From Home School to Public School

Our family had a brief introduction to Homeschooling---I will treasure the 3 months of homeschooling I had with our 3 children. Given the many moving parts to implementing homeschooling as a 1st timer, I did not coordinate the SOCIAL aspect of the homeschooling FAST enough and with this our 8 yr. old daughter's self-esteem deflated. She tired of playing w/her brothers and tolerated going to their soccer games, only in hopes to run into some 'girl power'.


The boys and she are enrolled in Taekwondo but as you can understand--the majority of the energy in these sports has been male. So off to public school she tromped (just 2 weeks ago.) and has a spring back in her walk. She loves relationships and is thriving in the beautiful Woodside Elementary school.


Why did the boys get enrolled back into the public school: As the economy continues to slow down in our Silicon Valley, my spouse requested that I place the boys back into school and join him in the dental office. There is nothing better than having family pull together during tough times. So off to work I go and the boys are soon to be enrolled next Wed. into the public school in Woodside.


It is a very bitter-sweet time. I am saddened to be separated from our 3 children. I found my cause and my passion as a homeschool mother. I never thought that I would be GREAT at it let alone 1/2 way good at it. The children and I laughed so much during our lessons that the learning came EASY. No tears and no arguing---




With homeschooling no tears, no arguments. When they were in school the reverse happened---something that seemed to come when the children returned from their very long day from school--they had little interest in doing the worksheets--


---the flexibility of the homeschooling worked wonders with keeping them engaged and interested in the 'learning process'--The tools & teaching systems that I gathered and applied have made learning and communicating w/our children more effective and rewarding. I will look forward to continuing to work with them on this deeper level even though our time together is shortened. On the bright side of this---having the children with their peers for 6 hours a day is something that they would not have with their homeschool program at home.

What I appreciate most through this short lived homeschooling adventure are the tailored approaches to each child's learning and communication style that I have learned and will be able to apply for life with them. I also appreciate learning how to make learning more fun through the introduction to many learning games. Last of all I appreciate the countless communitites that homeschoolers have available to all children in all areas of the USA and globe--- and with that---we will keep our toes wet by continuing to apply homeschooling 'learning-style' teaching approaches to their 'public school homework', continue to play the learning games and continue to investigate the monthly field trips that the homeschoolers offer---of which we have not yet participated in BUT look forward to doing.