homeschooling update

The entire time we were homeschooling I worried about three things:

1. Were the kids enjoying themselves? Am I boring??
2. Did the kids feel secluded and cut off from other kids their age?
3. Were we covering everything we needed to for them to go back to school later on?

I think numbers one and two were reasonable concerns, though the kids did not seem to suffer or mind those things in the least.

The third point, however, was something I continued to wonder about. This year when we put them back in school it was interesting to see how they integrated with their grade levels. I recently attended parent-teacher conferences for them last week and was relieved to hear that all was well.

Emily (2nd grade) is ahead of even the enrichment math assignments in her class, and I have been discussing the possibility of coming up with an alternative math curriculum with another mom whose kid is ahead. She is reading at a fifth grade level and was the only kid in her class to know about artists and art that a visiting teacher was presenting on.

Caleb (kinder) is reading at at least a level E (the goal in kinder is to get to level D). His teacher said they ran out of time to continue testing him after they reached level E, so that is where she is keeping him for now. Basically, he is in the highest reading group and she has him read the book they are working on three times by himself so she can help the other kids in his group. I don't know if they really do much math, but he has a lot of experience there too that, if our experience with everything else holds true, none of the other kids have. This is actually concerning to me, since he is definitely not socially ready to move up a grade, but it seems like a waste of time to have him learning the letter "k" and the word "like" when at home he is able to take his turn reading out of the Book of Mormon independently. And I don't think having him read the same story silently to himself three times is conducive to cultivating a love of reading. As I've mentioned before, I've had a bit of a struggle finding books that are interesting for him at his reading level.

Overall, I am amazed at how much more efficient and effective homeschooling is than public schools. We only had to spend a couple of hours each morning to get Emily and Caleb to where they are, and I did zero work with them before deciding to homeschool last year. There are many times (like when we're rushing to get the kids to bed on time or when the school is asking for donations or when I want to visit a museum or park that I know will be crowded on afternoons or weekends) that I wish we were still homeschooling, but there are good things about public school too. While they are ahead academically it is so much fun for them to have all the extra activities that their teachers are able to do with their classes. There is also a lot more exposure to different cultures and ideas, which I like. They also love having so many kids their own age to play with and form friendships with. And honestly, I love having some quiet time at home just with Elinor and Jacob.

There are good and bad things about both, and I am not convinced there is a "better" option. I often wish I could have some sort of part-time option, like MWF at school and T/Th at home, but I think that sort of discontinuity in public school would really cause problems for them, especially Emily. For now we are happy with where things are, though I am certainly going to keep my mind open in the future.