How We Went from Public School to Homeschool

If you would've asked me several years ago if I was going to homeschool my kids, I would have laughed and given you a resounding "NO!"

I never ever thought I was going to be a homeschooling mama.

You know, raising those "weird homeschool kids"...

Then.

Then Neely began kindergarten at a public school near our house. It was a really good school, had high scores where it counted, a cute campus and a gardening club for the students. 

We met her teacher and she seemed stern but overall okay.

Then.

The first day of school came. We did the cute pictures and went with her into her classroom. 

It was time for the parents to leave. To leave our baby for the first time ever in her life. She had never been in daycare, or "preschool".

She sobbed. Not just silently cried, but sobbed.

When we left her there, at school, all tiny 5 years of her, we cried. We moped around all day with our toddler, counting down the hours until we could see our baby again. (we didn't let her know we were sad, we put on bright and happy faces.)

When we picked her up after school, she let us know that she cried a lot of the day.

I began volunteering in her class a couple times a week. Anything to be closer to her. She adored having me in the class but couldn't handle it when I was gone. While in her class I noticed that her teacher absolutely shouldn't be teaching brand new kindergarteners. She was strict and yelled. A LOT.

Her classroom was overcrowded and half of the students, most of whom were TK which means they're four years old and too young for kindergarten. Translation, all of the work for the school year will be dumbed down for four year olds.

So the days continued like this.

We left our sobbing girl daily at school and counted the hours until we saw her again.

We had a heaviness about us that only happens when the wrong thing is being done.

I began really looking into homeschool.

My husband was concerned about her education, i.e. could she go to college, and he was very concerned with the socialization aspect.

I began my research with a fervor that could be attributed to saving my daughter's spirit.

It was the beginning of October and she had been in school for over a month.

She began having tantrums. This was a girl who rarely acted out (after she was done being a threenager), so it was concerning to me.

I mentioned to a good friend that our hearts were breaking and Neely was not herself. She mentioned it to her best friend who is a teacher.

This friend took a chance and reached out to me via email informing me of a way to get Neely out of school and at home with me.

A public charter school home study program.

I had never heard of this option but once I did, the ball rolled, and everything happened fast.

We immediately called the charter school and were within days of the school year cutoff.

We registered her and pulled her out the next day!

Why Public Charter Was a GREAT Way to Start

In the homeschool realm, most people are into unschooling or Charlotte Mason or Classical Conversations.

BUT.

These options can be overwhelming if you're in a time crunch and want to start homeschooling NOW (last minute or middle of the school year), or if you just can't dedicate the time to lesson planning.

Public Charter with a home study option is amazing. Why?

1. It's FREE. 
• ALL curriculum is free.
• extra curricular activities (sports, art lessons, anything you can think of) are FREE. Extra curricular activities = socialization.
2. It's FLEXIBLE
• You can switch curriculum at any time, based on your child's needs.
• You can skip ahead in subjects if your child is more advanced.
• You can add in your own religious curriculum (the state doesn't pay for it, so that's on your own dime), artist studies, composer studies, ANYTHING, and build it into your school day
3. They do all of the PAPERWORK
• They keep track of everything and take work samples for the state.
• You literally have NO STRESS about filing or anything official.
4. It's FAST
• We can finish up our day's work within a few hours (kindergarten and first grade) instead of wasting 6 hours at public school.
• We can finish a week's worth of work in  3 days if we are motivated.

I have been very pleased with our  public charter school.

The only drawback is that they teach common core math which I detest, but we are getting the hang of it.

This last semester of school and next year I will be adding in more Charlotte Mason work. I purchased a Nature Curriculum and we are starting that on Monday. I'm also pretty interested in SQUILT and will be purchasing that soon! We are in a weekly Bible Study and I will be putting those lessons into our daily schedule.

I'm not affiliated with public charters, I've just had a great experience and want to share!

The most important thing if you want to start homeschooling is to JUST START! 

Hopefully I've given you some food for thought!

You can get more information about Public Charters HERE