she wants to go to school next year

The ladies have given you wonderful encouragement and many things to think over.

A question I had was have you asked your older children what rites of passage they feel like they missed out on by not attending Highschool? It seems like they are encouraging her toward school, and if it was me I would want to know the reasons of why. I guess I would also want to know if the older ones had a realistic picture of what they see as the ps rites of passage. My memory of ps rites of passage was high peer pressure to go against one’s conscious, morals, & God.

My oldest is 13, has always been homeschooled, and hasn’t asked to go to school. However, this fall he was starting to show some curious interest in what it is all about. My DH had the idea to fill some of that interest by doing a ‘pretend go to school morning’. He got up at his usual time of 7:30. Junior High in our area starts at 7:50, so he dressed and out the door we went with 3 siblings in tow (who get up early and were much more ready to be going!). We drove the 5 minutes and circled through the drive way for drop off. At this point he was begging to never go. We live in an area with a run down school and school safety out front. Afterwards I drove to a private school, elementary school drop off, and the private school with our church 20 minutes away. He is in the front seat now, which helped. I had a really good talk with him about the realities of school on that drive. I shared many of my memories, and even though I liked school and was a good student I see & saw it for what it really is. I shared those insights and some of the Junior High problems that many students choose with him. I gave him a reality picture more then I had before. I talked about my students staying up until midnight to study and always being tired (I used to teach). I talked about him getting up at 6 and studying late at night. He has grown 5 inches since April and needs his sleep so he really understood the problems! It was an excellent heart to heart and our church school made the drive long enough. We also talked about HS and how we won’t do Catholic or Lutheran or public and those being the only HS options in our area. I told him our reasons of why those schools weren’t right for our family. I think it really helped him to know the reasons behind our decisions as parents. I haven’t heard a word about school since.

I would find out what she is really hearing and explain your reasons of why you homeschool.

We belong to a coop that we have been part of for two years. I have very mixed feelings about coops. It has been OK for us, but I think a support group would be better and they don’t seem to be around anymore. I had one when I first started homeschooling and it was wonderful on its support for mom and some opportunities for kids.

Blessings,

I put my 14 yr old ds in ps this year and REGRET it!! His personality has altered and is very negative and just so unkind.  He BEGGED me to go to school for years and I caved and let him go.  He is having a very hard time with the tests!  Everyone has to do what is best for their family and I really thought this would be best because the deterioration of our relationship, however, it backfired on me!  He is even more disrespectful and the other kids he is choosing to hang around are horrible!!  I’m talking HORRIBLE!  He has been exposed to nudity, explicit lyrics to songs, and girls girls girls who are very aggressive!