by Kcaarin Pineau

Created on: April 29, 2009

When my son was born I was a mere twenty three years old. In many ways I grew up with him. We would take walks at the park and count the ducks. We would play in the house going 'in' 'around' 'over' and 'under' things. We would pick up blocks according to color. We would put puzzles together and get excited at the picture. We would add up the number of whatever we had and subtract as we ate it. And the examples could go on. Learning happened along with life.

Whenever I thought back to my formal education I fought frustration. We had moved into a new school district when I was moving from the third to the fourth grade. Somehow I missed some very important information during those grammar years, and it has taken me years to recover. I struggled along being placed in remedial math and nominal English classes. All the while yearning to learn! For someone to see my desire if not potential.

When it was "time" to think about putting our son in school we (my husband and I) took a step back to see where he was developmentally in accordance with other children his age. He was quite tall yet while appearing like a seven year old, had the emotional maturity of a five year old. However, academically he was on par with his height in many areas, yet not all. If we put him in a public school environment where would he be placed? We decided to look into this phenomena of homeschooling.

Our parents were quite adamant, "It was good enough for you! Why would you even think of such a thing? What about socialization?". We pondered these questions and many more. "Good enough", did we want just "good enough"? Wasn't to strive for the ideal what our society was founded on? Socialization, what exactly does that mean? Are you socialized when you can talk to your peers but aren't able to look an adult ten years your senior in the eye while waiting on them at the checkout counter? What IS socialization exactly?

As the questions swirled around in our head we realized we had plunged headlong into a controversy. We eventually came to a decision that this was our child. And to take responsibility for that meant educating him in the way we believed best. Despite what anyone else might think.

We then turned our attention to curriculum. Realizing we didn't want just any education for our son, we asked ourselves "What do we want to accomplish in our education?". What aspects could we incorporate to give him the best start possible in life? After careful examination and heartfelt questions to those whom we respected, we chose a Classical Curriculum that closely aligned with our belief system.

Having home schooled for four short years now we can say in all honesty, it hasn't been easy. Along the way three more children came into our lives. We persevered adamant to instill determination in our son if nothing else. At times progress seemed to slow to a crawl. There have been doubts and fears and questions of sanity, but in the end we wouldn't change it for the world. Life, love and the pursuit of happiness are all about learning.

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