Thanks! It was scary to take her out, but so worth it!! (We are the only homeschoolers in this school district!) And she is well recognized in the community as a wonderful, contributing member. She volunteers in many activities (she has the time now!) and is a role model for many younger children. And I couldn't put a price on her level of happiness now! It's always wonderful to hear about other children who made it through and were successful. Congratulations to you, too!

And she has time to study what she loves that school wouldn't offer her: 2 Shakespeare plays/year; Spanish; an incredible core history/geography/language arts that offers 30-40 historical novels/year; an excellent art program; a superior math program that she's finally comfortable with; AND more time to have singing lessons, piano lessons, work on band material (she's in two) that will all help her prepare for a performing arts college. Local school doesn't offer any of these, and if she had to do them after school hours, there would be no time with all the homework. She would be squeezing herself out of the education she would need to pursue her dreams. As it is now, she feels empowered that she is already getting the education she needs, and I feel she will be supremely prepared for anything university or college will throw at her.

The big bonus -- now that her schooling only takes about 4 hours a day, she has plenty of time to socialize with all her friends (whenever their schedules permit! - after all, they still have 7 hours of school + at least an hour of travel + 2-3 hours of homework or more a night!!) The other big bonus -- her education level is far exceeding that of her peers. I just had her write the CATs and CTCS standardized tests for grade 9 and she tested at grade 10 and above in all her subjects, with the shining star being grade 12.9 plus in most of her language arts. A huge jump from school. (continued next comment)

Even many of those children who had bullied her before seemed to be able to connect with her now (several of them are in the same dance groups). My feeling is that they no longer felt threatened that she would take over their little niche in the classroom. She is pretty, kind, talented, smart, but there were already specific children who felt they "owned" those slots in the classroom, and no one was allowed to supplant them. As she was no longer a threat to them on the classroom turf, many of them felt happy to be friends with her. She has been out of school for going on year 4 now (she's in grade 9) and has no intention of going back until college/university. (continued next comment)

o.k. - I just have to speak from experience here. I took my daughter out of school at the end of grade 5 because she was starting to get nervous and tense. She was apparently doing well academically, but she felt she didn't understand anything. She was being subtly bullied by other girls in her class but was not consciously aware of it -- she knew something was wrong but couldn't put her finger on it. I was hearing the whole story from an older piano student of mine who was my daughter's friend in school. I took her out of school ---- night and day!! Within 3 months she blossomed into a confident, happy, relaxed child. Her social life improved immeasurably. Since she was no longer forced to be in the same class with children who made her uncomfortable, she felt more confident to pursue and develop friendships with other children in her choir group, dance groups etc. Her social life changed for sure -- for the better! (continued next comment)