Operation Homeschool is a GO!!!!

I know what many of you are thinking because I was you only a short time ago.  Trust me, I never could have imagined that I would be HOMESCHOOLING.

This is the first of many posts I will be writing on this subject matter because right now, we haven't even done it yet.  All we have done is made the decision to and there is a long, exciting (and slightly scary) road ahead of us.  Two months ago if you had asked me if I would ever homeschool my children the answer would have been "NO.  Absolutely NOT.  Not EVER."  Mostly that was because I didn't think I was capable of taking on the task.  The other part was that I was worried about the what sort of social life a homeschooled child has. 

So, here's what has slowly been changing my mind:

After Landon was born we immediately knew that we would have to look into private schooling because the area we live in has TERRIBLE schools.  Like 48% graduate rates, mouthy kids, thugs, mostly teachers that wouldn't even send their OWN children to these schools.  We had toured Montessori School when he was 2 maybe and decided that was the style of schooling we agreed with.   At age 3, (2 1/2 months before school let out) he had speech delays and we put him in a special ed program at the PUBLIC SCHOOL.  We thought "it's just pre-k - what can it possibly hurt?"  He had a wonderful teacher who we just loved so much and we were excited that he would have 2 more school years with her before kindergarten.  She called me in June to tell me that another teacher with seniority wanted to teach pre-school because she never had and guess what?!??  They GAVE THAT TEACHER HER JOB!!  I spent the summer petitioning and attending school board meetings trying to fight for this WONDERFUL teacher!!  But, you guessed it, the crooked union laws won.  So, Landon had a former 6th grade teacher that year who was "hoping" she was going to have it easy teaching pre-school.  I'm not saying she was a bad teacher, she just had zero patience with young children.

The following school year, they changed the schools all around and decided to place pre-schoolers up to grade 4 in a different school.  The school he had been attending would now be for 5th and 6th graders only.  Upon registering him and Emma since she was now living with us, we had so many issues with the office losing our applications and telling us school would start on a certain day only to be yelled at the day we brought them that "You aren't suppose to be here!!  Today is for 1-4th graders only!  Didn't you get the phone call saying that we changed it until next week?"  I never got the phone call.  So they blamed me for not having an answering machine.  Which I do.  So they blamed me for putting the wrong number on my forms.  Which I didn't.  Back and forth we went with this.  Me remaining completely calm while they were all worried over it not being "their fault".  That's all I heard from office staff, the principal and Landon's teacher the first time I met her "It's not my fault  they lost your paperwork and told you the wrong day".  Yeah, great first impression.  I was walking in with my hand outstretched and that's how I am greeted. GREAT.  After that, there was another incident with the office staff that finally left me walking out crying and saying "Forget it.  I am NOT sending my kids here."  That was in August.  By November Emma needed a program for her delays and by January Landon was so jealous that we put him back in school too.  Emma had a fabulous teacher while Landon's was, well, the same lady that gave me the lovely first impression of her and that's how the remainder of the year went.  Not fun. 

This year, same crap.  I have in some ways just conformed to all the bull as I am sure many parents end up doing since it's a battle that we just can't win.  Again, we figured, "it's Kindergarten - this will be the last year and then we will place him elsewhere for 1st grade."  We have spent hours pouring over the options.  It's amazing how you can convince yourself the your options are so great when really they are just slightly better than what you had.  We applied to a Charter School as well as a neighboring public school who is accepting tuition paying students in this fall.  The Charter School will contain the children in our city who were kicked out of public school.  HMMMM....   The public school only has room for a few students each year and if he gets in this year, he's not guaranteed a place next year.  And since they have 3 elementary schools, if they can find room for him it may not be in the same school year after year.  SO, not only does he have to be driven to school and picked up each day, he will have to make new friends each year too?  Again, we were scratching our heads...  and at this point Montessori is out of the question becuase it's $5,500/YEAR!!  YIKES!!

I said to Bob very quietly (expecting a debate) "It makes you understand why people homeschool their kids."  He agreed with me.  I couldn't believe it.  That little sentence and we changed our beliefs COMPLETELY.  We aren't going into this blindly.  We have been scouring the internet for information, pros and cons of homeschooling and talking with dozens of familes that have done and are doing this themselves.  So far, we have a list of about 25 pros and 2 cons.  What would you have done?  Landon is SO excited and Bob and I suddenly felt this tremendous weight just disappear. 

So, I know that I have written a novel, and the few of you that are still reading this are either judging us (hey, I was you not too long ago) or totally in agreement with us but I wanted to be honest about how we reached this decision for our family based on our situation.  Clearly, homeschooling is not for everyone.  We have a huge journey ahead of us and I am sure there will be days when I question the decision we have made.  For now, I am just so thankful that we have been able to make this decision and agree on it together.