(free use stock photo)
The above picture and website did not spur today's post, but it was a "happy coincidence" that when I did a search for a photo of kids unhappy at school, this picture showed up.
(Post Edit: Get comfy, this is a long post!!)
I've written recently about how we're changing our 5-year-old's educational plan to include less public schooling and more homeschooling.
Well, so much has gone on lately, it's hard to know where to begin!
Let's start with the most recent school shooting. It is not as though I haven't had homeschooling heavy on my mind, but certainly when there is an event like this, the desire to keep my kids home
with me is even stronger. It was a catalyst to check into one of the homeschooling co-ops, which had previously not had any slots open. As luck would have it, they now have slots open and we are signing up as I write this!
To add insult to injury, we got an email from our district today - just hours ago, actually. They let us know that there has been a threat of a school shooting for tomorrow, and they are investigating the threat. Whether this is a credible threat or not, you can bet I won't be sending my children to school tomorrow.
Another little "highlight" from our week: yesterday our son came home with a little note from his teacher. She wrote: (Your son) was being extremely stubborn today. He just sat there and refused to do any work. He told me he did not want to do anything I asked him to do. Please have a talk with him.
After trying (without luck) to discuss this with her, I had to speak to the principal, who basically said that it is her right to communicate the way she chooses. It has been so hard to send him to school knowing he was not being nurtured in any way. Dropping him off at school she did not even greet the children as they came in in the morning many times. I saw kids trying to say hello to her but she'd be grumpy and hurried and rarely managed a gruff "Morning." to them. Sad :(
Yes, we did have a talk with our son. We explained that, although the work may seem "not fun" to him, he should try to be more cooperative with his teacher, and I reminded him that he would be homeschooling so, and to hang in there. I feel this is a good compromise for our family.
We are planning to phase our son out of school this coming month (January). I'm hoping to connect with our son's best friend at school to set up some playdates, but there are (understandably) obstacles in the way in regards to getting contact info about another child. I'm planning to send a note to this child's parents through our son's teacher and hope for the best (please send out good intentions for that!).
I don't want it to seem that FEAR is pushing us out of the public schools. It is a multi-faceted situation. I realize it may be hard to get the entire sentiment through just quick blog entries, so please trust that we have prayed and slept on this for quite some time now.
I decided to phase out my working within the public schools and accept more hours tutoring and doing other away-from-school work so that my availability in the public school is going to go down significantly.
Here's to listening to the Universe and honoring what our hearts and souls are asking for!
No comments:
Post a Comment