Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Back to School for the Very First Time

Back to School for the Very First Time

Last updated on: September 4, 2018 at 8:59 pm by Mary Pezzulo

Back to School for the Very First Time 2018-09-04T20:59:19-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We finished our first year of homeschooling.

I’ve been meaning to tell you guys about homeschooling for weeks, but August was a busy month for news and I never got the chance. Rosie completed her Kindergarten year, and immediately started the first grade, because she gets frantic if she goes more than a few days without lessons. Besides, schooling through summer means we can take a day off whenever we think of an excuse to during the year.

I vacillated back and forth on the topic of homeschooling.When Rose was still in the womb I was determined to homeschool, but as she made her ungraceful exit and navigated her toddler years I became less and less sure. I am not a school-ist. I don’t think there’s only one right way to educate a child. Sending kids to a regular school works fine for many families, maybe even most families. And there were good reasons for me personally not to homeschool. I’m a working mom with bad fatigue from fibromyalgia and I didn’t know if I’d always have the time. Rose is an only child, so far, and I feared she’d be lonely. Also, I was homeschooled from halfway through fifth grade all the way up until college, which was in many ways a positive experience but in others a mess. I may not be able to stop Rose from having a miserable childhood. When you get down to brass tacks, most childhoods are miserable at least a good deal of the time. But I was determined that Rosie would at least be miserable for different reasons than I was.

On the other hand, I hadn’t liked “real” school at all either, in the years before I was homeschooled. And I was less than impressed by the results the local public schools were turning out. There are billboards all over this town claiming that public schools here have the best test scores in the region, but I don’t see any evidence of academic prowess in their students. I always dread having to ride the bus when it does its high school pickup hour because the high school children act completely feral. as if they’ve just been let out of Juvenile Detention instead of an institution of learning. And the elementary school children I’ve had a chance to meet in this neighborhood have hours of homework every night and nothing to show for it– they don’t like to read, they don’t seem interested in learning, they’re not very knowledgeable. Geeky homeschoolers are much more fun. Perhaps that’s not the experience you’ve had in your school district, but it’s what I see in mine. Besides, Rose is sometimes painfully shy. And she hates to get up early even more than I do.

The threat of getting up early five mornings a week was my last straw. I decided to homeschool. I notified the superintendent. I got my excusal notice, and I set to work.

Next time I get the chance I’ll talk about the method I came up with, the books I used, and how I got everything I needed for cheap or free. Right now I’ll just say that we only did an hour of busywork a day, plus watching educational videos and listening to lots of audiobooks, and Rose was always outside to play with the neighborhood children when they got home at three. She finished her Kindergarten work in May, and we kept going through most of the summer with first grade; at the time of her evaluation I’d bumped her up to second grade math because she was bored with the first grade lessons. We’re going to start learning Japanese and do a special unit study on theater appreciation this year, just in case Rose wasn’t geeky enough.

Put like that it sounds like we were incredibly successful, but I’m a mother so I don’t ever feel successful. Perhaps other mothers among my readers feel the same way. I would never be half so critical of another human being as I am of myself as a mother; I second-guess every decision. I fretted every single day of Rose’s Kindergarten. Maybe I was crazy to think Rose was learning anything. Maybe I’d completely ruined her life. Maybe she would have enjoyed Kindergarten. Perhaps she’d be happier riding the bus and playing at the playground with other girls and boys under a teacher’s supervision. Perhaps homeschooling was a crutch for her shyness and “real” school would have been a cure. Perhaps, after all, Rose would be miserable in the exact same way I’d been miserable.

I fretted until one hot and stuffy afternoon last week, when Rose and I got on the bus to go shopping.

One of the children of the neighborhood was there with her grandmother. Half her face was swollen, scratched and bandaged as if she’d been in a car accident. They were on their way to the emergency room.

This little girl is five years old. I’m told she just started Kindergarten at the local public school that week.

It turned out that the punishment for not completing homework in this little girl’s class– mandatory homework, for five-year-olds, after full-day Kindergarten– was to run laps around the school outside. The little girl had been punished for neglecting her assignments and was running laps around the school building in her good school clothes in sweltering ninety-degree heat, when she turned a corner too clumsily and smashed the side of her face. She’d been so disoriented afterwards that the school secretary called her grandmother, explaining the accident and asking them to go to the ER to check for a concussion as soon as she got home.

I don’t suppose I’ll ever be cured of Mom Guilt, but I haven’t felt guilty about homeschooling since.

A certain dose of misery might be unavoidable in childhood. Every mom ends up messing up her child one way or another. But as far as homeschooling, I think I made just the right call.

(image via Pixabay)

Previous Post

August 30, 2018

To Choke on the Word "Holy"

Next Post

September 6, 2018 An Early September News Roundup

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was swallowed by a great fish after being thrown overboard?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Jonah Noah Saul