To Homeschool or "Real School"?

            Hey folks! Who knew that just taking a few days off from school stuff, spending multiple days with both sets of grandparents, and getting re-addicted to Minecraft over the holidays would make for such a hard time getting back into the swing of things! In fact, it was bad enough that I started seriously questioning whether I was making the right choice in homeschooling Myka. I mean, I'm about to have another baby and her attitude was HORRIBLE! Could I really handle her tantrums, bad attitude, etc. with two other kids to care for?

             I won't go into details on all of the behavior issues, but I will admit that it was bad enough that I was actually looking into “regular schools” and considering putting her in kindergarten next year. Which, not that you know, but I feel like is saying a lot because homeschooling is something that I've wanted to do with our kids since Myka was a baby. Even considering public school made me feel like a failure, like I was giving up. And, as stupid as it may sound, the whole thing made me really depressed for a week.

             I was so torn on the issue, that I made a list of pros and cons...and was actually surprised to find there were more perks to her attending a regular school. However, I felt like the cons held more weight, if that makes sense. Everyone and everyone family dynamic is different, but here is my list. Tell me what you think:

Pros                                                                                        Cons

Not as stressed                                                                    Drive time

More time to spend with little kids                                 Waking kids up early

Less yelling all the time                                                      Expensive

Myka gets more social interaction                                   Won't be able to take trips whenever we want

Will probably listen to someone else better                  More likely to be sick more often

Will get caught up/won't fall behind on academics

May be able to get help with speech issues

We wouldn't be able to take impromptu visits like this.

 Or go fishing in the middle of the week in spring.

              I made this list with Myka attending a charter school the next county over in mind. If I'm going to get her into regular school, I would feel better about her attending the charter school after all of the great things I've heard about it. Plus, we moved here with no intentions of sending our kids to public school because, quite frankly, if that were a factor, we probably wouldn't have moved here, to be honest. So...That just added to the depression.

             I asked around on a local mom's group about how much it would cost to enroll Myka in kindergarten at the local elementary school and was told the book rental fee was around $100. WHAT?!I couldn't believe it! When I replied with, “$100 for kindergarten books?!” she went on to say, “Oh, they just call it that. It also covers classroom supplies, paper, etc.” Um, like John said, what the hell are our taxes paying for when it comes to schools? And the fact that they have this fee on top of the other supplies you have to purchase, which also include some classroom supplies? I'm sorry. I know I'm new to this world of public school, but I don't get it. What does the school help pay for/provide? Do the poor teachers have to pay rent for their classroom space, for God sakes?

             Anyways, sure, the charter school would be even more expensive with having to buy uniforms as well (which I'm not crazy about), but it seemed like a better investment. The main issue with sending her there is having to pick her up and drop her off and it takes about 25 minutes to drive there...And this would be twice a day. If you haven't realized already, I was mostly considering sending her to regular school to get a freakin' break. That driving twice a day, rain or shine, having to wake up THREE kids, didn't seem like much of a break. 

It's not like we do hardcore schooling yet anyways. We do lots of arts, crafts, and hands-on projects.

 

              After talking it over with John, he still isn't crazy about sending her to public school either. (I know, I know. I'm the one who will be doing the schooling, but he gets input too!) Plus, he says where we live that public schools can require your children to take medicine if they are labeled as being ADD/ADHD?! Like, I guess there was a court case regarding this a few years ago. I haven't actually looked it up, but I don't know what reason he would have to lie about it, so that is just frightening. She hasn't been, but we are afraid Myka would be diagnosed with something like this if she goes to public school just because she would probably have a hard time sitting still for as long as they want, would talk too much because she just really likes talking and doesn't quite understand that you're not supposed to talk whenever you want at school, etc. And quite frankly, we shouldn't expect little kids to sit still that long or keep to themselves all day. But, I guess that's a whole other debate for another blog post.

             Anyways, after all that, we have decided to keep trying to homeschool. She's still young. Some days are better than others. She made a lot of improvement in her attitude the week after. I'm still trying to slowly get her back into the swing of things as far as “school stuff” goes....As well as find ways to use Minecraft to my advantage for learning opportunities. ;)

I'm sure this won't be the last time I have a crisis over whether or not I should send her to school, but I am trying harder to stay positive and not let the bad days (or attitudes!) get to me as much!

Have you ever panicked over how/where to school your kids? How did you come to the right decision?