{"id":3670,"date":"2014-03-28T07:55:08","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T11:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=3670"},"modified":"2016-01-18T20:29:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T01:29:11","slug":"a-hankering-for-homeschooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/28\/a-hankering-for-homeschooling\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hankering for Homeschooling"},"content":{"rendered":"

I never thought much about homeschooling before I was a mommy, but it didn\u2019t take me long after the arrival of Honeybun for it to become something I was interested in.\u00a0 But for me, it wasn\u2019t the usual reasons at that time drawing my interest.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t about not wanting to let her go or letting go of her development (though I have struggled with letting go<\/a> of her moral and character development<\/a>).\u00a0 It was that at just 6 weeks old, I knew she was bright.\u00a0 I could tell she was going to be a quick learner and I worried about her getting lost in a traditional classroom with children who might struggle and require more attention than her.<\/p>\n

\"download<\/a>I\u2019ve spent the past 5 \u00bd years since then contemplating homeschool, debating with hubby, convincing myself that he is right and fighting with everything in me that says he\u2019s not.\u00a0 I\u2019ve loved the idea of being on our own schedule; working at our children\u2019s individual pace; learning in a way that is engaging, interesting and most suitable to each child; and letting the world be their classroom.\u00a0 I\u2019ve dreamed of being able to see the world with our children and teach them history in front of the Wailing Wall, geometry at the base of the Eiffel tower and biology on the plains of Africa. \u00a0I want them to understand that learning happens everywhere and that it’s not just something we do within the confines of a classroom.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve always given into hubby and the cultural pull to do the traditional school thing.\u00a0 We enrolled Honeybun in the French School program in Dublin when she was 3.\u00a0 And she participated in Florida\u2019s Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program.\u00a0 And throughout I tried to convince myself that despite the weaknesses of both programs<\/a>, she was getting other invaluable experience with her peers and other adults.<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a>And then this year happened: kindergarten.\u00a0 I was terrified of this next step in our parenting journey (a year ago, kindergarten scared me more than my impending labor<\/a> and homebirth<\/a>!)\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t go into it lightly, I fought for her to get into the advanced class<\/a> and we chose to opt out of the \u201cmandatory\u201d uniform requirement<\/a> but I tried to go in with a positive outlook.\u00a0 I loved her teacher<\/a> but there were many things that still frustrated me like the homework<\/a> load, the double standard of dress for staff<\/a>, the inability to become involved<\/a> and the common core mathematics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I recently have become so disenchanted with the whole system and I am extremely saddened by the life my 5 year old lives (see \u201cDealing with a Disservice\u201d<\/a> for the full story) and every second that isn\u2019t focused on the immediate needs of my children is drawn to homeschooling.\u00a0 I still long for the life we could live as homeschoolers, the freedom we could have but more importantly, I long for happiness for my children.\u00a0 I long for my children to love learning, to be insatiably curious and to want to explore, know and understand their world.<\/p>\n

I still struggle with the cultural pull and hubby\u2019s staunch position as well as our families\u2019 doubts but I feel the pull getting stronger.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking ahead to next year when I will have two in school and my heart is aching in despair, worried for two of my babies and what their futures hold.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say where our future lies or ultimately what decision will be made but I can say that I will probably never give up my longing to homeschool and the benefits I see in it for my children and our family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never thought much about homeschooling before I was a mommy, but it didn\u2019t take me long after the arrival of Honeybun for it to become something I was interested in.\u00a0 But for me, it wasn\u2019t the usual reasons at that time drawing my interest.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t about not wanting to let her go or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[284],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-home-school-zone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3674,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670\/revisions\/3674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}