But what about (gasp) high school???

We have been home schooling now for eleven years.

We started when our oldest was in 7th grade & our second son was in kindergarten.

Over the years, we have added  to the family & next year I will have my fourth & final kindergartener.


Have you ever noticed how people are always freaking out about high school? (heck, maybe you are one of them)

"Oh, you'll put them in school for high school right?"  "You can't possibly teach them all the way through high school!"  "I couldn't possibly teach high school! I just wouldn't know how."

High school is a cake walk people.

It's the icing.

 It's our reward for not killing & eating our children when they have read an entire row of 'cat, sat, bat, rat, fat' & then freeze up & have no clue how to read 'hat'.

 <<twitch>>

High school is Nirvana.

In high school our children can read & write & reason. They can communicate & use logic.

High school is E. Z. people ~ easy!

And fun.

You can sit & talk with them. You can bounce ideas back & forth. You can save the world together.

In second grade  you bang your head against the wall trying to teach skip counting & sight words.

Explain the word 'eight'. I dare you. It can't be done. Or 'of.'  Or 'to'.  or 'was.'  It's endless.

By high school they have accepted that our language makes no sense & moved on.

Second grade? Not so much.

The commonly accepted paradigm is that 'anybody' can teach small children & it really doesn't matter but when they get some age on them it's important to hand them over to the 'professionals'.

I couldn't disagree more. I would almost rather see a child started out in public school & then pulled out to be home schooled thru junior high & high school.

Not really of course. I strongly believe the educational process belongs to the parent.

Now I realize everyone can't do that. This is not an ideal world & for some homeschooling is just not possible.

I get that. And I am not beating anybody up over it. So don't get your panties in a wad. ;)

My point is: don't give your kids away just when they are becoming interesting!

High school is not hard. High school is fun. High school is teaching your child to be responsible & reliable & an adult.

We are raising our children to be adults.

We should all be raising our children to be adults.

So who do you want your adult to be patterned after? You? Your spouse? Your family values?

Or 6 or 8 people you have never met who just happen to be teaching at your local high school this semester?

High school is not the time to let your kids go. High school is the time to teach them your values, your politics, your beliefs & WHY those things are so.

So everyday, while I bang my head  against the table listening to my second grader read 'the' as 'tuh' huh' 'eh' for the 9 millionth time, I praise the Lord, that someday, I will be able to discuss  politics, economics, religion, science, ancient history ~whatever ~ with him & I am confident that he will, indeed, be able to pronounce the word 'the'.

Blessings.