Why homeschool?

It is one of the most frequently asked questions on homeschooling forums: Why do you choose to homeschool?

The answers from people are hugely varied. It is not the answers that surprise me; it is the question. Homeschooling seemed like such the obvious choice to us that it really never occurred to me to ask others.

At first, we debated public vs. private schools. We saw the main question as a better education offered by the private schools we were considering or more money for enrichment if she went to public school.

We did realize how far ahead Cesca was on the milestones. We knew very young that she was likely gifted. I don't remember exactly when homeschooling changed from being "a" choice to being "the" choice, but I do remember the day she asked me to teach her to read. It was about six weeks before her second birthday. I was getting ready for work and she asked me to read her a Dr. Seuss book. I told her I couldn't because I was busy and she should read it to herself. "Reading to herself" at this time meant looking at the pictures and often reciting the parts of the story she had memorized. She sat down to do this and after a few minutes she again asked me to read it to her. I again answered that I couldn't. She became upset and told me that she didn't want to read it her way, she wanted to "read it the right way". I asked some questions to clarify and she clearly meant that she wanted to be able to read the words herself. I knew that she had no idea of the enormity of the task, but she stayed determined and has worked hard at learning to read since then.

Reading really started tipping the balance for me. Then I decided to do a homeschool curriculum for preschool. Yikes, I really don't want to remember all the curricula I looked through. Problem is, most of them were teaching letter recognition, letter sounds, colors, shapes, numbers, and maybe some pre-writing. Except for the writing, she already knew the stuff in most K4 curricula before she turned 3.

How can I send her to a school knowing that they are not set up to meet her where she is at?

Bathtime Education

Cesca can spend upwards of two hours playing in the bath. Seriously, it is ridiculous! So I've started working on ways to incorporate some of her education right into her bath play. Here's what I've come up with so far:

1. Color mixing - those colored bath tabs are great for teaching secondary colors and some tertiary colors. 
2. Buoyancy - what floats or sinks?
3. Bath crayons. I love the one from Alex Toys!
4. Bath paints - mix shaving cream with a bit of Liquid Watercolors and you have a great, easy-to-clean bath paint!
5. Magnets - magnets work in water the same as they do on dry land. That in itself is worth learning, but you can also do almost any magnet experiment in the tub.
6. Bath letters - I will hear Cesca sounding out words (both real ones and made up ones) that she has spelled on the side of her tub
7. Pretend play - a set of three monster squirt toys and one play penguin and she can spend an hour acting out games with them!
8. Swim practice - ok, so she can't actually swim in the tub, but she can practice putting her face in and blowing bubbles!
9. Ice - floating/sinking, melting, temperature... a bin of ice provides a surprising amount of entertainment.
10. Measuring - I leave a 2 cup plastic liquid measuring cup in the bath for measuring and pouring. As a bonus, I can use it to rinse her hair :)
11. Water flow - in addition to the measuring cup, we always have at least one empty bottle so she can practice pouring from different sized spouts
12. Air pressure and vacuums - turn a cup upside down and push it straight down in the water. Watch how the water does not fill up the cup because it is full of air!
13. Air pressure and vacuums part 2 - fill a cup to the brim with water, place a smooth piece of cardboard over the top so it "seals" at the edge of the cup and make sure there are NO air bubbles inside, then turn the cup upside down while holding the cardboard in place. Slowly take away the hand holding on the cardboard and observe as the cardboard stays in place and the water does not pour out!

If anyone has other ideas, please let me know!