Another Entry on the Never Say Never List of Parenting

That's it in a nutshell. We never thought we'd homeschool, but almost a year later, here we are with no plans to go back.

I should say, we never consciously planned to homeschool and evenly passionately disavowed homeschooling as a valid option for our family.  But all along, my partner Dr. Yap, had been amassing a collection of educational toys and manipulatives to rival most Montessori classrooms and I had been an expert at uncovering kidlit gems at every used book source in our area.  Seriously, the library of children's books in our house is vastly superior.

When our daughter was underwhelmed with first grade and insisted that she learned more at home, the decision to homeschool, rather than look for other school options, came surprisingly easy.  She went, she saw, she wasn't interested.  We jokingly say that our daughter is a grade school dropout, but in truth, we - her parents- are also elementary school failures.  I realized during the years of preschool, kindergarten, and half of first grade that I had very strong opinions about what and how my children should learn.  I also found the constant need for parent participation in all levels of the school experience to be exhausting.  This might seem odd since I've taken on all of the schooling, but what I do now is all my choice.  I'm not supervising other people's children, I'm not fundraising (whew!), and I'm not overseeing homework whose value I question, and I'm not pretending to be excited about school events and ephemera just to keep my child interested.

So here we are.  Homeschooling a seven year old and preparing to do the same when the two-year-old is ready.