Here I Go Again

It appears that one thing all three of my children now have in common would be homeschool.

Yes, after 3 years of tears and crying and begging to be homeschooled we finally decided to give Mouse what she wants.

Hah. She has no idea what she is in for. LOL. Songbird will tell you that homeschool is the only time she EVER went through an entire text book.

All three of my children have ended up at home for different reasons. I am far from anti-public school. I'm all about WHAT WORKS for THIS child.  And lets face it, that's not always a traditional classroom. For my son it was a terrible fit. For my second child public school is the perfect fit. She did come home for a year because she thought it looked like her brother was having too much fun.  She couldn't take it. I put her back in public the next year. (I have non-negotiable one year commitment rule- no school hopping.)

Mouse has always wanted to be homeschooled. That was actually part of the reason we didn't. She was a Velcro child and wouldn't even speak to other adults for a long time.  She needed a degree of separation.

I also wanted her in a system that is used to identifying problems and disabilities. She has adoption related issues and we did not know if any of that would carry over to learning disabilities and such.

Unfortunately we moved into a failing district. They've been a failed school since before we got here...and they still are going on 4 years later. And darned if it isn't in the same subjects that my daughter is failing in.

After working with the teacher last year we pinpointed many of the problems. And many of them require a little bit more from a teacher but not outside intervention, if that makes sense. But there is no time for the extra in the classroom. So she is one that will fall between the cracks. Its the nature of the public school beast. At least this one. In another district this might or might not be the case.

So we have a kid who is barely keeping her head above water and destined to start failing by the end of fourth grade.  Add a school system that can't help. And we have jobless parents with no money to send to a private school. Add to that the extremely unstable day to day operations as daddy tries to find a new career.

Ugh.

With all this homeschooling looks good. It gives the individual attention she must have to get on track with reading and math and be able to succeed in school.  It gives the flexibility to travel with daddy to interview cities or for house hunting or whatever may come. And if we hit the point where we run out of savings before that job is found...then it makes moving into the travel trailer oh so much easier as transportation will not be an issue depending on where we end up parking. Lastly, it makes the transition to our new location that much easier when we do move.

Lots of reasons to do this.

Except the funds.

But.

What they have now that they didn't have when the older two were homeschooled is Public School at Home. They send all the materials at no cost. Including a computer if you need one (we didn't).  Its still the same number of hours. Its their lessons. She still is assigned a teacher for us to meet with and work with when we need help.

And she is beside herself happy.  It was like Christmas when the boxes came.  She is on cloud nine. Its been fun (and a little scary honestly) to watch.

Right now we are still working on some assessments so they can figure out how to start her out and what they can do to work with her issues.

But Monday starts a whole new chapter for her.  She is counting the days.

THE CHILD THAT WOULD CRY EVERY NIGHT NOT TO GO TO SCHOOL IS COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS.

I almost feel like a heel for ever having sent her to public school. Almost.

This year will tell on many levels whether this was good or not. And I am not above changing things if it doesn't work.....

I actually look forward to revisiting the decision come next August. I am very curious to see how this child ticks.

But tonight.....all I can do is sing over and over in my head....




Because Here I Go Again ......