Let's go back a bit farther. I had no interest in homeschooling. I had met homeschooling families and knew that wasn't an option for us. I was teaching third grade in a private school when I found out I was pregnant with my first. I thought I would have my baby a bit into the next school year and return to teaching after the winter break. I was unprepared for the flood of emotions I felt at leaving my child. I was blessed that he would be home with my husband and occasionally with my MIL and yet I was devastated. I devised a plan to become a licensed home daycare so that I could stay home with my precious baby. We welcomed two more little ones before my son was "school-aged" and the only thoughts I had given to school were when other people asked me, "When does little Robby start Kindergarten?". My son was anxious to learn to read and I wanted to help him achieve that goal, but send him to school? 

I had taught in a school and I learned some wonderful things and I learned some harsh realities and I didn't want my 4yo to have to navigate that alone. We had some personal reasons to not homeschool. My son at 18 is 6'3" he has been that tall for a couple of years and he has always been the tallest kid in his peer group. I had seen teachers treat tall kids as though they were older or should be more mature and I didn't want that for my son. We were just beginning our path to Judaism when we had our first son and our holidays are not the standard school holiday schedule and we didn't want him to become confused or worse envious of a way of life we were never going to have. And the last point that pushed me over the edge, the idea that placed me in the denim jumper wearing, home baking, gardening, and crafting homeschool Mom crowd? He is my son and I can do this. 

I have often heard Mom's who are on the fence about homeschooling say to me, "But you have a degree in teaching..." And that is true but let me be completely honest with you. In the 5 years, it took me to get my BA in Eng. Single-Subject I took exactly one, that's right ONE class on how to teach. When I stood in front of the twenty-five third graders on my first day of school I was terrified! I had no idea what I was doing and I was pretty sure they knew it. After teaching some of the best kids in all of San Antonio for two years teaching my son to read and write was going to be a piece of cake...or so I thought.

It turns out teaching your own children is not like teaching in a classroom for so many reasons I think I will write a separate post on that. My son has homeschooled right through to graduation. We have four more still in school and the reason we homeschool them is as different as they are. We have two special needs children, they are on the spectrum, and one child who is profoundly dyslexic. We homeschool them all and we are happy to be able to do so.