Just a little background on how we've come to the decision to homeschool in the first place. I've never even considered homeschooling six years ago, when I had my first child. This precious new life was perfect in every way. A living, breathing, blank slate of amazing possibilities. As the years passed, she grew from a lively baby to a precocious toddler. Everything went normally in many aspect with the exception of speech. Soon I started noticing thing about her that alarmed me. She would babble constantly, but would not even attempt to mimic an actual word. When she turned 4, my husband and I decided it was time to get an outside assessment. The assessment was performed and it was an absolute disaster. At that point, we began to look at other options to educate our daughter. Private schools seemed like a viable option, but the cost and lack of iep services made it less appealing. The first mention of homeschooling came up in a fabulous book I read called Mislabeled Child. Prior to that, I never even considered homeschooling as an option. Running out of options, my husband and I kept the ideal on the back burner, just in case everything else failed. Within three weeks, we found an amazing public preschool program for our daughter and it suited her perfectly. Small classrooms, 2 aides, 1 special education teacher and 1 teacher. It was ideal and I thought DD would thrive in this setting. She did not. Finally, it was time for our daughter to transition to a new school for Kindergarten. I was optimistic, hopeful even. My hope and optimism soon vanished and was replaced by our new reality of public school; A classroom of 32 children, 1 teacher, an occassional aide to assist, and learning/teaching to test. I was immediately uneasy. Uneasy about the entire situation, especially putting my daughter in that setting. The IEP meeting was so dismal that even my super laid back husband was pissed off by the end of it!! My hubby and I turned to each other in the meeting and both silently mouthed,"We're homeschooling her." Yes, it was hard, but this meeting made it much easier to finalize our decision. Our daughter would be homeschooled.
Homeschooling here we come!!!!
Once our minds were made up, I immediately looked online for information and blogs that spoke to my/our sensibilities. A blog dedicated to the eclectic, secular homeschoolers with a United Nation looking family. Yeah, I couldn't find one, so I decided to start my own.
My hope is that this blog will address a sector of the homeschooling community that is rarely discussed. The ones that don't fit into a nice little box or any particular group; Not religious, but spiritual. Not fearful of the the"MAN", but leery of him. My daughter learns different, but she's not defective. Someone that may use a charter school and
I hope to find others that embrace this concept and will contribute and/or comment often. I would love for this to be an collaborative effort, so please don't be shy,speak your mind and comment often.
BE Blessed. BE Loved. BE Well!!
