So... Homeschooling?

*The following post is from July 2014. I was going to delete it, but decided to put it on here anyway. I need content, dang it! LOL Enjoy!

Good evening!

It's been about three years since I began this blog. So much has taken place that I'd have to write a screenplay to document it all!

I'm not joking, I might actually do that!

One of the biggest changes is our decision to homeschool our children for the next school year! We've talked about it for years, but up until now we've been waiting for the perfect time to do it. Our last hope in the schooling system was a new charter school that opened up in 2013. The school was (and still is) AMAZING! But there were so many changes throughout the year with staff and structure, that our reasons for liking the school slowly diminished. The remaining staff is amazing, and if I had to put my children in a school again, it would likely be that one. Hopefully they'll have worked out a few of the kinks we noticed over the year, and if we come back all will be well.

Towards the end of the school year, after looking at each of our children's individual learning styles and finally getting a complete understanding of what each of them need, we felt that now is the right time. Not to mention, Zuzu will be starting school for the first time! Her personality is so amazing... we watched Who better to help our children understand their unique learning styles than their mother and father? We've been blessed to be able to work from home, which allows us to focus on them.

After looking up our state's homeschooling laws/requirements, we realized that we have SO much room to teach and raise our children with our values. We can teach them all core and advanced subjects while focusing on what each child is struggling with.

And surprisingly our state's homeschooling laws are not as strict as I thought! We have to just be sure to meet the required number of hours per year, and file the proper document each year. That's it! We can structure our "curriculum" however we like! We are not bound by the same timelines, testing or rules as traditional schools.

Oh, and FYI: Online schools such as K12 are NOT home schools. You are still bound by the rules of the state school district you reside in.

So, we told the girls and they're ECSTATIC! They've been begging us to do this for years. We told them it will be a 1 year trial, to see how much they progress. We will document and share some of our moments during this learning process; because we're sure it will be a learning experience for Al and I as well as the girls!

So, stay tuned... this should be interesting!

Love,
Netta

Update: Yeah... we're no longer homeschooling. LOL Maybe I'll do a video about that one day. But in a nutshell, it could have worked; but there were too many distractions, none of which could be avoided... and we couldn't let the girls suffer. So we enrolled them back into school, and they're doing well.

But we STILL practice some of the same techniques with our girls everyday. We've used these study techniques to raise their grades and test scores. We're happy with the decision, and the girls are doing great.