Back Story

   Before you start to think of me as some sort of hippie who lives off of berries and dresses my kids in burlap clothing singing Kumbaya all day, let me tell you a little about myself, my family and how I (we) got to this point so far (in regards to home school, no telenovelas about my life here).

    I did not grow up knowing much of anything about home school. I went to public school (many of them in fact) all of my life. I did not even know of any families who participated in home school until I was married, to my first husband (I promise no telenovelas), and living in Virginia. A dear friend of ours, Heather, had decided to teach her FIVE children at home. Being new to the whole wife, mother, domestic anything, I thought she was crazy. At that point I didn't even know if staying home was a reality I could accept. I enjoyed working; I enjoyed people and getting out of the house. There was no way I would ever stay home, let alone teach my kids from home.
   
 After being a stay at home mom for a few years I, like many stay at home moms, longed for the day that my children would get all dressed up in their "first day of school outfit", put on their cute little back pack, get on the bus like a big girl and GIVE ME A BREAK FOR 8 HOURS!!! I needed that break. In my mind, they would go to school and I would go work out, and have lunch with friends, go shopping and have QUIET time. All of which, at the time, I was not getting.

   So then the days of school came and my glorious vision of what this time would be like came crashing down. Instead of working out, I was racing to the bus stop because morning routines never seemed to be... routine. Instead of lunch with my girl friends I was fighting with cafeteria personnel for refusing my daughters lunch even though they had money on their account. Instead of my "quiet time", I was introduced to my youngest daughter's morning alter-ego, Diva Eva. This Eva cries for 20 minutes because she does not want to get dressed, then fights with me about what to eat for breakfast, then in a mad dash to the bus stop (that arrives at 7:10 in the MORNING), she usually reminds me that we forgot her lunch box. Still after all of the drama, home school just was not in my vocabulary. Mothers who did that possessed a trait I just did not have, a virtue that was passed over me. There was just no way, I, me, no... right?

   This school year is when it became clear that something different needed to be done. My oldest daughter (who is currently in the first grade) has always been bright, but with her brilliance comes her personality. She is definitely one of a kind. Mikayla will never fit into a box, she thinks in ways that I still at the age of 28 do not even think. She sees things differently and sometimes needs things explained in her "language" to really get through to her. We were lucky (in the beginning) and got a teacher who understood how Mikayla learns and realized that she was not a behavioral problem she just needed things to keep busy.  However, something has shifted in her classroom and things have changed. Blame it on budget cuts which has caused her teacher to inherit 5 more students, or just fatigue of dealing with so many students, but Mikayla's teacher has gone from supportive and encouraging to annoyed and short fused. I do not blame her, I thinking teaching 28 children is crazier than me teaching my own two. Whatever the cause may be, I noticed how it affected Mikayla's confidence, her moods, and her attitude. 

  In addition to Mikayla's academics, and my Eva's alter-ego, there was something else that was just eating at me, near blood boiling in fact. Before school started my husband and I spend roughly $250 on school clothes and shoes PER GIRL. Then another $100 on the school supply list the school sent us, again per girl. That’s $700! For PUBLIC school!! That's not even the worst part. Within the first three months I had gotten notes home asking for money for this project, money for that trip, fundraisers for this and more money for that. I finally said NO MORE, when the week before Thanksgiving break both of my daughters were sent home with a supply list the teachers needed after the break. Are you kidding me??? I had already spent over $1500 and the first semester wasn't even over! And that is when my research began....