Educating My Children

I've decided to home school Olivia next year.  I've thought about this for quite some time and feel it is in our family's best interest. 

Let me answer some of your questions here:

Why on earth would you want to do that?  .
Well, like most people, I am innately lazy.  I don't want to do hard things and I am very comfortable having 3 out of 4 children attending school for six and a half hours each day.  However, my goals as a mother are only partly being realized because there simply isn't enough time for all the things I want to do with them in addition to going to school, music and other lessons, sports and friends.

I am feeling my time with my children slipping away from me and think this will allow me to better reach some of my goals as a mother.  When I consider how much I want to teach them and how much time I want to spend with them, I realize that what we're doing right now isn't going to give me enough time to do it all.  I am keenly aware of how quickly children grow up and I want to spend more time with them while I still can.  I find it extremely difficult to teach my children much of anything with their very busy schedules.  I am also discontent with the miniscule amount of free-play time left after doing the things they are responsible for.
The best solution I could come up with for our family was to home school them because then I can combine my teaching of religion and morals with the secular education they also need.

 “We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they…strengthen our families. Most of us have more things expected of us than we can possibly do…as parents…we face many choices on what we will do with our time and other resources.”                                            Dallin H. Oaks.

Why Olivia?  

 I decided that I would commit to home schooling each of my children for one year.  Because Ashlie's the oldest and my time with her is the shortest, I gave her the first opportunity.  She is going in to 6th grade next year, so I figured that if I were to home school her this would be the year.  She respectfully declined!  :)  Next I gave Olivia the choice.  After thinking about it for about two weeks, she came to me and said she had made up her mind and that she did want to be home schooled.  She is particularly needy right now and doesn't get nearly as much one-on-one time as she wants so home schooling will help to meet that individual need of hers as well.

Reading and comprehension can be studied at the same time as the scriptures.  Math can be practiced any time we go to stores or when I pay bills (in addition to book-learning).  I can help them choose books that are worthwhile to read rather than some of the dumb books that are readily available at school.  There are so many really wonderful books to read that it seems a pity when kids spend their limited time reading lame books. These are only a couple of examples, but there are many more.

Why only one year?

That's all I can commit to at this point.


Will it be easier?  NO!

Will it be worth it?  If I didn't think it would be, I wouldn't bother.   

Won't it be difficult to have Ashlie at one school, Alex at another, Olivia at home and a toddler under foot? 

Duh!  Of course it will be difficult. I think Alex will be particularly difficult when he has to get ready and go to school without his big sis.

What if after one year they want to continue being home schooled? 

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

What does Rob have to say?

He's not really on board yet, but he mostly leaves the instruction of the children to me, because I'm The Mother.  Although he won't commit to being supportive, I think he'll eventually come to see the benefits.  I think his apprehension is primarily because he doesn't know much about home schooling yet.  

The kids' schedule now:

Get up, get ready, off to school.
Home from school, snack, start homework.
Go to soccer (2 days/week), swimming (4-5 days/week), baseball (3 days/week), piano (1 day + practicing)
Eat dinner.
Get ready for bed.
Finish homework.
Sleep.
Repeat.

See?  Not enough time.  By the time they are done with the things they have to do, it's too late to play with friends and I'm too exhausted to teach.  Scripture study suffers.  Social skills suffer because playtime helps develop those skills.  I've even stopped asking them to do daily jobs (they do Saturday work instead) because there just isn't time for a 15-minute job.

But how?

I will have to keep a fairly regular schedule in order for home schooling to work for me.  I'll probably have her do what work she can do independently while I clean up the house in the morning, then we can work together when Avery goes down for his nap.  Errands and outings will probably have to be in the afternoon.  My plan is to follow the public school system's curriculum fairly closely so that she will be able to re-enter public school for 6th grade (unless, of course, we all love it!).  I've looked up the curriculum and I'm excited about the 5th grade content.  5th grade is a fun year - especially in social studies - because we study American history.

Do you have a problem with public education? 

No!  If I did, I'd be yanking all my kids out at the same time!  We have had marvelous teachers and have loved Tolman Elementary (and Ashlie at Valley View).  I have, however, been disappointed to hear that class sizes could be around 34 kids this year and think that is absolutely absurd!

Are you qualified?

Of course I'm qualified!  People have taught their children for centuries.  In fact, I'm uniquely qualified because I am their mother and know them better than anyone else one else on earth.  I have a college education, complete with plenty of math.  Of course I'll have to re-learn a ton of stuff but I am capable.  (But I'd still love the help of grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. that want to help!)

Note: For those of you who are opposed to unconventional methods of educating children, please know that the decision has been made and is not up for debate.   Please be respectful of my decision and refrain from planting "seeds" of discontent with my children.  I strongly believe that they will be well-rounded individuals and what they miss out on in the public school will be more than compensated for by things of greater value.