Why I homeschool: Reason 93

My children are cocky. I like that about them. When they get it in their heads to try something out, they go for it. No wondering about whether it will be too hard, or if they're going to make a mistake, or if they can handle it. They just get in there and check it out.

I remember when I started preschool.I had been wanting and wanting to learn to read, but my mom wouldn’t teach me. She said I had to wait till I started school. When they passed out those wide booklets with extra big lines, I was so excited. I can still see the letters of the alphabet traced out on those pages, written as dots instead of solid lines. And I knew, I knew exactly what to do!

I got out my pencil and started writing over those dots, forming the letters of the alphabet with my pencil. Except, whoops! That was wrong. We were supposed to TRACE them with our FINGER. What a letdown!

I still jump the gun sometimes, assume I know what I’m supposed to do without waiting to hear the whole story, but in general, I’m nowhere near as confident as I was on that morning. What happened to that little girl? I’m actually more confident now than I was when I got out of high school, but it took me a long time to get over the self-doubt and self-criticism I experienced for most of my life in school.

I think my children are well out of it. They are extremely cocky. Even their older sister, who is not all that crazy about homeschooling as a concept, acknowledges that their positive attitude is a good thing. And then I reminded her that she was like that, too, before she started school.

Just like me.