Year-round school seems like a good idea until our start day in July rolls around and then it seems really stupid.  I had thought of pushing it back a couple of weeks as I don't feel like I've really had a break, but then I figured we might as well go ahead and start as something else would simply come along to fill my 'vacation', and there is no point in that.

So today is the first day our my 6th year of school.  Shawn has been with me thru it all, but this is only Jett's 2nd year.

I was going to give a run-down on curriculum, but instead thought about why we homeschool.  I don't believe I'm repeating myself, but then again, I've been wrong before.

I would like to say that I felt called to homeschool from the day I first thought of having kids, but anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not that enlightened and I would only be lying.

I sent Shawn to kindergarten at the age of 5 following 2 years of nursery school.  We lived in a nice neighborhood with a great public school. 

So Shawn went to school.  She had a great teacher, but she showed up the first day knowing how to read and write.  She could do math and was a bright, normal kid, or so I thought.  Apparently most kindergarteners don't do these things.  In fact half of her class didn't speak English at home.   This wasn't a big deal to me...  I maybe from the south, but I'm not a bigot.  My kids were going to be students of the world and see how others lived.... 

Then the trouble started.  This may not be the trouble you think, though... 

Shawn started getting in trouble on an almost daily basis.  She was a talker.  She could get her work finished quickly and then had nothing to do and was on her own.  She was expected to entertain herself quietly while the teachers worked with the other kids.

Homework was also sent home on the weekends.  I saw this as homework for me, as a 5 year old wasn't able to do what they assigned independently.  THis wasn't a bad thing except that I worked weekends and didn't have time for projects.  And then the assistant to the teacher sent home a note saying that Shawn had won a game and had called the other kid a "looser".  This was the final straw for me.  But I maintained my cool, and simply circled the spelling error (of the people teaching my child to spell) and sent the note back stating that more attention might be needed on academics.

I then started searching for alternatives...

I looked to private schools and found two categories.  THere were the big name prep schools that wanted $15,000+ a year or the local churches with schools that were still $3,000-5,000 a year.  I went and toured some of these local church schools and saw that they were set up alot like the public schools were, and that the curriculum that they raved about was available for sale to anyone.

The answers all pointed that I should consider homeschooling... Everytime I would logically put all the info out there it seemed that homeschooling was the best thing for us.  But I hated the whole idea of homeschooling.  But I didn't want to give up MY life of workouts and art classes.  BUT homeschoolers were the freaks at walmart during the day with at least 6 kids who dressed in skirts with girls that had long, stringy hair.  These kids were well-behaved and meek and mild.  I didn't want any part of it, besides, we didn't fit the mold.

I don't know that I prayed about it as I wasn't really at a place in my life where God mattered.  But I think God knows how to get to me... He played on my vanity.

I thought that I could do as well as any teacher in educating my kids.  I was intelligent and bright.  How hard could it be?

I went to the library and got everybook they had on homeschooling... probably 40 or so books.  The ones that were the most valuable to me were The Well-Trained Mind and The Case for Classical Christian Education.  I realized that this was really a good idea for us.

I sat down and ordered the recommendations of The Well-Trained Mind for 1st grade from amazon and we started our school.

This is just a small part of the whole story, but it was the catalyst for alot in our lives.  Yes, I've questioned the decision, but overall I don't think I regret one single day.  It has made me see my kids in a wonderful light, and also forced me to see myself in a not so good one.  I've met God along the way as well.   I'm not the person I used to be 6 years ago.  I have a different view on life that I would have missed otherwise.

So we start another year of school.  I can't wait to see what we learn this year...