The Adventure Begins...

I must be crazy.

Go ahead, you can say it. It's true.

In addition to my semi full-time job as a reporter for The East Hampton Star, and my weekend job as producer for the East End Special Players, my husband and I have also decided to yoink our 12-year-old son, Bingham Warner Lancelot Johnson, out of public school and teach him ourselves.

Off the bat I want you to know that I have some experience with this.

I homeschooled (although I prefer the word "unschooled") my middle child, Joelie, for a couple of years. She is, by the way, now KILLING it at East Hampton High School, high honors and all that, and just as importantly, has developed her own Planet Joelie, and is constantly surrounded by several orbiting teenagers who are magnetically attracted to her and are similar to her in structure and composition.

I also homeschooled Bing before, but he was a bit too -- let's say -- distracted. Too third-grade-boy-ish. Zooming around and unable to focus with the concentration of his studious older sister.

I also was homeschooled. Yes. While we trotted around the globe to accompany my stepfather on movie sets, my mother took up the banner of educator (along with writer) and made me her very own personal pet project. It wasn't just curriculum. It was riding lessons. And pottery, piano, sculpting -- all with incredibly wonderful and eccentric tutors, sometimes with other children, and sometimes on my own.

For those few years, it was magic. When I told my mom I was considering this craziness, she gushed, "Oh, I'm so excited! Send him into the city on the Jitney, I'll take him to all the museums."

Why now? Without going into too much detail (which I may save for a later date), Bing is not happy in school, underperforming, and sick to his stomach at the prospect of going in on most days. He begged me to homeschool him again. And when one of my children begs for something, it's usually pretty serious.

Photo by Durell Godfrey

So, here we are, getting started. If you follow along with me, I will let you know, step by step, everything we need to do to get set up homeschooling in New York State. About our trials and triumphs, the positive and the not-so-good.

He goes back to school tomorrow after a required two-week suspension, which I may explain in a later blog, or maybe not. However, I also intend to file a Letter of Withdrawal and a Letter of Intent with the Superintendent of Springs School tomorrow, the first step on the journey to becoming a state-recognized homeschooling family -- a necessary bit of legal papering which helps avert the possibility of having Child Protective Services come to your door, and having all of your friends hear about it on the six o'clock news.

Stay tuned.