Reading Pride

Reading in our house isn't a task to be done instead its a love to be nurtured. My daughter started "reading" at age 20 months. She would often plop down on the couch with a book and read the pictures, if she knew the story she would try to read to me. By age five she demanded I teach her to read so we started homeschool kindergarten and in six weeks she was reading Dick and Jane books by herself. Seeing her face as she connected sounds with letters and letters with words was exciting for both of us and I loved building her little library of books.

Now at age nine E is reading Charlotte's Web, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and Black Beauty she will throw in a quick read like Junie B. but she is enjoying the bigger books because they have more adventures and more detail that hold her interest longer. For about five years now her Grandma has been reading to her a couple times a week, I am pretty much left out of the read-aloud time because "Grandma does it better" but I don't mind how can I scoff at their time together. The Five Little Peppers, Little Women and Little House on the Prairie series have all been read so they have moved onto The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe series this summer.

With summer comes reading contests and E is taking part in three right now each requiring a different number of books. I told her if she wanted to do that many contests she couldn't cheat and put the same books on each list so she collected a nice big stack of books and got started. Watching her fill those lists makes me proud because of our hard work five years ago she is now able to create her own fun and use those books to travel through time and to other countries without any prodding from me. Conversations about dragons and their ability to breath fire or if its possible for a family to really adopt a mouse instead of a human child are just normal to us and many times I have seen disappointment in her eyes when friends don't share her interest in these topics. That is when I remind her that the ability to read is very different from the love for reading and we need to teach others that words and books are treasures never to be wasted.

You homeschool, why?!

"Why do you homeschool?" I cringe when I hear this mainly because in all my years I have never once asked "Why do  you send your kids to public school?" It is silly that this question even exists but it does so I must answer. 

This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer because there is no one reason it really depends on the day I am asked and the mood I am in. If its been a difficult day teaching then I might answer "because the public school would label her ADHD when she really just needs to run around with the dogs for an hour", if its been a funny day then I might say "She would drive the teachers insane with her questions about belly buttons and ear wax" 

Trying to pick one answer out of hundreds is frustrating and sometimes I feel like a dork for not having that one perfect answer. However one reason is consistent; me!

I want to be the one to see her milestones; hearing her excitement when she read a Clifford book all by herself for the first time.

I want to be there the light bulb goes off; seeing her roll her eyes and shake her head when she figures out trick to long multiplication.

I want to help her discover her passions; watching her use a map to plot locations while watching movies or running errands.

Is it selfish for me to be her teacher? Nope because I am also be guilty of being a mother. Remember there was a time in our world when it was strange if not horrifying to send your child to a school house and let someone else teach your child the life skills and morals they would need in life. Families taught children everything they needed to know and our country didn't suffer from it. Examples; John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, both Roosevelt Presidents, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ansel Adams. Their mothers all saw potential in their children as do most moms so when it came time to start school homeschooling was the most natural thing to do.

Being a single parent was nearly a con but God heard my prayers and has allowed me to work from home so I know that this is right for our family. It hasn't been easy and I am grateful that I don't have to worry about school uniforms, getting her to school on time, lost permission slips and parent teacher meetings. On the subject of parent teacher meetings that proves comical at times since I am both; teacher "Did you know that your child has been asking for the answers to her math problems rather then working them out herself", me "Yes I did, I admit I am guilty of indulging her once in a while", teacher "Well stop it!"

Where our children learn isn't half as important as the time we spend with them. I can remember before my mom began homeschooling me and my siblings she was always dragging us kids to hiking trails, museums and libraries encouraging us to read about the things we loved, she called it after-schooling and we enjoyed it. Learning never stops and I love to point out to people that ask me why I homeschool, Hey you do too. When a friend took her daughters fishing I reminded her that she was teaching them ichthyology (study of fish) and showing them how the settlers caught their meals. The more we talked the more she saw that she was in fact teaching them just as much as their school teacher simply by being an interactive family. 

The next time you think of asking someone why they homeschool remember that you most likely do it too.