I did it...full time homeschoolers now!

[mrs.b]

Namwen, that is great news! We just withdrew our son from public school in May and have been homeschooling as well. I administered the Stanford standardized test to get an idea of where we were starting - he's special needs and we had a strong suspicion of "soft grading", i.e., giving As and Bs rather than teaching so he could learn and earn them - and were a bit disheartened when I got the report and he tested at the 2nd grade level on everything but Vocabulary (6th grade there!), when he's entering 4th grade now. After a few deep breaths and a regroup of how to approach home lessons, a new game plan has us backing up and doing a full review of 2nd and 3rd grade materials.

Proving that he is entirely capable if taught "his" way, he already finished the 2nd grade review and is almost done with 3rd grade review. It sounds trivial, but it almost brings tears of joy to my eyes when I ask him a question and he's able to answer, rather than immediately become frustrated and shut down. When he was in school, we would ask how his day went and he could rarely tell me what subjects they touched on, much less what was taught in them. Since we started, though, he spent about half an hour at this weekend's family get-together instructing his granddad about kinetic versus potential energy, and defining nouns and how to tell if one is concrete or abstract, proper or common, etc. He was so proud, and I was too!

These kids can run when given the right road, and it's made a believer out of me that only parents can truly help find the paving that best-suits their styles, when just a few months ago I wasn't sure I'd have the beginning of a clue how to teach him.