Cyber, Public, Charter, Private and Home Schooling-OH MY!

I’m pulling my children out of public school. Those words can ring through a room like the sound of glass shattering and everyone grows quiet. The pink elephant has just been dropped into the middle of polite conversation. Why doesn’t your family fit into the local school? Will the children fall behind the cutting edge curriculum and technology of the public school? How will you pay for it? What about college? And most importantly (to them), how will they be socialized?  This applies to private, charter, cyber or home schooling. The peer criticism, abundant choices (which is a good problem to have), and time consuming research process is enough to make your head spin and have you decide to keep your kids just where they are.  After all, don’t we all have way too much on our plates already? Sports, volunteering, working, household maintenance, I don’t even know what we are having for dinner tonight and this morning I couldn’t figure out whether or not I fed the dog.  But there comes a time when your family is not thriving in their current environment and for our family that time is now.  So, despite all of the criticism and the paralyzing mountain of information one must plow through to make a decision, we are diving into the abyss. At this point in time I have no idea what type of school my children will be attending next year, but I plan on exploring every possible alternative and I invite you to join me. 

In coming blogs, I plan on exploring how to determine if it is time to move your child, the different options available, narrow your priorities, what questions to ask while visiting or contacting a school, how to execute the plan and (hopefully) how to keep sane while doing all of these things and still live a normal life.

I feel the need to add a disclaimer to this blog; I am a local Montgomery County mom, who loves her two kids and has absolutely no professional background in education.  The only “expertise” I have is twelve years of seeking the education that will best nurture my children as students and the subsequent research required.  My unnatural obsession with curriculum may have aided this quest.