The decision?

After agonizing hours devoted to the idea of homeschooling, I made a decision..... I am going to homeschool LD. Frankly, public school lost it's appeal to me a LONG time ago. It happened in college actually. I was going to be a teacher - Kindergarten specifically. I loved it.

And then I did some "field work" - internships. I worked in REAL classrooms. I saw some really phenomenal teachers. I saw some, which if I called them mediocre would be giving them more credit than they were due. But it wasn't the teachers. It wasn't the children. It wasn't even the parents who felt it was the Kindergarten teacher's job to teach their children basic hygiene.

It was the politics. I realized that I could never really enjoy teaching when there's so much CRAP that teachers have to put up with. Not to mention, the union. Ok, don't get me wrong, I believe the unions are needed. But, when the union says strike, you do. Regardless of how that impacts YOUR class.

So I didn't go on to the credential program after my bachelor's degree. I stayed home with my daughter until she was 3. Then her father & I divorced and I went to work full time - for an insurance company of all things. Definitely NOT teaching..... well, sort of. I did educate people about their insurance..... But it wasn't the kind of teaching that I loved.

Now that I'm not working any more, I started thinking of teaching again.... but on a more personal level. There were lots of reasons that I finally decided to homeschool our son, and here's one of them:

If we hadn't been together, I would have completely missed the first time LD overcame his fear of small crawly things and actually HELD a bug for more than a few seconds.

Homeschooling allows you to witness your child trying foods from different cultures.....

 

Arts and crafts, while you wait for dinner!

Field trips become a family affair - and if you want to spend more than a day at Sutter's Fort in fifth grade, you can.

Physical Science = learning that something that you can see through can still keep you from falling 30 feet into the ocean!

Finally, homeschooling was our decision because I asked LD, "do you want to ride the bus and GO to school, or do you want ME to teach you?" and LD didn't even hesitate when he said "I want you to be my teacher!" and then he went on about "Mommy" being his teacher for the next two days! I needed no more incentive than that!