Today, a friend and fellow homeschooler posted this article on facebook about the cost of not homeschooling your kids. It was very well written and spoke on many of the reasons/costs of not homeschooling your kids like the hidden financial costs of public schooling (a very good point...it always amazed me how much I would need to spend in the weeks prior to and the couple months after the beginning of the school year). It also mentions the spiritual costs of public versus home. This is another valid point and is a definite advantage to being homeschooled. Jesus is all up in our business at home!!
But, one thing that was kind of glossed over in the article but is really very real in our own situation is the loss of innocence. My daughter was in public school until the beginning of 6th grade. She begged to be pulled out of public school for many reasons, one of the key reasons being the influence of others in her school.
She was not part of an inner city school. The school district is a good one. The kids in the area come from middle-class households and we live in a largely conservative state and a largely conservative area. It really never occurred to me just how much she would be exposed to so early. She shared with me after she was pulled out just how much of her innocence was lost. It was heart breaking, really. It was sad to hear what she knew and had seen and it was sadder still to know what these kids, at so young an age, were experiencing...and the knowledge that it would only get worse for them.
Tonight, as I drove my daughter to our church where she would board a bus to head out to serve the homeless in the area, she shared with me the innocence of her friends who have been homeschooled for the long term...they do not know half of what she knows. She said she was jealous of their naivety and longed to be innocent like them.
Now, don't get me wrong...she is still very innocent, more innocent than she realizes. But, at the tender age of 11, she had already been exposed to far more than she should have. It makes me feel pretty good that at least my son will be one of those naive kids and we have used Sierra's experiences as learning moments.
It is a HUGE cost that was paid in making that choice to put her in public school. I am not happy with the choice we made, but what was done is done. We cannot go back...we can only go forward......
But, one thing that was kind of glossed over in the article but is really very real in our own situation is the loss of innocence. My daughter was in public school until the beginning of 6th grade. She begged to be pulled out of public school for many reasons, one of the key reasons being the influence of others in her school.
She was not part of an inner city school. The school district is a good one. The kids in the area come from middle-class households and we live in a largely conservative state and a largely conservative area. It really never occurred to me just how much she would be exposed to so early. She shared with me after she was pulled out just how much of her innocence was lost. It was heart breaking, really. It was sad to hear what she knew and had seen and it was sadder still to know what these kids, at so young an age, were experiencing...and the knowledge that it would only get worse for them.
Tonight, as I drove my daughter to our church where she would board a bus to head out to serve the homeless in the area, she shared with me the innocence of her friends who have been homeschooled for the long term...they do not know half of what she knows. She said she was jealous of their naivety and longed to be innocent like them.
Now, don't get me wrong...she is still very innocent, more innocent than she realizes. But, at the tender age of 11, she had already been exposed to far more than she should have. It makes me feel pretty good that at least my son will be one of those naive kids and we have used Sierra's experiences as learning moments.
It is a HUGE cost that was paid in making that choice to put her in public school. I am not happy with the choice we made, but what was done is done. We cannot go back...we can only go forward......
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