Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Not reasons TO homeschool, but . . .

Everyone has their own reasons for homeschooling, or not homeschooling, for that matter. And while I know there are people who choose to homeschool because they are afraid to let their children out of their sight, for fear of what might happen, personally, I don't think fear should be the motivating factor in choosing to homeschool. That said, having already made our decision to homeschool, based on our children's personalities, etc. I can't help but occasionally reading about friends' experiences and thinking "wow, I'm glad we're homeschooling!".

Some are minor things, at the beginning of the school year a couple groups I'm on were discussing/comparing the supplies lists the schools send out. And the crunchy side of me cringed at some of the things on those lists and sighed in relief that, when my kids turn 5 they won't suddenly be smearing anti-bacterial chemicals on their hands umpteen times a day, but can continue to use vinegar & essential oils when we need to clean our hands w/o water. But those are minor.

Awhile back, an online acquaintance posted, abit freaked out, because her dd (late elementary school or early middle school, if I remember right. Older than my kids by quite abit, anyway) was stuck at school in a lockdown situation. It all turned out fine, and again, I had the "wow, that would freak me out! I'm glad that I'm not likely to be in that situation", in that case, because of the child being older, it didn't hit quite so close to home, and while I could certainly empathize with the mom for being scared for her dd, I didn't totally relate it to my kids.

But today, another friend was waiting with her dd for the (afternoon kindergarten bus) when she got word that there wouldn't be afternoon K today because the school was in lockdown. Everything turned out fine, but somehow this one, combined w/ my kids being closer to school age maybe, struck me more! Aside from MY fears for my child's safety in that situation, I also can't imagine how my particular children, especially A, would react to BEING LOCKED DOWN! A is the child who doesn't like unexpected change to her routines. She still "mourns" the car we got rid of over a year ago. Logically, she agrees that the minivan is better, she loves that she can open & close her own door and such, but she still mourns the "red car". She is a child who can be easily scared. When we got home to the smoke detectors malfunctioning, as I rushed around trying to figure out how to turn them OFF (for the record, hard wired smoke detectors w/ individual battery backups are a PAIN to turn off!) I suddenly realized that A was sitting in the kitchen shaking she was so afraid that there was an actual fire and we were all going to get burned up. I can't imagine how much it would freak her out to be told that she had to stay in the classroom for who knows how long and no, you may not go home like you were expecting to!

Now obviously, situations can happen anywhere, we could have a lock down situation in a store at some point, or whatever . . . but a teacher with a classroom full of kids this same age, all reacting in their own ways, isn't going to be able to focus as completely on my 2 kids, as I would be able to.

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