Home School Moms Are Insane

I have been mulling over this post for weeks now...this post about home schooling the kiddo. Yes, it's only preschool, but really it's me fully immersing myself in a willingness to teach Lucas the basics of reading, writing, and early education. And then... submitting this idea to our community (both in real life and online).

It's been a challenge for me to imagine how I would present home schooling without appearing insane/overbearing/overconfident/ignorant/lazy... the list could go on. I mean, we all know someone who is a home school parent and their a little off, right?

Then again, you have to be a little insane to be a parent in the first place.

It's important to be a socially aware parent and I highly value the vantage points of all my other parent friends. I look into their lives (who are all different) and seek the wisdom, intellect and maturity of their choices. In turn, I would hope my parent friends value aspects of how I raise my child too.


How we educate our children is definitely swayed by our social norms... by our peers. What we consider normal and acceptable, if often dictated by how we were raised and the things our friends deem as okay. Thankfully, I'm surrounded by all types. I have friends who are adamantly against home school... and they have valid reasons for that. In fact, I highly value their opinions. I am asking them to speak into my life and challenge me when necessary. I ask them to be the relationship that keep us in balance.

I have friends who have exclusively home schooled and have extensive experience out of the "system." I value their knowledge and will too seek their opinions. I will observe how they do school in their homes; what their "classroom" looks like and how they organize their schedules.

I have friends who do both home school and public school (charter). This provides their families with balance and allows the home teacher to focus on each childs' needs when necessary. The balance of peer learning and scholastic excellence is walked finely.

All of that being said, I recognize that we no longer have a formula of how school should be done (my beloved friend Summer said this), because we do not have children who are all the same. Every family has different values in education and to deem one better than the other is heading down a road that will only define and draw lines... this is not something I value. I accept we're all different (which is why life is so great!) and we all approach life from different angles.

That being said, I'm taking this on for one year... one year only. And when it comes time for Kindergarten, we'll reevaluate Lucas' needs as a growing, learning, developing person. We'll also reevaluate my ability to be a home school Mom (I'm willing to admit it's going to be gnarly some days). I ask you to challenge me, ask questions and provide support. I'm still pouring over blogs, curriculum and a way to familiarize myself to this life of home school.

Here goes nothing...we're headed into a little insanity!