Living Outside the Box: Homeschool? Are you kidding???

Aren't you worried your kids will be socially strange?
I could never do that! (is that an insult or compliment?)
Home school kids are just weird.

Believe me, I've heard it all. I've thought all those same things myself.

I've always disliked the term "homeschool" because for some reason, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe it's because I'm a speech therapist by trade and I've worked in a number of schools where families chose to take their kids out of public school and "homeschool". We would follow up with some families and discover they were not schooling their kids at all, but rather using that term as an escape from accountability of schools. It kept the public out of their business. Eventually, the kids re-enrolled in school when parents realized that it was more work to have them at home.

However, there were also moments as a therapist that I would enter first grade classrooms to observe a child on my caseload, and I'd find myself watching the little 6 year old boys wiggling in their seats. They were struggling to sit quietly, wait for their turn to practice reading a sentence, and then wait for 10 minutes while the others read. Torture for some boys who would eventually fall out of chairs, pull a girl's hair or just plain zone out. I realized it was a necessary routine for most classrooms full of 30 little kids and one teacher, but a thought was developing......does it have to be this way?

Pregnant with my first child, I was so glad not to have to make any decisions for another five years.

Tanner, our first born son. I couldn't bear to leave him, and we made a decision to cut our income and have me stay at home.

Tanner has always been an incredibly fun, a bit shy and sometimes standoffish kid. We've loved watching this kid grow into the thoughtful boy he is today.

Then came Alex, our second son. I've always told my kids that God gives mom's another heart for each child, and I think He does. We loved this little guy who went nowhere without a ball in his hand.

For four years, our lives were "boy crazy"! A photo in front of the our big house before our transition to a simpler life.

Alex on his first day of preschool.

Then, the big surprise.....Elise, no. 3 in the family. We couldn't be happier.

Tanner's first day of kindergarten.

When that day came, the first day of kindergarten, we all happily did the "first day routines", tearing up as we left Tanner in his public school kindergarten.

So, when did we switch to home schooling?

My original thought had always been brewing. A few things happened that first year of Tanner's kindergarten experience. I was in his classroom weekly and had a great relationship with is teacher. I helped her with the overwhelming task of assessing the kids each quarter. Being a speech therapist, I'm used to testing kids and know the standardized rules etc., so I would spend full afternoons assessing the kindergartners. I kept thinking, "if I weren't here, how would she get this done and teach?" One day, I asked her, "who do you teach to?". She honestly stated back, "the lowest common denominator". Although I loved her as a teacher and respected her greatly, I knew that answer was all too common. My average progressing Tanner was not meeting his highest potential because there just wasn't time or resources to keep him on pace.

Another important moment for me was meeting a home school family with teens. These kids were a bit abnormal.....but in a great way. The teen girl was so respectful to her mom, and I witnessed a fun loving relationship that was different. She worked three days a week at a vet clinic because she was able to get her school work completed more efficiently and had surpassed all standardized testing standards for her sophomore year. She had time. I met the siblings in the family and they had such fantastic relationships with each other. They actually seem to really like each other. They were fun, easy to talk to, respectful and considerate teens. They weren't even texting when we spoke!

The seed was growing, but I still fought the idea of schooling my own kids. It wasn't my idea of how I wanted to spent every morning of my life for the next year, nor the pressure of fitting it all in. I loved school as a kid.....could I take that away from them?

A group of friends met and we discovered that we were all feeling the same way. Could there be a way to co-op? To meet our kids educational needs and balance family life? After doing research and meeting with various charter home schools, hashing out the details within our own families, praying and praying and praying about it, the decision was made. I would home school first grade for Tanner.

Little did I know that the benefits were far greater than I could have imagined. Life opened up for us as our house rented out, business was more and more flexible and we were not tied down to a school schedule. I sensed that the answer to stepping out in faith were beginning to unfold in a very visible way.