Why We Homeschool

When I first began thinking about educating my children, homeschooling never entered my mind. I always thought of homeschooling as the arena of religious conservatives - certainly not a reasonable option for a liberal free-thinker like myself.  ;-)    I have since discovered that all kinds of families homeschool for many different reasons.  But the one thing all homeschool families do have in common is their desire to give their children an exceptional education.

Because of the less than satisfactory performance of the public school system in our state, we did consider private school, but our financial situation did not allow that as an option.  I did what I considered the next best thing and managed to get my first child enrolled in a "magnet school" - (a public school with a specialized,  progressive curriculum).   My oldest son appeared to thrive in this program, but now I suspect he thrived "in-spite-of" the public school system due to the attention and efforts of a few exceptional teachers.

When our youngest son entered the same school it was a very different experience.  Dylan was identified as having a "Learning Disability" and was conveniently pigeon-holed into the popular ADD category.  (We have since discovered that his "learning disability" could more accurately be defined as  "a learning style not supported by the public school system".)  We were encouraged to medicate our son, and the school offered him "accommodations" and "resources".  This all looked good on paper, and the bi-annual meetings with teachers and administration added to the illusion that the school respected our child's individual learning style and were making a genuine effort to "customize" his learning process to create a positive and productive educational experience.   

Although his teachers were genuinely concerned and had the best of intentions, we soon realized that they were not actually accommodating their program to his learning style.  Instead, the  "resources" were simply an intense coaching session to help Dylan pass the standardized testing ( which, by the way, directly impacts school funding).  There was no real acceptance of diversity in the public school system.  The mandated "accommodations" were not  providing an appropriate "customized" learning environment for our "square peg".  They were instead a plan  to "re-program" him - an attempt to shave off his corners so they could force him to fit into the round holes of the Public School System Matrix.  

 After struggling with the "system"  for 6 years with very little in the way of results, I started researching our options again.  By this time, I had friends who were homeschooling, and  they provided me with good information and excellent advice.  I was able to make the move to homeschooling fairly painlessly due to the efforts of the dedicated families who "blazed the trail" by challenging the "status quo" and pushing to change homeschooling  laws in South Carolina.  All I had to do was hook up with an accountability group and fill out the forms.  Our support group has also been instrumental in our success by offering .. well... support of course.  

How We Got Our School Name

 What I consider the "pivotal moment" in our decision to homeschool happened the night of May 15, 2003.  Dylan came home from school and said "Our science teacher said there is going to be a total eclipse of the moon tonight!"  He sounded so excited.  "But..."  he sadly added, "she said we can't stay up to watch it, because it doesn't start until 10:30, and we should be in bed before then, because we have school tomorrow."  

WHAT?!  An amazing opportunity to observe a celestial phenomenon first hand - especially when his science class just happens to be studying the solar system - and his teacher tells them they can't stay up late to watch it because it conflicts with their school schedule?  Then and there I knew that this "homeschooling concept" I had been toying with was going to become a reality.  I told Dylan we were all going to stay up and watch the lunar eclipse, and he would not go to school the next day so he could sleep in.  

We watched the eclipse as a family that night sitting in lawn chairs on the driveway passing binoculars back and forth.  The moon turned such a beautiful dark red, I commented "it looks like a giant garnet".  Dylan then said, "Yeah, a garnet moon."  Hmmm.... garnet moon...... Garnet Moon..... I liked the sound of that.  And so, when we began homeschooling, we named our school the Garnet Moon Academy.

Our Beginning

We began our first year of homeschooling in July of 2003.  The first 3 months were a difficult adjustment, but we finally found our "groove" and, suddenly, Dylan recaptured his joy of learning.  His learning style which was perceived as a "disability" by the public school system,  was suddenly not an issue.  Now, instead of spending 7 torturous hours sitting at a desk 5 days a week in addition to 3 exhausting hours working on homework after dinner, he spends a total of 4-5 hours daily on his assignments, and is actually retaining more information.  Our 13 year old now wakes up at the reasonable hour of 8:00 am instead of  the unnatural hour of 6:00 am.  He completes his reading assignments comfortably seated on our couch or leisurely reclined on his bed.  He accomplishes research and writing assignments on his computer which is always available to him - no waiting for a space in the school's computer lab.  And we always schedule our days (and nights) around what works best for our student and our family.