My first teaching experience was teaching art to a small group of homeschool students. I loved it so much that I went back to school to be an art teacher. While in school, I went from having one toddler to having two children who were either beginning school or would be soon. Even while still earning my degree I decided that I would prefer homeschool for my children, but I wasn't sure how that would work with my chosen profession of art teacher. After teaching in a public charter school for 3 and a half years and watching my children attend classes there it became even more clear to me that homeschool would be a better option for their learning success. Though they both had wonderful teachers (who I requested myself), I became convinced that the limitations of a standard classroom setting were holding my kids back from their potential. Both of them were in the top of their class academically for most subjects and often couldn't move ahead because of a multitude of factors that come with a large class. Additionally, my extremely smart 4th grade daughter was falling behind in math and I couldn't figure out why. It seemed to me that somewhere along the line, in an effort to teach to the test, something foundational was rushed through, and without spending a lot of time with her (time I didn't have as a full time art teacher), I couldn't figure out what it was. My first grade son, on the other hand, is a ball of energy who becomes bored easily. A bad combo when you are more advanced than most of your class...
I entered my 4th year as an art teacher pregnant with my third child with all of this in mind. It was our plan for me to finish out the first semester and then take off the second half of the school year to stay home with the baby (who was due just a few days after the first semester ended). The kids, however, were going to go ahead and finish out the school year at the charter school, and if all went well I would begin homeschooling them after that summer...
Well, as it happened, I finished the semester and cleaned out my classroom before the baby was born, and my husband started his new job about the same time. yay! ...and we closed on our first home about 3 days after he was born... yay! but ack! and moved in the next day. double ack! Unfortunately our second car died a few months prior to all of this hullabaloo, and my husband's job, the charter school, and our new home were on 3 opposite points on the edge of town. A few weeks into the taxi-service with a newborn operation, we realized that this idea wasn't going to work...
....so we decided to begin homeschooling right then... lol, nothing like jumping right in eh?
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