How We Fell into Homeschooling

Some people know even before they have children that they will homeschool them.  Others choose to homeschool after struggling the public education in some fashion.  Either way this decision is usually followed by months of praying, research and antagonizing.  Then there is us.  I always said that I would never homeschool my children, although if I did it would only be in an area where I had a large community to support and socialize my children.  I still never believed it would actually happen, I believed that being in public school was just fine for our children as long as I was in their corner fighting for their needs and making sure they had the best education possible.  I also knew that I had to do my part at home, with homework and educational stuff.  What I didn't count on was the fact that even though I knew he was having issues, I could see that he needed extra help no one would listen to me.  He was a good, sweet boy who everyone loved and most importantly he "tested well".  I was in the school weekly for the whole first semester of his second grade year, insisting that he needed extra help.  Over and over I was told that he does fine in class and they didn't see an issue.  But I seen the issues, I seen that he was still confusing his b's and d's, that he struggled to sound out any word that wasn't a sight word, that he had little to no problems solving or critical thinking skills.  I was watching the smart funny boy I knew slip away.  At the same time we were dealing with bullying issues.  It seemed that each year he encountered more and more mean kids with the school doing very little to help.  What can they do, kids will be kids and you can't stop every mean comment that comes out of their mouths.  I grew more and more worried and frustrated with the system that I had such faith in.  There I was advocating for my boy and knowing in my gut that something isn't right but nobody would listen!

Meanwhile, I had a friend who decided to homeschool her girls.  Both of her children were with in a few months age-wise of my kids, so our experiences would be similar.  She was never home schooled but her younger siblings were and both were active, intelligent members of their communities.  She invited me over to take a look at her set up and just talk about it.  She pushed me to realized that I was indeed smart enough and could do it.  She showed me the books she used and encouraged me to take the step.  I was convinced but now I had to convince my husband.  He was in the middle of a deployment and we knew when he came home we would be looking at a move.  We would only have a few months before we had to leave and I knew that any decision we made needed to be done before we started the move.  So after just a few weeks of talking we decided to go with our guts and take the leap.  We had done no research into approaches or learning styles, I didn't even know there was different approaches, I just figured you bought the books and voila you have school at home!  I spent a long overwhelming week on http://cathyduffyreviews.com/ trying to figure out what we wanted to use to teach our children.  Who knew there were so many Math curriculum's!   Eventually I came up with a plan and in fall of 2014 we started.  Its been a rough ride, with a steep learning curve but we are making a go of it and I see my children learning so much!  We are still seeing issues in our oldest and are in the process of having him tested for learning disabilities but he has made leaps and bounds in just a few short years!  The most rewarding thing is looking back and knowing that what they know I taught them.  I am also learning with them, things that I never really understood or knew because I had to memorize them now make sense!  Over the course of this blog I'll share more on our journey but this is how we came to homeschool and I have to tell you its one of the better decisions we made.