I jumped right into giving my two cents on the forum before introducing myself. I'm Laura, mother to three...Kirsten 9 yrs, Brooke 3 yrs and Connor 7 months. I homeschooled myself after attending one year of high school which I was having behavior difficulties with my mom so she asked if I wanted to homeschool and I said yes. I attend college after homeschooling where I majored in husbandry(finding a mate). I left college to raise a family. When I became a parent I assumed I would homeschool my children but my husband had other thoughts so Kirsten went to Kindergarten. We had her teacher tell us the first week of school that Kirsten had developmental problems and she needed testing. Lo and behold a screening was taking place that night so worried I rushed her over. They tested her and recommended further testing in speech. Her testing took place over the next two months where she was pulled out of class during snack time(I wasn't aware she was missing the food and would come home famished) After her testing she said oh good now I won't miss snack. I then had to wait another 6 weeks until the six team members and I could come up with a meeting day. At that time we met and I was informed she had no problems with her speech that wasn't normal for Kindergarteners and that she was ahead 4 grades in thinking skills and comprehension(insert precocious). Her K teacher asked for info from the speech teacher so she wouldn't make that mistake again. Ok, I was a little bereaved over that. But life went on...little stuff started to happend like her tattling(she had been always home with me) so being around other kids was very different for her. Then a girl started pinching her(bruising) and I talked to the teacher which didn't do much good. The the year ended and over the course of the summer she became bored so I bought her a 1st grade everything book from Wal-Mart and let her self teach. School arrived and back to class she went. After the first few days of class her teacher called me in to complain that Kirsten either would pay attention in class or if the teacher would ask for answers that Kirsten would raise her hand and wait to be called on at which point she would begin to teach the class the whatever she already knew. So I began to volunteer in the room and toted Brooke in who was 6 months old. I was listening to the kids read the early readers and helped with sorting paperwork. I was upset to find that the teacher said the school didn't have enough money to buy enough readers so the children could read at their reading level and the teacher picked the two brightest readers to read ahead. Yet the school PTA just replace perfectly good working computer lab just because. But our students were lacking the fundamental reading needs as far as I was concerned. I talked to her teacher about it. The cost would have been $150 per class(3 total classes). I talked to the PTA about a fundraiser but they were doing one for the school sports. So after the teacher pulled me aside to talk to me agian about the same problems with Kirsten I had, had enough. I talked to my husband and fortunately for me he had been talking to his co-workers(3 other families at the Fire Dept who homeschool), we made the decision to pull her out to HS. So without notice, I showed up on the third Thursday in September after school and gave letter of intent to her teacher and the Principal and emptied her desk. The school asked me to let her come to school the next day so they could count her body for that years tax funding. I said no and they begged me. I couldn't believe it. We haven't looked back. We menandered and tried different curriculums, most of them derived from many sources and have settled on classical education. I am married to the love of my life, Michael, who works as a full time union Firefighter/Paramedic. He is been on the job at Beloit five years now. He was a sherrifs deputy when I met him. He was working on the side for his EMT license hours requirement. My husband hails from England and has a bit of an accent yet. So between the hot sheriffs uniform and his accent I can't believe we didn't marry on our first date. His job requires that he works 24 hours on and 48 off. My workaholic husband has his own photography studio and also teaches at the local college EMS classes. He uses all that extra money to finance his Harley Davidson motorcycle habit and his need for expensive photographic equipment. The children and I are pretty busy in our own right. We have a few museum memberships, which have homeschool workshops, swim lessons, soccer practices and we walk a lot. There that is the long intro version! The short one is below. Hi, I am Laura...nice to meet all of you. Laura earthmomma in Wisconsin
Welcolme! Hope you feel comfortable talking on the boards here. I home shcool our 4. I have twins that are 7, a 6 year old and a 4year old. 2 girls and 2 boys.
Hello! My oldest did the same public school stint that yours did. Pulled him out in November of 1st grade...precocious=suspension in that school's zero tolerance policy. Since he was doing soooo well by the time 2nd grade started I was stupid and sent him back to public school. Then half-way through, without any behavior problems to speak of, he requested to homeschool again. We put several months of thought and prayer into it, decided to homeschool and we've been homeschooling every since. Ds is now 9yo and my daughter is 6. We use a variety of stuff including Math-U-See and Explode the Code for reading. Ds has Tourette's Syndrome and he used to battle emotional problems. Even though he is extremely bright (labeled gifted by the ps) we had to focus most of our early homeschooling on attitude/behavior/character. Hope you like it here! I do.
Welcome and glad to have ya. I have 3 kids. Ansley is 13 and a girl. My boys are twin 8 year olds. This is our 7th year homeschooling
Laura, why were you bereaved that they didn't find any problems with your daughter??? Was your plan to bring her home if they found something? I'm Becky, Laura. I've got a nearly 5 year old and a 19 year old. This is our first official year of h.s.ing.
Hi, Laura! I was one of the "smart" ones that never bothered with PS in the first place. I was a PS Special Ed teacher; DH is still teaching in a PS high school. He knew from day one that I wanted to homeschool. Figured he didn't care, it was up to me. He has since become as committed to HS'ing as I was. I did waffle for a bit when we moved. Our local elementary school is a "Project Adventure" Alternative School. Lots of camping, doing ropes course, a climbing wall in the gym, etc. That's MY kind of thing!!! But DH wisely looked at me all weird, and reminded me that I've always felt strongly about hs'ing, and what the schools were like, and what would we do when they got to middle school, etc.....and then I learned the pricipal was a lesbian! A very nice person, but..... So my kids have never attended PS and I'm so glad for it! Oh, I'm Jackie. I've two grown step-sons, and three at home...DD11, DD9, and DS5.
Hi, i am new here too i havent posted much just come and read for now..i have four kids and homeschool three of them. girls ages 10,8, and 5..welcome! :mrgreen:
Hi I am Trish. I have a 7 year old daughter. She is in 3rd grade. This is our 4th year homeschooling.
No it was more of a huge worry thing with me. After all I was the one to raise her at home and I felt maybe I had missed something. But then it turned out the teacher who had been teaching for 10 plus years didn't know that certain sounds/prounouncing develop more slowly and I was dissappointed she had put my daughter through all of that when it turned out she was developing normally. Laura
