I clearly remember in college meeting families who homeschooled ( I went to Franciscan University of Steubenville which is a mecca of homeschooling families) and saying "I could NEVER do that." Well, fast foward 6 years and there I was pondering the possibility of homeschooling. There were many, many pros in my mind for doing this but many cons also.
First of all , and in my mind the most important, was the ability to shelter my kids from all of the "bad stuff" in the culture around us. I would be able to control pretty much what toys they played with, movies they watched, language they heard, at least for a couple of years. I would be surrounded by other homeschooling families who agreed with my values and faith. Academically my boys would be far ahead of their peers in regular school. Results of homeschooled kids testing is routinely published and they perform extremely well. Also, financially homeschooling could save us big bucks instead of paying Catholic school tuition. We would have the freedom as a family to travel when we wanted, take days off when we liked and the boys would able to be in a lot of other extracurricular activities due to them having more time in their day.
The cons though would be me not really getting a break. I'm a little bit of a control freak and not always the most patient mom, so I didn't know how I would be as my kids teacher. Another con would be not being able to work or run errands by myself, and this was a BIGGY! Also, having to tell family and friends who DO NOT understand that we were homeschooling would be difficult. Another thing that just bothered me was the thought of never seeing my boys in those cute little programs at Thanksgiving or Christmas, them not having class pictures or getting ready for their first day of school.
We knew that public school was not an option for us, so after a lot of talking and praying my husband and I decided to give it a go. He has been a proponent of the idea for awhile and I agreed to do a "trial year." I began homeschooling Joseph last year with a kindergarten curriculum because he was just past the cut off to start school. By September I told my husband that I was not doing this next year! The reality of having all of my kids home, all of the time, started to sink in. Realizing that ALL of my shopping trips for the next 10 years would include ALL of my children. Also, coming to terms with the fact that I would not be able to work outside of the home again was a little depressing to me.
So we pushed through the year and academically Joseph did very, very well . He learned to read, he learned all of his kindergarten sight words, phonograms, numbers to 100. BUT, he was a bear to teach. He was so stubborn, fighting me in the mornings, he just wanted to play and not "do" school.
So, to make a long story kind of short, we enrolled Joseph in a Catholic school this year for kindergarten. Now, I struggle with that decision. I miss having all of my boys around. I miss being able to teach him and to know exactly what he is learning and where he needs help. He is WAY ahead of the class this year because we already did most of what he is doing last year. Also, financially we aren't sure how we are going to put 3 (and counting) kids through Catholic school.
So, I am at a crossroads. Do I want to really put my whole heart into homeschooling and just go for it? Forgo my own wants (a career, not having the stigma of a homeschooling family etc.), really sacrifice it all and teach my kids on my own? Or do I want to continue at a Catholic school where we will definitely have to sacrifice in many other parts of our life? Any thoughts? Can anyone relate?
For now, I just pray and ask God to lead me and give me an answer (preferably by February :-)
