How I became a Homeschooling Mom... Part I

This is my story...
When it was time for Joshua to enter kindergarten, I waffled between school and keeping him at home.  I had opinions and advice come from both sides and I was really not sure what to do.  In the end, I enrolled him in kindergarten at the school (in our area) that consists of a Maranatha program.  I knew there would be some Christian teaching and I felt ok with that decision.  It's not that I ever second guessed my choice but I often wondered if it was the right thing to do or if I should have done something different.  About halfway into his year, Doug and I were finding that Joshua was getting into *trouble* at school.  When we looked into it further, his misbehaviour was due to him being bored.  You see, Joshua went into kindergarten knowing how to spell, print, read and do math.  So while his teacher was teaching the kids to print a certain letter, Joshua simply didn't need to do it.  Consequently, he was looking for other things to keep his mind occupied, resulting in a frustrated teacher and many time outs.  It was in March that I knew I wouldn't put him in school again for grade one.  So, while I homeschooled Joshua for his grade one year, Andrea attended the same kindergarten as him.  Although some of her struggles were different, we again decided not to send her back to school for the following year.  In September of 2006, I was a full time homeschooling mom.  One kiddo in grade two and another in grade one.  Add to the mix, a curious two year old sister who wanted to be involved in everything as well.
The next spring, a neighbor lady followed my kids home when they were out biking.  I mean it's not typical that school aged kids are running around in the middle of the day.  It turns out that her kids were homeschooled as well, and were attending a hybrid program called Stony Creek.   The kids go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and do all core subjects except math and language arts.  We prayed about it and decided that we'd give it a try.  As it turns out, it was a wonderful transition for us and the kids.  It gave me a couple days a week with just Arianna and yet, I still got to have the kids at home for most of the week.  We stayed with Stony Creek for another 2.5 years.

To be continued...