1. Homeschooling doesn't mean babysitting. You are actually teaching your kids, just in a different way. 
2. Homeschooling isn't for everyone and that's ok. Do what feels right (and best) for your child. 
3. Preparation is key. Every day should be scheduled and prepared. 
4. Flexibility is also key. Kids some times have bad days the way adults do. Don't ever feel bad about throwing your schedule out for the day and winging it. It's ok. 
5. There are more families of color that homeschool than you think. 

If you want to learn more about homeschooling, do your research. There are tons of groups, organizations and websites that dig deep into how you do it and determining if its right for you. And if you want to know more about my experience, let me know - I'm happy to share!

I'm ready to end this search of finding the perfect school for our son. I will talk about our school journey in another post and why we chose to homeschool, but right now I'm going to focus on our recent quest of finding a school to enroll him in.

School classroom

Let me start this post by saying my son does not have any learning abilities or special needs. Our decision to homeschool was by personal choice, and residual trauma from a horrible Pre-K experience (a bad teacher with no patience for 3 years old = drama!). In the last year, he has expressed interest in attending "real school" (aka public school). We aren't completely against the idea, but we definitely want to empower him to make decisions so, our journey began.

I have viewed, met, and spoken with teachers at public, private, Montessori, Christian, you name it - and one thing's for certain: every school is different. From the school calendar to the teaching method, everyone has their own way of doing things and that's pretty darn cool. In fact, we actually prefer Montessori schools over all of them but given some of the recent meetings, we're still not quite sure.

I'm sure many of you are saying, just put him in a school. Generally speaking, its just that simple but its not. We are fully involved, hands-on parents and quite frankly, schools just aren't what they used to be. You really truly have to spend time getting to know the school and especially the people that work within them. My parents were totally engaged in every aspect of my schooling all the way through college. I SO appreciate them for serving in one of the most important roles: my advocate.

We as parents forget that we are advocates for our children so it is our job to speak up when we need to it and to rally the troops when its time to put a plan in place. This next school year is going to be a dozy for us in a number of ways but I am fully committed to making the best possible choice for my little guy.