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Homeschooled kids in class for first timeHomeschooled kids in class for first time

Kids across the region went back to school recently. Parents, grandparents, or guardians bought new clothes to fit not only a growing child, but also a school dress code. Children traded in their flip flops for socks and sneakers.

Whole families from Grandpa Ned to baby Bonnie were seen congregating in the school supply aisle, searching through piles of notebooks, bins of glue sticks, and stacks of sale items. They are making tiny ticks to mark off a myriad of materials all in preparation for a year of learning.

You can hear the distinct sound of school bus brakes and the brass and percussion playing “Hang on Sloopy.” Children across the region are returning to the classrooms to the normal routine of fall.

However, this year, in joining the others in class, my children are diverging from their normal routines.

Up until this year, my kids have been homeschooled. Their classroom was our house and yard. Their desk was our dining room table. A trip to the Canfield Fair became an age-appropriate lesson on the farm animals, the machinery, or even the food and game booths.

We’ve made our own butter, sewed our own clothes, and made habitats for frogs and insects. We’ve cried over learning math, followed interests away from our lesson plans, and swelled with pride at learning to read.

On Aug. 20, my three children entered the hallways of the Girard Schools for their first public school experience. My youngest is a first-grader in the elementary school with Mrs. Conway as his teacher. My middle child entered fifth grade in the intermediate school with Mr. Carbon and Mrs. Gerke. My oldest started eighth grade in the junior high and switches classrooms at the ring of a bell.

This transition has been both difficult and welcome, both a cause for excitement and one of fear. It has been hard on the children and their former teacher.

I feel like there is a big misconception about homeschooling families. People think of the Duggars. Or of the reports of malnourished, abused, and mentally-stifled children whose parents hid behind the freedom of homeschooling to continue incomprehensible atrocities. However, those are the extremes.

I am part of a very large, very loving homeschool community. We love our children, just like public school parents do. We are just fortunate enough to be able to take our children’s education into our own hands.

I have learned so much from being a teacher in our homeschool, in part because I never let a question go unanswered. Kids today have advantages that I never had in school. Every question can be researched, easily, thanks to the Internet. My goal was to teach my children to teach themselves.

I am thankful to see my children looking forward to the bus ride that takes them to school. They like their teachers, their peers, and this new way of learning.

I cannot even begin to express the appreciation I have for the teachers, administrators, and other students in the Girard School System. These individuals have gone out of their way to make my children my students feel welcome in their school.

I have been reassured by office workers, received a call from the principal and spoken to teachers. My children are still adjusting to the schedule, the time away from home and other changes. But when they come home in the afternoon, there are smiles on their face. They raise their hands to speak next and apologize for interrupting each other.

Maybe one day circumstances will allow me to go back to homeschooling, if the children wish, but I feel like the Girard Schools go above and beyond what I could have hoped for in terms of helpfulness, friendliness and fun all in the name of education.

Harley is a Girard resident. Email her at editorial@tribtoday.com

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