As I learned since beginning the older child adoption plunge more than two years ago, undoubtedly the biggest and hardest decision parents make upon returning home is school. For a number of reasons, we've decided to become a home school family when the next school year begins.More emotional energy has gone into this that I ever anticipated, mostly because we love the Christian school that the girls have attended this year. They've been surrounded by the most loving, caring and competent teachers and staff we could ever have dreamed of. It has been an ideal first year as the girls have immersed themselves in their new language and have been in a safe and welcoming learning environment.
But the plain truth is, we're exhausted. We spend over an hour a day commuting to and from school and it occured to us that we are already "after-schooling" anyway. Frequently, we're up late at night doing homework.
Home schooling will allow us to give the girls the individual attention they desperately require. In Anastasia's case, she turns 18 in October, and currently she is enrolled in both 8th and 9th grade classes. We've decided to concentrate on Language Arts this summer, and then prepare her to take the GED sometime in 2009. She will then be eligible to enroll in community college.
She is a very hard worker and we are confident that this is a wise plan for her.
Galyna has been under tremendous pressure to keep pace with a rigorous sixth grade curriculum and we don't want her confidence to erode. She's thrived socially, so she's not very happy about it, but home schoolers in our area have an abundance of opportunities for sports, music and other extra-curricular activities.
Of course this brings up the biggie -- what about socialization? The home school parents we've talked to say it's a total non-issue. See this article for an excellent refutation to the oft-heard criticism of home schoolers being unsocialized.
Meanwhile, Christian is totally psyched. His love of learning keeps us all on our toes and Dana and I thrilled about having the privilege of being able to teach him full time. Anastasia has already starting teaching him the Russian alphabet!
We may be crazy by diving in with all three of our children. This is indeed a leap of faith, but we've been taking alot of those lately, and so far, so good!
9 comments:
I am so excited for all of you! What a wonderful decision for everyone involved. And once again, we always seen to be on the same wave length. The possibility is always in the back of our minds . . .
I have been following your blog since you were in Ukraine. We are hoping to adopt soon from Ukraine too, which is where my mother's family was from. We currently homeschool our daughter and have done so from the beginning. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. We set the pace and she will be joining us in Ukraine for some hands-on "social studies" lessons of her ancestors and new brother/sisters. There are many, many resources available. You may be starting homeschooling to save time on commuting but you will find a million more reasons why homeschooling is a great way to learn. Best of luck!
P.S. Oh...and the socialization issue really isn't an issue. As adults we socialize with all ages and the same goes for the kids. My daughter socializes with children that are toddlers and she used to socialize with her great-great-great grandmother before she passed away at 104. She learned something from every person!
Hi,
I came upon your blog while researching. I found a girl on a waiting child list who is 15 and will age out of the orphanage next year. I told my mom about her, and right now, we are praying for her to find a family, and if we are that family, to let us know. My closest sibling is 6 years older than me and lived with our great-grandparents, and until spring of last year, I never had a constant sibling around. My sister, Reese, is 3 and was adopted from China. Anyway, I was wondering how things went in the transition for you, etc. having adopted older children.
I am 17, and she would be right at 25 months younger than me, and I haven't entertained the idea of having a sibling close to me since I was 10 or so.
I home school right now, by my own choice, and I love it. I do my work through an online school, but home schooling in general is awesome in my opinion. You can tell Anastasia that if she would like someone her age who home schools to talk to or what not through email, I'd be glad to. She and you can reach me at neko13_3 at yahoo dot com. I'd really appreciate any information you have about older child adoption, as right now, we are just trying to figure if this is something we should do, if we should, how, and how to convince my reluctant father if we feel we should. Complicated, yeah. You can see a link in my profile for my blog of our adoption journey.
Thanks,
Monica
Great! Though I'm not a home school fan, I totally agree with you that the decision to home school should be made individually for each child, and I think you made the right decision! The girls will greatly benefit from one-on-one attention from you.
In our case we'll continue the "after-school" in addition to a public school for now - as you said it's great to be immersed in the language. But we'll definitely keep the home school option in mind!
I homeschooled my two older children, Aidan in grades 6-8 and Lydia 4-8. I actually did it here at the church where I work, which is why I can't really homeschool all 5 now! We also used Scholars Online Academy and Regina Coeil. Those were wonderful programs! I think this will help you work more individually with the girls... I agree; the socialization issue is a non-starter. The only socialization issue is that the kids are comfortable with people of ALL ages, not just kids their own age....a big plus!!
In our area homeschool highschoolers can take community college classes...so you might look into that.
YAY for making this public!! How is your extended family taking it?...lol
Homeschooling by far has been the best decision we have made and I can't wait to start with Grisha! Though there are days where I have to have God remind me why I am doing this. Sometimes I want to pull my hair out! But, I wouldn't trade it for anything and I really believe this is the best decision for our family. Galyna will come around. Just get her involved in sports or whatever she'd like to do and she will love it.
We use the Switched On Schoolhouse by Alpha Omega, but it is on the computer so it may be hard having multiple kids do that curriculum. We also add a lot of writing, flash cards, etc... We go on lots of field trips with the homeschool groups. In school, it seems they only have a couple a year. We go every month as well as do fun things like skating and bowling with homeschoolers.
You will have to let me know how it goes with all three. Right now, I homeschool Samuel who is 9. Gabriel just turned 3 so I don't have him in a "full" curriculum yet - just fun preschool things. It will be a challenge when Grisha comes home, but it will be okay. You also may want to contact Pam and Rusty Bratz. They adopted a brother and sister from #4 and they homeschool in SC. Let me know if you need their contact info. I know they could give lots of good advice. Let me know if you need anything and I will do my best to help you.
Hey you do what is best for your family. It sounds like you know that home schooling is and so I say go for it! How exciting!
I am super excited for you guys making this big new change. I am sure it is going to be wonderful!!!
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