My daughter is 3 and my son is 15 months old. My 3 year old attend a parent co-op play school 2 mornings a week from 9:00-11:30 and she loves it! I love working in her classroom and serving on the parent board and being a part of her school experience. It is all play based and very developmental...If she could stay there through Jr High I would be in heaven, but it is just for 3-5 year olds.
So while it is still a bit off, I have been tossing the idea of HS'ing around. I was a pre-K teacher prior to having kids, I love the idea of following my childs lead and making learning exciting, and I don't like the idea of the wasted time in schools, standardized tests etc.
If she were to go to public school, she would go to a school less than a block from our house, which is an excellent school and very sought after (probably because of the good test scores, which I don't really care about). I just hate the idea of homework for a 6 year old and lack of music and art and hands on science.
But, here is my hesitation...
when I was in school not so long ago (I'm 26) the home schooled kids I knew (just a handfull, certainly not a large sample) were weird and very dorky. I feel horrible saying that, and please know I am not calling anyones child weird or dorky! I just can't get that images out of my head and when I think of homeschooling my kids, I worry about that. When I was in Jr high and HS you could tell the kids at church who were HS'ed and I remember thinking "I won't ever do that to my kid" and now, here I am, thinking about doing that to my kid!
Is this because I lived in an area where homeschooling was not done by many people, or because it was just a while ago, or was my sample of homeschool just very small.
I know that obviously, not all homeschooled kids are weird, and that fitting in is certainly not the most importnant thing in life
but I wonder if anyone else had to get past a bias like this before deciding to HS their kids?
So while it is still a bit off, I have been tossing the idea of HS'ing around. I was a pre-K teacher prior to having kids, I love the idea of following my childs lead and making learning exciting, and I don't like the idea of the wasted time in schools, standardized tests etc.
If she were to go to public school, she would go to a school less than a block from our house, which is an excellent school and very sought after (probably because of the good test scores, which I don't really care about). I just hate the idea of homework for a 6 year old and lack of music and art and hands on science.
But, here is my hesitation...
when I was in school not so long ago (I'm 26) the home schooled kids I knew (just a handfull, certainly not a large sample) were weird and very dorky. I feel horrible saying that, and please know I am not calling anyones child weird or dorky! I just can't get that images out of my head and when I think of homeschooling my kids, I worry about that. When I was in Jr high and HS you could tell the kids at church who were HS'ed and I remember thinking "I won't ever do that to my kid" and now, here I am, thinking about doing that to my kid!
Is this because I lived in an area where homeschooling was not done by many people, or because it was just a while ago, or was my sample of homeschool just very small.
I know that obviously, not all homeschooled kids are weird, and that fitting in is certainly not the most importnant thing in life