Why Do YOU homeschool?

First off, our homeschooling has changed tremendously since August when our new year started. Lauren is still working at a Kindergarten/1st/2nd grade level but when I got sick, we became significantly more ecclectic only focusing on what she needed to focus on for the day.

I would love tobe a true unschooler, but I just don't have it in me. We must do SOMETHING that looks schoolish. I don't know why, but thats just how I am. Anyhow, yesterday while doing math (our focus has been the 3 R's only) we ended up stopping completely to review and practice making 3's. She has been struggling with making them the proper way. My friends say thats normal, my sister who is a teachers assistant at a private school says that they don't fuss about it at this age. ME, Not so much. Why allow her to continue making them incorrectly when she knows how to make them right and with practice and focus, she WILL make them correctly.

I know most places would have not even marked her down because her answers were almost all correct except for the backwords 3's. We don't do grades at this point, so we did the next best thing, I found a new cool website for teachers with a LOT of number printables, so she can practice. She then turned around and made birthday invitations with our phone number on them (which has a 3 in it) while I was at Therapy...and guess what the 3s were still backwords, so guess what her focus is til I see her writing her numbers facing the right way.

I guess I may be making a big deal out of it,but as DH and I were talking, we realize that that is why we homeschool. We can correct a problem for as long as it takes til its done the way we expect it. Its not going to slip through the cracks as often because its our expectations she has to meet not the state's or school district.

I am just glad that we have the privilege to educate our children the way we see fit and to focus on correcting what we feel is important. I know in other parts of this world that isnt the case. Even other parts of this country are a lot more challenging.