Please note that this post is NOT meant to argue one side or the other. It's simple to talk about our journey to our current school situation and our thoughts for the future.
We did fine in the public schools, so our kids will do just fine. '
That was our thinking when we got married. In fact at one point Tony was completely against homeschooling all together. Our parents had their reasons for sending both us and our sibs to public school. They were great reasons, and we completely agreed with them.
Then I was pregnant or had just had Sweet Pea (I think pregnant) and I spent an evening at a godly couples house working on a project for Orphan Sunday. She talked about her choices for school for her three girls, how her thoughts had been the same as ours. She shared how her oldest went to Kindergarten and suddenly their world changed, they didn't like what their child was learning at school. Their children experienced a number of different schooling options, and now they are amazing young ladies on fire for the Lord. I wanted my kids to be like them! The more I read for homeschooling families, the more I liked many of the common themes (a togetherness as family, a control of teaching, more time home and less time being "busy" at school)
Fast forward to the summer before Sweet Pea would traditionally enter a Preschool (and by traditionally I mean by today's standards, the rates at which our kids go to Preschool are incredibly high compared to what they were when I was a kiddo). We had ordered a homeschool material and were thrilled. Soon we got a call to take in three kiddos, two would be home while I was trying to teach Sweet Pea. This didn't phase us and we pushed forward with our plan to homeschool.
The school year rolled around and I was more then ready. The five (turned six) year old we had taken into our home....well, he needed more structure then our everyday environment could give him. Suddenly this homeschooling convert was begging for the school system to take her child. PLEASE! I felt like a complete failure.
Side Note: We are required to send our foster kids to the public school, we have no choice. We are also STRONGLY encouraged to send preschoolers to some sort of schooling or structured daycare. However, even if I could have homeschooled I wouldn't have...I NEEDED him to go.
In October Little Man entered the ECSE (Early Childhood Special Ed) program with an IEP. In March we got asked a question I never expected: "Sweet Pea is next on our list to start PreK, talk and pray about it, let us know." Hard question. See in the months that had passed homeschooling was not what I expected. Having a three year old that is all artsy, a curriculum that was so NOT, and a high needs little girl who was emotionally not handling things well...life had pretty much become a night mare. I knew that the PreK program was creative based ant the teachers....well, let's just say we couldn't of found better ones if we have searched for them ourselves. They were incredible!
So we said yes. Good bye homeschooling.....find out the rest of the story next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment