My homeschool journey...

I have always felt God tug at me to homeschool my children and I have never wanted to listen then finally gave in several years ago till finances beckoned me to go back to work briefly) Four children later I have listened again and have begun the journey

This pictured moment was the proudest moment for me. Part of our homeschooling journey was the decision to work with my out of control son. My son was seen by a therapist while in a brick and mortar school for behavior issues that we wanted to get a hold of. Have you ever been terrified because you know if something doesn't change bad things will soon happen. My son was very defiant all the time.. He had no respect authority and ALWAYS pushed the button. He has no sense of cause and effect (If i do this then this will happen) By the age of 7, he had attempted petty theft twice (which I caught and made him take care of immediately). He kicked and punched two children in school. So as I write you can imagine the struggles we had at home with him.
Then begin the school year of 2010. My plan for the year was to homeschool my new 6th grader and Kinder while my son (1st grader) went to school. I had NO intention of homeschooling him...I feared the outcome and honestly didn't want to deal with it. It wasn't until my oldest applied for a new school and we thought that if she gets accepted (she was waitlisted)I can't be in two places at the same time dropping both kids off each on the other side of town. So a careful and unwilling plan was made to homeschool ALL the children from the beginning of the year (in the beginning I could only say really....what was I thinking.) We have since changed chartered homeschools twice. The first online school was overkill and working with a child with problems proved to make a bad situation worse. I was soo exhausted of the fighting, the screaming, and the crying. I began to really question why I started this. Then God who has always taken care of us made this bad thing better. I befriended several unschooling homeschool moms who made my thoughts of unschooling a little more at ease. We were also waitlisted for another homeschool charter that allowed a more hands on learning environment...then miraculously mid year 2 spots opened up as I told them I was willing to drive up to 20 miles to meet their teachers I pleaded to just try to get us in...This they did!!! A teacher in the mountains was willing to drive to us every 20 days...My two oldest were in the school since early Dec and the hands on element, labs, etc are so much better..It has now been a little over 2 months and we are more at peace still working through curriculum that works and learning strategies but we are ALL happy. One of the many struggles my son has is writing. I never wanted to push it but he still has to write some things for practice. Lines are non existent in his writing. His letter formations are everywhere. This never goes without a huff and a puff.
We have tried to get him into the ADHD clinic for several months and they kept denying us stating that he did not fit their criteria without ever meeting with him. We pushed and pushed, continued calls and emails to his Dr. and then we finally got an appt. Then on January 31, 2011 (about a year since his last therapist appointments which did nothing not even a diagnosis) we finally received a diagnosis...he had mental disorders, Occupational Defiance Disorder, and ADHD. Because of the combination of problems the doctor started us on a med for one and these pictures are what happened after just one day of the meds. You can see clear defined letters that are all within the lines. What an amazing God we have!!!

Though this was amazing, I will be honest the mental disorder really took me into a state of denial. My mother is bipolar/manic and doesn't take medication. She has developed addictions to a variety of things: gambling, caffeine, sugar, and spicy foods. This all trigger her disorder and though I am told the Christian thing to do is to cast her out (as I do believe there is evil in her) I just can't do that. So we have taken her in but not without suffering. We are now working to send her to Korea to live with her family abroad. So when they told me mental disorder I just thought of my mom. How unfair my life is that I now have to also take care of my mental son...I can't sit and watch him turn into my mom and do nothing about it. Through prayer, I realize that God opened these doors to help him. If we can get him cycled to see that this is the norm for his life to take a pill every day by training him early then it will be habitual and he will not refuse to become like so many mentally ill that refuse medications. So this is my journey....