Why I Homeschool

I was called in for a meeting this morning to discuss "a couple of things" by Preston's therapist. I felt attacked but walked away feeling vindicated. Apparently when she asks him what he's doing in school, he tells her "nothing". So.....she thought he was doing "nothing". Through many tears, I explained to her what we do and how we do it and why we do it the way that we do. Preston, on the outside, seems like a normal 7 year old boy. When you look at his brain MRI, it's a little different. He spent 4 1/2 years (4 1/2 of his DEVELOPING years) on chemotherapy. How could it NOT affect his brain? We are very honest with his Oncologist and his Endocrinologist about his progress, his lack of ability to read at grade level, in addition to his health related issues. It appears that the majority of kids with his disease are learning disordered and/or developing neurological issues. Once again, how could they not after all that chemo in infancy, toddlerhood, and preschool ages? No, we may not sit at a desk for 6 hours a day like you would in public school, but we are learning. We are learning our measurements through cooking and and measuring liquids and solids and using a tape measure on everything in the house. We are learning levels and pulleys and ramps via rodent traps all over the yard and the field across the street. We learned about electricity through a board with all different sizes of batteries and light bulbs and wires. At some point in the meeting, I saw a change in her face and I knew that it "clicked". At the end, she told me that if her now learning disordered 20 year old were in 4th grade, she'd do the same thing I'm doing. She also told me that if anyone else questions my decisions, to send them to her. Yes, I feel like I won this one...but why must we homeschoolers constantly defend ourselves and our decisions?