Why We Decided To Homeschool Our Children

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It’s official I’m a Home Schooling Mom!

I’ve spent the summer letting this new title sink in. I can honestly say I NEVER thought this would be something that I would do
… and no way something that I would actually look forward to doing.

I know there are lots of reasons people decide to home school. From wanting a religious focus on their child’s schooling to not being happy with their local school options. My decision didn’t have anything to do with the normal reasons people home school. I think it’s important that I share with you all why we ultimately went with this route. This wasn’t something that I just decided to do one day… although in the end, that’s exactly what happened. Makes no sense, right? Let me back up a bit.

My two oldest each went to a Montessori preschool as soon as they turned 2 1/2. The Toddler is just now 2 1/2 and we are aiming for a start date at 3. She is in the final stages of potty training and that is what the hold up is for her. The big girls stayed at the Montessori school till they were in Kindergarten and Second grade. When we decided to move them to the local public school it was because of these reasons:

1. We moved to a brand new house and it was close to the school. The local public school has some of the best teachers I’ve ever seen.
2. We were zoned for this school and paying for it through our very hefty property taxes and it made sense financially.
3. The school was being completely rebuilt with all new technology and an awesome new campus.
4. My oldest was in a class with only 2 other children her age/grade level. At the Montessori school, they had what is called a Junior School where grades 1-6 were all in the same classroom. While this is good and dandy… I felt my daughter was missing out on socialization and I wanted her to have a large pool of possible friends.
5. I was worried the same thing would happen to my other daughter {the lack of friends} when she got to Junior School.
6. My younger daughter was going to be starting kindergarten and I thought that would be the best time to transition.

I found myself again in the position where I felt I needed to reassess our schooling option last year when my oldest was heading into middle school. I, myself, went to a junior high {7th and 8th grade} and she was going to a middle school {6th, 7th, and 8th}. I had no doubts about her being in a middle school itself, it’s just that I had heard some conflicting reviews of the school she would be going to and I wanted to make sure that I investigated all of her options.

That year I looked at all of the schools and a hybrid home school program that had so many options available including a 2-day track where she would actually go to a classroom. Ultimately we chose to have her go to the local middle school and she had a good year. The teachers were top notch and she did well.

So why did I choose to home school her then?

I knew pretty soon after she started school last year that it wasn’t a long-term solution. Within days I was already having conversations with her teachers because she was working through the work faster than they could get it to her and she ended up just sitting and reading. I was okay with this because I know her teachers cared… they just had to focus on the children that were at risk of not being at the state level instead of using their resources to help my daughter. I totally get that I that’s why I didn’t make a big deal about it.

Towards the end of the year, a couple of her teachers took me aside and laid it out that she was in a special spot. She could either just keep going at this pace and they could supplement her with busy work and let her read more books {her favorite thing to do}… or I should explore other options. They were very diplomatic in how it was being presented to me. I knew then that I owed it to her to look into other options again.

I had a long talk with my daughter and explained it all to her. I said I wanted to look at other schools and other learning opportunities. She was not on board 100%. She liked her friends and she does not like change.

One day as I was deep into researching other options she came to me with a solution. She said she would be open to moving schools if I would allow her complete 7th and 8th grade this coming year. She was up for a challenge.

Part 2 coming up soon:
Tough decisions had to be made and how I chose the program I did… and will she really be completing 2 years in 1…

{PS. as part of her home school work she is now proofreading my posts… how cool is that?}