Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments The moment you decided to homeschool

We've always homeschooled...just sort of a natural extension of stay-at-home-parenting that turned into no need for preschool, no need for kindergarten, and then it had to be a conscious choice for 1st grade, and here we are entering 2nd.

I will say that homeschooling doesn't have to be some Big Scary Thing. You won't be sitting down and doing 1:1 work for 6 hours a day 5 days a week. We sort of take a look at what the grade standards are, make sure she's meeting or exceeding those (which so far has happened without much effort...not sure at what age that will flip), and stay super involved locally (homeschool group, co-op, history center, nature centers, scouts, dance).

You say she's self-teaching which is great! Having a younger kid I'm able to "strew" books/websites/etc. (i.e. purposefully plant material) that I want her exposed to, and then allow depth of exploration when something piques her interest. Currently she's all-in with the Little House on the Prairie series which is covering my needs for reading, history, and geography

Anyway, I'm rambling, and not at all on point seeing as I never *decided* to homeschool, it just sort of happened naturally. It's not a total on or off decision though; there's partial enrollment, co-ops, and she can always go back after taking a break from brick and mortar school.

Homeschool is also not some "all or nothing" decision. DD was homeschooled in various ways (online school and brick and mortar homeschool classes) as well as attending a magnet school. She then did two years of private school in one (saving me a ton of tuition - lol) and is now starting public highschool early.

The most important lesson for our family that came from homeschooling is that it busts you out of this little box called "the way it's done." We'll never have the same perspective as we did before we took the leap.

Now we know we have options and control over what works best for us. It's empowered our whole family. If we try something and it doesn't work, we can try something else. It's really not the end of the world. This is especially important as DD's gotten older. If she wants to go to public high school, fine. She knows that there will be some BS and nonsense, but she also has perspective and knows what's shes gaining (tons of course options, AP and honors classes, etc).

It's great to hear these success stories. We have only had a few brief dabbles with homeschooling - well, really only one short one. Grade 7 for a few months - it was in response to my DS 12 feeling miserable at school.

After months of cajoling him into going it came to a head and we pulled him. He watched documentaries on world history, researched modern artists and went to the art gallery, he reverse engineered songs he liked on the keyboard and saxophone, wrote a story, read math books and we had a math tutor come once a week who could answer his big thinking questions. He ultimately decided to go back for the end of the year.

This year, around the same time of the year, misery hit again. After much discussion we pulled him but he immediately regretted it and begged to go back. He is back but seems disengaged. Would have done distributed learning (virtual school) to start at least. Perhaps that will happen next year.

DS6 has been asking to homeschool next year. He skipped first grade and this year has been a little rough for him socially. There is one kid in particular who seems to get his goat. But he has a few friends and he loves playing soccer at recess. I predict that he will homeschool for 2 weeks and then beg to go back to public school. I wish there was a go/no go flow chart or something for the homeschool decision.