Home's cool

In my previous post (in Italian) I dealt with Homeschooling to explain why we have chosen it: I'll try to briefly recount what I wrote on it.

I think most of my Italian friends have questions (and probably huge doubts) about our choice to homeschool. I have not found such perplexity among people around here, although I know it exists. So I attempted to explain our reasons for this choice.

First of all our decision is rooted in the biblical indication that we are responsible for teaching, educating, growing our children (Deut.6:5-7). Academics are not our main goal in this effort. Our main goal is to raise godly people and develop their character more than their grades. We don't want someone who is a perfect stranger to have that kind of influence on our kids. A stranger whose values we don't know and whose background could be scary, given all that we hear on the news on a daily basis.

The question most people, who are not familiar with this lifestyle (I dare to say.. this "alternative lifestyle"), have, is about socialization. First of all, who decided that socialization was THE important thing in educating our children? It's like it is the main, most important part of schooling -- what about discipline? good manners? character? and maybe even academics??
Anyway.. socialization is important to homeschoolers, too, but the approach is different. Socialization is focused, filtered and controlled, so that children are exposed to the appropriate stuff for the appropriate age. In addition to that I want my kids to be able to socialize with a wide variety of people, not just peers.

The aspect of academics is also important for homeschoolers. A lot of people don't even consider it because they feel they are not capable. The fact is that, statistically, homeschooled children do much better than government schools students, and - even if I don't have the percentage on this - I am pretty sure that the majority of homeschooling parents do not have a degree in Education, and a good "chunk" does not even have a degree. But it is not a surprise that homeschooled children do better academically, if you think that they have a "one on one, fitted to your style" type of situation and their teacher loves them and cares for them like no other person in the world.
I do not have a gift of teaching. If you did a split screen with me on one side teaching our daughter and my husband on the other doing the same, you would soon discover he is the one with the gift. However, at this point, I am the one doing the majority of the schooling for Juniper and I cannot say I am finding enormous difficulties. I know it's going to get tougher when she gets older (she is not even 6).. but at that point I'll delegate most of the schooling to my husband since he's more intelligent than me and also has the gift! In the meantime I'll keep doing it and when doubt creeps in, I'll lean on my homeschooling buddies (Thank you -- Cindy, Donna, Tara, Lisa, Meg and many more) That's right, I am not alone. And I am probably not the only one without a gift of teaching and totally lacking creativity. But, by the Grace of God, and with good friends and good material, I think I'll make it.

And the best part of it is that I will spend all the time possible teaching, loving, training, nurturing and learning from my children.

May God bless our efforts in raising His children.