Homeschool Clarification

6 

Days S has spent in her 

Kindergarten classroom.  

The rest of her education 

has been at home. 

-------

The text above was written in our 2008 Christmas letter and I'm afraid it was misleading.  I've had many friends write me and they're under the impression that S was in public Kindergarten for 6 days, and then we decided to pull her out and homeschool her.  This is not the truth, so I'm sorry for the confusion!  

Here's the full story (watch out, it's long)... God's put homeschooling on our hearts ever since even before having kids.  I got my master's degree and teaching certification (secondary mathematics) before S was born.  I completed my student teaching in middle school math, and though it was very fun, I didn't feel like God was leading me to actually teach in the public school at that point in time.

(I actually even went back to work as an engineer part-time while I was pregnant with S.  The income part-time as a civil engineer was higher than a full-time teaching position.  Sad but true.)

Once we were pregnant, we knew that I'd be using my education to educate our own kids!

I should put a caveat in here to say that we don't look down upon public, private, or any other kind of schooling (or even "unschooling!").  Each family is so very different and needs to pursue whatever God puts on their heart.  There is blessing in so many different types of education!  We find that homeschooling works best for our family right now, and that may change, but we look forward to the challenges, and we'll adapt as God leads us.

Our kids have never been in an official pre-school, but hey, who are we kidding?  Our home is a pre-school. 

S started homeschooling Kindergarten in Fall 2008.  S attends an amazing public charter school that specifically supports homeschooling families.  Officially, our school "offers a unique blend of independent study and the traditional classroom environment."  We didn't have anything like this in Colorado, so I think it's pretty unique.  The school is quite popular because it allows families a few options, including:

• A or B Tracks:  2 days of school in classroom with teacher (A Track is Tues & Thurs, B Track is Weds & Fri) , and 3 days at home with family home school. 
• C Track: 100% schooling done at home with curriculum and educational support provided. 
• C2 Track: Same as C track, with 6 days of classroom education each semester.

Our school is extremely popular, so our daughter has been on the C2 Track, on the wait list for A/B Tracks. I've officially been given the "good vibe" that S will be in either A or B Track for 1st Grade next year.  C2 Track has been wonderful for our family this year.  We enjoy the curriculum, but we often "ad-lib" so that we can really have fun.  We've transformed our dining room into our homeschooling room.  I love having all 3 of our kids together, but S is also really ready for next year.  She's going to do great.  J and Z will really miss her next year, but she'll only be gone 2 days/week.  

As teacher, I'm learning about the balance of "have fun learning" and "keep it challenging."  We always want to have fun, but we also need to be pushing our kids to do their best.  Also, there's a balance with "I need to cook dinner and have a clean home" and "just sit down and read with the kids for a 1/2 hour."  I'm pretty sure I'll be learning about these balances for the rest of my teaching career... no, life.  

At this point, if we continue homeschooling, we probably won't continue past 8th grade.  In grades 9-12, we think there's value in having a specialized teacher and lots of athletic variety and opportunity.  Check back in 8 years and see...

So there you have it, way more than you ever wanted to know about Garland homeschool.  Thanks for reading!