Homeschool... how did we get here??

This is our last official week of kindergarten for J and what a year it has been! The whole homeschool subject is one we're asked about a lot. Why are we doing it, how do we do it, and the best is "You're not going to do it forever are you??". I'm going to go ahead and just try to answer a few of those questions in a nut shell... We started out the year full of excitement and expectations about going to big kid school, and ended up delighted and happy at our brand new homeschool instead. So how did we get here?? Well, that's complicated. I've been struggling for a while as to how much I wanted to say about this subject, if anything at all. It's a very long story and I just don't want to go into to many details, but I also did want to talk about it a little bit for the purpose of encouraging others who may be dealing with some of these issues as well. There are those of you who know a lot and those of you who know little to none so I'll try and keep it short.

J was diagnosed last year with ADHD. His kindergarten class consisted of 24 kids, 1 teacher, and 1 assistant who was only there for half of the day. Three weeks into the school year we were brought in for a conference where the teacher informed us that J was immature for his age and we needed to take him out of school and give him another year. The kicker is she had felt this way since day one but the school would not allow her to talk to us about it until he had been there for three weeks. She called us exactly on the last day to schedule the meeting. Taking J out of school after he had already been there, formed friendships, and told everyone in the world how excited he was to be there was not an option. Not to mention there were about 3 different professionals (of various sort) telling us that holding him back would not be a good idea because of how smart he is. They also didn't agree with the teacher's assessment of his personality.

Things just went downhill from there. I could list all kinds of reasons as to what went wrong, but at the end of the day it really just came down to the school failing to be there for him and refusing to help. I'm in a very lucky position to have the ability to stay at home with the kids. While I never imagined we'd be a homeschool family, I couldn't allow anyone to hold J back from reaching his full potential. After a lot of prayer we came to the decision that this was the best thing for everyone.

As far as how we do it... I am very lucky to have a husband who is supportive of homeschool. Both parents having a passion for homeschooling is critical in my opinion. Living where we do has also been a huge help to me. I didn't know it before, but homeschooling is actually quite large in this area. The homeschool groups, co-ops, and resources are amazing.

Although we are getting ready to finish our year, I am already getting ready for next year. We've got a great homeschool group that we've joined, a few field trips already planned, and curriculums picked out and ready to go. I am so excited to connect with new people, visit some new places, and see all that is in store for us in the next year!

As for the question pertaining to how long we intend to homeschool, the short answer is I don't know. We never intended on being a homeschool family in the first place so I can't tell you how long we plan on doing it. All I can tell you is that as of right now we have no intention of stopping. If that takes us all the way through high school then so be it. We believe that God has put us in this place and he will direct us in the path we will take when that time comes. For now, we will continue enjoying every minute (well, almost every minute, haha)!