The New Frontier

I've been getting the questions now.
So you homeschool?
Wow. Homeschool, how's that going?
I can't believe you are homeschooling, I couldn't do it.

Honestly, I never thought I would be doing Home Preschool, or as BigBoy calls it "Basement School". We literally turned our nasty, musty basement into a homey, cozy, people friendly space in a weekend. We bought some bound carpet remnants at one of my new favorite stores, Ollies. Moved all the toys downstairs. Changed some lightbulbs out. Put together our Gorilla Racks (these rock! from Costco), opened some windows, bought a new jumbo dehumidifier, moved some furniture and a desk into the space and VOILA! Basement School!

As soon as I found out we were moving here I got online and started to look for preschools. I also tried to contact various people in the college for advice. Basically what I got from most people was OH! XXXX Christian School is Woooonderful! and that was about it. well, yah, about that. G is Jewish see, and I'm Catholic, but we don't really go to church or temple right now and sending BB into Hard Core Evangelical Preschool probably isn't going to jive. just a feeling.

I finally found a few that sounded good but they were either full-time, all day or didn't have spots open. We jumped on the wait list for a place right near us that sounded great, #10 on the list. Then I finally heard back from a school that sounded perfect. Child lead, outdoor play, part time, affordable and semi-close. they would even hold my spot til we moved in a few weeks. Done! It started out fine, the other moms seemed nice, but the space was tiny. 15 kids here? Okay, they have a huge playground. then we had "issues" with BB cleaning up before the end of the day. They also had a LOT of sitting down time. Not BB's best trait and I don't blame him really. So I wasn't happy with how they handled discipline (the next day he couldn't play in the room for part of the day) and then his behavior got worse and they sat us both down in the tiny tots chairs and talked to us. I felt like I was the one in trouble. they tried to make him feel embarrassed ("all his friends were watching him, weren't they BB?") So I pulled him. The worst part was they didn't even call me back to find out why exactly I didn't feel it was a "good fit" and then wrote me a note in his stuff that they thought I was making a great decision. Bite me. So after sobbing to G and BB's teacher from Indy, I decided to become Mommy-Teacher.

I know there were a lot of issues at the start of school, we had just moved, it was a new school, new rules, etc. But instead of working with that, they complained. After the fact I also found out the teachers did even less standing up than I thought. BB one day decided to just flick the lights on and off with his hand on his hip as his way of cleaning up. huh? apparently that's what his new teachers did during clean up. Great role model.

I'm basically modeling it after our co-op preschool in Indy (I loved it!) and we are going play based with lots of field trips. We also joined a weekly home school co-op group when we moved, so that was already in place. I'm actually liking it a lot more than I thought, although, we're not as structured as I'd like it to be. But hey, I'm doing it and the kids are learning and having fun. Mission accomplished. I'm trying to make outings fun and a learning experience. We are doing a lot with farms, apples, pumpkins, etc. His former teacher is coming out next week and is bringing me a goody bag. woo hooo! I think my main goal is to do "school" 2x a week-Tues/Thurs, homeschool group on fridays. Monday and Wed. will be down time or playdates. I actually feel like I am more relaxed not having to get ready for school with two kids. It's nice to have the flexibility to do what we need and not have to feel like we are rushing all the time. Probably a better transition to living in a new place anyway.

The big question always comes up. What are you going to do about socialization? I actually feel like he is getting better socialization this way. We have older kids at the co-op group and he just adores these kids. they are so sweet and are 7/8 years old. He has soccer with 3/4 year olds (he can feel like a leader) and I can pick and choose his playdates. The Babe (aka Sis/Sissy) also gets the benefit of these days and outings since there is a bunch of younger siblings in the co-op that she gets to play with and her favorite is a sweet girl, 8? who adores babies and toddlers. Sis loves sitting on her lap, having her pick her up, etc. It's very sweet. Plus we are always around the college kids, they have a regular babysitter scheduled, and this past weekend my son when up to an adult he didn't know and asked if he could please have a turn on the swing soon. And I haven't been called a poopy head in quite some time. Pretty good social skills in my book.