S/O Who wanted to homeschool?

[Tracy]

I always wanted to do it. DH was fine with it, but he could've gone either way. He later went to college to become a teacher. When he looked at his classmates, who would by his children's future teachers, he decided there was no way he was allowing "those people" to teach his children. They could barely do elementary math, let alone teach it.

[mama2cntrykids]

It was me! Looong story to follow...

When our first son started having problems in kindergarten, I was already fed up after just a few months. I wanted to homeschool him, but I had to work at that time too. Or so we thought I "had" to. A couple more years of struggling, and when our 4th son was born our boys' babysitter had to move and we knew we weren't going to find another place or person we could trust (and afford!) to watch our four boys, so I quit my job.

We thought it would be hard, but it wasn't as hard as we thought. You just adjust, ya know?

All this time we still had struggles with my oldest in 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade. I can't even count how many times he went to the principal's office or we had "special meetings" with the principal and teacher. It got old really fast. I hated that school. Hate is a strong word but oh boy do I mean it. We tried working with them. We took our son to be evaluated by his pediatrician for ADHD. The Ped also ordered an IQ test, and the final results were that he did not have ADHD (according to the ped) and he did have a high IQ, bordering on gifted for the overall score (some individual scores were in the gifted range).

The school wouldn't buy it. They said we should consider a second opinion. In 1st grade he was accused of hacking computers to change his grades. They brought in the whole cavalry for that meeting. When my husband suggested that maybe our son saw the teacher type the password in and remembered it...oh no, now way the teacher said. "That couldn't happen, I'm very careful". Of course she was saying this in front of the Principal. She just wanted to save her own hide, and she didn't care one little bit about my son. Of course, after talking to our first grader son later - it was as we suspected, he rattled off the password as soon as we asked him. He said he watched her type it in when she was signing him on for his reading test. He went on the computer under her password and started messing around with things...changing his reading score to 10,000 words per minute. Oh boy.

 

However, what finally broke the camel's back (or so they say) was when our second son (who was more energetic and more of a "troublemaker" at home then our first son ever was) started kindergarten and the cycle started all over again.

 

The biggest problem we had was how the school was NOT willing to work with us. We had many meetings, we were always willing to try what they asked. However, when we had a suggestion they never followed through.

 

Finally in second grade for our second son last year (our first son was in 5th grade and doing pretty well in middle school actually, different school and different rules)..it was a rough rough year. The discipline system is one warning and then a pink ticket. If you get three pink tickets a month then you get a red ticket which means you are removed from your classroom (to another classroom) until your parent has a meeting with the teacher and principal. We went through several of these red tickets. (always for things like not listening, not paying attention, not following directions, making noise, etc) During a meeting the principal said that if our son gets another red ticket then he'd be removed from the school and taken to the middle school ISS (in school suspension) room for the day, no recess or lunch breaks, just sitting in a corner at a desk all day long (eating lunch at his desk of course). I was shocked! I asked, "does that really work?" because I couldn't stop myself. The Principal said "not really, but its the only tool we have". After the meeting I told the teacher that under no circumstances was my son to be taken to the middle school for an ISS day. I'd rather come get him myself and take him home.

Well a month later, another red ticket, and I get a call from the Principal saying that he has taken my son to the middle school where I can pick him up at the end of the day. WHAT?! I was livid! My husband even called around to find out if we could press charges somehow. Extreme probably, but in the moment we just found out that someone (yes the Principal) took our son off school property and drove him to another school without our permission or even calling us first. According to school handbook rules (we looked it up) they are supposed to call the parents before a child is sent to an ISS room.

I'd NEVER heard of a 2nd grader going to a middle school ISS room! For what? Not fighting. Not swearing. Not being uncontrollable...no, it was for an accumulation of more then three warnings a month.

 

That was it. I immediately picked him up from the middle school. Then it was winter break, and when we returned he had ONE day and another note sent home that he was trying to chase and kiss a girl, and the mother was very upset. I took him home and never brought him back.

 

It took some effort on my part, but my husband quickly realized that the best place for the boys to be was homeschooled. We didn't want to single out one child. The more we thought about it also we realized it was the best thing for all of them.

 

Today is the first day that they've all been home (today is the first day of school for the districts here)! We'll start homeschooling on Monday. YAY!

 

Wow Bethany. Good for you! I suspect that I would have much of the same issues if my ds7 was in PS for 2nd grade this year. He just doesn't fit the "mold" of a kid who is sucessful in PS. Very right-brained and thinking outside the box, tons of energy and will.not.conform;). Many good qualities, yes, just not the right atmosphere with PS.

[mama2cntrykids]

Well...here's my story: My ex-h was hs'ed for 2 or 3 years, when we had our boys he insisted that they would be too. I had serious reservations (mostly with my ability to do it). He ended up leaving us when our youngest ds was 13 months old. I had to get a F/T job and the boys had to go to daycare. It sucked!!

 

That went on for 2 years. I ended up having a baby and marrying a man I worked with. After I had the baby (dd4), I went back to work...it only lasted one day before I gave my two weeks notice, lol. So, by that time ds9 was entering Kindergarten age and I sent him to public school. I had thought about HSing, but didn't want to even try with a tiny baby and a young preschooler who I had to watch like a hawk.

 

FF to my oldest ds' 1st grade year, we decided to keep him home and HS him. For many reasons (none of them very solid) he went to PS for 2nd grade and my youngest ds went to PS Kindergarten. Last year they were HSed and they're both HSed (along with dd4) this year as well and Lord willing, they'll be HSed for many years to come.

 

So, that's my (long) story! If you followed it, thanks!

[Guest aquiverfull]

It was me. I had a friend who homeschooled her dd. It took a few months to convince him but he's completely all for it now.

[holdoll]

It was DH who dragged me kicking and screaming. I was sure I would ruin them or we'd end up hating each other. Of course, the exact opposite is true. We're very close. :D

[LisaKinVA]

It was my idea initially, but my dh quickly gravitated to it and embraced it as his own. He is very dedicated to the process...although he thinks I worry about it too much :D

[Paintedlady]

I was the one who first had the idea. It took dh quite a while to get on board, but now he's a huge proponent of hsing. He tells everyone how awesome hsing is. :tongue_smilie: