Why we chose to homeschool

We decided to start homeschooling this year for a few reasons. The first is that we let Danya try out public pre-K last year and were less than thrilled. She had fun, granted, but she didn't really learn anything except how to spell colors. Also, she is very smart and sensitive. She can already read beginning reader books and do simple math. This week she wanted to study Benjamin Franklin! She actually begs to do workbook pages! A little girl like her would be bored in regular school because she'd spend all her time waiting for the other kids to catch up! I decided that I could do a much better job of challenging her at home. Another factor was that she is so very sensitive. She will tell you when you've hurt her feelings and she gets upset if anyone else's feelings are hurt. I think that she wouldn't handle being teased because of her giftedness and sensitivity very well.

Then there is Gloria. Our 3 and a half year old tornado. She will listen to a story only if she can bounce on your lap at the same time. She learned her phone number last week by yelling it out as she stomped her feet down one beat at a time onto the sidewalk. She likes to take things apart and figure out how to put them back together again. We call her our "little engineer". I've read that she is what is called a "kinesthetic" learner. This means that she is very hands on and, as we've seen for ourselves, she dislikes sitting down and doing book work. A kid like her would be labeled ADD or ADHD and permanently tracked in the slower group in public school. That would be an awful mistake since she is so obviously intelligent and quick to grasp ideas. Public school is designed to promote only one type of learner, and the rest get labeled and shuffled aside.

We definitely think that homeschooling is the only way to provide the best education possible for each of our girls. So, we're starting our first day of homeschool next Tuesday. Wish us luck!