How we came to Homeschool
I first heard of homeschooling from the movie Dumb and Dumber
Z was a wee little toddler when I heard it again, this time from some other moms on the playground. These kids were not like the ones in the movie. They were smart, polite, and normal kids. How can that be? Now I was curious.
I started to check into homeschooling and soon feared it was out of my league. I was a High School dropout. I quit school in the beginning of 10th grade. I tried to go back when I was pregnant with C. How can a dropout teach her children enough to live life successfully as adults?
. C, T, and N went to preschool. N didn’t go for long. I was not happy with them being in preschool. It seemed more like daycare than school. So we choose to do homeschooling for preschool. I figured I couldn’t mess that up!
Z started kindergarten and had the most amazing teacher. Z was more than ready for school. She excelled and was reading shortly after the year started. I started school too! I got my High School Diploma, not just a GED. A few years went by and M started school too! She again excelled as all the others did.
That year Z reached 2nd grade and we started to see small changes. Her grades began to fall. Not from A’s to D’s or nothing. She went from A’s in the beginning and B’s in the end of the year. I thought the material was getting more challenging. Also the school had changed the curriculum again. I also had just started college, and unfortunately not paying as close attention as I should have.
3rd grade for Z brought on the same challenges; this time falling to C’s by the end of the year and was having issues with friends. 4th grade for Z it all came to a head. She hated going to school. Her grades the first month were D’s. She started to have anger issues and anxiety. We went to therapy attempting to get some medication to help calm her.
Three visits in I began thinking something was wrong and it wasn’t in my daughters head. We talked the entire trip home.
I began to realize that she was being teased and slightly bullied in school. I made a rash decision to find a charter school. We went and checked out all three in our town. We choose one and moved both girls there the next day. Z got a little bit better. M actually skipped a grade!
Then I found out some serious issues within the school. I brought them up and they were not addressed. I got really upset and pulled my girls. We were going to do Virtual school at the next semester break in mid-January. I pulled them from Charter school in early December.
I had graduated college in the end of summer. So I felt a little more confident. We decided to homeschool until virtual started up. We had fun learning on the back porch table that month. I even learned some too!
Virtual school started. It was awesome all our materials and books came in the mail. A few problems began though. M didn’t like being on the computer all day. She had to log 4 hours a day and it was a battle. Z was behind in math. She never really learned to add well. Virtual school had policies that had to follow and couldn’t get her help for 6 weeks.
I again went on a rampage. 6 weeks of working ahead on material she did not understand. They were doing multiplication. So we talked with friends and Z’s first teachers. We soon came to the conclusion that we would homeschool.
We went through a few different curriculums before we choose the ones that work for us. I then took both girls back to 1st grade in those books and we started school over. I didn’t know what they knew and what they were missing. So we just started at the beginning. It ended up working because knowing how a curriculum works in the beginning helps to understand it later.
Z should be just finishing 5th grade. She is almost done with 4th grade English and half way through 3rd grade math. She can add, subtract, multiply and even do long division! M should be just finishing up 3rd (not counting skipping the grade in Charter). She is just starting 3rd grade English and halfway through 2nd grade math.
We are working all summer long. But we do take weeks and days off just for fun. Z is really getting her spunk back. We still have some challenges with her from being teased for so long, but those fade daily. We should be back on track soon and maybe ahead in a few years.
I am truly enjoying having my daughters with me all the time. We go on many adventures and I am learning so much more than when I did elementary education! Learning with your children is wonderful gift. I only wished I had started sooner!
