"I" bounces back!

So our daughter, "I", recently had surgery and was expected to be out of school for 2 weeks. This, along with the illness she has been fighting, lead to her wanting to home school the rest of the year. I kept her home Tuesday and Wednesday and put her through a normal home school day. Thursday morning she woke up and wanted to go back to school early. I don't know what changed her mind, but I sent her and she came home happy as a clam to be back at school. I guess it was just one of those things that needed to work itself out.

Don't look...just jump

I am a mom of 3 kids. Three very different kids. I mean VERY different! I have been a mom almost 12 years and I still find myself wondering "what am I doing?!?" on a daily basis. Lately I have really had my head spinning. I started home schooling our 11 year old daughter, M. She is in 5th grade and was struggling terribly in school. Now I want to right away do away with the misconception that it was the schools fault. It wasn't. Her teachers were wonderful! The problem was our daughter. I hate saying that, I really do. She is not a bad kid, not at all! But she has some set backs. She has a pretty severe case of ADHD. She also has ODD (oppositional Defiance Disorder), Sensory issues, anxiety and depression. Not pretty, but the hand we were dealt. All of these combined make being in a classroom with 27 other kids very difficult! After very careful consideration, talking to her teachers, special ed, the principal, and trying several different interventions, we decided collectively to take her out for the rest of the year and work at home with her.

Some days are harder than others. Some days she is ready to go and gets her work done and everything is great. Some days she wakes up and fights me every step of the way. Some days I am so affirmed I did the right thing. Some days...I just cry. I don't feel I made a mistake, but some days...oh, some days.

Now we also have a 6 year old daughter, I. She is in Kindergarten. She is brilliant! She is far ahead of others her age (both a good and a bad thing) and she does wonderfully in her school work. She also has been sick all of 2013, has only been to school 10 days, and just had surgery and was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. She also has asked me to let her finish the year at home and she could go back in First grade.

In Minnesota, Kindergarten is not required. We pay a lot (in my opinion) for her to attend kindergarten and we could use the money elsewhere. She has stated that she is bored. When I work with her at home, she is never bored and she is excelling at a wonderful rate. However, my husband does not want me to home school her as he feels I would be taking on too much (did I mention I was a preschool teacher??), and my mom is dead-set against it because she just has a bad view of home school (I was home schooled as a teen...it didn't go well), but my Mother-in-law is supportive and thinks I should. What to do, what to do.

I would love to home school exclusively, however, our 3.5 year old son, J, has some special needs and they are being met wonderfully through a fantastic team at his school. So I feel they are much more equipped to teach and guide him at this point.

I am not some hippie-dippy, crunchy granola mom. But sometimes I think maybe they don't just have a head full of wheat grass.