Schooling

Let me begin with a disclaimer - Don't get too excited by the last post. We're in the research phase because we want to reduce the dreaded waiting phase to a bare minimum. This hasn't been so easy that we've got the process down to it's simplicity and we're looking for the challenge.

But God does command His people to care for widows and orphans, and I'm convinced that we are to open our home again at some point (and Daddy votes for "soon" because of retirement).

Regarding schooling.

I am totally convinced that homeschooling is a wonderful, ideal thing. I believe that parents are THE people with the responsibility to make sure their children grow up being taught the important things about life and unfortunately many public schools can not be trusted to help with that job without teaching a lot of bad stuff on the way.

We homeschooled from the time the kids came home (January) through August. Daddy said we were sending them to school and after struggling (my own struggles with pride, rebellion and submission to authority) and giving it over to God I submitted to his lead.

Her Regal Highness (and was she pulling that one off today - submitting to the authority of the parents is hard for anyone her age, the selfishness and pride that make one chafe under authority were rearing their ugly heads) and Princess are attending a University-Model School.
They attend on Tuesdays and Thursday and their teachers at the school hand over the lesson plans for Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays and I teach those days.

Mr. Clean (I wish he could be persuaded that he NEEDS the lotion after the bath instead of fighting it) is attending the local public school.

Little (let's not leave anyone out) is becoming all grown up. Another reason why I need a baby. He's potty-trained. He's talking in complete sentences most of the time. I have a book for him when he wants to "do" school but he's learning quickly and with the shared language teachable moments are everywhere. So he's being homeschooled the way many "2 a haf" year olds who are really almost 4 (yes, he doesn't answer the question "How old are you?" correctly) .

Daddy felt that Mommy and Mr. Clean needed space from each other. And he was right. Despite my convictions that I was supposed to be his best and primary teacher there's a whole lot of dynamics that work better in this family with us having our separate spaces for a portion of the day. And the public school came highly recommended from various sources. We were going to send Princess there, until ESOL talked about putting her in 3rd grade.

Which is lovely about their school. Princess is in 2nd grade and attends 1st grade for Language Arts. We're actually mostly on her comprehension level although her math computation skills are away and beyond the curriculum (but it's good to have something be easy and gives her the space to learn things like graphs and word problems). Her Regal Highness is in 4th grade (she told her Dad that she is bigger than any of the other girls in 4th-6th grade) but the work is largely on her level as well (Language Arts being the difficult thing - but it's sticky to put a girl who's hit puberty and stands over 5' in 3rd grade).

So my life has calmed down. I no longer fear the tantrums because I know that I have the space and resources to deal with them. I don't have to be "on alert" for large portions of the day because of inter-child dynamics.

I hated the idea of sending my children away to school because I knew I was capable of homeschooling and I believed it was the best option for anyone who was capable of it. The thing was, while I have the training and know how to teach, I don't have the emotional and I guess psychological reserves to parent high structure high nurture and teach with all 4 in the same place. There are too many needs that people want met RIGHT NOW and after a certain amount of stress the nurture flies out the window and you have crazy Mommy.

I think we found the right balance. There are still days that are crazy, but I believe at this time God has called us to use the support of public and private school educators to teach our children. I didn't think I would be able to entrust my children to a public school especially after my experience teaching here. (Unfortunately when we taught there it was a poster school for all that can go wrong with public education in the US. Looking at some of the recent data -I left the school after the 00-01 school year - things have improved).

So that's what we're doing here. Today I worked with the girls and spent some time with Little without too many outbursts from any of them and no hitting or kicking that I know of during the hours that Mr. Clean was at school. I don't have to worry about what to teach him or how to motivate him and now that I don't have to make him do his assignments (because the ones from school are easy/fun and/or it's a lot more fun to please your teacher than your Mommy) he has fewer opportunities for defiance and chooses not to be defiant more of the time (instead he has so much to tell me about what happened that day in 1st grade). The girls have the individual teaching time that they need to learn the subject matter in a new language. And Little and I have 2 days a week at a slower pace which makes both of us more sane.

So -that's what happened with school.