We took our kids out of public school last year. We were living with my (Judy) sister. Michael was going through cancer treatments and I was still working full time.  We deregistered the kids at the end of the 2018-2019 school year. We could have put them back in school when we found out our trip was delayed, but that did not seem like the best option. 

Putting them back in school meant:

• We would either have to put them back into their elementary school and commute 20+ minutes to drop them off (in the opposite direction of my work) or put them in a new school. 
• Get the kids up at 6:30 a.m. or earlier yelling at them to get ready for school, making lunches, reminding them to get their book bags and homework.
• I would be rushing from work in rush hour to pick the kids up from aftercare. 
• We would be juggling kid pick-up, homework, etc. with Michael’s chemo and radiation treatments. 
• We would spend most of our nights getting frustrated with Lucas and Henry trying to do homework assignments and projects.

None of that seemed appealing. We were going to worldchool them anyway, so starting while we were still in Atlanta was logical.

Are Our Kids Falling Behind in School?

The question we get asked most by our family and friends is, “Do you think Lucas and Henry are falling behind?” 

I always want to answer that question with a question: What does “behind” mean? 

It seems like the silliest question to me. The grade-level benchmarks in U.S. public schools are completely arbitrary and are, in my opinion, a faulty indicator of a child’s development and potential. With that said, this post is not a declaration of war on the public school system, it is about the different path we have chosen. 

Why do Lucas and Henry have to know their multiplication tables in third grade? 

Why do they have to learn about the history of Georgia in fourth grade? 

If I send my son to public school and he gets good grades all year but does poorly on the end of year test, does that mean he is behind? 

If my son can recite all of the planets in second grade but forgets them by third grade, would you say he is behind?

You will be happy to know that Lucas and Henry are doing great. They are happy, healthy, curious, funny, and wonderful.

Are Lucas and Henry Learning?

They are learning so many amazing things. If it makes you feel better, they are learning school stuff too.  

The School Stuff.

We started out with workbooks to cover math and language arts.  We recently moved to an online platform that covers these topics as well as some science and social studies. Henry is already tackling multiplication, division, and fractions; things he would not be doing in a public school for another year (in case you were wondering). Social studies also naturally works its way into our lives as we travel to different countries. The kids watch videos about various topics in science depending on their interests or they go outside and discover nature. 

The boys are in charge of their learning. Michael and I are not their teachers. We facilitate. We help them out when they get stuck. If there are things they want to learn about we help them find ways to learn about it. 

Lucas and I learn about history together because I am just as interested in it as he is.  Henry is usually playing with his toys while he listens to our history lessons. He soaks a lot of information up, even when you do not think he is paying attention. 

We recently introduced circle time. Each week we all pick a topic we are interested in. We spend time researching the topic and at the end of the week, we present our topics to each other in circle time.  Last week Lucas chose sapphires, Henry chose pavement ants, Michael researched sea turtles and I picked the light bulb. It led to some great discussions.  

Reading.

We read a lot of books. The boys always have a book on their kindle that they are tackling. Henry loves to read. Lucas does not love to read, but he likes it better when he gets to pick the book out. We also read books together. Some of the books we have read together are the entire Harry Potter book series, James and the Giant Peach, the Hatchet series by Gary Paulsen, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Reading together is one of our favorite pastimes. 

Free Time.

The kids have a lot of free time to play.  They are currently building a fort somewhere secret in our neighborhood. They will be outside for hours at a time playing and building. We go swimming almost every day. They build with legos and they have time to play Minecraft and other computer games. We play card games, including spades and canasta, and board games like Monopoly and chess.

We watch movies. We have watched the entire Star Wars series and all of the Marvel movies. We have shown Lucas and Henry movies from our childhood that we loved like the Sandlot. We watch documentaries about animals, different cultures, and outer space. We go down YouTube rabbit holes when we find a topic we are interested in. 

Lucas loves cooking and watching cooking shows.  He is phenomenal in the kitchen. He can whip up hashbrown, bacon, avocados, and eggs for breakfast.  He makes a delicious penne a la vodka. He helps us cook various dishes. He often flies solo in the kitchen with recipes he finds online. Michael and I were not that self-sufficient in the kitchen at 10 years old. 

Exercise.

Lucas and Henry get a lot of exercise running around outside. We will occasionally say it is workout time and they have to go exercise for 30 minutes. Lucas will run hills. Henry likes to find kid workout videos on YouTube.  They have horseback riding lessons once a week. We go hiking and walk along the beach. Michael and Lucas go for runs. We all swim laps. Lucas and I are doing a 100 day 100 push-ups challenge. We have 68 more days to go.

We can safely say that our kids are doing great despite not being in public school.  We are glad we took them out last year and avoided the COVID school scramble. It is not just Lucas and Henry that are flourishing. We are all learning to love learning, learning from the world, and learning from each other.