The internet is my gateway drug to the hardcore information found in published magazines and books. You know my interest is serious if I’ve bought a book off of Amazon or gone and spent an evening reading at our local bookstore. The fact that I have so many books I just have to read that I’ve already done those things multiple times and checked out (and read) a stack of books from the library means that I’ve reached critical mass. Armed with the kind of information that I’ve been inhaling the past few months, I am now pretty well sold on homeschooling.

I’ve always been like this. If I have an interest I just have to research the stuffing out of what ever topic I’m currently stuck on, be it hamsters or educational theory. When we were deciding to start our family I read more pregnancy and baby books than I can even remember, and then proceeded to develop such obscure complications that they weren’t even mentioned in the scads of information I’d processed in preparation. Kind of figures, doesn’t it?

The great thing about being weird like this is that in the process of all of the insecure, perfectionistic searching for answers is that by the time you make your decision, you really know why you are doing it. You know exactly where you stand and you can articulate your reasoning. Being a very verbal person, I need to be able to completely verbalize my reasoning to myself. I do not do well running off of gut feelings and instinct; I like my facts cold and hard, and I like my opinions to make a heck of a lot of sense when argued.

The trouble with needing those facts and logically reasoned out excuses is that sometimes I don’t jump on a gut feeling that does deserve some attention. Sometimes I take longer in making a change than I really needed to or even ought to have taken. However, I am pretty comfortable with myself, knowing that it is better for me to be a few weeks off with my head on straight and my eyes on the target and my heart in a happy place on the matter.

I think the biggest reason why it took so long for us to come to this place is that I don’t have one solid reason for wanting to have him learn at home. I have many reasons that span all the way from knowing my son’s temperament to disagreeing with some of the very fundamental principles that public schooling uses to educate. I will go more into those reasons later.

So, we will remove Jonas from school. We are not 100% certain if we will do this before the school year is up or wait out the last five weeks. We will be finding out in the next few days if Chris will be able to take leave for a two week vacation that we would like to do in May. That is one of our largest deciding factors, as well as Jonas’ increasing dislike and frustration with school. We are on our third week of a substitute who makes Jonas’ regular teacher look like a saint, and he is already growing by leaps and bounds through our efforts to work with him at home. So we will see. An early exit might be just what he needs.

I do plan to blog about many of the reasons why I am choosing this course for us for right now. Because there are so many different facets to my choice, I’m sure it will take a few posts. If you have any questions, do ask them here, and I will answer them.