Kaden started Kindergarten this year! Even though we’ve given it a lot of thought, we haven’t decided on one route for schooling – homeschooling, private schooling, public education or even online which is now offered at the elementary level. Rather, we have a mixed philosophy. I was a preschool teacher for a long time and I see benefits in some time spent in school along with lots of quality time spent at home. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a situation that has allowed us to keep Kaden and August home with us while they were young. But they are also looking forward to the time to be in school, make new friends, and learn new things.
Arizona has all day Kindergarten but they still offer the option of half day, although literally no one has their kids in for half day. We are the only ones! We figured this was a good way of introducing him to school since he hasn’t been in daycare like many of the other kids. We teach him Social Studies and Science at home which he misses in the afternoons. When we went into his classroom for the parents’ orientation at the beginning of the school year, I felt a real pang of missing being in the classroom. I really enjoy the creativity of putting together lesson plans, art projects, choosing books to read, etc. And now I’m so excited to be able to design a lot of their learning.
Arizona has one of the more poorly rated education systems in the country. And, despite the fact that our city is one of the most affluent in the Phoenix area and the school is only two years old, the particular school that Kaden goes to has lower than average achievement scores. We were amazed attending all the preliminary school functions how much the elementary school Kaden attends gloated about all the latest curriculum, equipment, and facilities available to help the kids get the richest education. At the Kindergarten level the teachers emphasized these techniques so much so as to imply the kid’s education would not only be a huge success at this school but their education would be at a serious detriment if these practices were not applied. Yet, we also know that by the time most kids graduate from high school in this system, they often don’t know much of anything.
Christian and I obviously have high standards for our kids and look at their entire education career collectively. Having the children reading, writing, and doing basic math before they hit Kindergarten is not as pivotal to a child’s overall success as these educators would lead us to believe. Have a good start, and a positive environment for learning yes but whether the child knows 8+2 at the age of five does not. My main concern with the school system is that this zeal for teaching kindergarteners greatly diminishes as the kids get older.
Whether they stay in school throughout the years or spend some of those years getting homeschooled, we really want to work with the boys to be able to think critically, write sound papers and reports, be knowledgable about business and finances, have read much classic literature, and have developed a commitment to excellence in some areas of talent. We know schools just can’t or don’t teach everything a child needs to be successful in the world and we plan on spending lots of time with them at home supplementing their education.
At the same time, we think public schools have value. We can’t protect our kids from the world forever. At some point, they will need to live in it. We need to equip them to handle the world when they are forced into it. This time is for us to ease them in, learn how to equip them and let them learn little bit by little bit with the safety of living at home and drawing from our experiences and wisdom. Public schools are also a great source of socialization. Although homeschoolers have more access these days as well, it doesn’t quite have the diversity of public schools to find out who you are and how to defend your identity.
