Why are you Homeschooling?

I think this is the first question I would ask anyone who is currently homeschooling.  I am always interested to know why a parent would take on this challenge and what brought them to this decision.

For me, ever since my daughter Ciara started grade 1, I considered homeschooling her.  We knew that she was a bright girl, but at school she refused to participate.  She also made a fuss about going to school almost every morning. Her teacher was confounded by her lack of desire to do any work, when most kids that age are very eager to learn.  This was back in Canada.  She was in French Immersion, and picked up French faster than any of our other kids.  By the end of grade 1, Ciara could converse in French like it was her first language.

Since she was obviously learning something in school and she had plenty of good friends, we kept her in school for grade 2.  While in grade 2, her teacher tested her reading ability and told me that Ciara was below grade level and needed to be put into the remedial reading program.  But after only a few reading sessions with the volunteer, it was clear to them that she could definitely read at grade level.  The reason she was evaluated so low by the teacher is because Ciara gets nervous when she is being evaluated.

Flash forward to grade 3.  Ciara began to really dislike going to school again, mostly because she didn't like her French teacher.  She also had English and French on alternative days, which made it difficult for her to stay organized. Her English teacher requested a meeting with us and said that she felt that Ciara should be tested for learning disabilities.  We really respected her observations because she knows our family and has lots of experience in special education.   So at the end of grade 3 Ciara went for her psycho-educational evaluation, which required two afternoons over two weeks.  It was a fairly positive experience for Ciara and at the conclusion we found out that she has a processing delay.

This diagnosis answered some questions for us, such as why she hated school so much, even though she was a smart girl and had lots of friends.  With a processing delay, day to day school tasks became overwhelming.  She did not want to participate or speak in class because she often didn't know what was going on.  Next, we had to decide what to do about it.

We have a family friend who is a certified educational therapist through NILD (http://www.nildcanada.org/).  She was able to do personalized sessions with Ciara, to help her overcome some of her learning difficulties.  She started from the basics of reading, writing and math to make sure that Ciara had the skills she needed to learn more difficult concepts.

We also got the news while Ciara was in grade 3, that we were going to be moving to Barcelona.  This was a pretty big shock for the whole family as we had never moved outside of Brampton, Ontario since the kids were born.  For months after my husband accepted the delegation we never quite knew when we were going to move.  At first we thought it might be in July 2012, then Sept 2012, then December 2012, then January 2013, then March 2013.  When it became apparent that we were not going to get our visas until after May 2013, I decided that the kids might as well finish the school year in Canada and we would move in the summer.  Ciara continued to do educational therapy during grade 4 and I took her out of French Immersion to make things a little less complicated for her.  The kids also started to take Spanish lessons after school.

My husband moved to Barcelona in May 2013, but the rest of us didn't come until August 2013.  We decided to put all 4 kids in the American School of Barcelona.  We were not sure if the school would work for Ciara, but as we needed a school that taught in English, we didn't have a lot of options.  At first, Ciara seemed to be doing well.  She was making friends and although she was struggling academically the teachers were very helpful and she received quite a bit of one-on-one instruction.  But as the October became November, things were starting to get worse.  Ciara didn't want to go to school and resented the fact that we had brought her to Spain.  She was negative all the time, didn't want to go anywhere, didn't want to eat and would spend hours in her room alone.  I began to worry that she was becoming depressed.

December 2013 was a low point for Ciara.  It was around this time that I decided that Ciara needed to be homeschooled.  My husband was not so sure that I would be able to do it and urged me to really consider all of our options and do a lot of research.  I think that he was most apprehensive because I don't really have the personality of a nurturing homeschooling parent.  Ciara and I have quite a contentious relationship because I like doing things MY way and so does she.  But I figured that if we were going to survive another year in Barcelona we would have to try something new.  We decided that we would let Ciara finish the school year and I would take the next few months to really get prepared to homeschool.

In May 2013 we officially told the school that Ciara would not be returning the next year.  It was a very exciting day.  Now it was no longer a big secret, her teacher and principle were aware, Ciara could talk about it with her friends and I started looking for other homeschooling families in Barcelona.  I soon discovered that we were pretty much on our own.

I am surprised at how much I wrote today.  I have talked with others about why we are homeschooling Ciara, but this is the first time that I have written it all down.  I'm sure my subsequent post will be a lot shorter.