Kelsey –
I want to address this question, because I was right where you were a year ago, with a daughter in second grade and making the decision to homeschool for the next year. Looking back over the past year, I will say that we have very much missed the things about school that you mentioned – the class parties, etc. I have provided my own version of these as needed – based on what I saw as her needs. Actually, Valenine’s Day was probably the hardest. Every year since preschool we have had so much fun choosing those little storebought valentines and writing them out for each kid – then when she came home with all her valentines from class, we would tape them together side by side and make a long garland and hang it in the window for a while. We missed that alot. I let her plan a valentine party and invite her cousins – they exchanged valentines. I just think we have to make our own special traditions. The children have a need for them, and we have to go through the trouble to do it.
And I won’t lie – I miss alot of things like that about school, too. I miss visiting with other moms, and more than anything, I miss the kids in my daughter’s class. She is well liked by her classmates and they miss her.
A terrible mistake I made!!!-!!I will reveal and share this in hopes of helping someone else, even though I will probably be in tears before I finish this post 🙁 . I didn’t even think about my daughter’s best friend at school – I should have tracked down her mom and told her what we were planning – let them get together a few times during the summer. Of course our family was embarking on a new homeschool adventure, so that excitement carried us through the beginning of the school year, but that poor sweet little girl went to school so excited to see my DD again after a whole summer apart, but she wasn’t there. After days went by, and no best friend, she came up with all these reasons why she wasn’t there (is she sick, is she on vacation?) and finally decided we must have moved away. The girl’s mother finally contacted me and we were able to get them together for some after school activity which helped them both.
I know that missing the class Christmas party was hard, but we have many more special moments that more than make up for it. We visit my 94 year old grandfather two or three times a week, and make and eat lunch with him, while his other great and great great grandchildren are at school or daycare. This I wouldn’t trade for any amount of school activities.
I don’t think a homeschool group is necessarily a panacea for a child’s (and parent’s) need for friends and social activities. These groups vary widely, both in their makeup and availability. My daughter is not the type to warm up to strange children at a monthly meeting. For some families, however, this seems to be critical to them as a support group and for social reason, so try it out if you can. We have kept contact with other schoolgirl friends through Girl Scouting – which is a drag to me sometimes but I see its value to keep in contact with girls and moms in our community, so I stick with it.
As for prom and cheerleading – I will worry more about high school type issues when it gets closer LOL. However as far as graduation, my state (AR) has a statewide graduation ceremony for homeschoolers sponsored by our states homeschool organization. Your state may have one too.
You have probably read enough here 🙄 but this topic has been on my mind alot lately. We are considering sending the kids back to school for the first semester next year, then just staying home for the rest of the year – that way we get four months at school and eight months at home, instead of the other way around like most people (with their kids in school full time) do. So far I have yet to find evidence of any other homeschoolers who do this so maybe it is too crazy LOL.
I think you are smart to think in advance about what you will face next year – there will be a lot of good times, but I don’t think it can be without a small amount of regret.
Gem
