{"id":5557,"date":"2014-08-04T07:52:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T11:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=5557"},"modified":"2014-08-22T15:01:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T19:01:59","slug":"making-the-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/04\/making-the-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the Move"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s been a long summer.\u00a0 8 weeks in, we accomplished less than I expected but we did make one major decision.\u00a0 After three years, three programs and three schools in two countries, we came to a conclusion: we\u2019re just not \u201cschool\u201d people.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want our children to be successful learners, it\u2019s that we want them to be eager learners and we have not been able to find a place where we are comfortable in mainstreamed schooling.\u00a0 We gave it our best shot.\u00a0 We tried it, we stuck with it, we didn\u2019t give up (the last two times) but after a LOT of long and often heated discussions, we finally came to a decision: we are going to homeschool our children.\u00a0 For now.<\/p>\n

We made the decision moths ago to keep Sugarplum at home rather than putting her in VPK (Florida’s free pre-kindergarten for all four year olds). \u00a0We did the program with Honeybun and honestly, it sucked. \u00a0There really wasn’t anything we liked about it and the 3 hours 5 days a week was exhausting and I only know of 1 other program that offers it on a different schedule and it’s a church based program which is not ideal for our family.<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a>There are many, many, many factors that led us to our final decision and while it wasn\u2019t easy for either hubby or me to commit and say \u201cok, we\u2019re going to do this!\u201d (going outside of the cultural norm is freaking scary!) but we live in a community where homeschool is accepted, supported and thriving and so we\u2019re going for it and here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

Time<\/b>.\u00a0 By the end of last school year, Honeybun was a mess.\u00a0 Hubby was exhausted, I was frazzled, Sugarplum was losing it and Doodle was struggling.\u00a0 Our family was in a bad place and it was all because of the early wake-ups, school pick-up that competed with nap time, a lack of time to play and very few positives to show for it (the only pluses I can say about the year is that we made a few great friends and Honeybun learned how to read).\u00a0 We wanted our lives back and while summer brought us back to some form of freedom and normalcy, the thought of entering another school year and having to stick it out was too much.\u00a0 We want to have free time, we want to travel, we want to enjoy our time together, we want our children\u2019s lives to be happy and fulfilling and worthwhile and I did not feel the 6 hours a day she spent in kindergarten gained her enough.<\/p>\n

Trust<\/b>.\u00a0 One thing hubby said during one of our long talks really hit me at my core.\u00a0 He said \u201cI just don\u2019t trust the system\u201d and with my heart filling with sorrow, I simply replied \u201cthen why are we giving them the most important thing in our lives?\u00a0 Why are we giving them our children?\u201d\u00a0 And I truly believe when you put your kids in school you are giving at least part of them away.\u00a0 You are giving up a large portion of who they are and who they are going to become and while I do not consider myself a control freak or a micromanager, I do want to be the one who guides where my children go and who they become.\u00a0 I do not believe the philosophies of education in place in our school district are of benefit to the children, I believe they are there to protect the schools and make things easier for the staff, but what do children learn from that?\u00a0 I want my children to be respectful towards others but I never want them to be expected to sit down and shut up, I want them to have the confidence to stand up for themselves and others if they feel it is necessary and I don\u2019t believe this is something the current school culture values.<\/p>\n

Happiness<\/b>.\u00a0 If it\u2019s not broke, don\u2019t fix it but if it is, get the hell out!\u00a0 While Honeybun really enjoyed the social aspects of school, I know she did not enjoy the learning.\u00a0 One day a few weeks ago we were talking about whether or not we were going to continue ballet and she said \u201cI want you to be my teacher.\u00a0 For ballet and school because then things would be hard all the time and I wouldn\u2019t be so bored.\u201d\u00a0 I know even in the high achieving class she was in, she spent a lot of time bored because she is such a FAST learner (I can\u2019t say whether she\u2019s overly bright or not but I do know once she hears or sees something she remembers and she has always understood things way beyond her years).\u00a0 The end of the year became a struggle as she fought going to school, fought doing homework and became generally disinterested in everything.\u00a0 At one point I was convinced she was suffering from real depression and I was scared to pieces about my sweet girl who would say things to me like \u201cI just think I\u2019m the worst person\u201d and \u201csometimes I just don\u2019t like myself at all.\u201d\u00a0 She was 5 and it was not okay.\u00a0 But over the past few weeks she has reclaimed herself.\u00a0 She is joking and laughing; playing nicely with her sister; being helpful; not being overly argumentative; and is back to asking a million questions about everything!\u00a0 The change I\u2019ve seen in just the past few weeks is reason enough to make a change because what it really comes down to is my children\u2019s happiness, nothing else matters.<\/p>\n

A much as I’ve thought about this for so long, I’m honestly not sure I ever expected to get Hubby on board with it. \u00a0He\u00a0is still scared out of his mind about things like how it\u2019s going to affect their chances of going to college and how they\u2019re going to make friends.\u00a0 And while it\u2019s a big undertaking for me and I can\u2019t say I\u2019m not nervous, I know we\u2019ll be fine.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to do more than make it, we\u2019re going to make it great!<\/p>\n

(and now I can tick the box \u201cHomeschool Blogger\u201d!)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long summer.\u00a0 8 weeks in, we accomplished less than I expected but we did make one major decision.\u00a0 After three years, three programs and three schools in two countries, we came to a conclusion: we\u2019re just not \u201cschool\u201d people. It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want our children to be successful learners, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[284],"tags":[285,85],"class_list":["post-5557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-home-school-zone","tag-homeschool","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557","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=5557"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5560,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions\/5560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}