Hello, Again!
ladyeliza_r
Well, I thought I'd say "Hello" again to everyone!
Sarah just came home earlier this week after a few very difficult
weeks in public school. For those of you who may not remember us,
Sarah is 8. We first pulled her out of school after a disastrous year
in Kindergarten in which she was medicated for ADHD, and we had to
deal with Social Services over taking her off of it, and our refusal
to test her for Asperger's Sydrome, ODD, and OCD. We spent first
grade fighting over various curriculae, then were unschooling when
second grade began. However, we still were dealing with DSS, and I
ended up letting Sarah go back to school. It was her choice. She
seemed to be happy, but she wasn't really learning much as far as I
can tell.
We moved to NYC this summer. Sarah went back and forth on being home
and going to school, and ultimately went back to school. This time
however it did not work out very well at all, and so she is home once
again.
The past couple days have been wonderful with her! It is so good to
see her waking up smiling again on her own time, rather than having
to argue to get her to the bus on time earlier than either of us
wanted to be awake. Instead of ignoring her drawing materials, she
has drawn a great picture of a rooster sitting on a nest (she
says "Well, Daddy Hens have to take care of the chicks too!) of eggs.
We just found out that we have the opportunity to move back to NC for
a couple of years, which will be nice.
The odd thing is, even though we weren't homeschooling here, someone
(keep in mind, please, that we are living in military base housing!)
called social services complaining that we weren't homeschooling
Sarah properly because she was out playing during the day!! She
didn't start school on the first day of school because she was going
through the placement tests for the district. But geez! Even if we
WERE homeschooling, there is no law saying a homeschooled child MUST
be indoors from 9 to 2!
THEN...Tuesday was her last day. I was supposed to be taking her up
to a different school on Wednesday (because they wanted her in a
special ed class, which isn't offered at her districted school). We
didn't go first thing in the morning, and by afternoon Sarah was a
crying wreck, and she told me it was too much to change schools AND
class, and she wanted to be home because school wasn't as much fun as
she thought and she missed us.
My husband Paul was on duty on Wednesday and Thursday, and I didn't
tell him about Sarah's decision to stay home until Thursday
afternoon. Not an hour later, as we were at the playground, another
child asked Sarah why she was being homeschooled and didn't she want
to go back to school?
Sarah's reply "No, I don't want to go back. I love homeschooling!
It's lots more fun!" and they went over to the other side of the
playground, so I didn't hear anything else they said. (Although not
two hours later, the mom of one of Sarah's other friends emailed me
asking me if it was true Sarah wasn't going back to school AND if we
were moving - so apparently Sarah mentioned our move to her friend on
the playground as well).
UGH. I look forward to leaving this place. I'd like to decide what
I'm doing without hearing my decision questioned ten minutes later
from people who aren't even my friends!!
ANYWAY...that's what we're up to right now.
Elizabeth
Sarah just came home earlier this week after a few very difficult
weeks in public school. For those of you who may not remember us,
Sarah is 8. We first pulled her out of school after a disastrous year
in Kindergarten in which she was medicated for ADHD, and we had to
deal with Social Services over taking her off of it, and our refusal
to test her for Asperger's Sydrome, ODD, and OCD. We spent first
grade fighting over various curriculae, then were unschooling when
second grade began. However, we still were dealing with DSS, and I
ended up letting Sarah go back to school. It was her choice. She
seemed to be happy, but she wasn't really learning much as far as I
can tell.
We moved to NYC this summer. Sarah went back and forth on being home
and going to school, and ultimately went back to school. This time
however it did not work out very well at all, and so she is home once
again.
The past couple days have been wonderful with her! It is so good to
see her waking up smiling again on her own time, rather than having
to argue to get her to the bus on time earlier than either of us
wanted to be awake. Instead of ignoring her drawing materials, she
has drawn a great picture of a rooster sitting on a nest (she
says "Well, Daddy Hens have to take care of the chicks too!) of eggs.
We just found out that we have the opportunity to move back to NC for
a couple of years, which will be nice.
The odd thing is, even though we weren't homeschooling here, someone
(keep in mind, please, that we are living in military base housing!)
called social services complaining that we weren't homeschooling
Sarah properly because she was out playing during the day!! She
didn't start school on the first day of school because she was going
through the placement tests for the district. But geez! Even if we
WERE homeschooling, there is no law saying a homeschooled child MUST
be indoors from 9 to 2!
THEN...Tuesday was her last day. I was supposed to be taking her up
to a different school on Wednesday (because they wanted her in a
special ed class, which isn't offered at her districted school). We
didn't go first thing in the morning, and by afternoon Sarah was a
crying wreck, and she told me it was too much to change schools AND
class, and she wanted to be home because school wasn't as much fun as
she thought and she missed us.
My husband Paul was on duty on Wednesday and Thursday, and I didn't
tell him about Sarah's decision to stay home until Thursday
afternoon. Not an hour later, as we were at the playground, another
child asked Sarah why she was being homeschooled and didn't she want
to go back to school?
Sarah's reply "No, I don't want to go back. I love homeschooling!
It's lots more fun!" and they went over to the other side of the
playground, so I didn't hear anything else they said. (Although not
two hours later, the mom of one of Sarah's other friends emailed me
asking me if it was true Sarah wasn't going back to school AND if we
were moving - so apparently Sarah mentioned our move to her friend on
the playground as well).
UGH. I look forward to leaving this place. I'd like to decide what
I'm doing without hearing my decision questioned ten minutes later
from people who aren't even my friends!!
ANYWAY...that's what we're up to right now.
Elizabeth