When I announced to my friends and family that I was going to be homeschooling, I'm pretty sure most of them assumed that I was crazy or that my anti-social personality had finally broken free and was going to be locking the doors on the house from the inside.
I too, wondered if I was crazy. I wondered if I could do it. I wondered if my kids would hate me. I wondered if we would all sit around the table and stare at each other, a little mystified and more than a little bored. Getting started was half the battle. Seriously, I had more anxiety during the weeks before we started than I had experienced in a long time.
To ease the anxiety, I took a step back and broke it down. I started with social studies and the language arts because they were easy. After a while, I slipped in math and after an even longer while, science. Minnesota makes it pretty easy to educate your child at home. It's required that children be taught reading, writing, literature, fine arts, math, science, history, geography, government, health, and physical education. I sprinkle in the arts, health and phy ed weekly around the other subjects and we go from there. There are no number of required days and I merely have to report once a year that it is my intention to educate them at home and subject them to a nationally recognized standardized test.
I have to admit that there have been days of mystification and days of boredom, but the great thing about it is that we can stop at anytime and take a break. A pee break. A lunch break. A fun break. A mental health break. Any break. Any time.
Anti-social me didn't put any locks on the doors. Instead, we joined some groups and were able to meet up with other homeschoolers once a week for 'Gym Time'. Hit the library, hit the gym and socialize. Finding others to relate to really helped, although anti-social me sometimes doesn't feel like bonding with the other mothers. I was quite relieved, however, to find that the other mothers were not foaming at the mouth with religion and seemed to have had some of the same experiences I have had.
The hardest thing for me to deal with was the local school district. In Minnesota, homeschoolers have the right to special education services and I didn't want to take resources away from the boys, resources like speech and occupational therapy. However, no one at the school knew that the law provided such services and I was promptly denied by the principal. After months of coming up short on this front, I contacted PACER. I also got in touch with the special ed contact from the Minnesota Homeschooler's Alliance and the director of the regional special ed services, who all informed me that I wasn't delusional, as the principal was intimating by refusing to even reply to my requests for services. In fact, as the PACER representative told me, I was able to act as the principal myself and shouldn't pay the man any mind. Finally, in December, I was able to get Ethan going to speech once a month (I began asking for services in June). Joe, however, is still waiting on services...pending a return phone call from the person in charge of his case. It's almost more effort than it's worth, honestly, but I am a stubborn woman.
I still wonder from time to time if I am doing enough, if the kids are getting thoroughly educated, if I am going to turn them into little weirdos (too late, is my thought as I type this, but that's okay...it's genetic). In my humble opinion, my kids need one on one attention and a break from the stress that public school puts on a spectrum-y kid. I don't think the local school district even knows what that means. Some of the teachers I've met so far certainly have no idea. Some of them do. Bless the ones that do, and the others...well, we'll let one of those religious mothers pray for them. I feel so much more connected with my children's education than I did when they attended public school. It's not for everyone, but it is for us.
I get a little sad when I think there might not be that first-day-of-kindergarten moment with Charlie, but that feeling dissipates when she gets out her little notebook, pulls up a chair, and tries to write letters at the table with us. Or when she gathers around for story time and wants to put words up on the word wall. Or when I hear her trying to count or reciting her ABCDJF's.
Education is essential, no matter where it takes place. In our lives, the place is home and the place is the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment