Joseph is going to be Homeschooled

You read it right. I am going to homeschool my son. I'm excited about it, actually. I think that he is going to grow stronger in knowledge of all subjects this year than he has at any other time in his education. I really want him to succeed and I am going to do everything in my power to help him get the best education possible.

I have had several people ask me, "what are you going to do to make sure he gets socialized?" Honestly, I'm not really too concerned about that. Joseph is not your typical child. Even when he is in a room full of kids his age he tends to not socialize with them. The reason for this is he is different. It's not bad to be different, unless you are put in a school where everyone wants to you to be just like the other kids...then you've got a problem. We saw this time and time again in the past with Joseph. Even in 1st grade kids would make fun of him for being different or they would get him to do things that would get him in trouble simply for their entertainment. The developmental delays that Joseph has will most of the time keep him from saying no to his peers. Therefore, he gets in trouble and his "friends" get a good laugh. It's not fun to sit and watch it happen to your son, believe me.

So, I honestly think that Joseph's socialization is going to be better than if he were in a normal school setting. Many of you probably don't know that in todays school systems it seems to be considered "the norm" for a child in the 2nd grade to have up to 2 hours of homework per night. I don't know about you, but that seems a little extreme to me. Why do that to kids? What ever happened to the notion of letting a kid be a kid? I want my son to have time to play, to explore, and to learn at his own pace. I want him to enjoy learning!

There are tons of books and articles out there on the subject of homeschooling and socialization. I'm glad. It's time that we stand up and take our children's lives back and give them freedom to be who God has made them to be. I will also direct you to the blog of my friend Kari McGrath. She has written a great entry titled, "Socialization-Schmocialization". Read it over...you won't be sorry.