Hannah went to our Church's preschool for two full years. When I enrolled her in Kindergarten, I was given a list of things that she needed to have mastered before starting class. I looked over the list, and panicked a little because although she new her upper case letters, she did know the lower case letters so well. We worked on them all summer so that she would be ready. On the first day of class, her teacher had put out supplies for the kids to make themselves name tags. Hannah sat down and began to make hers, carefully writing her name and drawing little pictures. As she was doing this, I looked around the classroom and noticed that the other parents were writing their children's names for them. I had a feeling right then that she was way ahead of the other kids. How right I was. She would come home complaining that she didn't like school because she never learned anything new. I went out and bought a 1st grade workbook at Sam's and let her do work in it after she got home from school. Her teacher kept saying how he knew she was advanced, but because of all the other kids, he could not do anything more her level. They have to teach to the lowest child.
In 1st grade, things did not get any better. She would be at school for 7 hours a day, and yet came home with homework that took about an hour to do each night. I began to wonder what it was that they did all day, because after spending 7 hours a day, 5 days a week in class, why was she bringing home so much work? In September, they studied 9-11. Why? To talk about Patriotism. What happened to the innocence of childhood? In December, she came home and told me that her teacher said that there is no Santa. UGH! Not only that, but they studied what many other cultures do for Christmas, but not Christianity. In May, they did evaluations to see if the kids were progressing as they should, because in 1st and 2nd they do not do any standardized tests. Her teacher was quite pleased that she was reading at the correct level. I was not so thrilled. I felt that those two years were wasted years. She began so far ahead of the curve, and after 2 years she was average.
During this time, I ran into an old friend that I knew from when Hannah was a baby. Of all the things that she chose to tell me about, she told me that she was homeschooling her son and about the Homeschool Co-op that she belonged to. At the time, I thought that was nice, but not for me. Then, after Hannah's assessment after 1st grade, which I was not happy about, God put another hint in my path. After Mass one Sunday, we were having doughnuts in the Parish Hall of our church. Our parish library was having a book sale and my husband went over to see what they had. Some things were free, and he found a catalog for homeschool materials. He brought it over to me. The funny thing is, we had never discussed homeschooling. Ever. When he placed it in front of me, I thought, "Homeschooling? Me? I really don't think so, but I'll look at it." And as I looked, I began to realize that I could do it, and that I wanted to do it. And then I realized that God had been working and leading me to this place. When I mailed my Notice of Intent to Homeschool, I felt that I had my daughter back. She was mine once more. It sounds weird, but I felt that once I dropped her off at school, she wasn't my child until school was over and I picked her back up. I essentially had no say on what she learned or what influences she was exposed to.
Some other moms have said that I must be crazy for wanting my children home with me at all times and being their teacher, too. That it is just too much responsibility. I don't see it that way at all, and neither does God.
