our prequel

So what possessed us to homeschool in the first place?

AC's brother and his wife in California have homeschooled their 2 kids from the start. Their oldest started school about the same time our oldest was born, so it's been in the back of our minds from the beginning as an option. We never had any intention of enrolling our kids in preschool programs - where I grew up, no one went to any kind of "school" before kindergarten. It wasn't until living in DC that I discovered that things have changed in that regard but I still didn't change my mind. Why pay for something I could do myself with some friends?

We moved to Mississippi right when Sunny turned 3 and Posy was 18 months. Our new playgroup has a number of families with older kids in public school so I started hearing about the local schools. I've never been particularly impressed. The first thing that bothers me is what I'm told about the cultural environment - apparently, here in the South, the old adage of "children should be seen and not heard" is still in force, including in the children's own settings. Like their lunch break. Seriously? No talking on their lunch break? Wow. I don't know that I would want to live like that as an adult, let alone as a 5-year-old. And recess does not necessarily happen, which is an automatic non-starter for me. Sunny doesn't sit still for anything and is rarely quiet - it would be too extreme for her to go from total freedom to no talking at all ever and sitting still all day. Not happening.

We're also fairly certain that Sunny would be bored out of her mind. The academics in this state aren't exactly stellar, and she learned to read at her 4th birthday. By the end of the summer, she was already at a 2nd or 3rd grade level and was reading chapter books (Harry Potter, no less) by herself before Christmas. What would they do with her? I realize there's more to kindergarten than sitting on a chair and reading but that's the bulk of the workload.

Last summer, we decided to do a test run to see how I'd do with homeschooling. We're not concerned about our capabilities to teach our daughters - we're both well-read and have college degrees. My follow-through was the biggest red flag. I wrote a substantial list of educational goals for both Sunny and Posy for a 6-month period but I was never very consistent with "doing school." I was disappointed with myself until I reviewed the goals - I'll be darned if we hadn't actually accomplished most of them without realizing it. Yay!

The moment of truth was in March - time to enroll Sunny in public school to begin in August, or not. We prayed about it and feel that we should not enroll our kids in the local schools here. We'll reassess that decision when we move in a year or two (job transfers are our future) but I wonder if we'll stick with homeschooling for the long term. Anything is possible right now.

So now here we are at the beginning of our version of a home-based education ... because it's not all going to be at home, and it's not going to be "school." It's learning time!