How did you decide whether or not to homeschool your oldest child?

I'm at a crossroads: the memo came home from Stenni's preschool the other day, an official-looking memo about kindergarten sign-ups, complete with requests for vaccination records, birth certificates, sign-up dates and places in alphabetical order by last name, and all that jazz. Sign-ups are in less than a month. I still don't know if I want to send her to public school or not. I like the idea of homeschooling, but I don't know if I'm capable or organized (OR PATIENT) enough to really teach her everything she needs to know at home. I worry about her attention span. I worry that she won't listen to me. By all accounts, she is well-behaved at both school and Sunday school, but of course she's different at home with mom, which isn't to say that she's a terror or anything but we are both very strong willed and have been known to butt heads occasionally. So would she listen to me as a teacher or view me as an adversary? Who knows.
I'm not worried about socialization. For what we were paying for her preschool, I can send her to tumbling/dance once a week, plus all of the free events at the library and camp and VBS in the summer. But I'm really concerned that she will think that school at home is not serious enough and that I'll end up super frustrated. Also: I went to public school up til college. It wasn't super great for me, but I'm ok I guess, and nothing truly traumatic happened because of the school system. I'm not cool with common core or all of the testing, and I think it's a breeding ground for mediocrity because of the trend to teach toward the middle. Which is not the teachers' fault, they are only doing the best with the resources that they have, which are few and far between since people basically demonize them for the public. And to be honest Stenni is much more outgoing than I am, and infinitely better at making friends and making the best of a situation. She might just blossom in the school setting. Would it really be more for me than for her?
I imagine that a lot of moms have had these (and tons of other) issues in the past, so I could really use the wisdom of the world here. What was the deciding factor, or was it a more pros and cons thing? I know that some people feel super strongly one way or the other but really? I don't. I just really don't  know what would be better in the long run.
So other moms of the interwebs: How did you decide to homeschool (or not)? What were the deciding factors? Anybody else flying by the seat of their pants?
For our family, homeschooling isn't a religious thing, it's more that I feel like the classroom in general is more likely to kill creativity than nurture it, and might eventually squeeze all of the natural love of learning out of my Stenni. And that would be a tragedy, but of course it is also still a hypothetical at this point.
Can anybody offer any insight? Any great resources out there? Help!

The Awkward Mom: Back to School Week!

So look, it's back to school time. Some parents are out there doing the happy dance. Me? I'm not one of them. If you follow the blog, you know how I feel about school: Overall, I'm not a fan. I think that in most cases, it kills creativity and original thought, and in all cases, it teaches you silly things like having to stand in line and ask someone else if you can have permission to use the bathroom. Not cool. So overall, Hubs and I do plan to homeschool, starting before 1st grade (or maybe even kindergarten). I mean, we've been kinda doing it already, like, since Stenni was born, and around us, that's really when all of the homeschool groups and activities start. But here's the thing: so far, she hasn't had too many opportunities for socialization with kids her own age. Adults? Yep. Older family members (like ages 5-10)? Oh you betcha! But outside of the gym babysitting room, she hadn't had too much interaction with the 2-4 year old set. And you know what? I think she kinda needs it. Also, I want her to have a little bit of her own thing going on when Cuatro gets here, because I think it'll be nice for her to be able to stick to a familiar routine somewhat.

But with that in mind, when we looked at preschools, we asked certain questions and avoided others. We looked at safety, security, background checks, teacher-to-student ratios, activities, facilities, play areas, and things like that. Curriculum? No, we avoided that. We do that stuff at home. I'm also glad that when we met the teacher, who has her degree in Early Childhood education and is working towards another one from my husband's alma mater, she was dressed casually and had a few facial piercings. You know, like mom and dad. I feel like if she had a really stuffy, buttoned-up school marm-ish type, that she'd be more uncomfortable. I just felt like it was a really cool place that I'd like to go to school, and it met all of our needs and wants. So off she went, and today was her first day. To be honest? It broke my heart a little bit, but I know that it's probably what's best for her, and she was pretty psyched. If you'd liketo know just how psyched, see below:

My little girl's "getting ready for school" face. Nice, huh?

Stenni and Papa in the front of the school. You can't see Mama, because she's holding the camera and choking back sobs. Just kidding. Kind of.

So, in honor of Stenni's first day, I'm kicking off The Awkward Mom's Back to School week. Check back during the week for tips, tricks, and suggestions to make your transition a little smoother than mine!

Tip #1: Organize everything the night before. I mean everything. Clothes for the kid, clothes for you, socks, shoes, underwear, the whole nine yards, and make sure that you try them on, too. While Stenni's outfit was perfect, I had a dress that fit me 2 weeks ago suddenly not fit (growing baby and all that), and it kind of torpedoed my whole morning. Ouch. Plan what you'll eat for breakfast. Pack the backpack. Make sure all forms are signed. Check the weather to see if anyone needs a sweater or coat. All of it, do it the night before. It will make everything run that much more smoothly in the morning, when you could be pressed for time anyway. Since Hubs usually goes to work about the time I wake up, I am used to packing lunch and setting up the coffee the night before, so all he has to do is hit the switch on the coffeemaker and grab a sandwich from the fridge, but planning for us too was kind of new! At any rate, build 15 extra minutes into your schedule so that you won't be 15 minutes late if anything arises!  

What are some tricks that help you get organized for back-to-school time? 

The Summer of 100 Books

For the past few months, Stenni has been asking me to read her 5 books every time she goes on the potty. This used to be more doable, as she read shorter books and spent more minutes on the potty each sitting...and she didn't count all the books, so sometimes I could fudge it.  Now that potty training is in the home stretch (meaning that she usually just gets on the potty to do her business, and that's it), we have less quality reading time than we used to. I'm happy not to have to sit in front of her on the bathroom floor for half an hour at a time, but I need to find a new way to incorporate more reading into our everyday routine again. Therefore we are declaring this summer:

The Summer of 100 Books!

Between May 28th (the day after Memorial Day) and September 1st (the day before Labor day) there are 97 days, including all holidays and weekends. That means that all we have to do to meet this totally attainable goal is read a book a day, with 3 extra thrown in there for good measure as time allows. Here's the catch: I'm only counting each book once, which means that as many times as I read I Love You, Stinky Face or Put Me in the Zoo, they count only once towards the 100 book goal. And at the end of the summer we will be making our own book based on our summer experiences, since we'll have a whole new appreciation of books and reading! Plus, I'll report all of the books to you in order to keep us fully accountable!

This is all in conjunction with our very experimental home-preschooling, and will be tied into summer experiences and trips (we will read about the beach in preparation for our trip to the shore, for example, and read about gardening while tending to our garden). I'm hoping that this will help us in our goal, which is to move towards some very basic independent reading within in next year or so (really, everything we do at home is working towards that end, and it might sound lofty, but reading is something we really love in this house). Stenni is already identifying each letter of the alphabet and the sounds that they make, and can sight-read some words like her name, mama and papa, and a few others. Our attempts to write, trace, or copy letters so far have not worked out as well as I'd like, but I figure we'll chock that up to needing some more work on small motor skills, and the fact that she's 2 1/2, so I'm not going to totally push it too hard just yet. There's always more time. 

Anyone out there want to take the "Summer of 100 Books" challenge with us? Comment, and we'll synchronize our efforts! Here's to a fruitful summer!

On not missing the boat this year: Earth Day 2013

Let me just start out by saying, happy Earth Day! And let me follow that up by saying that for me, last year's Earth Day was an unqualified disaster. I pretty much forgot that it existed and so made no plans beforehand. I was determined not to let that happen this year.
This year, I wanted to make sure that Stenni got a chance to celebrate and get to know what Earth Day was all about. Also, our family started working on at-home preschool about two weeks ago, and I felt like Earth Day would be a great opportunity to learn about all kinds of things that we use and do all the time. So we did lots of super fun things. We talked about recycling, littering, what goes in the trash and what goes in the compost bin and what recyclables go where (she even lectured her papa about recycling when he got home!!!). We talked about re-using "garbage" around the house (like the egg cartons we use to start seeds, and the paper scraps we keep for crafts). We did some cool Earth Day-related worksheets, including some tracing of letters (F for Flower, E for Earth, etc.) to work on preliteracy and fine motor skills. Then we planted a fairy garden, which was really awesome and a lot of fun for both of us (and the other total plus was that we got to hang out outside for a little while). Actually, I planned the garden as an Earth Day surprise for Stenni since before Easter, and bought her a giant pinwheel, a pretty hyacinth, gardening gloves, and a tiny gnome for her Eater basket. We even talked about starting seeds and dragged them all out to look at, but since the temperature continues to fall below freezing here at night on the reg, we didn't plant anything because we don't want to lose it! All in all, it was a pretty good day, and I'm glad that we got a few lessons in.
I hope that you all enjoyed your Earth Day. Did you do anything special to teach your children about stewardship of the planet, or is this just my hippie nonsense side coming out?