"It’s such a joy to be home with my children, to have the opportunity to really know them and what they are learning, and to help facilitate thier learning in ways that work best for each of them."
~ Wendy Woerner
As I sit working on a project for the homeschool co-op we've participated in this past school year, I'm struck by how grateful I am for home education and the opportunity to have the time with my children - to watch them learn and explore and grow and figure out life and themselves, faith and family and friends. It is an honor that I cherish. Some days are splendid and wonderful and others challenging and exhausting. Through it all, I'd never change this time walking alongside my children as their parent-educator. Our nation has a long history of home education that is often, it seems, forgotten or dismissed by the masses who have embraced the doctrine that learning happens in desks in rows in classrooms in buildings with "standardization" and testing. All children - whether in public, private, or home education settings SHOULD be learning through exploration and wonder and experience as much as through text books and worksheets (and the latter 2 are debatable all together, but that's another conversation all together).
"Once upon a time, all children were homeschooled. They were not sent away from home each day to a place just for children, but lived, learned, worked, and played in the real world, alongside adults and other children of all ages."
~ Rachel Gathercole
Here are a few moments we've had recently, some BECAUSE we are a home educating family!
Family Zoo Day on the 5th birthday of our BB3!
They made up a dance together while we had lunch and were cracking up!
Sister Snuggles after the Zoo
"Homeschooled children benefit the community because they are not shaped by peers but by parents."
~ Mary Kay Clark
My girls LOVE to dress up! Along with reading, writing, and arithmetic, there is LOTS of creative play in our home!
"I prefer to make those [educational] choices myself. Not because I think I know 'better' than all those professional educators, but I do think I know my own children best, and consequently which programs and methods would benefit them. Homeschooling is not about rejecting other people and things; it's about making personal and positive choices for your own family."
~ Mariette Ulrich
Sunday morning - my little chickens ready for church!
BB1 is now in Cub Scouts!
BB2 is a gymnast!
"Homeschooling isn't about isolating children, thought is is about sheltering to a degree. Those of us who homeschool are fighting baptism by fire - we're seeking incremental growth for our children at the right developmental speed. We pull them out of school because the institution doesn't do that, no matter how talented or hard working the educational team. Children face an immediate push toward sameness and conformity."
~ Ginny Kochis
A JOY! Big brother reading with his sister. THESE are homeschool moments!
Toddler sensory play - she LOVES glue and glue sticks and a piece of construction paper for playing!
A quote I found tonight resonates as I sit musing on our own homeschooling journey:
"Our entire school system is based on the notion of passive students that must be “taught” if they are to learn... Our country spends tens of billions of dollars each year not just giving students a second-rate education, but at the same time actively preventing them from getting an education on their own. And I’m angry at how school produces submissive students with battered egos. Most students have no idea of the true joys of learning, and of how much they can actually achieve on their own."
~ Adam Robinson"
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