Let’s pause and take a good look at that title for a moment.

Ok. Ok. Breath, me.

Having a child who doesn’t fit conventional schooling has always had me think about homeschooling.  It’s easy to over analyze early education years into regrets.  It’s not that he didn’t learn in those years but right at the point in which his brain process was wide with creative thoughts, I sent him to a place that supports thoughts within boundaries.

With a few exceptions, we had a handful of pretty good years until this year.

Along with the rest of the country, our district is adjusting curriculum to meet common core standards. I am actually in support of the standards, so this is not me against common core.  What this is about is how my district has changed curriculum and how those changes have been implemented.

Within the 1st month of school my son started complaining about language arts. To make sure it wasn’t just teenage crazy going on, I had him write me a paper with his thoughts on it.  Next, I went to a presentation on how the new language arts curriculum was being implemented. I sat with an open mind but the thing that struck me overall was the BOXED in feeling of it. I can’t explain exactly what I was picking up on but I asked a question about “the creative child” and was assured that this new curriculum was a great fit for all children.

Every day he came home with a criticism of the curriculum. He would pick it apart and would talk to me in exhaustion on how this should be that way, or x, or y, or z or omygoshigetitkid.

My son is also gifted in persistent point making.

So we talked with the teacher at parent teacher conferences about his concerns.

Then we had a meeting with the school curriculum assistant and his teacher.

When neither of those seemed to work, we explored getting him into the district gifted program, but I refuse to play the game, and that’s a different tangent.

Illinois gets a lot of things wrong about education, but not homeschooling. I don’t know how that group has done it but Illinois is a really friendly homeschooling state. We can even part time homeschool subjects with them going to school for the rest.

So that’s where I’m at.  The school has been notified; I have looked into curriculums and have even found one that I think is perfect for him. That’s what this is about anyways.  Him, his needs, and not being blinded into believing that education is a one size fits all approach. Because it’s not.