School daze. . .

The word of the day class is "Homeschool".  What does this mean??  When I was younger home schooled was mostly looked down on, people assumed that home schooled kids were "freaks" and "weirdos" who were socially inept.
 I attended public school until I was in 3rd grade and didn't have any problems with it.  I believe it was the second day of 4th grade my mom showed up and pulled me out of class and informed me that I was now going to attend private school. I didn't like the thought of this AT ALL!  Being the shy child that I was I had my familiar friends in public school and had a panic attack of the thought of making new friends.  I attended this school thru 4th and 5th, not having the best of time might I add.  My mom then decided that home school was the way to go.  I was EXTREMELY excited about this! Not getting up early, being at home with my mom, working at my own pace, and not having to be around the "mean" kids.  This was a fun 2 years, 6th and 7th flew by.  It was also a rough 2 years for my parents, they struggled financially with my dad being the sole bread winner. So back to work it was for my mom, which meant back to public school for us.  I had mixed feelings about this, I was excited to see my old friends again (thinking that they would remember me and we could take up where we left off, yeah right), and once again my shyness had me in a full blown panic attack to make another change.  My brother and I had to take a test to make sure we were kept up with our grade level to enter back into public school. I was on the border line, a 70. Not failing but just nearly passing.  The final decision was to hold me back and repeat the 7th grade, this had me sooooo upset because that meant that I would be in a class with NEW people, once again the shy child went into panic mode.  In the long run I turned out fine. . . sure a little weird or freaky at times. . . but OK all the same.

So, now to the point of this blog (sorry, I felt I owed some background to show I am familiar with public, private and home school aspects).
My daughter who is in 3rd grade and has been diagnosed with ODD (possibly turning into bi-polar as she gets older) and now the doctors are looking into her having ADHD.  This has been a very difficult thing for me to deal with. Not that I am ignorant about these subjects, I am having trouble because I am all too familiar with them. My brother was diagnosed with all these problems, around her age, so I have witnessed this first hand.   This was very hard on my brother, my parents and me. At that time it was a new thing so the schools didn't know how to deal with him so ultimately he dropped out.  I want to try to do things different with her, now that it is well known and so much research is out there.  I don't want her to feel like she is different in a bad way because of this. 
This connects my interest with home school.  She has had problems since the very start of school, kindergarten.  She was never up with the rest of the class with reading. The teachers would all tell me that its my fault for not making her read all day and into the night.  I felt that was too much for a little one her age, she needed SOME down time to just be a kid and enjoy life.  Needless to say this battle has gone on for 4 years now. In 2nd grade we changed schools, this seemed to help in the reading department but that is when her issues came to a head, and we finally looked into counseling and doctors.  She is now taking prescription meds (which killed me at first) and doing better attitude wise, but still struggling with her school work.  I have had meetings with her teacher and councilors about her work and all I keep hearing them say is she isn't "UP" with kids her age.  So now I have been pondering why are they pushing sooooo hard to put her with the kids her age. Why aren't they looking into WHY? isn't she up with kids her age and WHAT? can we do to help this child.  I (along with many moms) have felt for a while now the schools are only worried about their testing and unfortunately this (3rd grade year) is the first year for this test.  I feel like the school is doing just what they need to get these kids passed and on to the next level.  I have witnessed this recently in my step kids, one is dyslexic and never got the help she needed and was passed along till graduation, and one who is a Jr in high school as of present, brought me a paper to review on Martin Luther King. It was chicken scratch and even the simplest words were misspelled. How on earth did he make it all the way to be a Jr and misspell simple words! I haven't found out what he made on that paper but I'm curious to know.
So, my thought now is that the schools don't seem to care about my child, and I cant afford a private school where she can possible get a little more one on one, so who is gonna HELP MY CHILD. . . . .
After days of thought, and many tears, I believe the answer is. . . . ME!!!!!
I know this isn't going to be the easiest thing I have ever done, and it might possibly change my life, but when it comes to my child and my family I should be putting them first.  I have been researching all my options and have quite a few good friends who home school and are willing to give me all the advice I can handle.  I want to let her learn at her own pace and be able to get the help that she needs for her problems, if I cant help her I will enlist the help of others. 
So now I call out to all you home school Mommy's!   What is the best advice you can give?