November 27, 2011

Things I will not miss about public school

Our family is transitioning from public school to homeschool over Christmas break.  We have homeschooled before, but for the last year and a half, we've enjoyed the great teachers and staff at our local public elementary school.  However, in spite of the positives, these past 3 semesters have helped solidify my desire to homeschool again. 

So, here are the list of things I will not miss about public school:
1.  Having to get myself and the kids up and ready for school which starts at 7:30 a.m.!
2.  Having the kids gone for 7 hours, followed by 1 to 1 1/2 hours of homework!  (And this is elementary school!  Really?!?  When can they play?!?!)
3.  Fundraisers.  'Nough said.
4.  Hearing about the "assembly" my kids attended at school (instead of learning) where they were told what prizes they would earn if they sold a whole bunch of stuff for a fundraiser.
5.  Wondering what my kids are learning, doing, saying, hearing, observing for 35 hours a week.
6.  Giant amounts of papers coming home that inform me about activities, expectations, events, and fundraisers.
7.  Time wasted in my kids' lives from learning opportunities because of sickness, substitute teachers, snow days, fire drills, threat drills, standardized testing and all the prep that goes into it, holiday parties, reward parties, book fairs, etc.  (While I realize some of these things can have similar parallels that take up time in home schooling, I feel that in public school, much more time is taken, sometimes mandated, than occurs at home.)
8.  Feeling convicted that I need to do more to teach our children values and character, but being at a loss as to when.
9.  Making sure the girls' clothes and hair are nice every school day.
10.  Saying "hurry up and eat your breakfast or you're going to be late!" every weekday.
11.  Having to go outside in the rain or freezing cold in order to either drop off or pick up the kids.
12.  Trying to decipher instructions on homework about something I didn't teach.

There are probably more, but having those down should help keep me motivated on the hard days of homeschooling.  Public school has been helpful to us for a season, but I am really looking forward to all the benefits of partnering with my husband to be the primary educators of our children.