SO this is where I am....

[purpsurfer]

My oldest and middle dds have attended a private "experential learning" school this year that I really felt positive about. The administrators are very crunchy and out of the box and I felt great with the other families. There are only about 50 students in grades K-8. Well, for the last few months I was feeling like my fourth grader was regressing in so many skills and there were absolutely NO ACCOUNTABILITY for anything (homework, behaviour, ect). I felt like my kindergartner was blossoming and learning and doing fabulous!!! Well, I get a call last week from the principal... about my kindergartner and an "incident." WARNING... this is not easy to read....
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A six year old boy that has a reputation for being cruel at times to other children walked up to her while she was coloring and said "I am going to get a long knife, stab you in your head and pull it down your face and watch you bleed until you die." Well, in a nutshell, he was removed for the day and sent home with his parents who were "urged" to get counseling. He would be allowed to come back to the classroom the following day. My dh and I felt that it wasn't enough. We thought he should be evaluated BEFORE being allowed back into the classroom. The administrator told me that if my child had a near drowning, I would want to encourage her to get back into the water and learn to swim. @@ We thought about it very hard and finally ended up pulling both girls out and making the decision to homeschool the rest of the year. I have never homeschooled but I know we can do this. My fourth grader needs math help and help with parts of speech and vocab/spelling. Any recommendations? BTW, the kid's parents have never called and no one from the school even called after I notified them that my girls would not be returning.

[phoebemommy]

Oh my gosh, I don't have any advice, but I wanted to give you a big thumbs up for pulling your kids out! I wonder how many kids go through that kind of thing every day and their parents just try to gloss it over.

And I don't get what the administrator was getting at about drowning, then getting back in the water. Your daughter needed to get back in the water with that kid, who was acting like a shark? It was a pretty ridiculous thing to say, IMO.

[joandsarah77]

I am just How truly horrible. to you and your daughter!

[Roo_Online]

Congrats on making a great decision about pulling your children out of that school.

Welcome to homeschooling. I have a feeling you are going to like it.

[Ruthla]

Wow! That other child was obviously SCREAMING for help and didn't get it. So not only did the school fail to protect your DD (and her other classmates) but they're failing to help this child as well.

I don't have a problem with child led/ "no accountability" in academic areas, homework, etc, but behavioral issues need to be addressed! If anything, I'm a firm beleiver that children need to be taught how to treat each other with respect and caring, and everything else comes second. If you're not stressing about math homework then you have time and energy to talk about how Sally made Jenny feel when they play together.

I would focus, for now, on your little one's emotional health and put academics on the back burner. For your 4th grader, I would get her reading lots of books- it's hard to read tons of stuff and NOT pick up grammar and vocabulary along the way! If you're really concerned about her learning the names of parts of speach, then get some MadLibs. For math, we have a textbook and whenever DD is interested in having a math lesson we open up the book and work on whichever subject interests her. I personally suspect your 4th grader has learned more this year than you're aware of- it's just normal for kids to learn, whether or not they're being formally "taught."

If you want to take a more formal approach to academics, there are ready-made curriculums out there, or you can purchase workbooks just for the subjects you feel the need to do more formally. You might want to start a separate thread asking about curriculum materials for your 4th grader.

[Mary-Beth]

I'm sorry that your are dealing with this.
The school is really dropping the ball on this.
This child, even if "just kidding around" really could use some extra attention and support. I would think the parents would have called and maybe even come over to your house to discuss this with you- apologize and try to help their son understand the impact of his words.
Sounds like the school doesn't want the child to feel like a monster and wants to support him...but I'm not sure they are...and your dd could use some support too. And how about a school that cares when they loose a family...not that they have to beg you to stay but come on.:

Well you can run your homeschool any way you like using as much or as little structure as you want. There are so many resources on-line, books, and curriculums, guides....best wishes!

[purpsurfer]

Thank you for all of the support! I really questioned myself in the decision to pull them but I KNOW this is for the best.
My fourth grader doesn't really LOVE reading but once in a while we find a book that she can't put down (Judy Blume) and then she will read THAT book ten times. She speaks well and writes well but I know she needs to identify the parts of speech because she will MOST LIKELY be going back to a public magnet school next year. (I just graduated with my RN and at this point our family could really really use the extra income)... that and I don't have so much confidence in myself that I could be a great teacher.
My kindergartner will be repeating Kindergarten next year because she missed the public school birthday deadline by 13 days last year. She is already reading, doing addition, subtraction and multiplication...ect. Tonight she and I had a talk about politics that she brought up! LOL I could never keep up!

[frogguruami]

Wow, that is awful!!!!!

MadLibs are GREAT for Parts of speech. There are a number of spelling sites out there. I have some listed on my website. (Link in sig) IMO, vocab is best built through exposure. Reading is the best way. Make a trip to the library and let your 4th grader just pick out a bunch of fun stuff to read.

I also have a bunch of math sites on my website. If you are looking for a curriculum, I love Math U See. There are placement tests online so it is easy to figure out where you need to start.

[Rivka5]

It sounds like you've made the right decision, but I wonder if it would be a good idea to sit down with your daughter and explain that you've taken them out of school because you don't like the way the school handled what the little boy said, not because you think she was actually in danger of having her head split completely open.

My concern is that she might be afraid that he really could do that to her, and might take your reaction as evidence that *you* think she is likely to suffer extremely gory violence and death.

[purpsurfer]

We explained that her teacher loves her and would never let anything happen to her. And that if we happen to see the little boy out and about in our small town, that she is safe. She is a very trusting and forgiving kid. I wish I could just erase her memory of those gory words.

[mom2ponygirl]

You did the right thing. My sister was stabbed in kindergarten, by another kindergartener with scissors. It was a greater than 2" deep puncture that only missed a major artery by a fraction of an inch.

I hope the boy gets the help he needs.