I am so proud of Kyle and I am having so much fun with homeschooling

I am so proud of Kyle and I am having so much fun with homeschooling! I just uploaded some photos with a lot of medals and trophies from Saturday where Kyle completed in the regionals for Science Olympiad with the Austin Area Homeschoolers.

The Austin Area Homeschoolers just dominated all events. The AAH sent two middle school teams and two high school teams. The middle school took both the 1st place and the 3rd place overall as well as getting medals in nearly every event. Many times both the A and B teams went on stage to accept various combos of 1st, 2nd or 3rd. The high school team took 2nd place. And overall all AAH took the spirit award.

This is the second year that we have homeschooled Kyle and the first year that we homeschooled Max. I really cannot say enough positive things about homeschooling. The most common question people ask me is what about socializing your kids? Well they get weekly music lessons with other kids and they attend this AAH science team every Thursday, and on the weekends they play with the children of my colleagues from BCG or we go on trips. Anyone who interacts with them know they do not have problems socializing.

A thought struck me on Saturday that I am having trouble shaking. All of the other teams that competed came on buses with their school teacher-coaches. We were the only team with parents. The AAH parents setup folding chairs and pop-up canopies and brought ice chests of food to share - it was an amazingly social camping sort of feel complete with dozens of younger siblings - it was a great time.

But, Kyle told me that when he was playing soccer with one of the other schools between events the kids asked why our team had so many teachers?

Also the other teams were represented by East Asian kids and East Indian kids with just a smattering of Caucasian, African American and Hispanic kids. The AAH team was all Caucasian except for one East Indian boy and the half-Asian Kyle.

But the AAH team totally dominated the day, coming up for awards event after event, it was not even close. What is the difference?

Clearly race is not a difference, we all know that. But the AAH is of course all about moms spending a lot of time with their children's education. A lot of the dads spend time with the AAH too, but I am the only Dad that comes to a lot of the weekly events, but even I do not come more than 50% of the time. It is the moms that make the difference. And that is generally true of immigrant families as well.

Then I thought how fortunate we are that Kaiwen is able to stay at home and take care of our boys' education.

Then I thought how ridiculous of a thought that I am grateful for economic ability for my wife to be able to focus on our children. Caring for our children should not be a luxury. But it is a luxury and I am very grateful.

Originally posted on Facebook on March 24, 2014.