As shown by the title of this blog, I’m homeschooling my daughter. Why? Well there is a whole list of reasons, one is bullying. I believe that bullying is far too prevalent in schools; I know it certainly was when I was in school and from everything I’ve hard it’s only become a bigger issue. Then there is the question of safety. I remember the winter of 2012 when all over the news was the Sandy Hook Elementary School incident, and realizing that was children there were my daughter’s age or just slightly older. I find the need for a police presence in schools to be horrifying as a parent. As well as metal detectors, locked doors, guards, and other “safety” measures. They must reassure some parents, but to me it’s scary as well as a sad commentary on modern life.
Another issue is class size, with homeschool I can give her individual attention and move as quickly or as slowly as we need to in every subject, a teacher with even five children in the class can’t do that, and most public school have between 25-30+ (at least last I knew). Which since she’s been reading since she before she was 4 1/2 and doing math story problems almost as long is very important. I can’t see putting her in a class with with children barely learning to read and her not being bored. Such boredom can only lead to bad things, either a severe dislike of school or only doing the minimum necessary to pass. Only thing worse would be for both options to apply.
I’ve researched for several years, and learned what I best like what Charlotte Mason had to say and her philosophies. Most of what I’ve read of her ideas I agree with completely, but not all. With that in mind I’m trying to give my daughter a Charlotte Mason style of education, with living books, broad subjects, short classes, lots of free time, and following my heart with the rest. Last year with her kindergarten year, I tried not to push things since CM (Charlotte Mason) preferred to waiting until they were 6 which I’ve always thought of as 1st grade age.
Now I said my daughter has been reading since she was 4 1/2 and doing math problems also. This is not because I’ve pushed her into reading or math. Reading came along because she was reciting the books back to us around age 4 or so, and if you turned back pages and pointed to a word on the page she’d tell you what it was. So I took her queues and started more formal reading lessons. For me the book Teach a Child to Read using Children’s Books was just what we needed. And my daughter LOVES to read which is why in less than a year she was reading at least at a 3 grade level. For math she played games with pennies, and during her evening story time with her father, they do math story problems with several additions or addition and subtraction in the problem.
Since she’s now in what I consider 1st Grade (though the public school system would put her in kindergarten because she didn’t go to public school last year) we’re being more formal with her education. The wide variety of options available with using Charlotte Mason were a bit daunting for me, so we’re currently using the free Ambleside Online syllabus. Most of the texts used are Public Domain which can be found online for free, and I’ve been able to find the other books in the local library. Personally I love the Public Domain books. I am able to get copies for my kindle and read from right from there at wherever we want.