After years of watching my youngest son struggle through his school days with a deflating self-esteem, I finally decided enough was enough and pulled him out of school.  We live in a small area so bullying is acceptable if you are a jock or belong to the right family lineage sadly.  Aside from watching him get depressed, his grades were plummeting every year to the point he was nearly held back last year.  Despite the fact that he tops the percentile charts when they do the state evaluation tests and had asked me to send him to Summer college when he was 13.  Our state is currently ranked 41/50, which has sadly went UP since last years ranking, and that is not saying much.  I am not bashing the school system, please do not get me wrong, teacher's have their hands full.  I am just explaining my personal reasons for making this decision.  My oldest son graduated from this school system without the ability to fill out an envelope or a job application, which was what initially started opening my eyes to this failing system.  I also have a second son that will graduate this year, so I have indeed given the school system a fair try.  I am not sure what is so different about my youngest child from his brothers, but the system simply is not working for him.  So I felt it was in his best interest to bring him home to teach him.  After all his grades were 20-30% when I made the decision.  I am not sure I can fail him any worse than that lol.  Needless to say this decision has cost me the majority of my spare time.  I am not a teacher (nor do I play one on TV) so I am taking crash courses in state laws, reference materials, websites and techniques to teach my child.  It is exhausting and time consuming, but he is enjoying it most of the time.  It takes me longer to figure out what and how to do then it does for him to complete the work.  He is still a hard headed teen so not every day is a bowl of sunshine, but we are figuring it out.  So for anyone who has commented on my work and I did not personally thank you, I apologize.  I do read through them, but I do not have the time to devote to personally thanking every person on a regular basis.  I struggle with several health issues as well, so that also figures into my battle for personal time.  I hope everyone can understand that I am not trying to be rude or do not care about the wonderful feedback.  I miss the days of leisure.  Believe me it was much easier to get up and ship him off to the school bus for the day lol.