Monday, August 27, 2012

Back to School: TAKE 2!

Well hi there. So, it has been a long week, and I thought I should let my faithful readers (all two of you) know whats going on...

Oh, and here's my disclaimer: Before we get started on the past week I need to let you know I'm posting this with full expectation of not being judged. I don't take decisions about my family lightly, and we all prayed and took time making these decisions.

Let me start this story by backing up and punting from the beginning. (Look at me using football terminology! Ha ha!) Jeremy had a difficult time in the 1st grade with gaining momentum in reading and writing. Mostly, he just isn't interested. I waved a white flag halfway through the year to get some extra help from the school, and by the end of the year we had a meeting with the guidance counselor, school psychologist, reading specialist, regular teacher, principal, etc. We all came to the decision that the things Mr Jeremy needed to succeed were (a.) frequent, shortened periods of instructional time when focus was necessary and (b.) more one-on-one attention. To me that translated as home school!

So, we decided closer to the end of the school year to try out homeschooling for the 2nd grade. We talked about it with Jeremy and he was on board. We explained what it would be like and even did some practice schoolwork over the summer. No really... We did! We had 95% of our friends and family on board. We even had a virtual school curriculum picked out!

But.... yes, there is a but!

For some reason our file was lost between the actual virtual school and the county virtual school office which meant that we were delayed in getting approved until maybe 3 business days before school should have started. As a result, we didn't get our curriculum until the DAY school should be starting! The next three days were filled with many, many tears--both mine and Jeremy's--as I tried to get him to understand that the schoolwork wasn't optional, and that while he would be assigned a "teacher" from the virtual school I would be his day-to-day teacher. (We did talk about this many times over the summer and I thought that had clicked, but apparently not!) My sweet little boy had turned into a ball of anxious nerves in a matter of days! So, on Friday afternoon I called the county virtual school office to ask some questions. I called the actual virtual school and asked some more questions. I wasn't satisfied with the answers.

That afternoon we had a family pow-wow and decided that it is OK to change your mind and we were happy with regular old school. Now, I know I could have tried to find a new curriculum or go a different route, but there were other issues that I just couldn't find a resolve. And lets keep in mind that baby brother will be here in just 2 months... I didn't have the time or energy to really get where we needed to be.  I called the school back they were trilled he was coming back and they would find the best teacher for him and get him back meeting regularly with his reading teacher! So, this morning we got ourselves together and went back to school.


When Jeremy came home from school my first question was "WELL?!?!?!......" And all he could say was "AWESOME!" I think we made the right choice. And while I don't regret giving homeschooling a shot, I'm glad we came to a resolution quickly! And I'm so excited for my 2nd grade boy! How did you get so big so quickly? Where did the time go???

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