Homeschooling, co-ops and taking the road less traveled

I am a Home Schooling Momma.  This being said I am not anti-public schools.  I do have 3 adult children that graduated from public school and received a good education that fit their needs.  My youngest child however did not fit the public school mold.

I am raising a highly intelligent 6 year old.  At age 18 months she was already counting to 20, knew all the letters and colors and showed a highly active imagination.  She also started suffering from night terrors.  I realized that this child would not do well in a public school setting.  We have been a single income family for most of our marriage and private school was just not in the budget.

I started doing formal preschool at 2 1/2 because my child was so curious that she needed some structure just so she would stop getting into so much trouble.  This last September if I had enrolled her in public school she would have been placed in a half day Kindergarten.  We are in the process of completing 2nd grade curriculum.

This has been an interesting journey to say the least.  Dealing with a child that says things that make her sound like a little adult, but having the attention span and behavior of a 6 year old.  Her sleep issues make things extra difficult as she wakes up with nightmares almost every night and doesn't like to go to bed at night.  As much as I would like to keep to a schedule, when she is tired, doing school work becomes a fight.

This last year we found a co-op to join.  Once a week we go meet with them and my daughter has the opportunity to take some enrichment classes and socialize with other children.  Before co-op she attended church, went to library programs and then to indoor and outdoor playgrounds.  Going to the co-op means she is forming bonds and friendships instead of just learning to play nicely with others.

Doing school at home means I have a lot more flexibility with how I teach my daughter.  My girl loves science so we do a lot of hands on learning for science.  We can sit down and read a book or play reading games on the computer.  For history I can sit her down to watch a video or have her do some worksheets.  Yes I still have a set curriculum that we are working on but I only spend about 2-3 hours on school with her depending on how cooperative she is that day.

We have passes to the aquarium and are able to teach lifestyle skills along with our formal curriculum which means I can turn any situation into a learning situation.  For now this works for us.  As she gets older and her attention span gets longer I will be able to do more sit down work.  I already have plans for her to be enrolled in an online accredited high school when the time comes.

This is a lot of work, but when you have an unconventional student sometimes an unconventional approach to learning is the best.