We've decided to home school our daughters. They are Jessica, 3 and Nicole, 6. Mainly we will be working with Nicole and Jessica will be going the the same preschool and kindergarten her big sister went to before switching over to all home school.
We've decided to do this for many reasons. Public schools here in Washington are atrocious, and those in our area are some of the worst. They hardly teach math and science at all, and actually sound proud when stating statistics that almost half of their students meet standards in those areas. For the price of $10,000 per student each year public schools almost completely fail to provide an education. There are academic, safety, moral and political issues that remove public school as an option for us.
Private school was considered, but would cost us 10 times out of pocket what home schooling will. There are some great private schools nearby, but having to both work full time and have the kids in after school daycare programs, only seeing them for a short time in the evenings and on the weekends we aren't working didn't seem like a good option for our family.
With home schooling we are getting a degree of freedom that most don't have. Freedom to travel, to explore and to live on our own schedules. Freedom for our kids to learn at whatever pace they can manage, and to vary their pace by subject. For instance Nicole is at about mid first grade level in math, but at third grade level in reading, no public school around here would accommodate that.
Nicole is excited and nervous about it at the same time, and so are we. She loves to learn, and we love to teach, so we're all confident it will work out, and that we'll enjoy this new adventure.
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