Taking It Year By Year

It was about a year ago this month that I started to seriously consider homeschooling for Casia. She wasn't getting a good fit in the local public school, private school wasn't a financial option for us and we were in the process of moving but didn't know when that was going to happen. At the time, homeschooling was starting to look more and more like the best solution for Casia's short term academic needs.

I say short-term needs because this year has been a big experiment. We didn't know what to expect. We didn't know if it would be successful. And we didn't know if Casia and I would even want to continue after the year was out. And for the last few years, Jacob and I have held the attitude that we would make educational decisions on a year by year basis. This was one of those decisions.

Two years ago we were faced with another decision for Casia's schooling. The public school she was attending recommended a grade skip from 2nd to 4th grade. They basically told us that they were out of options to challenge her and this was their solution- we could take it or leave it. It was an extremely hard decision to make. I wasn't against grade skipping, but I wasn't strongly in favor of it either. I truly felt that keeping her in her grade, but providing some differentiation would be the best solution. She learns faster than the average child, which is why she was so academically advanced in the first place. Putting a grade higher would temporarily provide a challenge, but she still learns at an incredible rate, and once she caught up, she would be with kids that are a year older and she still wouldn't be challenged properly. 

At the time, homeschooling wasn't even a consideration, although now I wish it had been. Back then, we were coming off a horrible year of school for Casia and we were desperate for some challenge for her. So we went ahead and agreed to the grade skip. In retrospect, I wish we'd pulled her out of public school and kept her in her original grade. Now she is in 5th grade. Next year she will be starting middle school at only nine years of age. She's also short for her age and looks about six, maybe seven on a good day. If she stays in her grade (which is my intention) she will graduate from high school and go off to college when she is 16 years old. When I think of that, I have regrets over making that decision to push her forward. I'm sure she will be ready, academically at least, and hopefully she'll be mature enough when the time comes, but I do regret that lost year.

This year we have seen a lot of change for the family. We sold our house, moved three states away and we've been living in a rental property while we wait for our new house to be built. We move again in two months. We've also changed the make-up of our daily routines. Jacob now works from home. Garrett goes off to Kindergarten every day and Casia is homeschooling. There has been a lot of adjusting, for everyone.

So this is the time of year that we start to consider our options for next year. Jacob and I talked about exploring the local middle school as a potential opportunity for Casia. We talked about setting up appointments with the administration, checking out the classes she would be able to take and looking into extra curricular activities available at the middle school level. Hopefully there should be more options available in middle school that were not available in elementary school. The idea is that this would give us some choices. Something to consider. 

But the truth is, I don't want to send Casia to a brick and mortar middle school. With a strong, unyielding passion, I just do not want to do it. She is so young. The grade cut-off for this district is September instead of December, so Casia is technically two grades ahead of her age peers already. She's still academically advanced for her grade, so to accommodate her needs and provide an appropriate challenge, she will need to be placed in upper grade classes for math and science at a minimum. If they even agree to do this, she will then be in classes with kids that are up to four years older. With every fiber of my being, I just don't want to send her off to the local middle school.

What's more Casia doesn't want to go to middle school. She remembers walking the halls of the middle school when she attended her advanced 6th/7th grade combined math class. The class was held in the middle school, but designed for 5th graders. She was in forth grade (after the skip) and she was 7 years old at the time. She hated when the class let out and she had to make her way to the bus to head back to the elementary school. She didn't like being physically pushed around by the bigger kids (nothing intentional, but no one noticed her; she was so small). She also worries that in middle school, she is going to get a lot of negative attention because of her age, her size and her academic abilities. She isn't likely to make a lot of close friends because the older girls won't have a lot in common with her. She's afraid she'll be an outsider.

And besides all that, Casia also loves homeschooling. When I asked her what she likes best about it, she replied that she loves being able to go in depth on topics like she was never allowed to do in school. She loves the science experiments, art projects and special assignments that, for the most part, get completed during the school day. She doesn't have homework to interfere with her playtime. And most importantly to her, she gets to learn at her pace. When she's ready to move on, she does; there's no waiting for others to catch up.

I personally think that our homeschooling experiment has been tremendously successful. Not just adequate, but actually beneficial. I have seen a great changes in Casia's attitude about school and learning. She reminds me more and more of the young Casia, before the four years of public school, who used to dive into topics that interest her, spend hours on projects that challenge her and looks at new information with eager eyes, not tired ones.

She has fewer moods swings, and when she does, it's usually for reasons that we can pinpoint. When she was in school, we dealt with all sorts of temper tantrums, negativity and frustration from Casia and neither Jacob nor I could figure out the why behind it. I'm not sure Casia really knew the why herself, she just knows that now she feels happier. She enjoys school again and looks forward to learning. 

So for now, the decision to continue to homeschool through next year has been made. It's working for Casia, it's working for our family and it's working for me. I can honestly say that I'm not even curious to see what the local school has to offer. I'm happy with what we're doing. I'm confident that Casia is doing well. And I'm relieved that we've made the decision and don't have to have a long drawn out process in front of us.