Family Culture and Education

Now that Anna's about six months away from starting kindergarten, I'm getting asked what we'll be doing for her schooling. I've shared on here before that we've decided to homeschool but I don't believe I've broached the "why."

When I mention to someone that we're planning on teaching our children at home, I'm quick to share that it has nothing to do with the public school system (of which Kevin and I are both products). Really. I'd have no qualms sending my children to learn at our neighborhood school. I'm not afraid of them occasionally being exposed to ideas that may be different from ours. In my opinion that's actually a POSITIVE thing--they'll need to love and live with varying types of people throughout their lives, and what better time for them to first experience this than while living under our roof? (Basically in all things I refuse to buy into the Religious Right's scare tactics. And now I'm stepping away from the soapbox...before I get on and can't get off.)

So why homeschool? I've had a hard time fully articulating my thoughts on this but an amazing woman who always inspires me, Lisa, blogged recently about how every family has a "culture", a way of life that is unique to their family. This really put into words some things I'd been thinking about. What kind of relationships and life do we hope to foster in our family and what is the best way for our family to achieve that? We have four children within three years of each other. They are each other's primary playmates and best friends. Our older kids adore their younger sister and she spends her days keeping up with them. It's priceless. No they don't always get along perfectly, but God has really knit their hearts together. Our days are spent pretty simply, just living life together. I love it (most days anyway!)

Public school, for us, would introduce a pretty different lifestyle--getting all four kids out of the house by 8 a.m., spending time in the car for pickups and dropoffs and extra-curricular activities. The kids would be apart a lot more, segregated by age, and family life would look really different. Not bad, just different.

Homeschooling seems like a really great fit for us. I LOVE the idea of learning along with my kids, reading great "living" books together (aka literature and original sources as opposed to textbooks), and just having a really natural approach to education.

Something I'm REALLY excited about is a program Anna will be attending. It's fully funded through the public school system, but it's an enrichment-type program for homeschooled kids. One full-day per week she'll GO to school--kindergarten will be a self-contained kindergarten class, but starting in 1st grade they get to choose from different electives. This school offers a ton of fine arts that I am SO excited about! My kids would have the opportunity to do dance, piano, violin, choir, it's awesome! Plus they'll still get to have that time away from me, doing their own thing, making friends, learning to respect non-parental authority, etc., and I think there's great value to that.

I have no clue what the future holds for us, how long we'll homeschool, or what next year will look like. But I do think this is the path God has us on for now. I'd long worried that if we homeschooled, my kids would be isolated from friendships, and that they wouldn't be exposed to diversity in any way (part of why we value living in a city). But over the past several months God has blessed us with many dear friends with Ethiopian children that we see very regularly. I never dared imagine my sons getting to grow up with so many kids that share their background--but they are. (There were, including my boys, 10 Ethiopian children at our house the other night.) Crazy thing is I'm not just friends with these people because we all have adopted kids--that may be how we met but these are really amazing people that I feel so blessed to know and I can't wait to get to know them better. Also amazing is that three of these Ethiopian children attend our church, and we adore their families! (Our church also has families with children from Korea, Guatemala, China, it's pretty cool.) And some of our Ethiopian friends go to the homeschool enrichment program our kids will be going to!!!

All of that to say I feel like the Lord has really affirmed our desire to do this. I used to want to homeschool, then I got scared off by the stereotypes (I guess I'm weird like that) and was concerned about my sons never knowing anyone else with brown skin (HUGE value for us), but we already feel blessed beyond measure by the people in our kids' lives and God just seems to have removed all the barriers I saw to homeschooling. I can't wait to start and there is just something really magical about witnessing your child learning to read or mastering a skill. I can't wait to see how our family culture plays out and the benefits that will come from homeschooling.

So that's where we're at, for now. There ARE some other reasons I'm wanting to homeschool but this post is already ridiculously long as it is, so maybe I'll save that for another post. (And I do reserve the right to fail miserably at--or just plain dislike--homeschooling and enroll my kids in public school at any time. Just so we're clear.)