decisions, decisions
I’m Karena, a.k.a. Mrs. O, mom to two wonderful boys. Big Kid is nearly four years old (so big, obviously, is relative). Little Kid is four months old (so, relative, but also pretty little). My husband is a NATO civilian and we have the incredible privilege of living in the heart of Europe because of his job. We’ve lived in Belgium for four years now and this is home to us. So home, in fact, that we’re just finishing the exhausting process of buying a house in a foreign country. So not only am I trying to get a handle on the homeschooling thing, but we’re preparing to move house as well.
We first began to investigate homeschooling about a year ago. Knowing we were staying in Belgium we had to make a choice: send our children to the local schools, pay for him to attend the local DODDS (military) school, or homeschool him. the DODDS school was a quick negative for us. The traditional American school experience is something we wanted to spare our children at all costs. (More on our feelings about traditional schooling in some other post. I’m typing while supporting a sleeping baby’s head on one arm, so I can’t be too long-winded. ) But what about the local schools? We love the idea of going “native” and our children growing up knowing a foreign language — French, in this case — intimately. But there are aspects of the Belgian school system we don’t care for, either. That’s another post as well.
Regardless of the shortcomings of either system, however, we came to the realization that we were indeed capable of educating our children ourselves. We have the time, the resources, the patience, and care far more about the outcome than even the best teacher out there. Of utmost importance to us is that our children learn to think for themselves. We want them to have the freedom to question everything, to find the reasons behind the answers, and to follow their interests.
So that’s the why. The how? I’m still working on that. I’ve investigated every single homeschooling “method” out there and am still trying to sort it all out. Better hurry, Big Kid’s getting bigger every day.
No Comments »
Filed under: This and That