My Road To Homeschooling

I went to school in the public Southern California school system. In first grade I was held back for not knowing my ABC's. Totally understandable, except for the fact that I went to school for two whole years before they stopped and said something to my parents. When asked of the teacher why it was not brought up earlier to avoid the set back, the teachers response was that I was just so quiet and well behaved. In other words because I was not overly active and disruptive nor was I sharp and quick to raise my hand I was simply overlooked. I was an average kid. That was apparently the start of my downfall. 

I need to clarify something before I go on. If you've read my 'Intro.' post you know that I am fully aware of who is to blame when I talk about my life's dreams going astray. There are many occurrences that has lead me to the [some times bad] decisions in my life. But the only one to blame is myself for not pushing harder through some of these struggles I endured.  

About the time my husband and I started looking to buy a house is when I first starting really thinking about my daughters schooling. At the time she was a little over a year old. Of course every one has big dreams for their children and hope for the best of every thing for them including an education. I was no different, but as far as where she would go to school and what type of educational experiences she would have was not something I had put a lot of thought into. Because the decision to buy a house in Northern Idaho was a big one (both my husband and I are from California and long to live there again one day.) I had to do lots of research to familiarize my self with the area and things that had never concerned me before. One of them being the school districts and boundaries and the schools ratings. I was surprisingly shocked at some of the reviews. The elementary school had considerably good ratings, but the middle school and high school was horrible. It was something like less than half graduated and half of that ended up going on to college. This is when I started to consider homeschooling. 

I was a victim of the public school system and I remember it well. I'll give you a little background on me. I'm not the life of the party. I'm not the most reserved person either and at times you may catch me cussing like a sailor. But I tend to be on the shy side and I usually over analyze things before I get my self into any thing too crazy. So I just sort of drifted through school. I clung to the coolest kids that would accept me for my weird awkward self. It was usually the grungy skater/surfer/sit in the back of the class type of crowd. They seemed to be the least judgmental in my opinion, which was great for a kid who was pretty unsure of herself. So as before, I was overlooked. I excelled in the classes that peeked my interest like art and sports. And the rest I just sat quietly and returned my barely passing work. 

So as I looked back at my school years and wondered if my kid would be active enough in some way to be noticed for her to take full advantage of the public school system I realized ... I needed to take it into my own hands and make sure she does not get overlooked.