Thoughts on Homeschooling

I know my child is only a year old. But this year has flown by so fast. I think alot about her education and our future kids education. So many things to think about...private school? public school? homeschool?

I think I want to homeschool.

I know I lost half of you at that sentence.

Here are my reasonings:

I know Audrie can get a good education in the school system. GT and I both went to private school growing up until highschool--we loved it. We wouldnt change anything about it. But I want to be in control of Audries education. I want to be able to explore things according to her interests and strengths. I want to go further than the text books. I dont want her to have to learn things just to pass a test or get high scores on a standerized test. I want to teach her to love to learn. And I want to be there for it.

I know I could do some of these things if she was attending a school. But think about it, a child is at school all day, then they come home...do homework, then more school? No. They dont want to do more school.

GT's biggest hang-up about it is the socialization. Here is a really good article from the Pioneer Woman's website about this. What I asked GT, is who did we hang out with? Church friends. Youth group. We didnt hang out with kids from school. Seriously, what socialization is learned at school that cant be learned from church groups, sports groups, play groups etc...  And we are their parents. And we are quite socialized. We arent going to keep them locked inside all day.

I am not trying to keep Audrie and our future children from the "real" world. As my friend Lyznie always says, "the real world will shows itself eventually". And I think this is very true. When people say, so you're just going to shelter Audrie? I say, yeah I am. As long as I can. She doesnt need to know what is out there right now. She will find it out. Just like I did. But we will teach her what is right. We will teach her to make good choices. We will teach her to love. She will see an example of her family doing these things. So...all that to say, I dont want to homeschool her to keep her from the real world, but if it does, I am ok with it.

I hope to start being intentional about teaching her through Tot School. Kinda like montessori, but at home. I will blog about it through our journey.

My biggest question-- How do I homeschool Audrie when I have 1 or 2 other little ones? I know people do it. I know it can be done. But whew. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

I wrote all of this to get ideas? thoughts? comments?