School Begins

So fast forward to the start of school.  Let's just say that I did a ton of research about homeschooling but did not actually make any concrete plans. (Sort of like when I was pregnant I read everything I could about pregnancy but basically nothing on what to do once the baby arrives)

Anyway, we started school last week, on the same day as many of the local schools.  We are doing a virtual classroom for Judaic studies for the older 3 kids.  So for 3 30 minutes classes per day, they log into a website and they can see the teacher and the other students and everyone can see them.  So far it is going well.  We are going to try it for a month and reevaluate.  My youngest one and I will be studying Judaic studies together.

We have a math curriculum, a grammar curriculum, a social studies plan and a science plan is in the works.

My main goals for this year are as follows (in no particular order)

#1 Everyone will love learning

#2  Everyone will excel in math

#3  Everyone will learn the basics of cooking and cleaning

#4  Improved family time

We have had one week of school now and I already see a huge improvement in #4.  We do not have homework, which means at night when my husband is home, we can all just spend time together.  No one is rushing here or there while trying to finish our homework.  Are the lunches packed?  Do you have your permission slip?  You forgot what at school?

We have not had any of that this year.  Our quality of life has improved so much in this past week.  Hopefully it will continue . . .

New School

Picking up where we left off...

We decided to look at a few schools with a lower price tag.  We visited a few schools, went to a parlor meeting and eventually we signed our kids up for a new Yeshiva.  We decided on an established Yeshiva where a few other local families sent their kids.  They had rave reviews about the school and we liked what we saw.  Did I mention that we also saw a 40% reduction in our tuition bill?

So we informed the school that we were not returning, told our kids, took them to be fitted for new uniforms and finished off the school year.  We started at the new school in the fall.  The new school was overall excellent.   When people asked how we liked the new school  I always answered them, "we love the new school,but we do not love the distance."  It took our kids 1h 15m on a bus to reach their new school.  And their new school had a longer school day than their old school.  This was a big adjustment, not only for the kids, but for us as well.  Their old school was 6 minutes away.  

Fast forward.  We stayed at that school for two years and were extremely happy with the quality education our children received.  They had some amazing teachers and we were very happy.  However, the long days took a toll on the family. 

We always felt like we were rushing.  Gets up at 5:45am, dad leaves for work at 6:20am, get kids on bus at 6:45am, mom leaves at 7:30 for work.  Mom picks kids up at 5pm at the first bus stop and hopefully mom and kids get home around 5:30pm.  Cook dinner, do homework, check homework, everyone shower, pack your lunch, etc . . .  No time to spend with the kids, or to do activities (even though we tried to squeeze them in) and no time to relax.  We were stressed, the kids were stressed and it was just too much.  We began to ask ourselves, "why are we working so hard to afford tuition, when we never get to spend any real quality time with our kids?"

And so a new idea began to hatch.  Homeschooling.  What if I quit my job and homeschooled the kids instead?  And you can guess the ending.  At the end of the last school year, I quit my job (school nurse) and we decided to homeschool the kids.  So here we are.

Here we go

Well, here it is.  My very first blog post.  People keep telling me to start a blog, so I finally did it.  You can follow our adventures here as we begin a new chapter in our lives.  In just a few short days, we will begin homeschooling our four children.  Well, the "we" is mostly me, with my wonderful husband helping out as he is available.  Now, you might be wondering how we got to this stage.  After all, those of you that know me, know that we are not just beginning to homeschool a kindergartner.  Oh no.  I am starting with homeschooling a 7th grader, two 5th graders and a 3rd grader.  So here is the short version of a much longer story about how we got to this point.

A long long time ago, in a county with very expensive schools, we went and looked at most of the local Jewish Day Schools.  We chose one that we felt would best serve our eldest child.  We figured that the others would just go to that school.  At the time, we had 3 toddlers and a baby.  So off he went to the school starting in kindergarten and all went fairly well.  The following year, our twins joined him as they began pre-K.  And two years later, another one joined those three.  All of a sudden (well, we knew it was coming, but it is still a shock) we had a tuition bill that was over $60,000/year for four kids to attend elementary school.  And then a few years down the road (actually right down the road from elementary school), we knew high school was looming which would cost us a minimum of $100,000/year for four children.  Together, we make a good living, but not good enough to afford those prices and do other things, like maybe fix our roof, or buy a new oven, or you know, ever visit Israel.  I mean, here we are, spending $60,000 to send our kids to elementary school, and in school and at home, they hear about Israel constantly.  But we can not afford to take them there any time in the foreseeable future.  Something is wrong with that.

So my husband and I sat down and had a long talk.  I wanted to switch them to a cheaper school I had heard about but it was a bit of a shlep.  He was not ready to do that.  So the school year ended and we were presented with a new bill for the following year.  This one was $62,000 for four children in elementary school (one of whom was in kindergarten).  The new school year began and my husband and I sat down again to look at our finances.  And suddenly, he saw what I was talking about.  He agreed to visit a few other schools which were further away, but were more affordable.

I see that this is getting long, so I will end it for today.  Stay tuned.  I