Dipping My Toes Into the Homeschooling Waters

By the time our oldest child thing starts kindergarten, we will be in Hawaii, which literally has the worst public school system in the country. Pretty much as soon as we got to Hawaii and learned a little about the schools, we started discussing our options. One option that (to my surprise) my husband brought up is homeschooling.

I have to admit, at first I didn't seriously consider it. "Why would I want to do that?" I asked. I mean, it does seem like a way out-there thing to do. But, the more stories I heard from kids in public schools and the more research I did on private schools (and their tuition), the more it seemed like a good choice.

So I am dipping my toes into the homeschooling waters. To see if I have the capabilities, endurance and patience to homeschool successfully, we are going to try out a preschool curriculum this year. I'm actually excited about it, and my mindset has shifted. Why wouldn't you want to do this? (Ok, there are actually quite a few good reasons not to, but...don't remind me). If you could provide your child with an educator who could design a curriculum specifically for that child--that allowed for in-depth exploration in areas of interest and reviewed areas of weakness until they were mastered, that didn't leave that child behind because his/her peers were ready to move on or expect that child to mindlessly fill out worksheets because other children needed remediation, that challenged the child to be way more than average--wouldn't you?

My answer is yes, so here we go! We are going to focus on phonics and reading this year, but also touch on art, science, history, Bible and math. And you may have noticed in my picture that we are including the essential-for-any-homeschooler My Little Pony Coloring Book.

If at the end of the year the child thing has learned and I have not gone insane, we may very well do it officially for kindergarten next year.