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)!

All about us

So more about us for those that aren't family... I was born and raised in Florida. I love it there, especially Sarasota which is where we lived through my teen years. It feels wonderful when I get to go back and visit. The sun, the salt in the air, the radio stations which are infinitely better than ours... ahhhh I could go right now. Somehow or another I got talked into moving to North Carolina with my sister and her husband and their brand new baby after highschool though. It sounded like a great change and adventure. It only took 9 months of living here before I met my soulmate and we've been inseparable ever since. It started off as an innocent ride on motorcycles (sorry mom and dad) and ended up with 3 kids, 2 dogs , 1 cat and a mortgage. Since moving here I've discovered I can definitely feel my families mountain roots in my blood and could never imagine moving away from the mountains. How lucky am I that my husbands family has a home in the mountains for us to escape to as often as possible :-)

Our children are amazing. Our oldest and only boy, J, is full of life and energy and is smarter than I'll ever be. He keeps me on my toes and is ALL boy. Our middle and oldest girl, F, is such a sweet princess. She's caring and bright and we call her our little mommy. She loves all things girly and pink. Our baby girl, S, is a little young yet but I can already tell you she's our sunshine. Countless smiles and love just radiate from her sweet little face. We are such blessed parents.

I'll also tell you that we are a homeschooling family as well. Everyone has a reason or story as to what has brought them to the decision to homeschool. At this point in time I'm going to hang on to our reasons as to why we're a homeschooling family, but I will tell you that I never (and I mean NEVER) thought we'd be one. You'd be amazed at how you can change for the well being of your children though. I have to tell you that so far we are loving it!! That's definitely not say there haven't been challenging days where I've wondered "what the heck have I gotten myself into", but I would still wouldn't change a thing.

Finally, I can tell you that we would not be where we are today if it weren't for our devotion and faith in God and that he is in full control of our lives.

So that's about enough info about us. I hope you enjoy all the updates and I myself can't wait to see what adventures are in store for us! Till next time...

Welcome to my little corner of the web

I've been mulling over starting a blog for a couple years now but never got started because of two things. First, I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to talk about, and second I could never decide on a name! A few days ago it finally came to me when I was listening to Bob Marley (of all things). If you haven't guessed, or have been living under a rock, I'm referring to Three Little Birds (I'll fill you in on why in a second).

First of all I just want to say that I went to school for marketing. I'm not a writer. I know several people that are writers and I'm not nearly as eloquent as they are, nor do I have the large vocabulary that they do. I'm a simple girl and will most definitely have numerous spelling and gramatical errors. If you can make it through all of my mistakes and still want to read then welcome to my little corner of the web :-)

So, here it goes...

The decision to start a blog mostly came out of necessity. There's a whole side of my family that's not on facebook (you know who you are...) and are always asking for the pictures and updates that I post on facebook. Since I don't have enough hours in my day to send all these updates to all the different people in our large family I've just decided to streamline the process and put it on a blog.

As for the name "Three Little Birds", obviously it's a reference to the fact that we have 3 children but it's so much more than that. The past few years have been a roller coaster for our family for a lot of reasons but our one constant is the love and joy that our little ones bring to our lives. Every morning they come running into our rooms with vigor and excitement for life. At the end of the day after everything is said and done, no matter what life throws at us, I know that as long as we have each other every little thing is going to be alright... a little cheesy right?? I thought so ;-)