Tuesday

A Few Observations

This year, our two oldest children are in "real" school. We are homeschooling John, and of course Gideon and Rachel are at home. Now that half the year has passed, I feel like I have a grasp on the differences between real school and homeschool. Here are a few observations...

Real School
gives Mom a break
children respect other adults
children make new friends
we are all worn out at night
family spends a lot of time in the van
family is governed by school calendar
parents make new friends
we all get up early
children deal with boy/girl awkwardness

Homeschool
Mom has no free time
children respect their family
children become close friends w/ their siblings
we all have relaxed evenings
family spends majority of time at home
family operates on our own calendar
parents swim around in a fishbowl
we stay in our jammies all day
children don't recognize the weirdness of the other gender

Notice: positives and negatives on both sides and this is just skimming the surface. My heart is still drawn toward homeschooling because I think the benefits outweigh the negatives. However, as I said earlier, we are not hard-core homeschoolers. We take one year at a time, and try to discover what each individual child needs. All in all this has been (and continues to be) a great experience with real school. The school is superb, the teachers are caring, and the friendships will last a lifetime.

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