The Unthinkable? Not so much...

I have gone and done it and I fear that all the denim jumper wearing homeschoolers of the planet will come over and smack me, but I am quite content with what I have done.

We entered the world of cyber school. The free, tax payer funded type. Gasp now, get it over with and then read on. I will tell you why...

I love, love, love the idea of a classical education and having been trying to do that for almost four years now. First I used Sonlight and got the boxed curriculum with the teacher's guides and really liked them. I would have liked them more if they had been on a disc and "clickable" (like Homeschool Tracker, but with all of Sonlight's curriculum pre-loaded). I would have stuck with it more if each year was not progressively more and more expensive. I love that curriculum, but I hated the steep price.

Then I put together my own. I got all the best of each subject and formed them into one school day. I loved it. I still love it and am quite hesitant to not use my own curriculum, but I am a gal that needs some sort of accountability and can slip into a lazy zone, with an attitude of, "they're doing fine! We will get to that book/project/lesson tomorrow".

On the flip side I am also a gal that likes all my ducks in a row. Check off the list and make sure that tomorrow's list is ready! It's a lot easier when someone else is double checking your list. That is kind of where I am right now. I had to put my, "Why We Homeschool" criteria in a real order and see what was most important to me.

I usually tell people that we homeschool to give our children a Christ based, classical education, and that is all true. But I hesitate to give the number one answer. Frankly, I have no desire for my kids to emulate the traits I see in LOTS of brick and mortar school children. They probably would not appreciate that, since most people curious as to why we homeschool have young ones in school.

But mainly, I want them to have the best possible education possible, and in this day and age I do not see that happening in a class room of thirty that one poor teacher has to teach with no authority to do much of anything (regarding discipline, etc.) with students that know it. Each kid is different and a cookie cutter education tends to leave some far behind. So for those two and various other reasons, we homeschool. Yet K.Z. is not the student I know that he can be. I think we both need more structure.

When I was a kid learning came very easy for me. I was taught something, I mastered it quickly, got bored repeating it and got excited when we moved on. I erroneously assumed that would be the case for each of my kids as well. When we started homeschooling and K.Z. hadn't mastered reading while potty training I changed my approach. Obviously I was doing something wrong. Then Xena started school and is an exact replica of me as a child, learning wise. Two kids, two different styles. Hmmm, what a concept. Who'd a thunk it?

So I am delving into a new educational world and excited to see what may happen with a bit more structure and accountability. I had a lot of misconceptions when I started journeying down this path that were soon squashed by some research. Hopefully this will prove fruitful.

There are the well meaning people that tell me that K.Z. is still young and that what he has fallen behind on he will catch up fast, as boys learn slower than girls in a lot of cases. I believe that, I know it is true, but I am not willing to risk him missing something fundamental just to prove that theory. So I am handing over a small portion of the reins and letting a professional come in and help me derive the best curriculum plan for him.

Pray for me. This does not come easy for me.