This Guy's First Band Concert

First, a confession. Not a confession.  A telling.  My son has been attending public school for the last three months. I'm not sure why I didn't feel good about saying that before?  Something maybe had me feeling a bit like a failure.  Or a fake (ya know, cause my blog says that this is mostly about homeschool).  There were multiple reasons for having him try out public school this year.  I didn't want to send him.  He didn't want to go.  But we felt like it was necessary to help him understand the privilege it is to be homeschooled.  Nuff said about that.

Anyway, he never liked it.  I never liked it.  It was less than ideal in every way possible.  Finally, there was a "last straw" about a week and a half ago.  We both felt like we'd have enough of the nonsense and the two of us came to an agreement about ending our experiment with public school and making a fresh start with homeschool.  So I left him in just long enough to participate in the band concert (his first EVER!) and pulled him out of school the very next day.  As we were leaving the school in the pouring rain he said to me with an absolute flat tone, "I'm so glad this is my last day. I HATE this place."  I had mixed feelings about his statement.  I was glad, of course, that my goal had been achieved: My son had seen for himself teh stark difference between public and homeschool. He had gained an appreciation for the pleasures and joys of homescool and the time and sacrifice required of me to make it happen.  WIN FOR MOM!  Of course, I didn't say that out loud. I'm sure the message was already lout and clear.  But, then I stopped to think about all the kids at that school who probably feel exactly the same way.  They don't have the option to school somewhere else.  And they should.  This left me feeling very sad.

I will say that trying band was the best part of our public school experience.  I'm so glad he was "forced" into that and that he's found a new interest, maybe even a talent.  He's agreed to carry on with trumpet as part of his homeschool, which makes me super happy.  But we are even happier to have him start back into homeschool with us tomorrow!! :)