Homeschool

I have many things I love about homeschool, but the top of the list has to be that boys can be boys.

I have never, even when I was a teacher, enjoyed keeping little boys cooped up inside a building all day long. It gets painful right around 10AM when everyone really starts to wake up and have loads of energy. It's just that in school settings, you have to teach things a number of different ways to make sure that everyone understands each concept. I never did like looking around at all the boys who would much rather be outside of that window they were staring out of so longingly.

Therefore, being a mom of three little such men, I want to keep homeschool as brief as possible so that they can get on with being boys for the day. We are done with our proper homeschooling, at 11AM. Shortly after the boys want to be active. And we didn't start until about 9AM. It all is over so quickly, that they don't seem to mind so much sitting down for a couple of hours to learn on paper. Then begins the fun of the day. We learn things at the pond about how fish breathe, learn outside why oil helps bicycles go faster, learn as we crawl through tunnels that the scientific law of "no two things can occupy the same space at the same time" is truely a LAW, not just a suggestion.

I love doing homeschool, because boys get to see daily life happen. We get to LIVE together and LEARN together. These first few years, I want most desperately for them to have a good foundation in learning. Until second grade, the most important things are the math families (+,-,x,/), the phonics and how it makes it easier to read and spell, and the discipline of putting your mind to something and doing it. Other than that, everything will be re-taught in a grander, more comprehensive way on the way through high school.

I love that we get to just do the basics, and move on with the day of being boys, asking questions, and genuinely wanting the answers to those questions. I don't ever want my boys to lose that natural curiosity that makes them want to learn. I love that HOMESCHOOLING makes it possible not to squash that curiosity before third grade when the real learning begins, and when most schoolboys are tired of school.