Where is your kid going to school?

I hear a lot of talk on the playgrounds about where one kid or the other is going to school. Primarily the questions are, "What class is Junior going to be in this year?" "What grade is little Sally going to be in this year?" or "When does school start for Pete?"


One of the first questions I get regards Allyssa's age/size or something. People are continually shocked that she will be in Kindergarten. Some of these people even knew her from preschool. She was in the 4 year old class, so I'm not sure what the confusion is about.

First things first, I tell them, "Oh, she's not in preschool this year. She's a Kindergartener."

Then comes the next question: What school is she going to?

When I tell them that she is going to be homeschooled, I get a lot of different reactions.

"Ohhhhhhh." (Ohhhhhhhhh what? I'm never really sure what that means. Are you excited for us, skeptical about us, or does this leave you at a loss for words?)

"I had a patient once who was homeschooled and he told me that he does nothing all day long. I told his mom about it and she was livid." (On a side note, what does your kid tell you he did at school all day long? If he is anything like I was, he said, "Nothing." Homeschoolers are the same. The kids do school work. If you want to now about their schooling, maybe ask a specific question.)

"Oh, you're better than I am." (Uh, nope. Not better at all. We all choose whatever fits our needs/wants for our kid/family. Our decision to homeschool has no bearing on your worth. Don't feel guilt over this. We all choose what to do for our kids based on our own situations.)

"I could never be that organized." (I'm not that organized. It is a learning process.)

"That sounds so hard." (I think it will be hard, but I think that we'll be glad in the end.)

Why do we homeschool?

There are a variety of reasons. Here are some.

1. Scheduling: My husband works Saturdays and Sundays. He also works many evenings during the school year. He has Friday off. The first school we looked at did not have school on Friday. Sadly, they cancelled the program because it was a mix between homeschooling and a classroom setting and the kids were not being taught at home. That option was out, so homeschooling was our only option left if we wanted a school where our kids had a day off on the same day as my husband. I understand that many dads work on Saturdays and this has been told to me when I state that scheduling is our primary reason for homeschooling. However, our choosing to homeschool our children for this reason really should not make anyone feel bad for not choosing to homeschool their child because of their work commitments. It really isn't a blanket decision for everyone. This is just what works for us.

2. Curriculum: We have enjoyed choosing the curriculum and model for educating our children. We decided to homeschool about a year and a half ago, but we didn't choose the model until about six months ago. We chose the curriculum about two weeks ago. There are schools who use the same model that we are using for our homeschool, but I'm not sure if we'd choose to send our kids there if we lived near enough to one. We know that if we sent our kids to a private school, it would have to be Lutheran. However, the scheduling aspect would come into play again as would financial circumstances. Lutheran schools go to school Monday-Friday. We would have to re-consider the scheduling aspect, and, at this point, I don't know what we would do. I suppose if that is ever an issue, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

3. Finances: Homeschooling is more expensive than public school, I suppose, but it is not very expensive. For one year's curriculum we paid less than $500. As the kids get older, we might choose an online school such as Wittenberg Academy or Faith Lutheran School. If we do something along those lines, the cost will increase but we will cross that bridge when we get to it as well.



Homeschooling is something that works for us. We are excited about starting this adventure with out kids. Look for my next post about the model that we choose to use to educate our children.