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October 16, 2005, 7:32 pm PDT
10/18 "I Am Right!"
Quote From: irishmom I understand where you're coming from. We live in Georgia and put our daughter in elementary school here this year to start Kindergarten. The second week of school she was approached by a group of boys on the playground and she was attacked (given a black eye). A month into the school year, she was again approached on the playground where she was punched in the stomach. There were also incidents of boys putting their hands up girls skirts, all of this mind you, with no teacher in sight! The school hid all of these things from us (the only reason we found out was because our daughter told us and we are friends with someone who works at the school that let us know what was going on). We pulled her out and I am now homeschooling both of my older girls. There are MANY pros to homeschooling, and very few, if any cons if you do it correctly. My children get one on one learning time with me, something they can't get in a public school setting. Children have vast arrays of learning styles and when you have so many children cramped into one class, someone is bound to get left behind. I do projects and hands on things with my girls that you wouldn't see in a classroom. I take them places (such as the Science and Natural History Centers) that they wouldn't have an opportunity to go to much in the public school setting. I can also "filter out" the children she interacts with. They have "play dates" on a regular basis with other members of our church, and neighbors who hold our same morals and standards of conduct.
Don't get me wrong, homeschooling is a great sacrifice and you must be consistent. It can be easy to get lazy at times, but I think the benefits are obvious. I can not only teach my children things, but give them hands on examples. For example, I was teaching my 4 year old (she just turned 4) about the special oils in our skin, and if our skin is exposed to water for too long, it washes away that special oil and our skin gets wrinkly. As a fun experiment, she got to play in the bath tub for awhile until her fingers and toes were all wrinkly. You can't do that in school!!! We also cook together which teaches them math (measurements). You also can't do that in school either. When you're at school, the teacher usually picks the books to read during circle/story time. With homeschooling, my children get a say in what they would like to read. It gives them the feeling that they are in control and my children LOVE to learn! i think that this is a special decision for any parent of married couple to come to a decsion together. My son is a year now and while I was pregnant I was absolutley against him going to school. I have thoght about it a lot since then and I have re-evaluated my opinion. Yes there are some bad ppl out there that you want to protect your child from and yes your children can pick up some awful habits from other children or teachers. They also get to play with children their own age and get out of the house for 4-8 hours giving mom a much needed break. By the time your child is in school or ready for school you will probably welcome the peace. I think that we should be very selective in choosing schools and make sure that the school will adjust with you if you have a problem. It is hard to find perfection but thourogh research helps! I think I would be able to give my children "hands on" examples with thier homework or any question that they have for me about something they learned in school that day if they were not being home schooled. I think there is a lot good and bad about either situation and it is best left up to the parents. All I can say on that note is that you should try to make sure that you are making the decision based on the child's best interest and not your own.
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