Tipping the Scales

About the time The Girl entered school, I made friends with a woman that was homeschooling her two children. Let's call her D. At the same time, my brother and his wife were also homeschooling their two elementary aged children. Suddenly, homeschooling was very much on my radar.

You would think that talking about homeschooling would get me interested in pursuing the possibility for my daughter, but all it did was make me more certain that homeschooling was not for me.

D. and her kids are unschoolers, and while I admired how well it worked for them, I didn't feel like I could do it and provide all the skills and information my daughter needed. Unschooling is child led, and it seemed to me that parents had to be ready with all kinds of references and information for whatever happened to come up.

In short, I was intimidated beyond words.

My brother and his wife were using a curriculum that was more of a school-in-a-box. It worked for them, but as a single parent I didn't think I could earn a living and have a school at home.

On top of that, I had the classic "what about socialization?" fear. I did okay when she was home, helping her with homework and taking her on the occasional play date, but I was trying to build a business. How was I going to get anything done if she was home all day? I had visions of her sitting in front of the TV morning to evening while I typed. Not good.

Thus, it was decided. School was the best place for her to learn, no matter how intrigued I was by the idea of homeschooling.

I found out at the beginning of second grade that pretty much all my preconceptions were wrong. I look back on it now, and all I can say is... Oops.

Next time... More on throwing out preconceptions and looking for curriculums.

Decisions, Decisions

It seems appropriate for a first post to discuss the decision that led me to take up homeschooling. Of course, I say that, and then immediately realize that it wasn't just one decision, but a domino chain of choices made by both my daughter and myself that has finally brought us here.

I was not someone who wanted to stay at home with my child and homeschool her from infancy through to her first Nobel Prize. I was afraid I didn't have the patience to do it, and I knew I didn't have the kind of money that would allow it. So it was with great relief that I put The Girl into daycare just short of her first birthday. She loved it. She had great teachers in a pre-school that was underwritten by a local ecumenical organiztion. The affordability and exceptional staff made it the perfect solution for us.

At that time I had left education and was working in the IT field. The hours got longer as I moved up the ladder, and eventually I found that The Girl was spending almost 50 hours a week in daycare. I decided that was a bit too much of a good thing.

In order to spend more time at home with my daughter, and to escape the stress of the IT industry, I moved to the country and started my own business, eventually combining the business with teaching part-time at the local elementary school.

While I was happy to be home with The Girl more, I still did not seriously contemplate homeschooling. I didn't feel up to the task, and I wasn't sure where I would find the time. The local elementary school was good. I liked the building, the teachers, and generally I liked the curriculum. It never entered my head that I might look for other options.

But now, here I am choosing a curriculum. More on how I got to this point in the next post...