Today’s Lesson

The apparently startling revelation that her kindergarten homeschool enrichment starts in about 8 months prompted Miss. Eleanor to frantically inform me that “You need to teach me to read TODAY!” So, we pulled out one of our school books, and the girls took turns flipping through it and “reading” to each other before E and I tackled Lesson 1 together. 

One of the best parts of homeschooling is the ability to teach them all at the paces they are most comfortable with. For example, Bash is leaps and bounds ahead of his “grade level” in science and related subjects, but reading has been a struggle for him. He had a significant speech delay, and while he’s now graduated from his speech therapy, it delayed his reading too. It’s hard to sound out letters when you can’t pronounce them. In public school he’d either have been held back or, arguably worse, sent on where he’d have simply fallen further and further behind his classmates due to the fact that he couldn’t read at their pace. In contrast, Parker is reading well above his age level and breezed through most math I could throw at him at a faster pace than he would have encountered in PS. Then we hit a concept that he really struggled with. It was extremely frustrating for him, not in the least because math had always come so naturally to him before, but we were able to devote more time to that than usual until he was able to grasp the concept and move on. 

Originally, our decision to homeschool was based on the fact that the schools where we were stationed at the time were less than desirable. My teaching background left me feeling confident in my abilities to educate him through preschool and kindergarten at least, and we thought we’d likely be somewhere different after that time. From the beginning we have agreed that homeschooling is something we’d reevaluate every year based on each child’s needs and how they would best be met. We are not anti public school, and we didn’t decide to homeschool for extremist religious reasons, because we don’t vaccinate, (we do) due to a desire to keep our children sheltered, or any of the other assumptions people seem to make about homeschool families. It was simply what was best for our child at the time.

When we did finally PSC (a military move) we quickly discovered another benefit. It was over a month before we were able to get into a stable housing situation, and there wasn’t a school that would allow us to enroll without an address. Homeschooling allowed us to educate without any gap in his schooling, and we also didn’t have to worry about him being significantly behind or ahead of his new classmates based on where he had been in our last state. It turns out that there are a lot of military families that homeschool for this reason. Simple stability in their education is a big deal when much of the rest of their lives can be unstable and unpredictable at times. 

We are now fortunate enough to be living in a city (And a state) that has an amazing homeschooling community. There are classes, clubs, sports, and even programs that allowed us to enroll our children into a public school for enrichment, the all important socialization, and even curriculum access. It‘s been a dream come true, and both boys have now been attending the same program, where Eleanor will start in the fall, since kindergarten. We are one of the founding families of a homeschool sports league and will be starting our 10th season with them in the spring. The boys have been able to experience school musicals, field trips, class parties, and even crowded lunch rooms. They have made lifelong friends, and we proudly hang up awkward class photos with questionable hair styles. I actually rather dread new orders, because I know we won’t be able to find the same kind of support and resources everywhere. And when that happens we will, once again, reevaluate what is best for each individual child. 

For now we thrive. I love the opportunities that homeschooling affords us, and (most of the time) am very confident in our decisions so far. It’s most certainly not for everyone, but, for now, it’s for us.