Around 2008 (I'm starting to lose track), we unenrolled the oldest two kids from public school. They had attended first grade and kindergarten. That year did not go well. The kindergartener was being removed from class and placed with the special education teacher once a day. He was starting to have terrible self esteem issues. At the end of the year, he still didn't know his letter sounds. He hated school. I now understand that he was dyslexic.
The first grader could read just fine, but constantly cried and fought me when it was time to get ready for school. She would also spend about an hour after school crying and kicking the wall. No one would give me an explanation for this or help me figure out what to do to help her. I now understand that she was overstimulated by school. We also had a terrible parent/teacher conference where the teacher basically told me that my daughter was not very smart, "didn't understand what was happening in class," and "had a deer in the headlights look" whenever the teacher asked her questions in class. The school did testing and she scored in the top 1 percentile in the country. So the school district had a gifted specialist come to the school and spend three days with her. The gifted specialist said she was not gifted (despite the test scores) because she didn't "ask a lot of questions."
I asked the school multiple times about dyslexia testing, because I felt like they were showing a lot of signs of dyslexia. The school insisted that they were not dyslexic (despite the kindergartener not being able to learn his letter sounds). Years later, we finally paid for a dyslexia assessment for the youngest and found that not only was he profoundly dyslexic, he had two forms of dyslexia. Two of my other kids were also diagnosed with combined-type ADHD.
I saw the writing on the wall and withdrew them at the end of the year. The school was not going to be able to meet their needs. The kindergartener was just getting left in the dust and the first grader was constantly throwing fits so she wouldn't have to go to school. I never wanted to homeschool, but I saw no other option.
Kids #3, 4 and 5 have never been to school. They have the oldest two to thank for that.
I only have one homeschooler left - the eleven year old. All four of the oldest have now gone to college.
The oldest is now 24 and works in horticulture. She works as an account manager for a commercial landscaping company and is in the early stages of starting a wholesale specialty flower farm. She just purchased around five acres with a house, has started her crop rows and is installing irrigation systems. She has a very solid business plan with estimates on how many trays of flowers she needs to sell to make a certain income, etc. She actually has a business advisor (another business owner) who is helping her with short-term and long-term planning. She attended Texas Tech University.
Kid #2 is 23 and will be in his last semester of nursing at Texas Christian University. He already has his internship set up for the fall where he will rotate through the different departments in the hospital. He's planning to apply to a residency program at a children's hospital so he can become a pediatric nurse. He's also married.
Kid #3 is 21 and will be in her last semester as a visual arts major at Texas Woman's University. Her concentration is hyper-realist paintings. She is getting ready to apply to graduate school for the 2027-2028 school year. She wants to be a college professor. She is getting married this summer and also works part-time as a ballet teacher.
The 18 year-old is currently attending community college and taking prerequisite classes for the Medical Diagnostic Sonography program. This program only accepts 12 applicants a year and is very competitive. She also works part-time as a ballet teacher with her sister.
Kid #5 (11) is trapped homeschooling with me for another 7 years.
