I will preface this with: I KNOW that I need to do this right now. That's not really the question. I'm worried about the aftermath.
My 6yo is hs'd. We attend occupational therapy at the local public school 4x/week for 30mins each... so he knows what school IS although it took some doing to make him understand that all those kids weren't just there playing all day.
He DOES "get" that now.
But we have a very difficult 3-8 weeks ahead of us as we get knee-deep into relocation issues (from NJ to IL) AND I'm finishing my Master's AND I'm trying to clear out the things that will not go with us (we also just finished an out-of-state court case involving our former foster daughter). It's become a really bad situation for my 6yo and my 18mo. This has been building since August when it all started and the result is that my poor 6yo has really not been involved in any of the activities he WAS involved in that he loved so much. We've gotten to where TV occurs almost daily (which is bad--it's highly addictive for ds & he gets aggressive when he has too much electronic time). As a result, trying to finally get him involved in some group activities in the last few weeks has resulted in the kind of poor behavior that screams "this kid doesn't get enough attention at home" (and admittedly, he really hasn't been).
Dh suggested putting our 18mo dd into daycare at least 3 mornings/week so that she got the engagement and attention she really needed (and demands). I had a really hard time with this, but I agreed that at the moment--we need this. And really, I think SHE needs to see other children eating. She's behind on this. We noticed that when we had a foster child in December that was several months younger than her but ate a lot more and a lot better than her, dd started eating and holding down food vs. spitting it out. At 18mo, she's still primarily formula-fed (she's adopted & bfing her was illegal as she was a ward of the state). So for her, I think this would actually be a great thing.
Upon going to show dh the only facility in our area I would trust her in, ds decided he wanted to go to "school", too. The facility (KinderCare) actually has a Kindergarten and the class is only 6 kids. They're pretty much lockdown on food, so food allergies are less of an issue. Ds is ahead of K level, so the 10 minutes he spent in the class while we chatted with the director weren't tough for him. He was able to go in and immediately pick up where they were--writing his name and doing simple math. He very much wanted to go back and I can't blame him: mommy's not been very engaged with him during the days for the last few months.
So I'm going to let him go 3 days/week for the next 3-ish weeks. I would really like to see him get back to a place where he's able to raise his hand and participate in group things again. I don't care about the academics because really, he already knows the bulk of what they're learning.
My concern is that he'll never want to leave. I have a problem with that. My list for why we homeschool is very long, but includes health issues that would impact his learning for having to be out for many weeks at a time in addition to food issues that would cause extremely aggressive and disruptive behavior at school and at home. So it's not a long-term answer for him. If not for the fact that this particular place was on lockdown with food and we are pretty much out of the worst of the illness season, there is no way I'd be considering this.
Is there anything I can do to encourage him to enjoy the time he has there, but look forward to being back home?
Sorry so long-winded...
My 6yo is hs'd. We attend occupational therapy at the local public school 4x/week for 30mins each... so he knows what school IS although it took some doing to make him understand that all those kids weren't just there playing all day.
He DOES "get" that now.But we have a very difficult 3-8 weeks ahead of us as we get knee-deep into relocation issues (from NJ to IL) AND I'm finishing my Master's AND I'm trying to clear out the things that will not go with us (we also just finished an out-of-state court case involving our former foster daughter). It's become a really bad situation for my 6yo and my 18mo. This has been building since August when it all started and the result is that my poor 6yo has really not been involved in any of the activities he WAS involved in that he loved so much. We've gotten to where TV occurs almost daily (which is bad--it's highly addictive for ds & he gets aggressive when he has too much electronic time). As a result, trying to finally get him involved in some group activities in the last few weeks has resulted in the kind of poor behavior that screams "this kid doesn't get enough attention at home" (and admittedly, he really hasn't been).
Dh suggested putting our 18mo dd into daycare at least 3 mornings/week so that she got the engagement and attention she really needed (and demands). I had a really hard time with this, but I agreed that at the moment--we need this. And really, I think SHE needs to see other children eating. She's behind on this. We noticed that when we had a foster child in December that was several months younger than her but ate a lot more and a lot better than her, dd started eating and holding down food vs. spitting it out. At 18mo, she's still primarily formula-fed (she's adopted & bfing her was illegal as she was a ward of the state). So for her, I think this would actually be a great thing.
Upon going to show dh the only facility in our area I would trust her in, ds decided he wanted to go to "school", too. The facility (KinderCare) actually has a Kindergarten and the class is only 6 kids. They're pretty much lockdown on food, so food allergies are less of an issue. Ds is ahead of K level, so the 10 minutes he spent in the class while we chatted with the director weren't tough for him. He was able to go in and immediately pick up where they were--writing his name and doing simple math. He very much wanted to go back and I can't blame him: mommy's not been very engaged with him during the days for the last few months.
So I'm going to let him go 3 days/week for the next 3-ish weeks. I would really like to see him get back to a place where he's able to raise his hand and participate in group things again. I don't care about the academics because really, he already knows the bulk of what they're learning.
My concern is that he'll never want to leave. I have a problem with that. My list for why we homeschool is very long, but includes health issues that would impact his learning for having to be out for many weeks at a time in addition to food issues that would cause extremely aggressive and disruptive behavior at school and at home. So it's not a long-term answer for him. If not for the fact that this particular place was on lockdown with food and we are pretty much out of the worst of the illness season, there is no way I'd be considering this.
Is there anything I can do to encourage him to enjoy the time he has there, but look forward to being back home?
Sorry so long-winded...
And we have actually had to have a few discussions about his longing to go back to the private preschool a block from our house. I have to occasionally (through questions vs. telling him) remind him about how things happened there (he had to be removed from the classroom) and how it made him feel (horrible 
) and that we need to do happy things.
although we HAVE mandated washing after toileting. So I'm not sure where he gets this, but it's so bad that his knuckles are red from too much handwashing... so I'm a little nervous about introducing him to the idea of being exposed to illness. And he has truly never understood the food allergies because the reaction is behavioral with rare exception. He can't wrap his little head around it.
