To home school or not to home school?

My last post I really railed on issues not being addressed by our leaders. Today I wanted to talk a little about the education dilemma.

My daughter is soon to be 4, and most children her age are getting ready to start preschool/head start. We have opted not to send our daughter to preschool and to do it at home. There are many resources out there for education at home. My favorite is abcteach.com. They have free printable and for a small membership fee you can get even more. I love the site.

Now here is the first issue that I am facing. Organizing a time to sit down and have her work on it and do it properly. I have a 1-year-old also and it is hard to get the two of them to cooperate to work on this. Also, I do not want to be overbearing and I want to have patients when working with her, but I find myself getting frustrated when she wants to scribble instead of write. I know that you have to be stern and organized to teach and I admire those who can do it! I hope that I will be able to learn this skill as I am unsure about which avenue to take with my girls education.

That brings me to the second issue. Public education is "free" if you don't count book fees, lunch fees, and probably gas fees if things don't improve with gas prices. But what kind of education are our children receiving? We rank pretty low in education when evaluated against other developed countries. Why is this??? We spend so much money and are getting further and further behind. Private schools are expensive, and with current economic issues I do not know if we will be able to afford this.

You see most of the smartest and brightest children are home schooled and private schooled. Is this because children are allowed advanced on their own level? I believe so. Students do not have to wait for a class to catch up if they are ready to advance. There is less limitations to what they can learn and there is more life experience in the learning process. Just going to the supermarket can be a big learning experience for children (especially young ones). There is more opportunity with homeschooling for hands on learning to. Going to see how things work or going to a history museum or the such to see history instead of just listening to a lecture or reading a text book (that may or may not be accurate). There seems to be so much benefit.

I do not fault teachers (at least those who are true teachers). They try their hardest with what they are given, but not enough is available. Also, teaching is a lot like the nursing profession. You have to be truly devoted to it in order for it to work for you and the students.

I have this dilemma facing me and hopefully over the next few months I will be able to establish a good schedule, and get us on the right tract!!! Any comments or suggestions are appreciated on this issue!!!