To go to school or not to go to school...that is the question!

I started this post in January...I think I'm ready to finish it--


Happy 2009! It is a new year, yet I wallow in the same dilemma. I have been considering having the kids go to school quite a bit lately. I am not sure why this is so hard for me, but I have a few guesses. For starters, I have never been opposed to school. In fact I LOVED school and that is a part of who I am. I learned a lot in schools, ones that would be called mediocre at best. I thrived in my school environments...often more so than at home. School did none of the tragic things for me that so many homeschoolers are grappling to escape or avoid. That is not to say that I don't believe that those issues aren't real in today's traditional school setting.

So why did I homeschool? It wasn't because I didn't want my kids in school. It was more because I wanted to homeschool. I even wrestled with not putting T in school initially because it felt like I was withdrawing my support of the public school system--not a message I wanted to send to my kids. When the time came for T to start Kindergarten, I checked out a bunch of schools, put him in the lottery for the great ones (and he got into them!) but something in my gut told me it wasn't the best choice at the time. So, we started homeschooling with the open family commitment that we would do it as long as it was what worked for everybody. I love homeschooling. It is a natural extension of how we parent our kids. It allows me to give them unique experiences and time to dive into some things much deeper than they could in a traditional school.

However, not every aspect of our chosen academic course is working for everyone now...and there are a few more of us than there were when we began this journey :) Mostly, our issues with homeschooling are semantics, not problems with growth in learning or philosophy. I feel like I'm always short-changing someone *just a little* in order to work out the logistics of any given day. T will have a class when H should really be home napping so I keep him up or have him sleep in the car...which means I probably sit somewhere in the car so as not to wake him instead of accomplishing something I would like to which leaves me frustrated and J stuck in the car piddling around while we wait for T's class to end. Or I have T move 3 times while he's trying to write because H wants to dance on his desk......

And that is where I left things in January. Here is what I have running through my brain now--

There are a handful of frustrations in trying to homeschool...and I am sure there will be a handful of frustrations in trying school, but that's what we've decided to do. I put the kids' names into a lottery for the fall, and J got in to Kindergarten!! This was surprising since there were only 6 Kindy spots and about 80 applicants. T is 2nd on the waiting list for 4th grade, so I'm pretty sure he'll get in eventually. J has been insistent for quite a while that he would be going to Kindergarten. That is kinda what got this ball rolling. I think it will be harder for me to send him if Tyler isn't going, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Either way, this will certainly be a new adventure for our family. The school is an open classroom/constructivist model and is pretty much in line with our own educational philosophies and values. One thing I am really excited about is that the school uses a lot of Nonviolent Communication and conflict resolution strategies. I am really looking forward to becoming part of a community that can help me facilitate my kids' learning and provide some unique opportunities to follow through on some of their ideas. But, hey, the worst case scenario is that it doesn't work out and we go back to homeschooling, right? I don't consider that to be too bad at all :)