My daughter just turned five. That means she will be entering the world of Kindergaten. My wife had lots of opinions about what is right for our daughter. My wife has been around many children of all different kinds of backgrounds and because of this and the fact that she taught in the public school system for a few years, I agreed with her point of view. We decided to enroll our daughter into a charter school. A friend of mine who has a child the same age has decided to school their child in-home. I thought this would be a great option for us being my wife is a teacher. After weighing everything out, I believe we made the right chice and home schooling was not right for us. Home schooling is not bad, it is just not right for all families, and didn’t seem to be right for our family.
So with my daughter entering the graces of other teachers and students of all different backgrounds, I found the most important thing for my wife and I this summer is to “hammer it home.” By this I mean our values. My daughter will be having more and more outside influences and needs to know what our family is about. She will have to understand that because one child does something, it doesn’t mean it is right for her. Our family beliefs and values have to ring in her ears everything she goes to school. She has to know what is right from wrong based on what we have taught her.
When she does start coming home from school, we as her parents have to be ready to answer questions. We have to anticipate what she will ask and have answers ready, and relate them back to our values. Most important we have to take the time to talk with her and help her work things out in her mind. Taking that time and understanding her and who she is becoming will pay off greatly in the future. We as her parents need to help her identify who she is, who her family is and what is right.
If you have children who have not yet entered school have you “hammered it home?”
Keep in mind that just because your child has not entered school, or is home schooled that they still have outside influences. When they do enter school those influences will just be greatly multiplied.
Have you weighed you options? What conversations have you had with your children lately? Do you feel they know your values?