Homeschooling has its "toughlove" moments, as I am discovering with my extremely bright but underperforming, "edge of 11" year old daughter. As she is struggling to find her identity, she is slipping into rebellion that is not atypical of the age. This past year has seen us deal with plagiarism and constant redirects to encourage her to finish her assignments. Her assignments have deteriorated in quality, rather than improve.

And so yesterday was the time to put the hammer down. I informed her that she had not satisfactorily completed the history, civics, and creative writing assignments for the year, and thus was not ready to pass on to the sixth grade. Next year, the coursework gets tougher, and she has several assignments that she is not ready to pursue. I gave her two options: either she could work over the summer to catch up or she would need to repeat the fifth grade next year. Being the oldest, of course, I know what a "death sentence" that is for a child of that age, as they desperately want to maintain that grade separation from their younger peers. She, of course, opted for working over the summer.

Hopefully, as she realizes that progression is not automatic, she will spend the summer working to catch up. I don't want to hold her back any more than she wants to be held back, but education is something we take seriously, and that is something she needs to understand now, rather than later. Couple that with the fact that she aspires to be a vet, a career that requires EXTENSIVE higher education.

Flunking your own kid is tough, and not a measure I took lightly. But I would rather fail her now, while she's young enough to learn from her mistakes, than fail her in life and watch her struggle because I failed to prepare her for the real world.