New Around the House
This summer has been keeping us quite busy. Not with too much out of the ordinary, but yet it seems to have flown by. The early part was a bit of a roller coaster but things have settled down nicely and returned to "normal".
One of the exciting things this summer is Brian's new truck!
When we moved to Oklahoma his company at the time gave them company trucks. Well, Chesapeake sold off their midstream area (which is who Brian works for) and the "new" company, Access, kept the trucks for their employees. A few weeks ago they announced that they were going to be taking away the trucks but would offer a sum of money towards new vehicles for the employees. Brian was leaning towards a new Infiniti (he misses his old one which he sold to his Dad when we realized having 3 vehicles for 2 people was craziness) but ultimately it was decided something a bit more practical was in order. He got a great deal on the truck, and of course we love our Nissan's. We've never had a bad one. It's a lovely graphite color. Although, this truck is smaller and fits in the garage so now I have to scoot the van over. Not a big downside, but I did love my large parking space. :)
In other "new" things the kids and I are giving homeschooling another go. We briefly tried last year with the Sonlight curriculum. But, I think a combination of mommy feeling overwhelmed, the age of the kids, and a curriculum that I'm sad to say I was less than thrilled with left us abandoning the idea pretty quickly. This year I sat down to evaluate a bit of what "went wrong" last year and I felt that the Sonlight curriculum, while full of lovely books, was just that...books. Purely reading. We do A LOT of reading around this house as it is, so forcing the kids to sit down and read a certain book at this age just didn't seem to make sense. They weren't interested in every book so they did a lot of sitting around gathering dust.
In the last few months I have gone 'round and 'round on this homeschool "issue." I'm not a fan of the new "Common Core" national standards. Not so much the standards themselves but all of the add-ons that come with it. I feel strongly that our public schools are headed down the wrong path due to our government (state and national). I know first hand that teachers and public school staff work hard. But, I feel strongly that smaller "class" sizes would make a huge difference in our education, rather than testing over and over and over. If more money was spent on more teachers to create a more appropriate teacher to student ratio I think we would begin to see many of our problems disappear. Not all, but many. With that in mind we're giving preschool another go at home, with a more hands on curriculum mostly from My Father's World with a bit of handwriting/letter recognition practice.
So, it would seem that homeschool would be the answer, right? I'm a teacher...I'm fully capable of educating my children. Well, maybe. Something I am learning is that my kids don't always want to learn from me. Especially Gabriel. He thinks he does, but when we try he's not always receptive. Sometimes a teacher that is an outsider is a plus for a kiddo. And while I am NEVER worried about the issue of socialization for home-schooled kids I do worry about future issues such as participating in organized high school activities and electives...things that I can't necessarily create effectively at home. Maybe it's a school newspaper, acting in a a school production, art, band, soccer, baseball, softball, football, cheerleading, golf, etc. There is something to be said for the level at which a school can provide these things that I can't and never will be able to. There are homeschool groups locally that provide these things (yes, there is a high school homeschool football team), but can they achieve things at the same level? I don't think so. There is something about seeing your teammates (I know this from band) in your classes, in the halls, that provides something internally that I just can't at home. I don't know how to describe it, but I know I can't do it. (Side note...Too bad private school costs an arm and a leg.)
Where does that leave us? Why am I continuing to provide homeschool preschool? In part because I think it will be fun for us. But, also because most of my concerns about homeschool seem to creep in in the middle school years. There really isn't anything about elementary school that I can't make happen at my home. And that I do know. So, if anything...if we feel this is the right path for us I am thinking maybe I could homeschool for elementary and then my kids join mainstream in the middle school years. I dunno. It's still just thoughts rattling around in my head at this time. But, Kindergarten is swiftly approaching for Gabriel so I feel a sense of urgency to figure it all out soon. We'll be taking a tour of our local elementary school for Gabriel so he can see what it's like. He may find he thinks it looks neat.
And of course there's always Mommy's sanity to consider. ;)
So, what are your thoughts...what are your feelings on the state of public schools? Have you ever considered homeschooling? I would love to hear them!