Is she in preschool?

This post from A Magical Childhood hit the nail on the head for me. As the school year is starting and I now have a four year old, I am often asked if she's in preschool. My response is that we are homeschooling. Sometimes I wish I could go into more detail as to why and what my strategy is but usually it ends there. The bottom line is, I find my kids to be at such a vital stage of life. Each of them need as much attention as I can give them. They are sponges soaking up everything around them and I want the things that they absorb to be good character, a loving and compassionate heart, a desire to share, creativity, an excitement to learn and read, a desire to obey, friendships and memories with those that will be with them forever (their siblings). I want to use every situation throughout our day to exemplify and explain God's goodness and love. When we sit down for lunch, we thank God for our food. When someone hits or does something that is wrong, I explain God's desire for us to be kind and gentle and to not get angry but to be patient. When one of them takes a toy or does something wrong, I explain how we need to ask for forgiveness, not only do we say that we're sorry, we ask them to forgive us and the other child gets to offer up, "yes, I forgive you." I know, parents can do all these things and their children can still go to preschool, but for me, those few hours of the day that they are being molded at preschool by other children and other teachers (whom I'm sure are wonderful but they are not "mom" and they don't know my child like I know my child) are just too precious for me to spare. Yes, Pear knows how to read. She can count upwards of 40. She can write letters and numbers and she knows what an octagon is but none of this REALLY matters. I have no doubts that all of my children will excel in their education, not that I am a great teacher or that they were born with Stephen's book smarts. I truly believe that when you have a child that is balanced, has parents that care and invest in their children (time not money) the education will naturally come. It is human nature to desire to learn and when given the opportunity and encouraged by those they love, they will exceed.