Public School Vs. Montessori Vs. Homeschooling

i thought i'd wrote about our schooling dilemma before but looking back over the blog it seems that i have not. i remember a few months after May was born thinking about the possibility of homeschooling her. good friends of ours homeschooled their 4 kids so it was something i knew a little about. i also remember thinking "she's only a few months old i have plenty of time to make this decision -- ladies & gentlemen.... she's 5.

*panic*

it was never a question of whether or not we'd put our kids in daycare. i knew we would not. but is has been (and still is) a question of whether or not we'd put our kids in school once they became "school age". i don't want to damage her (them) by keeping them out of a traditional school setting AND i don't want to damage them by putting them into a school system. this is where a crystal ball would really come in handy!

so turns out we have a few options. obviously this is not all of the pros & cons or all of our thoughts, concerns and dreams but i think maybe writing it out a bit will help the decision process.

Public School: Chris and i both had a rather crappy public school experience which i will probably elaborate on more later. perhaps if we do something different we'd have a better result. i do have fond memories of elementary school but middle & high school are blurry at best. so why not send them to elementary school and pull them out come middle school? well, because from what i've read it seems like the earlier you start teaching children how to learn about things that interest them the easier it is for them to pick it up. i don't think May would be good at sitting at a desk for many hours at a time not to mention the drugs, sex & violence i'd rather them not be exposed to earlier than they are ready for it. being a liberal i know i'm suppose to be willing to sacrifice for the greater good... i just think my kids might be too big of a sacrifice for me. i get the whole thing about "if you take all the good kids out of school what will it look like" i donno. i do know that if we choose not to send the kids to Public School i need to make sure it doesn't come from a place of fear.

Montessori: the only reason this is on the table is because through my parents (they live next door to a Montessori school and know the owner) we've been given an opportunity to send our kids here at a discount. this financial aid will be evaluated & could change yearly. while i love the method of teaching, the relative freedom and the school itself one major down side to this school is that they require a commitment of 5 years. this is something we're not comfortable with especially because we don't own a home and could easily move out of the area at anytime. we are also not comfortable with spending so much money ($8,000/yr per kid) on our children's education should our financial situation improve (which we hope it will). the Montessori school is beautiful with lots of barnyard animals outside and has many more resources that we could not provided for the kids if we homeschooled. this would also fulfill May's desire to "go" to school and her love of social atmospheres.

Homeschool/Unschool: i think homeschooling (which would for us be a combination of HSing and unschooling) could be a really amazing thing. i think i would learn a lot along side of the kids BUT it's a whole lot of pressure to make sure they are college ready by 18 years old. thankfully NJ is one of the easiest states to HS in so there wouldn't be much pressure coming from the government level... just the personal/family/friend level. of course the question of weather or not i could actually facilitate this is a big worry as i feel like my education stopped around middle school... thank goodness for the internet :o) the major thing stopping me from homeschooling is because i know if May was given the choice to go to school or stay home she would choose to go to school. i don't think she understands that this school will be very different from her pre-school experience. i would have loved for my parents to have homeschooled me but i want to do what's best for Mayden and May is very different from me. i would obviously incorporate lots of opportunity for her to be involved in group activities with kids her age if we chose to do this. homschooling the kids would also force me to trust and need my husband more than i ever have. is this something i want and really.... can i?

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i love that we have such great freedom to choose a lot of things (education, religion etc) in this wonderful country but sometimes i wish someone would just choose for me! i'll keep you posted on any decisions.

comments/questions/concerns etc are welcome!