29 Apr 03
mimosa

 
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Homeschool

I figure the fecal matter might go flying in the breeze pretty soon. I didn't want to break the news of homeschooling to the boy's father right away, but in the last round of postcard sending, Moomie spilled the beans, and I'm not going to censor him, so there you have it.

Yes, as Napalm mentioned, we've gone to homeschooling. Frankly, with the way things are, with me working full-time and all, this is not my first option, but the local educational system just wasn't working out. The overworked, underpaid, hyperadministrated teachers are too stressed out to be of much use in this situation, and they don't seem to have much experience in dealing with non-mainstream kids anyway.

Part of the problem is that the kids were transferred into the local system with only two months left in the school year. The school system is so messed up that the pressure is huge on the teachers right now to do all their testing and assessments and hurry up and decide who goes to the next grade and who doesn't.

My kids are pretty bright. But they do have gaps in their knowledge, thanks to lots of moving around among school systems. With all the stress that the teachers are under, all the pressure my children were under, and the extremely unhelpful constant threats that if my children didn't settle down and demonstrate proficiency, they would flunk the current grade - the whole thing became a lose/lose situation for everyone. And the gaps in knowledge weren't getting addressed at all!

It reached a point where the teachers' hands were tied, that they'd have to deny advancement to the next grade. They are so constrained by the administration that they don't have any options. Something like that would utterly devastate my children. I mean completely. It's already happened to Moomie once, and I'll not have it happening again.

Plus my kids were bored out of their gourds covering stuff that they have covered many times over, ad infinitum. And they are full of questions. Teachers with lots of students per classroom and a rigid curriculum and schedule have little room for questions. That's messed up!

Since I was doing their remedial instruction at night along with all the homework anyway, it soon became obvious how inefficient and unintelligent the situation had become. If I'm doing the teaching anyway, what the hell are they going to school for? To add stress? To do the same tired stuff over and over? To constantly be reminded that they are flunking their grade? To be ignored, rebuked, and punished?

Enough already! I found out that homeschooling has a huge following in South Florida. Not only are there statewide homsechooling associations, but there are several of them right here in southern Palm Beach County! Apparently the homeschool movement has gotten so large, some sites are saying that it's made it to the mainstream culture. Now that I've begun talking with people about this, I've discovered it's true. So far everyone I have spoken with has known at least one person, and usually more, who has been homseschooled. Where I come from, that's incredibly rare.

I'm finding tons of resources, and already my children are doing better, both academically and behaviorally.

I don't know how their father is going to react to that. In some ways, he's such a conformist and wants nothing more than for his children to fit in. But he's also very unhappy that Moomie was rolled back a grade, and would like nothing more than to advance him again. If the current objectives are met, we can do that. The goal is to have Moomie ready for fifth grade, and Boober for third, by autumn. And if they stay with me longer, the goal is to advance at least one grade per year, although, if they pace out faster than that, I won't try to slow them up. The plan is to keep giving them material as they are ready for it, starting with basic literacy items and moving forward.

Right now, as far as I can tell, their only gaps are in English composition and math. Their reading, science, and social studies are excellent, although Boober needs some additional phonics help to build confidence and thus desire. I don't want him to merely be able to read well; I want it to be so easy for him that it's fun, and that he does it because he wants to, not because he has to.

I can't tell you how much a difference this change has made. All the agony and tension in the house has gone right out of it. It's amazing now to see how much of our lives were revolving around the school, and how it was adversely affecting all of us. For the first time, everybody was able to sleep well, everybody had a good attitude, and everybody seemed happy. And we are really making some progress. I love that.

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