How and Why We Home School
It's the summer of 2011 and Owlet is dating a boy from church, a home-schooled boy that is. I wonder what makes this mother homeschool her 3 boys? Now don't get me wrong, I've fancied the idea myself but realistically I know it's not an option. I have very limited patience - VERY LIMITED!
Of course in time Owlet started to beg me to homeschool her. She had a list, and a very good one I might add, of reasons why she would benefit more from being homeschooled instead of continuing in public school. She's in 8th grade, is this even an option? Is it not already "to late in life" to begin this journey? Yang's in 1st grade so I could see it being an option with her. Poppy's in 5th grade, eh, maybe. But Owlet's in 8th grade. She starts high school next year. She will be graduating in the next few years. WOW! This is to much. I can't think, life is rushing at me.
It's early fall, school has begun & we are at the point now where if Owlet is speaking to us, it's about being homeschooled. So Hubby, Owlet and I sit down to discuss the pros & cons some more. Is this really something we want to do? We start the research aspect of it all when I quickly come across K12, a fully accredited, tuition free online school. This may be our answer. Owlet will still have teachers so I there is always "backup" instead of just winging it if we don't understand something.
Then it happens. Several months before the topic ever arose 2 girls had been saying very nasty things about Owlet on facebook. I had taken photo on the entire thread & saved it to my computer should I need it. Hubby was having a bad night of insomnia and was on the computer when he found. He was livid when we awoke the next morning and insisted she been withdrawn immediately. I assured him that the issue had been resolved and had taken place a few months prior. He was still very insistent on withdrawing her. I called K12 to get some more information and we decided that it would be our best route. We signed her up and began gathering all the documents that we needed to send in. Within a week she was enrolled and we where able to withdraw her from her public school, and boy where they every upset about it. We decided since Poppy and Yang where doing fine in school that they would remain in public school.
It's now the week before Thanksgiving break and Yang is struggling and we have been noticing that there are some things with her school work that just isn't right. I call the principle and request to have her tested for a learning disability. He tells that it would not be until after the break due to previous commitments and the upcoming holiday. We come back from Thanksgiving break, Christmas break is approaching and I have yet to hear back from the principle. Report cards come home shortly after we return from Christmas break and there is a note inside from Yang's teacher saying that she is going to be retained in 1st grade. Letters are coming home saying that she is not listening to the teachers. The last straw that I was holding onto just snapped in half and crumbled into a 1,000 pieces. We really wanted to keep Yang in public school. She really enjoys it and it gives her time to socialize, something she does not regularly do. Once again I contact K12 and enroll Yang.
Once Yang is enrolled she is immediately setup with an intervention specialist, whom I poor my heart out to explaining all my concerns and frustrations. I had gone down this road of the school "dropping the ball" with Poppy but was able to work with her at home enough to bring her through it all. Yang was another story. No matter how much I begged and complained, she never brought home anything from school. The intervention specialist listens to my concerns and has Yang's ETR (which is just for speech) reopened so we can have her tested for a learning disability. As the weeks go on I notice that I am learning so much about Yang that I did not know. I now know why she wasn't learning in school, she is a kinesthetic learner. Public school are not designed to teach a kinesthetic learner. I am constantly on the internet, researching, researching, researching. I send all my thoughts to the intervention specialist as I discover them. She is wonderful and is always providing me with feedback and suggestions. Yang is on a roll and we are making progress - FINALLY!!!
Poppy will finish the school year out in public school. She will start middle school at home.
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