A quick outline of some key points I learned about each option:
Homeschool
-shorter
-no driving
-less busy (lower energy people might enjoy this)
-flexibility for extracurricular
-stipend is nice
-my child learned a lot
-fun sometimes, stressful sometimes
-it is rewarding seeing your child learn and being super involved in that process
-my child was able to explore very specific interests/talents that aren't usually available in kindergarten
-I get to include things that are important to me
Public School
-longer
-lots of driving and car time
-felt very busy to have public school and extracurriculars (higher energy people might enjoy this)
-awesome teachers
-classmate interactions are so fun
-super impressed with the public school system here where I live
-my son felt welcomed, respected, valued, and made great friends
-my child learned a lot
-fun sometimes, stressful sometimes
-it is rewarding having your child come home knowing new things that you didn't know they knew
-having my child out of the home and having valuable experiences planned by someone else each day was really nice
-my child got to participate in cultural experiences with other kids (celebrating Thanksgiving in class, etc)
When I told people I was homeschooling Eli this year, I often got one of these responses: "Wow, I could never do that!" or "Wait, you think homeschool is easier? I'd think the opposite." This has led me to believe that there are a few common misconceptions about homeschool. I think I also used to believe these.
Common Misconceptions About Homeschool
-the parent is required to put in the same amount of time as a paid teacher into preparation
-homeschool lasts as long as public school, so a parent must keep their kids engaged and busy for 2-6 hours!
-homeschool is complicated and parents must create their own curriculum
Okay, here's the detailed overview of my experiences with kindergarten homeschool and public school.
Why We Chose Homeschool
Extracurricular Activities and the Stipend
Okay, so we started off the school year doing homeschool through a program called Harmony Ed. I was familiar with the program because a relative of mine has used it and enjoyed it. I was already interested in homeschool but was drawn to these available homeschool programs after learning that this program gives families a stipend to use to buy educational supplies and even enroll their children in extracurricular activities. I love extracurricular actives. I explored a lot of different things growing up (musical instruments, sports, art, languages, etc) and I loved how my parents encouraged my sister and I to try new things and spend time doing things we loved. Naturally, I've wanted to provide the same opportunities for my kids. With several little kids and a tight budget, I decided that doing homeschool through Harmony Ed would give me a chance to put my kids into extracurricular activities that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford this year.
So after talking to Eli about his preference, we all decided to try Harmony homeschool with a martial arts class as Eli's special activity. Eli has absolutely loved martial arts! And I'm so glad that our homeschool program enabled us to put him in those classes. That aspect of homeschool has been awesome.
Contrary to popular belief, I found this year that homeschool isn't hard or complicated. In fact, we finish school in under an hour every day! Usually homeschool for a kindergartener (and our preschooler when she is not at her out-of-the-home preschool class) lasts about half an hour. So one perk of homeschool is that you finish in significantly less time than they do at public school! This could also be a con to some people. I think the reason homeschool is so much shorter is that you are working with one kid instead of 20ish. So when the child understands, you move right along. Also, rather than having school work and homework, our work is all combined. Homeschool can be almost like just the homework portion of public school. I know everyone does it differently. But this is just our personal experience of how we are doing homeschool.
Catering to My Child's Skill Levels
Another reason I decided to do homeschool is that Eli is extremely advanced in math. He taught himself multiplication when he was about 3 or 4. He also taught himself double-digit addition with little to no help from us. So I wanted to let him excel in math as much as he wanted to. This was awesome about homeschool because I was able to get a 1st grade math book for him, knowing that he'd be bored with kindergarten math.
After several months of homeschool, Eli started getting really curious about the school bus that drives through our neighborhood, and one day said, "Aw, I really wanted to go with the other kids to school."
This was fine with me because before we even started school, I tried really hard to explain the options to Eli and get his opinion on which he'd like to try. He didn't really know enough to make a solid decision since he hadn't experienced either option.
I contacted the school district, and after me doing some convincing ("He's extremely smart and won't have any trouble with the materials taught"), they let him start the coming week rather than waiting until the next term started.
Transitioning to Public School
The transition seemed really easy for Eli. He was so excited and got himself ready early that first day. Though he wanted to take the school bus, I explained to him that our elementary school doesn't send a school bus to our neighborhood because we live too close. (Too close for a bus but too far to walk.) The one he was seeing must have been for a different district or immersion program.
Making Friends and Socialization
It was so fun dropping Eli off for his first day and then picking him up. He was just beaming and had had such a fun day at school. His teacher and class were so welcoming and nice. He felt like a part of the class right away. He really, really enjoyed the social aspect of school. He came home each day telling me about the people in his class and new friends.
I learned quickly that the pick up at a public school can get really crazy! I found that I had to arrive 15 minutes early if I wanted a spot in the pickup line. (I later learned there is a secret parking lot to pick up kindergarteners and that's why all the other kindergarten parents were beating me to pick up, leaving Eli the last kid with his teacher.)
Time Spent for Public School Vs. Homeschool
So, here's a comparison I want to make. Because I have three kids and can't leave them home alone, it's a big ordeal to drop off Eli at school. It requires packing up a well-behaved, but often distracted, 6 year old, an extremely high-energy 4 (now 5) year old who is fiercely independent, and an also extremely independent and opinionated toddler. As you can imagine, getting into the car with these three is much different than just plopping yourself into the car and going.
So we always tried to start getting ready to get out the door 50 minutes before Eli's school started. I found that we had to leave 15 minutes early to make it, even though the school is about 7 minutes away.
So the process of getting the kids ready and driving to the school took about 30-60 minutes each day. This is as long, or longer, than I spend homeschooling the kids each day. We finish their homeschool bookwork in about 20-30 minutes. After that we often read or do music together. But the main school work (that I see as necessary each day) takes 20 minutes.
So this is why when people tell me that homeschool seems way harder, I'm shocked. Because it's much harder for me to wrestle my three kids in the car, get my boy to school on time, then wait in line for 20 minutes to pick him up, than it is to work in a textbook with my kids for 20 minutes a day.
You can see that the time commitment from me for a regular school day compares like this:
Homeschool Total: 30-60 minutes of working in textbooks, reading, music, etc.
Public School:
50 minutes (prep to get out the door and driving over for drop off)
(then Eli is gone for 2 hours)
+
30 minutes (loading kids into car, driving, getting to school fifteen minutes early for pickup)
= 80 minutes.
As far as my work/involvement goes, homeschool is faster and simpler for me.
But the two kinds of work are very different. The public school time investment for me is physically demanding (lifting kids, getting shoes on, putting coats on, buckling seatbelts) while the homeschool time is less physically demanding but involves me guiding them through textbook work. Both versions of work (homeschool and public school) are sometimes emotionally draining. Haha. Either way you will be wrestling kids at some point, learning extreme patience, etc.
Choosing Our Busy-ness Level
After several months of public school, Eli was still enjoying it, but he was getting drained. He kept telling me how tired he was. At first he looked forward to his "busy" days when he went straight from public school to martial arts. He said he loved being busy. But after several months, it was taking a toll on him, and he told me he'd like to go back to homeschool. I told him we could lighten his load by stopping martial arts. But he said he wants to keep doing martial arts. He said he'd rather do martial arts and homeschool and drop public school. I was okay with that because I understand that this first year is a time of exploration for both of us. We are trying things out and figuring out what works best for us.
I was a bit relieved to go back to homeschool too though. Here is what my "busy" day schedules looked like: (Luckily on these days twice a week my husband works at home, so I wasn't packing all the kids in the car each time I left the house.)
8:50am Take Emily to Preschool
9:00am Online Appointments
11:50 Pick up Emily
12:00 Make Lunch for Everyone
12:40 Take Eli to School
3:15 Drive to get in line to pick up Eli
3:40 Drop Eli off at Martial Arts
4:40 Go Pick up Eli
5:20 My Marital Arts Class
7:00 Get Home and Breath
Get Kids to Bed
So even though we both had an overwhelmingly positive experience with the local public school, Eli and I both seem to be a bit lower energy, and we felt a lot of relief to let go of some of the busy.
On the other hand, it was also awesome having someone else prepare and teach Eli for those 2 hours and 40 minutes every day. It can make a big difference to have your child out of the house and enjoying engaging planned activities for those hours.
Also, during our public school experience I loved that someone else was creating routine for Eli. Being a homeschool mom can be challenging in that way. It can be difficult to maintain routines when you don't have external help. That's why I feel like homeschool balances well with having extracurricular activities out of the home. It feels more balanced to have those outings where your kid can make friends, be out of the house, and have a different adult making routines and activities for them. Also, options like Harmony or My Tech High have different ways that you can choose to report your child's work (including options as simple as taking pictures of their work to submit weekly or having a quarterly review with one of their representatives on a video call).
I think a big factor in choosing homeschool or public school for me is just finding what matched my and my kids' energy levels. I'm a bit of a slower person. Even though I can maintain a busy schedule like we were doing for those several months, it eventually really exhausts me, and I feel like I need a lot of time at home to recover from that level of busyness. I recognize that a lot of people are really energized by being out and about all day! So I think that's something to consider when choosing how you want to do school. (Homeschool also has the flexibility of being high energy for those who choose to create that. But I like our slower style of homeschool.)
Homeschool Curriculum
Just to clarify the myths about me creating hours worth of curriculum... Harmony Ed has many different options (as do other homeschool programs like My Tech High). You can choose their curriculum, to use a third party curriculum, or to do your own curriculum. Each of these options takes a different amount of funds from your total stipend. Third party curriculum tends to be the most expensive, with "make your own" curriculum as the cheapest option. I tried the third party curriculum and the "make my own" curriculum. I was unimpressed with the third party curriculum which was all computer based and was sometimes boring and glitchy. I like the "make my own curriculum" option the best and so does Eli.
For our curriculum, we just use textbooks, ordered online with the stipend money from Harmony. So we have a phonics textbook for learning to read, a language arts textbook (tracing letters, writing, etc), a math textbook (which I chose a more advanced option for Eli), and we are also getting a science textbook (to replace the boring, glitchy third party options we tried).
I assign Eli one to four pages from each textbook and he works on those independently, asking questions when needed (does the 2 go this way or that way? Is my 5 going the right way?). Next to us, Shanae (the toddler) spreads her art supplies all over the room like a miniature tornado and colors happily, babbling and chatting away. When Emily is home, I assign her pages from a preschool book and she colors and practices tracing letters. It's simple and sweet, and I love it.
Also, I use some of the stipend money to buy Stem-type toys that are screen-free and encourage creativity. Things like pipe connecting toys or discs for building. This way I have something to give the kids during the day to keep them busy. So even though my "hands-on" homeschool might be 20 minutes, they could spend hours afterwards doing free play.
Catering to My Child's Interest and My Priorities
Something else we tried this year in homeschool that I loved was allowing Eli to explore the world of coding. He loves solving problems and is naturally drawn to technology. We used some of the stipend to buy him a screen-less coding robot called Botly. He has really excelled with it and has loved having it as a part of our homeschool.
I don't think he would have the opportunity to learn coding and have hands on time operating a robot at public school, but that time would be replaced with other equally rewarding things, like PE with his friends and doing group activities with class members.
I also am incorporating anatomy and healthy sexuality into our homeschool program because that is important to me.
This month we started doing music lessons for homeschool, and I'm teaching the kids to play an instrument called the ocarina. That's been a recent highlight for me. While "doing music lessons for the kids" might sound like one of those big, impressive homeschool misconceptions, here's what it actually looks like: I give the three kids their plastic ocarinas. We squawk and squeak for 10 minutes while I show them fingering and say the names of the notes. Eli learned Hot Cross Buns this week! (Super proud mom over here!) But our homeschool music time is not glamorous or fancy at all. It's quite the cacophony of sounds but it is simple, fun, and doable. The kids really enjoy it!
Note: I also was doing full-time homeschool for Emily at the beginning of the year. And when Eli switched to public school, we enrolled Emily in a preschool. She is a much higher-energy kid than Eli, and we were feeling that we needed some extra help with providing structure and attention for her. And having that time out of the house has been really helpful for her and us. I will be honest that she has had many days she doesn't want to go and really protests it, but she perks up and gets excited as soon as we get there. She also sometimes melts down afterward. And I'm learning that the transitions of going and coming back are just emotional times for her, and that's okay. On those days, she just needs time to decompress when she gets home. She sometimes cries, throws a tantrum, and ultimately just needs a long hug and some extra snuggles. She gets more nervous about separation than Eli does, and I'm learning to navigate their unique personalities and different needs.
Eli also had meltdowns a few times after getting home from preschool. I realized that 1.) he's usually starving and needs some food when he gets home and 2.) my kids just need some decompressing time after being in a big social situation (they must take after me and their dad!).
In conclusion, I have loved both homeschool and public school this year. I'm not forever committed to either one. I think we will choose each year based on our family's needs and each specific child's personality and needs.
I'm so grateful that I live in a place where there are countless opportunities for my children to receive high-quality educations. (We looked into and considered a local charter school too, and it looks amazing!) I was especially impressed by Eli's teachers (he had two during his several months at public school). They were both full of kindness, patience, and he learned so much from them.
Love this little family of mine and the life we are creating together. 💜
