Home School Vision

Is it me, or does life seem to be a bit scarier than when we were kids? Violence and extreme abuse are the headlines, bullying is at an all time high, and teen suicide is on the rise. In a world that feels unstable, more and more families are thinking about creating a safe home school environment for their children.

Eight years ago, I arrived at this crossroad. By first grade, it was clear a change had to be made for my daughter. She was not thriving in the public classroom environment. I watched her become more stressed out. She wasn't being stimulated at her level of academics and her spirit was slowly breaking. In first grade! I knew if she remained there, she would continue on a downward spiral. This teacher and school were not equipped to help kids like her with strong independent spirits to thrive.

As time went by, she was less enthusiastic about going to school. The more I listened, the more I realized, our situation had to change, if we were both going to come out of this without our spirits broken even further.

Kindergarten was a wonderful experience and the teacher was amazing. She recognized my daughter's unique abilities and nurtured her advanced skills. My daughter was happy and confident; life at our new school was great! First grade was another story when she was assigned a new teacher. This one did not have a lot of experience and within a month she was verbalizing and showing signs of being self conscious, wanting to hide her talents, not being proud of them.

The teacher explained to the class that my child was reading at 5th grade level because she was in an outer orbit academically, while the rest of the class was normal. Singling her out didn't help matters. By the time winter break rolled around, my daughter had enough. She begged not to go back and asked to get home schooled.

That was the beginning of our home school journey. I was determined to do whatever I could to make my daughter's school days experience a happy one, filled with love, support and joyous memories. It was clear she did not thrive in a traditional classroom environment. It was time for us to get real and get home schooled.