My older son (2E) was in a Montessori school for first grade. His academic skills were *worse* at the end of that year than they were at the beginning. At first we thought we would put him in the public school with the idea that maybe a more traditional approach would help. So I tutored him over the summer hoping that I could get him caught up to something approaching a beginning second grade level. What I discovered was that he needed *a lot* more remediation than any classroom teacher would be able to handle and that tutoring him was working wonders. So we homeschooled instead, and I'm so glad we did! He's now 16 and doing well at the local community college, pursuing an AS degree in engineering.

My younger son is almost six years younger than his brother. So practically from birth he had the benefit of my experience with teaching the older one. By the time he was old enough to enter kindergarten, he was already doing first and second grade work. So we homeschooled him as well.

Just last fall, we decided to see if a b&m school would be beneficial for him. We did a one year skip at that point and the school allowed him to take Algebra I as well (he is 5th grade age). It became clear early in the year that a second skip would be appropriate, both socially and academically, but since he was in a combined 6-7 class, we just left things as they were. He will be skipping into eighth grade next fall. I really appreciate that the school is working with us to find an appropriate placement for him.

However... The acceleration has been great, but we need to find a balance between time spent on schoolwork and time spent being a kid. I can't justify having my 11 year old in school or commuting from 7:45-4:00 every day and then doing homework until 8:00 every evening (it wasn't like this all the time, but enough to be concerning). So we're going to homeschool math next year, since the school's approach to math is uninspired at best and, frankly, damaging at worst. It also seems to be the most homework intensive subject, so having control of it myself will solve a lot of problems.

I suspect that we will move back to homeschooling, at least half time, at the end of next year.

Homeschooling was the most difficult and the most rewarding thing I have ever done. My children benefited enormously, and I miss it very much.