It seems I struggled with what to do about my daughter's education clear back to her pre-school years.  As most concerned parents, I wanted her to have the best education possible. 

Should I start her this year or next?  Should I enroll her in special classes to enhance her education?  All these questions and more ran through my mind.  I ended up enrolling her when she was 5 years old.  I later regretted this action.

My daughter struggled three quarters of every year up until I just couldn't handle seeing her pain a day longer.  Every year there were countless meetings with the school administrators, principals, teachers, counselors, etc.., and yet every year my daughter was passed to the next grade only to struggle another year.  The reason she was passed, I was told, was because she "caught up" during the last quarter of the school year.   And no matter how often I asked in the early years for her to be held back, I was always told that it would destroy her fragile self-image.

The frustration of seeing my daughter's self esteem lower every year had my husband and I look into other alternatives for my daughter's education. 

I had no doubt as to my daughter's intelligence.  From a very early age, she had more common sense then some adults I know.  She picked up on subtle emotional disturbances and had a keen insight into why people acted the way they did.  Unfortunately, this didn't help with her school work.  What this did do though, was show me that out of my three children, she had a different style of learning.  My responsibility was to find her the educational tools that would enhance her learning style and not stunt her emotional growth.

After much prayer and research, homeschooling was the method we chose, and for the last year and a half, I have NOT regretted that choice once.

-Deanna Goble, April 2000

1999-2000 School Year

In viewing my daughter's style of learning, I found the following curriculum to work best.

I used Saxon's Math and Bob Jones University's Heritage Studies and Science curriculum with their structured lesson plans.  (Even with these plans, I still had the capability of changing the daily lessons and supplementing with other materials). 

I went with a more relaxed structure on the other subjects using workbooks and the internet.  Hayes School Publishing Co., Inc.'s workbooks help continue her review of language usage and punctuation.  While Teacher Created Materials, Inc. has several ideas on reading lesson plans using award winning books.  (Most of these materials were purchased at The Learning Post, Ltd. ). 

In all the work, whether through book reports or research papers, she refines her handwriting skills and typing skills. 

As for spelling and vocabulary, we use different workbooks and spelling packets purchased at The Learning Post.