Homeschooling

Not much in life is final, and this decision is certainly not final....but, I am 99% sure that I will be homeschooling Mairead for Kindergarten. I honestly never thought I would even consider homeschooling my children, and to be perfectly honest, I really enjoyed the time when Mairead was in preschool this year.

I don't know what it is, but I have a lot of reservations about sending her off into public schools with lots and lots of kids. I will be the first to admit, I am not ready for my innocent 5 year old to experience bullying, or mean people. I am not ready for her to take life so seriously, after all she is only 5. I am not ready for her to grow up too fast, I want her to experience true childhood, and yeah, maybe that is going to Kindergarten, after all, that's a pretty big milestone, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel bad that she'll never have that "kindergarten" experience. I think about how I am going to accomplish homeschooling Mairead while tending to the other three children. It won't be easy, but nothing in life is, and I like challenges if you haven't figured that one out already.

Yeah. There are a lot of what-if's and a lot of questions, but one thing I do know is that it will be a learning process for everyone. I get excited about all of the possibilities for our children to learn outside of the school system. Our children can learn together. Our family can learn together. Kevin and I can continue to be responsible for what our children are learning and if they want to learn by playing, they can do that. It makes me sad that school has to be so serious because there is plenty of time in life to be serious.

I am not excited about moving to Northern Virginia. It makes me sad to leave Maine. Our family. Our friends. But one thing I do know is living in Northern Virginia will make homeschooling easy or more manageable. There are so many amazing resources, groups and activities that our children will not be sheltered, actually, they will have more time for activities and socialization than if they were in school. Northern Virginia has amazing community recreational activities that go from nature classes to dance classes to swimming to you name it, they probably have it. Our girls will be able to try all sorts of new things, explore new places, and meet lots of new friends. And that excites me. Sitting down at a table and learning "A,B,C's" will be such a small part of what we will actually be learning.

One thing I know for sure is that if homeschooling isn't for us, there is always the opportunity to place Mairead into the public school system, and maybe that will happen, but for now, we will try to homeschool our children while we are living in Northern Virginia. Mairead is so eager to learn and I really look forward to teaching her because I know she will motivate me!

Now that our decision has been made, I have to decide how I will tackle this - curriculums? activities...etc etc. I am looking to take a non-religious approach to homeschooling - and interested in a mix of "unschooling-traditional approach" Any words of wisdom and/or advice are greatly appreciated!