Why We Homeschool...

Very early on, my husband and I realized that we had a pretty clever kid on our hands.  Granted, we started reading to him when he was about 6 weeks old, but began to show signs of being smart pretty quickly.  By the age of two, he was reading some words on his own.  By the time he was three, he was reading and writing.  By the time he was four, he was doing simple math, and had the US map and capitals memorized too.  It snowballed from there. 

I had not considered homeschool yet, but did research on Montessori schools, and all of the rest of the "really good" schools out there.  But then one day, everything changed. 

My husband shared a bit of his Butterfinger candy bar with our son.  I will never forget the way he cringed after he swallowed it.  Massive red welts then covered his back, face, neck and head.  We were sure that he was allergic to peanuts.  We woke him up every few minutes that night, just to make sure he was okay.  Two days later, all of the red welts were gone.  We took him to get tested for a peanut allergy; he was allergic. 

So, I did what any other person would do.  I Googled peanut allergies and found some disturbing facts.  Many of the poor children who had passed due to peanut allergies could have survived had their caregivers understood the seriousness of the allergic reactions. 

Not my kid.

So, homeschool it was.  He was still young at the time - not even three yet.  But I still bought him Kindergarten and First Grade activity books for him to complete at home.  He completed them.  I moved on to harder things, and he did fine with those too. 

Finally, he had reached the age where he was eligible for Early Admission Kindergarten.  A counselor at his charter homeschool confirmed what we suspected - our son was very clever and would probably not do well in Kindergarten. 

So, we homeschooled our son.  His charter homeschool helped me identify the areas in his education that I had inadvertently skipped; we backtracked and covered all of those. 

Today, we are still happily homeschooling.  I love the fact that I know what will enter my son's mouth and mind.  I love, love, love having him with me all of the time, too. 

So that is our story.  What is yours?

Cindy