed to be talking about cons?  OK, let me get back to those.  Sometimes M1 doesn't think I can teach her anything.  Afterall, don't all 7 year old girls know everything?  Sometimes there is whining about sitting down to learn spelling, math or taking a test. We are all still human and sometimes school is not fun.  But, life is not always fun, or butterflies and rainbows.  My kids need to learn that too, so sometimes we have power struggles. Sometimes I have days where if the public school principal was sitting at my kitchen table I would sign her up for public school on the spot (I guess that's why principals don't hang out at homeschoolers kitchen tables).  Sometimes people just want to see us fail and that's a hard one to swallow.  I'm doing what works for our family right now so the negative people just really bother me.  I'm not preaching homeschooling and condemning other families for not doing it.  I LOVE public school and I CERTAINLY don't want all of my friends to homeschool.  Some personalities just don't need to put that stress on themselves or their family and it's certainly not for everyone.  But for us, for now, it's working.  Will we do this forever....NO!  So, that's the story of the Perry's homeschool life.  Whew....aren't you glad you didn't ask me how homeschooling was going while we were standing in Wal-Mart and this post was the answer I gave you....I think your ice cream would have melted!