Back in 2002 when Kyler was 4 years old we started out school adventure. At this time we were living in Chesapeake, Virginia and were toying back and forth between "should we" and "shouldn't we" just start off by homeschooling. I started researching the school options in my area.
The local public school left something to be desired, even if it was a few hundred feet from our back door. I finally decided on a private Catholic school's K4 program. The program was a half-day, Monday through Friday in the morning.
At first it was a good fit, but several things happened which complicated his schooling. After several months of being very ill, one of the several reasons we decided on putting him into formal school in the first place, I decided to move the kids and I to Vegas to live with my in-laws. My husband was getting ready to deploy and having the help was wonderful.
Fast forward another year, in the fall of 2003 I enrolled Kyler in a different private Catholic school where my friend had her children attending school. He started K5, a full-day program with a lot of enthusiasm. After several months we realized this wasn't a good fit. There were several factors:
~ He wasn't ready for all-day Kindergarden. He didn't have enough time in his day for homework; he would come home at 4 and within an hour was asleep for the night. I struggled to get supper into him before the day way over. He would get up the next day and have just enough time to get to school.
~ The teacher wasn't a good fit (really she was a rude woman with limited compassion who had no business teaching littles)
~ We realized we were moving, PCS'ing to a new location in April-May and once we found out we were going to Hawaii there were new considerations. We decided to take him out of school for a few weeks to visit family we weren't likely to see at all while in Hawaii and then were going to be removing him from the school for good in April.
Finally, when I started looking into the school system in Hawaii and the potential schools we could be zoned for once we moved the problems and solutions all just fell into place.
We were going to homeschool.
Once the decision was made, and it really was an easy one. I decided to pull Kyler from the school in the beginning of January, 2004. Kyler was 5 years and 8 months old and Loralai was 2 years and 8 months old.
I have never regretted the decision. Rather than trying to compel Kyler to learn phonics at 4:30 in the afternoon while he is eating a snack prior to supper and falling asleep at the table, I was able to start to teach him phonics at 8 in the morning. At 8 am he was bright-eyed and full of life. He wanted to learn and enjoyed the new information.
(end of the first part...more to come)
thankx for sharing :)
Posted by: Rebecca | May 31, 2010 at 09:47 AM