Soapbox moment

On a homeschool board I posted the following:

"Yes, homeschooling is better. It is better for the family. It is better for the children. It is a better system of learning that is the standard of human evolution. The school system is a poor mimicry of that standard. (Said by a former school teacher)
I won't apologize for seeing that truth."

Someone took offense that I said that homeschooling was better for the whole family. So I typed up a very rare statement about homeschooling. Rare, because I very seldom preach about the pros of homeschooling. I just live my life and let everyone else live theirs free of my opinions.

But I wanted to post my reply here because this is my soapbox. And since it's a homeschool blog...expect posts on homeschooling.
My repsonse:

I said that and I believe it. Let me tell you why. You might want to get a mug coffee for this post. I think I feel a ramble coming on.

I taught school before and right after my oldest was born. I got up at 6 am, and rushed to get dressed and pack up the baby so he could go to daycare and catch every known disease in the world. Then I spent the day at work worrying that he was being taken care of properly.
After work I rushed to pick him up and then went home to cook, clean, and grade papers. My life was extremely stressful and the kid was only 12 weeks old. I had only a few hours a day with my son and my husband.

I can't imagine what my life would be like if I had to do all that with four children who had homework, projects, sports practice, and therapy on top of that. Plus I met those teachers. I worked with them every day. I knew them well and there weren't many of them that I would even want babysitting my children, much less teaching them day after day.

Sending your children to school is stressful. You are now accountable to someone elses whims. (I tutor PS highschoolers. Some of those whims are are total timewasters.) Your entire family has to follow someone elses schedule, no matter what your family needs. You have limited time with your children. And therefore even more limited time with your spouse.

I have four boys. Two of them have Asperger's syndrome (a form of Autsim for those unfamiliar). They have spent many years going to speech and occupational therapy. If they were in school, they would spend all day in school and the rest of the day either hanging out in the waiting room or going to therapy.
Their father is in the Army. He was deployed for most of 2006 and 2007. And now that he's home, his schedule doesn't exactly mesh with the public school system.

Since we homeschool, we're able to set up our schedule to include him. Our holidays are based on his holidays and not what the public school decides. We were able to spend our full two weeks with him when he came home for R&R.
Our therapy and doctor visits are scheduled when we need them to be. The boys have school school in the van and the waiting rooms. It helps make our days peaceful instead of harried and stressful. And the boys form a bond that I don't see in the siblings of their PS friends.

There is no bus to get up and wait for. They eat breakfast as they do math. They work at their own speed instead of pace of the average learner. I don't have to get permission to take our spring break in March because that's when my husband can take vacation instead of in April when the school system does.

It is better for the family. I'm happy. The boys are happy. And my dear husband is much happy since he actually gets to spend time with us.

Homeschooling is hard. I know this. It consumes your whole life. But it also gives you a freedom that other parents don't have. It gives your the freedom to put family first. It gives you the freedom to make the family the center of your life and not public school calendar. That is an incredible gift.

At noon today, I have to pick up my wonderful husband. Then we are heading down to MIL's farm to help replace the cattle fencing. She needs it done fast before the cows escape. DH is relieved because he can help his mom instead of just worrying about her.And the boys never turn down a chance to go tooling around in the "gator" with Daddy.
We'll be studying electric current today as well as some carpentry skills. They might even get some driving lessons thrown in and I'm hoping to get firewood out of the day.
It's nice that we don't have to ask the principal for permission to do that or wait until after the school bell rings.