Starting from scratch

Well, we are heading into our second year of K12, supplies have arrived and are all organized, and we are both anxious to begin.

I guess some background first, might make whats coming a bit easier!

I have three amazing boys (I know, what mom doesn't have x amount of amazing kids!), 13, 11 and 9. Last year, my oldest started middle school, not without a fair bit of trepidation at such a massive change to his world. The first couple of weeks were horrible for both of us, missed busses, tardy to class, late assignments, then everything seemed to smooth out and I assumed we were in the clear. Boy was I wrong! Turns out, my son was so dissapointed in himself, that he quit sharing his problems with me until there were so many problems, he was ready to explode. The bell schedule at his school only allowed for 3 minutes between classes, the kids are not allowed to carry their backpacks with them, and the class schedule put first period and second period on opposite sides of the school. My son spent half of first semester in detention for being tardy to his second period. He would be so upset about this, and afraid he was going to get in trouble at home, that he would miss instructions from his teacher, or miss assignment due dates, his teacher quickly became frustrated with him, which made my son feel worse. At that point, the day would be ruined, and he would walk around in a fog of misery and fear. At the end of the semester, he was so far behind, it was like he hadn't attended school at all. The school was already talking holding him back, and my son had gone from a happy, confidant, brilliant child to a sullen, mean creature. The final straw came when we spent 4 days attempting to complete required assignments for English class, only to miss one and be told that because of that one missed assignment, he was going to fail English. I checked him out of public school that day and he hasn't been back. We enrolled in K12 at the beginning of the second semester, he completed all the requirements within the academic year, and he made the Honor roll. It took a lot of very hard work on both of our parts, I made sure he understood that he wasn't doing this alone, and that made a world of difference in his academic achievements. He is once again proud of himself, confident of his abilities, and trusts that no matter what, I'm going to be there for him. I have my kid back!

The purpose of this blog is to document our adventures, to chronicle what I learn, and to interact with other homeschooling parents around the world.