Lately I have been contemplating the WHY of homeschooling.  Why are we doing this?  Why did we start this?  Of course it is also February and we are on a bit of a burn out here. That is why we headed to the museum.  :)  And it helped.  But I have been questioning our curriculum and questioning our style of teaching.  I think it would be wonderful to add more literature, real literature to our texts, and I have my husband actually agreeing to letting me build and refine our own studies.  :)  (Just picked up "Home schooling Methods" by the Suarez's at my local bookstore also, so happy to see it there, so dh could get it in his hands and see what I wanted to buy for once!) 

Over this last week my Indianahomeschoolers message group began discussing a move by the state to test children for Mental disorders.  Now I have vaguely heard about this idea, and was not to happy about it.  But life being extremely busy lately, I had not had the time to follow up on what is going on with this new "idea".  Though I must say the idea scares me a bit.  From there the topic went to schools causing many of the mental issues, or other problems children have.  And again it got me thinking as to WHY we decided to homeschool.

Today has not been the easiest days.  I am not and early riser, but I was motivated recently to get up at 6-7am'ish to work with my oldest, one on one, on his math.  He is great at Math, or was until we introduced Multiplication.   And well he is not great at memorization.  So this morning, we went over some work he had trouble on, and re-did some problems, and then discussed todays assignment, which was estimating,  he is pretty good at that.  And did all this before I woke up his siblings at 8am.  Well being that I did not sleep well last night...I am a bit tired.  It is almost 2 and I have yet to shower, but all our work, except some reading is done.  :)  To me that is success. 

I have been able to sit online with some quiet time before mil comes home from work...I rush through a shower and  I get ready to take Dd to girl scouts.  I even got her cookie money all ready to turn in, A WEEK EARLY! 

And of course all this free time leads me to thinking about WHY do I homeschool.  And the topic of the public schools turned to their lack of time, and some teachers, not all, because I know great one, but some not caring or listening to professionals when there is a learning disorder.  Or teachers trying to diagnos the learning disorder. And it helped me remember a few things.

See my older two started in the public schools.  My first son, was okay, but school stressed him, he was only there till 1st grade, and by then his whole personality had changed and he was a nervous wreck.  He is such a lil perfectionist and can't stand to not get A's on everything.  My middle child, my dd, has mild Cerebral palsy.  She is smart as a button, the school system of course picked her up at age 3 and provided services for her.  PT and OT.  They IQ tested her and said "wow, she is very smart! Her IQ is much higher than any CP child we have ever seen."  She has the IQ of a gifted child, but could not possibly be taught in a gifted class because she has CP.  Now of course I could have fought them on all this, but why?  She was in a mainstream kindergarten class, and bored.  Her preschool teachers told me over and over, make sure the challenge her.  But she did not get that.  Her kindergarten teacher was a great woman.  Actually I still have her phone number on my refrigerator, and we go visit her from time to time.  She really cares about her students, but then again my children were the 6th and 7th children from my husbands family that she had taught.  So she had a long standing relationship with this family, and she really enjoys my dh's family.  But even she looked at my 3 year old and told me "please get him to calm down before you send him to school"   I know she meant well, but he was three, and is very energetic, and next year he won't be in school.  At least not public school.  He will be in Homeschool, our school....Red Maple Learning Center.

You know I can sit with my son, when he stresses over math and work through each problem with him. That is WHY I homeschool.  My daughter can be challenged, not bored.  That is WHY I homeschool.  I can teach at their levels, not whatever level everyone else needs.  That is WHY I homeschool.  And my youngest next year, may get Kindergarten reading, or he may not.  He may need to build more with legos, run around the yard and have a lot of hands on things.  He is just that energetic.  And I can provide just what he needs.  That is WHY I homeschool. 

I am glad we had our experiences with the public school here.  And I will say that I know and am related to some GREAT and wonderful public school teachers.  But I homeschool because I can tailor all and everything to my children.  And most importantly, I do feel that the Lord has asked me to do this.  When I run into a snag, when I need some help, I pray, I ask him.  Just as I did when I was investigating homeschooling that year my son was in first grade and my dd was in kindergarten.  I pray daily.  We have our bumps, but I see them for what they are, bumps...things we need to work out, and we pray on it, we ask for the Lords help, we ask for his guidance, and he is good, he provides our direction.

So I figure out my WHY's....I know in my heart all will be wonderful, and today after all their work has been completed, I listen to the joyful sound of my children playing in their room.  They are each others best friends.  They may not always realize it, but they are.  Yet another reason WHY.