>my question is: what was the final tipping point to make the
>homeschool decision for you? how did you and your wife look at
>her professional life when making the decision - was it
>something she wanted to come back to or felt like this would
>mean giving it up for good?

oh, b/c my child that did NOT have learning disabilities (cj3), they tried to tell me that he did (because he communicated above his grade level and was able, as a 3rd grader, to use irony and sarcasm when speaking with adults), and the one that DID (jj2), they made US jump through hoops and were insisting that kindergarten was too young for any differentiated services.

no. it was cool to have her frustrated and crying on the daily in class b/c she didn't understand wtf y'all were talking about, OR acting a clown to distract from same.

told my 8th grader (cj2) he was dressed like a thug (he had cornrows and boots) at his magnet middle school. so he had the classic push-pull going on: his peers fking w/ him for being in advanced classes and not hood/gang affiliated, and his adv classes teachers fking w/ him for not being white and maintaining black cultural affinity. that year was hell for him and he was responding by shutting down. i'd be up w/ him for hours doing homework and then he'd go to school and not turn it in. chronically. we pulled him out in january of his 8th grade year.

cj3 was told, famously, by his 4th grade teacher that she loved to take the kids papers home over the weekend and BLEED all over them (she marked mistakes in red ink). my wife to this day will not do red ink corrections. this the same teacher that told him that his (excellently written) report on batman was no good, because it was too dark. unlike cj1 and cj2, he is a square peg that wanted to remain square, and they spent the better part of his whole public school career trying to hammer him into round holes.

>i'm basically homeschooling my daughter in math because her
>school/teacher does a terrible job at progressive education
>and math and at a decision point professionally.

i haven't touched on this, but it is also possible, for those parents who simply cannot commit to homeschooling fully to accomplish a lot in just an hr or so per day, if the goal is academic.

>
>and then there's black culture/history
>german culture/history
>and black german culture/history
>that she will never get in school

right. my oldest daughter, who was public schooled throughout was pissed when she took world history and they went over every continent but ran out of time to do Africa. i was like, duh, it's at the end of the alphabet -- oh, wait.

for parents who don't homeschool, this is still possible to add enrichment activities to ensure your kids are knowing what's up.

>
>when they went over the month of february with her 2/3 class,
>i think she might have been the only child who'd heard of a
>black history month

:-/

>
>and yet her white male teacher decided earlier this year to
>have a classroom talk about "the protests" that i found so
>inappropriate and "othering" for black/latino kids. things
>like that just make me want to pull her immediately.

damn. teaching protests without any grounding in history. nice job.

>
>but there's violin, art, choir, movement at her school that we
>couldn't entirely replace in a homeschool context

homeschool co-ops, community groups, private lessons, etc., are options. it was fortunate that when we made the decision on cj2 (our then-8th grader) that there was a homeschool band with a concert band, wind ensemble and jazz band that he was able to participate in. his magnet band was award winning (even if the teacher was a dick) and respected throughout the state. our homeschool band played music that was even higher level than that and had multiple members of the all-state band on it.

(these two brothers were jazz prodigies, and played with college professors in bands and stuff when they were in 8th and 9th grade). for kids who are REALLY gifted in a particular area, homeschooling gives you a chance to let them fully explore and nurture that.

>
>i go back and forth on all of the points but have been really
>thinking about it for next year because i don't think there's
>an option for a mixed 3/4 class and she's always been ahead of
>her peers and i don't want her in a 2/3 class again next year.

one of the biggest things about homeschooling is the relationship w/ your child / children. our kids have healthy relationships outside the home, in the community, at work, etc., but we have been blessed to have really strong relationships with them, and that they have them with each other.

that's something that a lot of folks miss out on. (arguably, within the homeschool community, itself). homeschooling doesn't make that happen, but it affords ample opportunity for it.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad