Since there seem to be quite a few of us this year.... Sorry the thread title is so long, I couldn't think of any shorter summary that would make sense. "Ex-hs now ps support" seems a bit cryptic! :)

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My older three kids are all heading to public school after two years at home. My older two went to ps before, but my 6yo hasn't. I'm more worried about her and how she'll fit in. My 3yo will also be at loose ends without his siblings to play with all day.

But the kids and I are both very excited about the change. I liked our homeschool and the academics were good, but we are bored and the kids miss their friends. I'm a homebody and dislike driving around for activies or playdates. I need a break and while giving up on homeschool is painful--especially since we are religious homeschoolers (Catholic), it's almost an identity crisis--I am growing more certain that it is the right decision.

Our district doesn't begin school til Sept 8. We register in 11 days. We've bought supplies off the school lists. Everyone who needed a backpack or lunch kit has one. I finally got all the kids' immunization records straightened out, so we are ready to go, paperwork wise.

If you already started school, how has the transition from hs to ps been so far? If you are still waiting for school to start or in the middle of making the decision to school or homeschool, what issues are foremost in your mind? Are your kids excited, indifferent, worried?

My younger DD started school for the first time last year, at age 10. My older DD, who is 12, will be joining her this fall.

School doesn't start here until the 26th, and we seriously still in summer mode. Last week was canoe day camp and next week we are going out of town to visit grandma!

We have a couple of school things left to take care of (one kid needs a health form signed the other still needs gym shorts) but we are mostly ready.

My kids are excited about school, but nervous. They'll both be starting middle school, so even the one who left last year has a transition.

I'm really looking forward to it. I've been a mom for almost 13 years, and this is the first time I'll have this much time to myself!

Hello! as you know from my other post my children are going back to school too! i feel great about it now! a little nervous about my 11 yr old headed to middle school!( i always said i wouldn't let them go to middle! i put my foot in my mouth!) i have actually decided to keep my 6 year old home till he is reading better, and he is rough and tough and i think he would be "in trouble" at school all the time... so i will have half my crew gone.. though i am tempted to just put him in school too and just be me and my 2 year old all day... so i might change my mind!

we are kinda out of the summer loop right now we had to stop going to the beach and swimming because my 2 yr old broke her leg 2 weeks ago. i do want to go do some fun things with them before school starts, they start the 19th!!! i am going on monday to register them, i found out my 8 yr old won't need any supply's but a back pack this year ( title one school and they are supplying everything this year!) i just need to get the list for 6th grade and we will be set!

i will miss our spur of the moment trips to the zoo and being able to go to the movies on a tuesday morning when its empty! but i will enjoy not being frustrated at kids all day, or having to hush them while little one naps!

thanks for starting this thread i know i will need you in the weeks to come!

a little nervous about my 11 yr old headed to middle school!( i always said i wouldn't let them go to middle!

I can relate! It's a lot different being home all day with children than being home all day with adolescents. I think this is a natural age for kids to separate from their parents. I don't regret having them home when they were little. They got to learn to read when they were ready and spend lots of time just running around, but they are sooo ready for something very different now.

My older two are both headed to public school, in spite of my prior plans to either have my kids in Jewish schools or homeschooled.

DD2 surprised me and wanted to go to public school this year. She's all signed up. DD1 wanted to go to a specific Jewish school, but we couldn't get a scholarship (though there's still hope for next year) so I'll be signing her up next week. I didn't sign her up when I signed up DD2 because we hadn't heard back from the private school yet.

We just attended mandatory new student indoctrination, I mean orientation, today. :wink
My daughter starts school this Wednesday! She is getting nervous now. We have homeschooled since kindergarten. We will still be part-time homeschooling which seemed like a good idea, but now seems like a bit of a logistical nightmare. She is also grade accelerated which adds another level of anxiety for me.

She has her uniform, her tote bag, her school supplies, and her lunch bag ready to go. We need to plan some lunches for her to make, and take her to get a hair cut tomorrow. She has a friend (also his first day of school ever) in her first class, so they will both have a familiar face to start the day. She has 2 other friends at the school as well, but won't see them except for maybe at lunch.

I'm not sure why, but I'm feeling rather anxious today. She handles herself well, but it will still be a big step for all of us. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself her first day. I'm supposed to go in to work, but I'll be totally distracted these first few days until I hear things are going well. :o

I have 3 kids heading to school after 3 years of HSing:joy:. It sounds like I'm in the same boat as many of you--I'm a little nervous about my 12 yo who will be in jr. high and my 6 yo who's never been to school before and wondering what the heck my 2 yo will do all day without her siblings!

School starts Aug. 19 for my oldest and Aug 20 for the others. They will be in 3 different schools:o. My 10 yo got into the local charter school but there wasn't an opening for 1st grade--my son is first on the waiting list but they are over-enrolled by 5 students. They say there is a very good chance he will still get in for this year, but it won't be until after school starts. Not sure what I should do there. He's very excited about going with his friends to the neighborhood school, but I like the curriculum at the charter school so much better. He should do well academically (knows phonics and sight words, LOVES math), but I don't know how he's going to handle doing the school thing EVERY day.

The charter school has already done the placement testing for 10 yo (5th grade). We've mostly done unschooling so I was a little nervous about the math but she tested at grade level--so yay! For reading she aced the 5th grade level so they tested her at 7th grade level and she aced that too. They said they don't test higher than that and put her in a 6th grade novel-reading group. Doesn't that sound like fun?

My oldest will be in 7th grade at the jr. high--yikes! She's my child who has always struggled a little academically. Reading did not come easily for her and it's pretty hard to motivate her to do things she doesn't want to do:/. I don't know how she's going to manage homework from 8 classes--she's so disorganized. I've liked homeschooling for her because I think it's great that she's been able to go at her own pace. I never pushed reading with her. She picked up Twilight about 6 months ago and read it in 2 days--and it was the first time she'd ever finished a book! She's read the whole series now and has moved onto the House of Night and Sookie Stackhouse books. I guess the vampire genre really speaks to her :p. I suppose my point is, I feel like she's finally reading well enough to do well in school (hopefully). I was perfectly happy to keep homeschooling her but she wants to go to school--and she makes no secret that it's all about the socializing:/. Tomorrow is new student enrollment for her so we'll get to pick classes.

Wow, this got long. I'm glad to see this thread. It's nice to have other moms to hold hands with while we make this change:love.

Yeh Springbabe, other moms to hold hands with, that is a good way to put it!! A great way to put it!!

I'm REALLY, really, really on the fence still. I think I would love to back out and not do the PS thing. But I stupidly told the kids they would probably be starting this week. They are over the moon about it. But I just want to put them back in their 2-day-a-week charter. It's nice there, except my 9 YO was pretty bored sometimes. He was not being challenged. He's not too challenged at home either, because I'm such an unschooler. My oldest (11 YO) DD is just desperate to start school. That's clear. But DS just wants to go to skateboard camp this week.

I'm feeling very torn right now. It's even hard to sleep. :eyesroll WHY oh why is this so freakin hard??

Ruthla, do you really have like 45,000 posts? Holy Batman, Robin!

Having five kids is hard when I'm feeling conflicted about their mode of education. I'm gonna need a vacation.

How did you break the news to your hs friends that your kids would be going to public school? I have some for which it will be no big deal but other who'll think I've lost my mind.

I'm a socially conservative Catholic, so my homeschool support group was one of the main places I met other moms like me and it will be sad not to be a part of it this year.

One week to go until elementary registration. :) We have my husband home this week on vacation, next week is VBS at our church and then two more weeks free until school starts. My 6yo has her "first day of school" outfit picked out already.

Well, the kids had their first day of school today! For me, it was relaxing just having the two little ones at home. We went to our athletic club and sat around on floaties in the pool, southern California breeze swaying the palm trees around us. Not bad. My 6 month old DS sat in his stroller and checked out the scene. (Can't swim right now because he's got a little cough.)

The kids came home super excited! Our oldest DD is just ecstatic and told me she was surrounded by friends, new and old, all day long. All. Day. Long. She is Miss Social Butterfly. She lives to socialize. (She's 11 and starting 6th grade.) Our 9 YO DS came home pretty happy too, and he also saw his friends all day and loved it. Mostly though, he thinks about food and swim team. Still, he really likes his new teacher (a guy!) and thinks school is a good place. Our little 6 YO came home tired and a bit cranky. I think she enjoyed herself OK, just that it was all too much for her. I'm curious to see how she will adjust to life in first grade. She's very independent and strong, mentally and physically.

I thought I'd try to find a little preschool a couple of mornings a week for our 3 YO, but it is too $$$$$. Two mornings a week is $300 and up around here, yikes. I guess that's not happening. Shheeesh.

So......here we are, in public school. I wonder what it will be like. I'm very curious.

How did you break the news to your hs friends that your kids would be going to public school? I have some for which it will be no big deal but other who'll think I've lost my mind.


I didn't have any homeschool friends where we lived now, but I have some in other cities that I stayed in touch with. It did feel a little odd to tell them, like I've turned my back on a huge value. They were super and encouraged me to do what was best for my children and myself and not worry about it. :thumb

It might help to be very open and honest about *why.* That way, they won't think you've lost your mind.

Well, the kids had their first day of school today!

Yeah!!! I'm glad to hear it went well! :love

freestyler ~ About preschool try a preschool program through the city. That is what we are doing for my 3yr old it is reasonably priced.

I really want to homeschool my daughter who struggled in public school K last year so much it was suggested she go to summer school then that was canceled because budget cuts. My dh's compromise to me wanting to homeschool is we send her to 1st grade in public school and then in December re evalute then if not sooner depending on how she is doing.

First day is tomorrow - I'm kinda freakin' out.

My son's first day of high school is Thursday. He is nervous. I am to. I am so far not impressed with the school or curriculum.

I'd love to jump in here, but my oldest DS is the only one going to school and he's going to private school...is that okay? :innocent I'm going to assume it is, but feel free to kick me out if you'd like.

I think my biggest problem with the school issue is that only one of them is going to be going. There is no space for my 6yo in the private school and our local public school is a very, very, very rough school. When I was still trying to decide on schools, I found that an academically unacceptable school is a reason to have school choice in our district. UA schools rate below 60% on whatever scale. Our local school is 62%, so no school choice for us, but OMG, not someplace I really wanted my kids.

So....we have financial aid to a little private school that I'm mostly excited about DS1 going to (but not excited about paying for...even after aid *sigh*) and DS2 will be staying home with me this year, doing something very easy and workbookish every day. I've had to set some ground rules, like that there will be no Wii, TV, or computer while DS1 is at school. I think that would make DS1 really resent the fact that he's at school, KWIM? But at the same time, that's really gonna make my life hard, I think!

DS1 is over the moon about school. We went yesterday and got a brief tour and on Friday we go to meet his teacher and see his classroom. He'll start school on Monday...yikes! I keep waiting for the nerves to show up, for him or me, and they're just not there. We're both quite happy with this decision, which feels so good. In hindsight, I can say that none of us were ever truly happy with homeschooling. :( We were doing it because I felt like it was our only acceptable (affordable) choice.

I'm worried about getting up early, making sure he has clean, unstained clothes every day (yeah, that makes us sound like such slobs, but this boy can get clothes really gross in no time flat), packing lunches, and the drive to and from school each morning and afternoon. I also wonder how that's going to work after I have the baby in March (who, incidentally, tipped the scales toward them going to school :lol). I guess we'll just see how it all works out in time, huh?

How did you break the news to your hs friends that your kids would be going to public school? I have some for which it will be no big deal but other who'll think I've lost my mind.

My two closest friends homeschool. One of them is also making the switch to schools this year. It's hard, though, because she is really struggling with the fact that the local public school (different than our local public school) is her only option and I'm soooo excited about the experience I'm anticipating at this private school. I feel like if I say too much about how great this school is and how lucky we are for DS to be going there, it will sound like I'm gloating (she knows I'm not, but it's a fine line).

My other friend, who is what I would describe as a devout homeschooler, has always been great about knowing that while she's chosen it for her kids and she loves it, it's not for everyone. When I told her I was (unexpectedly) pregnant, her first question was "what are you going to do about schools?" She knew I was having a hard time anyway and had no problem helping me sort through school issues to find a school that would work for us.

Everyone else will just find out over time, or through my blog, I guess. I'm not terribly worried about what they'll think of me and I'm pretty sure that we'll still be able to maintain friendships with our homeschooled friends while going to school.

The first day went great! We'll see how the math placement test went in a few days. However, the get to know each other activities were fun and she is stoked about going back tomorrow. After an hour of talking about her day, we did her other half of school (our homeschooling part of the day) in about 30 minutes. LOL
No homework yet.

The first day went great! We'll see how the math placement test went in a few days. However, the get to know each other activities were fun and she is stoked about going back tomorrow. After an hour of talking about her day, we did her other half of school (our homeschooling part of the day) in about 30 minutes. LOL
No homework yet.

YAY! I'm glad she had fun and is looking forward to tomorrow. That's always a good sign. I'd like to know more about the part-time homeschooling option you're doing if you feel like sharing :).

So glad to find you guys!

My ds1 started k last yr and absolutely hated it! (He loved pre-k and had no problems at all there). I felt so bad for him, he was having behavioral issues, seemed like he was always getting into trouble for talking too much, not following directions, etc. He was even seeing the school counselor and I felt like he was getting the difficult kid label (even though the school was really good about it).

After winter break we decided to hs and we didn't send him back. I was excited to do all kinds of hs things, join the local hs group, etc.

I was working from home at the time (laid off in july) and between that, the younger kids, and my lack of imagination, it seemed like I wasn't able to challenge him and he seemed bored. Plus the closest hs group is a 35 min drive.

After being laid off we started doing more and I was really thinking how to get us in the hs mode.

Until my 6 1/2 yr old ds1 tells me less than 2 days before school started that he really wants to go back to school. He begged. I reminded him of what happened last yr, what my plans were for our hs, we talked about it and he really wanted to go.

So I registered him THE DAY BEFORE school started, bought all the school supplies, uniforms (of course last yr's didn't fit anymore) and he started today.

I was sooooo nervous all day! Almost in tears a few times worrying. He said he had a fun day. Some ups, some downs, but mostly good and he wants to go back.

I feel kind of like a hs failure, but I also want to follow his lead and make sure his needs are being met. I'm not as good at the hs as I really wanted to be, but I just want him to be happy no matter what.

BTW, our schools are really good so I don't have any worries about that. There are only three 1st grade classes in the whole school, it's pretty small and manageable and he really likes his teacher.

Hope the first day goes well for you guys too!

I'm not as good at the hs as I really wanted to be

This is me. Especially with two little ones in the house, I just can't devote the attention I need to it. Fortunately neither of the boys has had any negative effects of my unschoolish nature at all, but *I* just am NOT an unschooler (I'm more like a non-schooler, I guess) and something had to give.

I'm glad your DS had a great day. We had a very similar experience with K and only made it about three weeks. DS still has a lot of yucky memories from K and they come out occasionally, like when he asked the admissions director at his new school how loud the carpool waiting area will be or when he asked if he's allowed to talk at lunch. :( The experience really turned me off of school entirely, but I'm finding that the experiences he had are pretty exclusive to the school he was at, which is unfortunate because it has a great reputation for some reason :shrug.

YAY! I'm glad she had fun and is looking forward to tomorrow. That's always a good sign. I'd like to know more about the part-time homeschooling option you're doing if you feel like sharing :).

Well I typed a novel about it and then lost it. I guess you are lucky and get the short version now. :irked:

A charter high school (8-12th) will allow a few kids to go part-time. They seemed to like dd's test scores and she impressed them when she shadowed. So, they have been very accommodating. They have a block schedule so a one year course is completed in a semester. She takes two classes a semester, 4 for the year, so it is like going half-time. She's there from 8:10 to 11:00 (actually 11:30 because she wants to stay and visit over lunch, but we can leave at 11 if we need to do so). Next semester she will be there from 11:30 to 2:20 ( or from 11 if eating lunch there).

I don't know yet if she is homeschooling high school with a few public school classes on her transcript or if she will graduate through this high school. We're going to see how the year goes and then negotiate for future years. They do have kids doing some online courses as well as dual enrollment at the university or community college. I think they have allowed some self-designed courses (pass/fail only) but I'm not sure about that or what criteria must be met. We are homeschooling Lang. Arts/literature, history, Latin, music, PE, and art. However, the school will not be granting any credit for these. This is fine with us at this point. She will take Biology, Geometry this semester and then Spanish and Physical Science next semester from them.

The school has a large percentage of former homeschoolers (perhaps 30%?), so they are somewhat used to us. I would envision our daughter doing some blend of their classes, online courses, dual enrollment at the college, and some self-designed courses. Not sure they are ready (or able) to jump out on that limb with us. They are being pretty flexible so far. They understand my dd is young and accelerated, and that we're taking a unique path.

I'll post later about dd's one awkward moment today.

He is waiting for the bus.... :(

He is so excited.....:D

My dogs are confused. LOL There man cub is out front with out them.

He is waiting for the bus.... :(

He is so excited.....:D

My dogs are confused. LOL There man cub is out front with out them.


Awww.... It's sad isn't it? And happy, and exciting, all at the same time.

My ds did not want to go to school this morning, and it's only the second day. He has a really hard time waking up in the morning. I need to figure out how to make waking up easier. Any ideas?

I really hope he has a lot of fun today and gets excited about school. I am praying soooo hard. It was great to see his big smile when I picked him up yesterday.

Ugh, dd has a cold. She has a cough but no other symptoms but feeling a little tired. She reallly wanted to go so I took her to school. If we were homeschooling I would just keep her home and take it easy. However, she really wanted to go.

Yesterday was great for her, except for one awkward moment. The teacher her group of 8th graders went with to do get to know each other stuff, asked them which class they all went to first period. She goes to Biology. The teacher started questioning her, why would an 8th grader be taking high school biology? She of course just looked at her and said, because I want to. LOL The teacher had to go all around school asking why are 8th graders taking Biology and can they even get credit? (there are 3 8th graders in the class and yes they can get credit). Anyway, she was evidently in a bit of a tizzy about it. The funny part to me was imagining what she would have done if she had realized my daughter was not only just an 8th grader, but only 10 (nearly 11) years old! Luckily for her she is tall and behaves in a mature manner, so except for the few who know her she seems like a typical 8th grader.

My youngest daughter burnt the pizza....her brother wasn't here to take it out. That is normally his job.

One thing with my son, I think he will have it easier because he wants to be their. He is craving the new environment. And as long as the girls keep on "acting" stupid we will be ok. He hates giggly boy crazy girls. He wants one that has brains and not religious. He might find a few of those in a high school, so I am a little more nervous.

Welcome, moms! Yes, Charlotte, you are welcome to post here. :)
We still don't start til 9/8 so nearly a month of summer left! Next week we have VBS and then two more weeks of stir-crazy kids til school starts. The weather here (Seattle area) has taken a turn for the cold and gray and wet, so they're all indoors most of the time! Fortunately my husband has been on vacation as well so he's been taking them biking on the trails and such. Tomorrow I go "into town" to get a birth certificate for my #3 for next week's elementary registration. Finally got all our immunization documents. And I finally put it out there on my blog that the kids were going back to public school this year!

I'm glad so many "first day of school" have already gone well. I expect ours will be great too but for my 3yo wondering why he can't get on the yellow bus! Maybe he will sleep in...for 180 days.

My 6.5yo son is "trying out" public school for 1st grade this year (starts Sept. 8). I really want him to stay, but I told him we'll take it a week at a time. He really doesn't want to go, but my 3.5yo will be in preschool 3 days a week (for his 2nd year, he begged to go last year and loves it). I think my son needs some peer pressure to work on reading, he can read easy readers but hates to do it and our homeschooling involves a lot of whining and arguing. He's a very social, peer-oriented kid and I think he'll excel in school. Also, he's really great at math and that will be fun for him. Our public school is great. We're moving next year to a much suckier school district and we'll probably return to homeschooling for 2nd grade.

Well, the first week of school is nearly over for my kids. They are 6, 9 and 11. Our 11 YO DD seems to actually really like the place, and she did beg to go (for like five years.) SO perhaps that will work out for her. I don't know how she will like all the tests and other yucky stuff. Our 9 YO DS, in my opinion, is just not a really great candidate for school. He is still just really physical----needs like 5 hours of exercise a day and just wants to build models and swim and skateboard. Last night was back-to-school night, and his teacher said that although DS has GREAT reading skills (we love reading at home!!!), his handwriting is really, uh, lacking, and Teacher was surprised that DS was not more advanced in writing. What can I say? I am unschooly, and I never liked forcing writing on him when there was a) nothing to write about, and b) he just does not have the fine motor skills yet. So that is annoying....that sense that you'd better get your kid on the conveyor belt with everyone else, blah blah ablah...

And I met our DD's first grade teacher. And saw what they do in first grade. UGH! You're probably saying, why didn't I check this all our BEFORE putting her in? Good question. I guess I just assumed it would be fine and after our great experience with the homeschool charter program, I figured how different could this be? A LOT different, it turns out. The little guys are forced to sit and sit and sit ALL DAY with almost no exercise or break. They have seven periods. The classes are ungodly long. They have TWO reading classes every day, with ridiculous drills and "spelling word" lists and all that sort of thing. Ummmm, my little DD is learning to read, and to love reading, by having half an hour of instruction with me most days, and by being read to a ton. And math, well, she's doing fine there too. I see no reason to bludgeon the poor girl over the head with academics at this early age. Her little sister misses her, she's missing our bike rides and walks, she's unable to get enough sleep at night (she's a late sleeper), and she comes home exhausted. I'm not liking what the first grade is doing at all, it's way too much hard core, forced and rushed acadamics. I'm taking her out in a week. Oh, and did I mention, the teacher is cold, severe, BORING and just plain not a person I'll give my daughter over to five days a week.

And for DS, the verdict is still out. For DD, I'd like to let her stay unless there is a pressing reason to take her out.

This is so stressful. Ugh. I hate it.

my 6yo starts on the 24th...she really wanted to try ps, i'd like to keep hsing but am willing to give it a try. she's super social and already pretty far ahead for first grade, so i'm more nervous about her being bored than making friends (easy peasy for her to make friends..not a shy bone in that kid's body..:lol ).

as the day approaches, i'm having a hard time. dh and i decided that if the teachers start in on adhd stuff (she's really active but not attention deficit in anyway...i can see how the teachers might see it like that though), or there are serious problems then we'll just pull her out. otherwise we told her to give it a go until christmas then we'll see where things stand. she's excited, but also is comfortable knowing she can come back to homeschooling if she really desires that again. i'm the one having minor anxiety about it..:lol

hi! My 6 yr old is off to kindergarten. We always thought we'd hs but there is just no support for it here and so he has no social interaction whatsoever. Plus, I dont think I am cut out for it. I need to breathe!!! (And with a 3 yr old and a tornado of a 20 mo old, I dont get to breathe much.)

I am actually seriously considering sending the 3 yr old to headstart because she is totally schooly and I think she would LOVE it.

My 6 yr old is terrified, however warming up to the idea of school...(I was an unschooler and spent a good amount of time bashing the system in front of him. :bag )

I think its possible that we will try hs in the future when I dont have so much on my plate. we'll play it by ear.

And for DS, the verdict is still out. For DD, I'd like to let her stay unless there is a pressing reason to take her out.

This is so stressful. Ugh. I hate it.

I'm glad your taking your little girl out, it just doesn't sound like the right place for her now. My dd would have hated most of elementary school - at least our schools. She was (and to some extent still is) a wiggle worm. She could handle almost anything academic if allowed to stand on her head or draw or jump up and down, etc. She lost a pen her second day of school (yesterday) because she had been fiddling with it while listening . She didn't want to climb under the tables to get it, so she waited until after class. Another girl picked it up as they were all leaving and dd was too shy to ask for it. :irked:

She had a great 3 days except for her last class today. I think the fact that she was so tired, half-sick, and overwhelmed by all the crowding and activitiy she just couldn't take it. I came by to bring her lunch (she'd forgotten to grab it) and when she saw me her eyes teared up. She said she didn't want to stay so we walked out together and had lunch and a talk. She would have left after lunch anyway, but she didnt want to stay there any longer.
Hopefully she can make a full week, next week and start to adapt. She's the kind of kid who is ready to leave an amusement park after a couple of hours - just likes some down time on her own or in a quiet group. The chaos should diminish as everyone gets into the routine. I hope.

I agree this is stressful!

Bumping this back to page 1

Hi, count me in..

My ds is going back to ps this fall too. I hs'ed him for K, half of 1st and all of 2nd. He'll be in 3rd this year. Several reasons I made the jump. Even though his try in 1st went okay, I school of choiced him and the drive got really old, esp in the snow. I'm sending him to the local school, and the same grade, ironically, that I took my dd out from!

My son is going in with an ADHD dx and there is question too of him being PDD or Asperger's. I'm nervous, but he's under the care of a good child psychologist now and we'll be putting him under 504 plan.

HS'ing just isn't meeting his needs. My dd is outgoing and wants to DO stuff and he just wants to sit home and play video games, he's a homebody. He also has almost no friends because we're isolated in a rural area and everyone we know that also homeschools is at least 30-40 minutes drive or too busy to get together with. I'm tired of seeing him lonely and bored. :(

I hope this works out well for him. We had him tested too by his Dr. and he's on par academically for 3rd grade and even ahead some in reading/spelling.

I'm glad for that.

My dd will still HS for now. She's more work to put in school. LOL..neither of my kids really FIT in ps easily (thus the reason we HS'ed)!!

Thanks, Kami, for bumping this. I had my hands full last week with VBS and couldn't get things to post for some reason.

All our papers were turned in to the local schools today! With so many of you already well into your second or third week of school, I feel like we must be the last school district in the nation starting school! Still two weeks to go--September 8 is the planned start date--although now there are rumors of a teachers' strike. Oy.

I had to fill out about eight pages of registration papers for each of my three children--my husband wondered why this stuff can't be filled out online, of course--taking nearly an hour each. I went into the district office last week to pick up all the papers, but they have to be turned in at each particular school. Thankfully, it only took five minutes in the school office to turn them in, give proof of residence, birth certificate copies and sign the places I'd forgotten to sign (oops). I also had three choices for my 6th grader: 6th grade or advanced language arts, 6th grade or advanced mathematics and a choice of exploratory track (electives: art, computers, shop, study skills), band or choir.

Tomorrow we supposedly will be mailed teacher assignments for our elementary students and Sept. 3 my middle schooler will be able to go in and get her schedule.

This is taking forever!

Anyway, at least the weather here in the PacNW has gotten back to summer; sunny and in the 70's. There's time for a few last afternoons in the pool and plenty of long bike rides.

Now my thoughts have turned to all my homeschool curricula in the house: do I sell or keep it all? I am leaning towards sell, but probably I should be cautious since it's a major investment (or divestment, actually).

today was our first day. We didnt really "officially" hs, just dreamed of it...sent our 6 yr old to kindy this morning. (He is first grade age but for his sake I am not holding him up to the rediculous acedemic standards that Florida has...I would love to see him have FUN at school.)

Here is to FUN at kindergarten! :)

We sort of fit here, only DD1 will be going to a small private school. I never thought we'd be doing this. Living the school life will be an adjustment. We went to an ice cream social at the school tonight, school starts on Wed. Whew, that summer went by way too quick.

She could handle almost anything academic if allowed to stand on her head or draw or jump up and down, etc. She lost a pen her second day of school (yesterday) because she had been fiddling with it while listening . She didn't want to climb under the tables to get it, so she waited until after class. Another girl picked it up as they were all leaving and dd was too shy to ask for it. :irked:

She had a great 3 days except for her last class today. I think the fact that she was so tired, half-sick, and overwhelmed by all the crowding and activitiy she just couldn't take it. I came by to bring her lunch (she'd forgotten to grab it) and when she saw me her eyes teared up. She said she didn't want to stay so we walked out together and had lunch and a talk. She would have left after lunch anyway, but she didnt want to stay there any longer.
Hopefully she can make a full week, next week and start to adapt. She's the kind of kid who is ready to leave an amusement park after a couple of hours - just likes some down time on her own or in a quiet group. The chaos should diminish as everyone gets into the routine. I hope.

I agree this is stressful!

this sounds like my 3YO. she is so shy and just has a terrible time in crowds. she says already she is always going to be homeschooled, so we'll see...

dd1 however had a great first day yesterday and came home the little chatter box she is to tell me about it all...:lol i'm glad she liked it, and her teacher is really nice. she explained that in her classroom, she doens't believe in holding the kids back so since lola is so far ahead with reading she'll have her own reading books and curriculum that is separate from the majority of the class who are still working on phonics. that pleases me as lola would get really bored really fast otherwise. she was thrilled to ride the bus home yesterday too. i was standing there with her little sis waiting for the bus and could see her waving her arms around and chattering away to the bus driver. when they stopped he was laughing and told me he knows our whole history now...:lol i told him to beware, she'll never stop talking to him..he was cool with it..:lol so, so far so good...we are still going to supplement at home so she can keep the momentum we'd built up with her before school started. i was pleased when she told me the best part of her day was going to the library...she loves reading! ;)

oh, and she was stoked to have homework already...:eyesroll

dd1 however had a great first day yesterday and came home the little chatter box she is to tell me about it all...:lol i'm glad she liked it, and her teacher is really nice. she explained that in her classroom, she doens't believe in holding the kids back so since lola is so far ahead with reading she'll have her own reading books and curriculum that is separate from the majority of the class who are still working on phonics. that pleases me as lola would get really bored really fast otherwise.

Sounds like a great start with a great teacher!

We're heading into the first round of tests - Geometry today and Biology tomorrow. She has the concepts down and is helping classmates in Geometry. However, I worry about whether or not she will catch most of her careless errors. Time will tell.

She has a regular group of boys she sits with at lunch. I'd like to see her branch out and meet some girls, but frankly, boys were always nicer at that age anyway. :wink

Good luck to everyone who starts school this week!

Alexandria doesn't start school til 9/10 * i'm assuming it will be like last year and the list with what teacher the students have will be taped to a window at the school the day before *. I even enrolled Ryker into the city's preschool program that is like 2hours in the morning 5days a wk it starts on 9/14. Me and my mom are starting a business so it will give me time to sew/embroider stuff for that and enjoy the quiet house and the dog :) without the kids constantly trying to bug him.

I'm worried about how she will do in 1st after she struggled so bad in K :(
She even failed the school's hearing test and they never re-tested her hearing. and then she got sick and so she has a dr appt on 9/4 so im gonna have them check her hearing again. since last year when the dr tested it in aug she failed it then the school did it in nov and she failed again. :(

This will be my 9 yr olds second year of school. She asked to go, I miss her like crazy, but she just loves our little village school.

Now my heart is breaking as my son who turns 5 on Wednesday will be starting school on Thursday 3rd September. I always planned to homeschool him, but he is so shy and we live near no other homeschoolers, he would be very isolated. Dh wants him to try till Christmas to see how he gets on. I don't know what is best, I just want him to be happy and have friends.

It is so hard to let go of your kids when you planned out your whole life with them :crying

We've been in for a week and a half now and aside from adjusting to the early mornings and the homework load (which is, admittedly, VERY light), we're loving this little school.

Case in point: today DS brought home a handwritten sheet from his teacher entitled "10 Challenging Words." My homework is to find spelling words that will challenge him more than the spelling list of the week did. All four kids who got 100% on the spelling pretest Monday got a sheet like this. I'm not sure if this means he'll be tested only on these words, or that he'll have extra words. Not sure how I feel about extra work, but I do like that she's working to challenge him instead of just saying "great, you don't have to really study your spelling words this week" (which, ahem, is a direct quote from yours truly :o).

The only issue I'm having is that 1-this is so expensive for us and 2-since it's expensive for us at 75% financial aid, we are really outclassed at this school and I'm not sure how I will personally handle that. I don't want to get wrapped into a game of keep up that I'll NEVER have a hope of winning. We are working middle class and proud of that fact, but sometimes it gets old always trying to make ends meet when other people just spend, spend, spend. Tomorrow night we have a new parents dinner and I'm a little nervous about what to expect. Maybe as I meet these people and realize that they are just people (who happen to be able to afford $9000 a child a year for school) I'll feel a little better about it? We'll see...

Biting my nails til the mail comes today. Teacher assignments should be arriving for my 1st & 4th graders.

School started here Wednesday and everything is fine so far.

It's my 12 year olds first time in school, and she is having a few problems with organization and changing classes, but a lot of the kids are. She likes her teachers and is esp. excited about her computer class and science lab. Our middle school has GREAT resources. She seems happier overall than she did before school started.

My 11 year old is having blast. She started school midway though the year last year, and this year is no big deal. She is excited to be in chorus this year. Last year she started school too late to be admitted.

suddenly feels like prison....only one week in....pray for me. and the little dude.

Well, transformed, remember that this is NOT a permanent decision. I mean, you can always pull him out later if things are not working! School kind of IS prison, though. But at least you hope they come home smiling!! The adjustment period might be tough for you and him, but ultimately you'll know if it is right for you both. Maybe give it another few weeks? Sometimes I hear people saying they'll give it until the next major holiday or whatever. One week isn't that long.

But sometimes, school I think can be SUCH a major clash with HSing values and priorities, that sometimes adjustment just might not happen. Like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Time will tell. In the meantime, I'm wishing you peace and health. I'm wishing myself some of the same. This adjustment has been a real bit*h for us. Well, at least for me. The kids are fine.

Good luck!!!!!

I cant really handle him at home anymore. there is no support for homeschoolers in this community and no real way to make friends unless you have $ to throw at sports, etc.

I need to et throuh this year. just this year. And we may be in a position to homeschool next year.

Its really horrid thouh - 7 hours of school (and they sit down ALOT, there are 40 kids in his class) and 15 min of recess. And no nap, 5 min of rest time.

plus about 35-40 min in the mornin of "drop off" and at least that in the afternoon for "pick up"

Yeh I hear ya, it's like that here too!!! Horrible to think of my kids sitting all day. But at this point, I am desperate enough to almost not care anymore. The bickering was making me want to hang myself from the nearest tree. I still care and am really stressed about having them in school, but just the weekends ALONE are enough to make me really really exhausted at this point. Fight fight fight and bicker bicker bicker. WORSE THAN ANYTHING.

yeah....I figure...."what harm can kindergarten do?" even if it is in Florida. LOL.

The bickering was making me want to hang myself from the nearest tree. I still care and am really stressed about having them in school, but just the weekends ALONE are enough to make me really really exhausted at this point. Fight fight fight and bicker bicker bicker. WORSE THAN ANYTHING.

THANK YOU FOR THIS! I feel this way, too. If it weren't for the constant back and forth fighting and bickering, I may still be homeschooling. I am an only child, so I don't know much about sibling relationships and sometimes feel like I have failed miserably because my kids just CANNOT get along for 5 minutes!

Do you find that the break from each other helps? For us, it's not helping much, but I think that may be because DS2 is still at home all day and DS1 is still his main source of interaction. I feel like they just save up all of their bickering and try to cram it into the three hours before bedtime every day. It does help, though, that *I* have a break and that there's some direction to our time together (homework, dinner, bed, etc).

I hate that you guys are having to deal with 45 minute carpool lines. Is there any way around it? Maybe you could park and walk (I know they discourage this, but, seriously...that 45 minutes of waiting can't be any fun for the kids, either!).

I cant really handle him at home anymore. there is no support for homeschoolers in this community and no real way to make friends unless you have $ to throw at sports, etc.

I need to et throuh this year. just this year. And we may be in a position to homeschool next year.

Its really horrid thouh - 7 hours of school (and they sit down ALOT, there are 40 kids in his class) and 15 min of recess. And no nap, 5 min of rest time.

plus about 35-40 min in the mornin of "drop off" and at least that in the afternoon for "pick up"


Is going to school part time an option?

You may get the break you need, he will still meet people, but a lot of the nuttiness of school may be cut out.

I did part time school for a while - and while it is not perfect, it may work for you.....

Hugs to all mamas going through a rough transition!

Kathy

Is going to school part time an option?

You may get the break you need, he will still meet people, but a lot of the nuttiness of school may be cut out.

I did part time school for a while - and while it is not perfect, it may work for you.....

Hugs to all mamas going through a rough transition!

Kathy

i dont know - It doesnt seem like they would et enough "academics" done that way and standardized testin is MAJOR stuff around here.

It would prolly be like the immunizations...LOL. I would ask and they would say "Oh, no, its ILLEGAL to attend school PART TIME." LMAO.

Somethin to consider thouh...there is an online public school here, and perhaps I could do that part time so he has all the "cirriculum" and do school part time.

We shall see. depends on if I have a job I interviewed for last week. I really need to work now with no income in our house hold.

Hugs, Transformed. It is a stressful time.

Edited to add: For myself, I am really stressing about the following for my kids now in PS: (Don't laugh, I really am):

Lack of exercise---too many hours sitting, when previously my kids exercised all day long and it was our TOP priority since their births.

Crappy diet---not being able to feed them three healthy meals a day, because box lunches are pretty limited no matter what and even if I pack them vegetables, they don't eat them. So right off the bat, 30% fewer healthy meals, and I think that is a really Big Deal.

Not enough sleep---Everyone is now rushing around in the evening to try to cram things in, and it really sucks. There isn't enough time to read to the kids at length anymore, everyone is exhausted (and I mean EXHAUSTED), and our oldest goes to bed WAY too late because she has swim team and then has to cram her homework in at night.

Those are my three main huge concerns. Lack of sleep, unhealthy diet and not enough exercise are, in my opinion, very serious, serious problems for kids. At least they sure are for mine! My kids have been behaving abyssmally since they started school two or three weeks ago. It's been a disaster. And I'm especially worried about our oldest, the 6th grader (she's 11) who is the one who most wants to attend school.

She is a very explosive child--it's a nightmare and always has been, but we are reluctant to medicate her. Sometimes she can hold it together and do OK, but the lack of sleep/exercise/downtime/healthy food has really made her a total psychopath. I mean, raving lunatic behavior!! Like having a huge explosive episode and ranting and swearing and hitting everyone, for any old reason at all (like I ask her to put on her shoulder belt in the car, or whatever else.) Any physician would probably want to medicate her raving arse, but I really want to avoid that. Anyway, her behavior has been a tousand times worse with school. The stress is basically making her totally nuts, even though she enjoys being there. It's making life very, very hard for us all. Half the time she yelling at the top of her lungs and hitting someone, cursing and screaming and ranting. Of course, she behaves perfectly in school. Naturally.

I dunno. I wish I had not started this whole experiment. All the seat time, the boys they want us to medicate (my DS's teacher mentioned Ritalin already, of course!), the crappy food everywhere, no gym. It all stresses me out and makes me feel like I am ruining them.....except, darn is it nice to have them GONE during the day and not have that frigging fighting. But then we don't really win, because my oldest has even worse blowouts than before.

Sigh.

Lack of exercise---too many hours sitting, when previously my kids exercised all day long and it was our TOP priority since their births.

[QUOTE]our oldest goes to bed WAY too late because she has swim team

doesn't make sense. If she is on swim team, she is getting enough exercise.

Crappy diet---not being able to feed them three healthy meals a day, because box lunches are pretty limited no matter what and even if I pack them vegetables, they don't eat them. So right off the bat, 30% fewer healthy meals, and I think that is a really Big Deal.

What are you packing that is so unhealthy? I don't follow. One of my kids doesn't eat vegies at lunch, but she eats a ton of fruit. No worries here.

Mine who eats a little salad every day often brings protein back home untouched. I figure it balances out over the course of the day/week.

Not enough sleep---Everyone is now rushing around in the evening to try to cram things in, and it really sucks. There isn't enough time to read to the kids at length anymore, everyone is exhausted (and I mean EXHAUSTED),

Most people I know who've made the switch from homeschooling to school say that their children are tired at the beginning, but that they adjust.

She is a very explosive child--it's a nightmare and always has been, but we are reluctant to medicate her.

This sounds like the core problem, and it sounds like it is a problem with homeschooling or formal schooling.

Why don't you start a thread just about this.

Of course, she behaves perfectly in school. Naturally.

Which means that she is capable of controlling her behavior issues when she is required to but doesn't at home. Maybe some counseling or stern discipline would help? I don't know....I do feel like the children who tend toward difficulty save it up t/o the day to "throw it up" on the people who have to love them no matter what. Knowing that doesn't make it any easier to deal with when you're the one getting thrown up on, though!

I also think that if you pack healthy options for lunch and they don't choose to eat all of those options, but what they do eat is healthy and what you offer at breakfast and dinner is healthy, then you are feeding them a well balanced diet and I'd let go of the control issue of needing to make them eat everything at lunch. I say this because it's something I've realized for me lately...my homeschooling choice was largely a control issue, for better or worse (and I don't think it was a bad choice, just no longer the right one for our family, KWIM?).

As far as the exercise, I totally agree that it is just so crazy to expect these kids to sit for 7 hours a day without any significant break. I'm fortunate in that we don't have that issue...I think DS is actually getting MORE exercise now that he's not allowed to play the Wii or computer games during the week and he's got scheduled PE and recess.

Thanks for your posts ladies. I love the sanity break of reading your posts. This is a really stressful time.

About not enough exercise: My kids are on swim team, yes, but it is not usually enough for them. They will happily bikeride, hike, boogie board, and do whatever else from breakfast until lunch every day, and then go off eagerly to swim team in the afternoon for two to three hours. And those practices are intense. OK, in a word, I guess I would say, we are total jocks, LOL. But the kids, you know, they never run out of energy. It's insane. Especially our son. He really thrives on four to six hours of top notch exercise every day. And the girls also do, but are less obvious about needing that much.

Anyway, here's another Monday. Hmmm.

Well we are 3 weeks in and I have ambivalent feelings about the school experience so far. Some positive, but certainly far from perfect (as is everything!)
Pros: Dd likes it, feels accepted, enjoys her teachers and classmates, has developed a greater interest in science. She's found more importance in brushing her hair, dressing neatly, and keeping up with her stuff. She's rising early every morning and getting herself ready very well. She is diligent about doing her homework.

Cons: This part-time schedule keeps me driving around all day. The geometry teacher has not handed back a single assignment - not any homework, which they have daily, or the test they took over a week ago, or even the placement test taken day one. I've emailed him and received no response. Dd has a problem with careless errors and I was counting on a little red pen feedback to help with that. However, I'd prefer she not dig herself a hole too big to get out of. It is a block schedule and the first semester will be done early October. She needs to know where she stands. I don't want to tick the guy off, but really, nothing back seems wrong. He alludes to having graded some of the tests and that many students did poorly. However, if they never got any homework back - how would they know what they needed to work on?

Her biology teacher is very nice and dd is getting an A so far. However, I just found out the teacher is using the exact same assignments, tests, etc. as she did last year. I gave a boy in dd's class a ride home and he told me how he got the question no one else did on the test because he studied his sister's test from last year. Okay, I don't really care what he does, it doesn't effect us. But, it bugs me that the teacher doesn't care enough/have enough time/have enough sense to at least change up the tests from the previous year. Ugh......

I don't think dd has made any new friends. She mostly likes to observe the kids in her classes like some sort of anthropological study - how they talk instead of paying attention, etc. She talks to people and is not made fun of or picked on, so perhaps friends will come in time.

It is lovely weather right now. I wish we had more time to go out and play.
Vent over..... She is growing in her ability to accept responsibility, she is producing a lot of mindless homework - I mean necessary skill practice, she is confident to speak up in class and answer questions. I guess I just heard so many great things about this charter school and how much better it is than the other public schools. I felt like she would be getting to experience some of those great teachers we occasionally hear about. Perhaps my expectations were way too high. LOL

If I don't get an email response tomorrow, I'll try for an in person meeting with the geometry teacher. Sigh......I hate doing things like this, it is one of the reasons I homeschooled for so long!

freestyler:

Perhaps try working on the easiest and the most troublesome on your list?

I would start with nutrition.

They get a good breakfast and a good supper - I think you can work on healthy kid lunches so you feel better about it. I would be sure to pack a big snack and lunch - your kids are active and probably need a fair bit of food. i remeber coming home from school starving. Hungry kids=grouchy kids.
Wraps? Pizza? Soup in a thermos?

The other area I would work on is your DD's explosion. I would consider: alterring discipline techniques, a physical work up (sugar levels, thyroid, etc? Some of it may be hormonal.....I am not sure if there could be a physical cause for exploding - but it is something to research and rule out) and/or counselling.

She does need to learn to manage her stress in a healthier way.

I think this is something you should work on whether she is in school or not.

I firmly believe that some families are better off when kids are in school - and some are better off HSing. I think it can take time to figure it out, though. Nothing you have posted (expect maybe the Ritalin - grrr:angry) are deal breakers for me. Perhaps you should get firm in your head about how long to stick it out (Halloween?) and if there are any deal breakers for you. It may also help to get firm about what you will do if your DC want to stay in school - but you no longer think it is a good option.

Hugs - mama - I don't envy you (except ....my 6 year old spilled soup all over the floor yesterday, painted herself red from head to toe, and my eldest though dismantling a shed sounding like fun.....and guess who got to organise cleaning it all up? Yup, me! :irked: Wouldn't have happenned if they had been in school....)

Kathy

oops: double post

The only issue I'm having is that 1-this is so expensive for us and 2-since it's expensive for us at 75% financial aid, we are really outclassed at this school and I'm not sure how I will personally handle that. I don't want to get wrapped into a game of keep up that I'll NEVER have a hope of winning. We are working middle class and proud of that fact, but sometimes it gets old always trying to make ends meet when other people just spend, spend, spend. Tomorrow night we have a new parents dinner and I'm a little nervous about what to expect. Maybe as I meet these people and realize that they are just people (who happen to be able to afford $9000 a child a year for school) I'll feel a little better about it? We'll see...

Just wanted to let you know that I was one of the poorer kids at a private school in high school and it all worked out fine. Did I have moments of embarrassment or longing? You bet. But it was actually a really, really good life lesson in how to be a part of a group without having to always keep up with their spending.

Dd likes it, feels accepted, enjoys her teachers and classmates, has developed a greater interest in science. She's found more importance in brushing her hair, dressing neatly, and keeping up with her stuff.

GREAT!!! :thumb

But, it bugs me that the teacher doesn't care enough/have enough time/have enough sense to at least change up the tests from the previous year.

let it go. if you let every little imperfection bug you, the whole thing will seem negative. Overall, school is a good thing for your DD. Nothing is perfect.

I'm not sure what I would do about the geometry teacher, though. The kids need feedback. However, it seems like you are more interested in the grades right now than the learning, and that will end up just driving you nuts.

I don't think dd has made any new friends. She mostly likes to observe the kids in her classes like some sort of anthropological study - how they talk instead of paying attention, etc. She talks to people and is not made fun of or picked on, so perhaps friends will come in time.

It's VERY early on. The younger the children, the easier it is to be *be friends.* She's older, so it takes some time to figure out who they want to be friends with.

I hate doing things like this, it is one of the reasons I homeschooled for so long!

you list many, many positive things about how this is working out for your Dd, and yet your post is overall negative in tone.

If homeschooling had been working well, she wouldn't be in school right now. It really sounds like she's thriving.

we are really outclassed at this school and I'm not sure how I will personally handle that. I don't want to get wrapped into a game of keep up that I'll NEVER have a hope of winning. We are working middle class and proud of that fact, but sometimes it gets old always trying to make ends meet when other people just spend, spend, spend. Tomorrow night we have a new parents dinner and I'm a little nervous about what to expect. Maybe as I meet these people and realize that they are just people (who happen to be able to afford $9000 a child a year for school) I'll feel a little better about it? We'll see...


We use public school, but a friend of mine who doesn't have a lot of money but has kids in a very snotty, I mean very good, private school on scholarships. She doesn't really like very many of the other moms. She is very polite to them, but they aren't her friends.

When they start getting on her nerves, she just keeps repeating in her head "thank you for paying my child's way through school, thank you for paying my child's way through school." She really loves the school and believes it is the best place for her kids, yet they could never afford it. It is the gifts of people that she really doesn't enjoy who make it possible, so she just focuses on gratitude and has friends other places.

OUR UPDATE
My 11 year old is doing great. She is learning, having fun, and making friends.

My 12 year old is driving me bonkers. She is sullen, grouchy, and acts like I'm the enemy. This isn't caused by going to school -- I decided she had to go to school because she was driving me bonkers at home all the time. I'm frustrated and sad. This is a child who was APed, carried in a sling, tandem nursed, GD, family bed, relaxed homeschooled, and has spent her childhood going to the zoo, baking cookied, playing with art supplies, etc. I've spent a huge chunk of my life giving her a great childhood, and now she is just..... :irked:

Her school work is going fine, and she walks out of the building with a smile on her face at the end of the day. Then she turns into an negative little energy vampire.

List 5 things you LIKE about your school experience.

1. My son is surrounded with children. We didnt have a community here for socializing.

2. 2 of my kids get the experience of a lifetime - RIDING THE bus!!!! :lol:

3. I have only one child at home for the first time in 4 years, through which I have really really needed a break. It is nice to have one on one time with her.

4. Lots of crafts at dd's school that I dont have to clean up, set up, or pay for.

5. it has added an element of schedule into our lives that we really really needed and I couldn't seem to implement on my own.


Just do this even if you only have ONE to add. perhaps tomorrow add another.

this morning was tough. :shy Treating myself gently today.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=1131731

not to mention my 3 yr old doesnt like school and doesnt want to o. :( She was supposed to e the EASY one!

Subbing.

My oldest, a 1st grader, is in a charter school after homeschooling until March.

1. I have regular time to myself for the first time in nearly 13 years.

2. We need a schedule. We really need a schedule.

3. Our public school is wonderful -- small and well funded with caring teachers.

4. My children are more motivated to learn in a group.

5. My kids get a break from their birth order.

6. My kids get to see how they compare to their peers, which has been really good for both of them.

7. We are more connected to the community. Homeschooling was isolating for us here.

Jumping in here, so glad to find this thread...I needed to find some peeps like us. :D

...have a almost 11 yr old who has hs'ed about half her school life, a 8 yr old who has never really gone and has Asperger's along with other fun labels like gifted/Math LD, and a kindie.

Our is a charter Waldorf-inspired. All in all, pretty pleased. And my plan is to go back to school. Next week. (we are on week 3)

However DD who's 5 started crying hysterically when I was leaving today. I brought her home, thinking she's tired from a trip we took this weekend. But after a day at home, she's still not wanting to go.

I don't want to HS anymore. Really, at all. I'm so burned and wasn't great at it.

I do think I would like to use their early PU option (cutting off 2 hrs from her day, 4 days a week) However I can't.

AFter reading here, am really clinging to the hope that she will be more acclimated/less tired after a few more weeks....I just hate seeing my baby hurting.

The others are doing okay/good. I'm satisfied. They do a lot of outdoor time, not a lot of workbook, etc. Art and music are a bit more heavy here...

I don't know...verdict still out though I think we're pretty commited. Just wishing I had more room in the plan to assist the transition for my kindergartner.

Nice to see you all here. :joy:

You mammas ROCK. I feel so totally at home here in this little group we have. Linda on the Move, I could have written your post about the things I like about school. Literally word for word. I'm too tired right now, but soon I'll write my own list.

Indigolilybear---Hang in there hon! I'm certain it will go better for you all. Dang, I an envying your Waldorf-inspired charter! The only one around here is too far, way too far, to drive every day. It would cost big $$$$$ in gas and hours of driving every week. We're stuck with the local PS. You're lucky to have that (I mean, in my humble opinion.)

Good night ladies.

No, you're right, we're lucky. Thanks for the reminder. :shy

Drop off was a tentative success today....tears began, but not til the last minute, teacher swooped on it, and took her off to help make copies and talk to her...so I feel good about it....not sure where it's coming from....or if it's just overwhelm.

I think the hardest thing for me as a former HS'er is that I don't think of school as 'necessary' KWIM? So in some ways, I think it's also culture shock for me. I WANT to say, "hey, you don't feel like going, don't then." but my DH works in PS's and said (not in this exact way) that I was wrong to react the way I did...Oh well. And am trying to remember the big picture and do value the program they have there....and don't see HS'ing as being a better option for her at this point...

eh, every day is an adventure, right?

Hope all is well w/the rest of your little 'schoolers'. :thumb

and I also almost exactly have the same reasons Linda on the Move listed...It's so nice to find a cybercommunity here....

Oh yeah, this little community of former HSers ROCKS!!! And Indigolilybear, I didn't mean to devalue or dismiss what you are both going through, by saying about how lucky you are to have the Waldorf charter. I re-read my post and it sounded, well, like I was dismissing your struggles. But I'm not at all. Gads, I totally get what you are saying. I also don't see school as "necessary" after years of HSing, and I also have the tendency to say, "Hey, if you don't like it, you don't have to go, etc." It is really, really hard to watch our little cubs have any sadness and stress at drop-off, and to think that they might feel sad and miss us during the say. :( It's a really hard thing as a mom, isn't it? It's just very :( to see our little one not smiling. Very hard. Well, she will probably grow to LOVE her little Waldorfy school, and if she doesn't (unlikely), you really can keep her home again. Sounds like the teacher is nice though. I wish you all the luck with your transition.

My three kids walked to their school this morning, with Daddy. It will be good for them to start walking there in the morning, because it will help to counteract all that sitting they have to do. I'm also planning to have the older ones swim before school three days a week, or at least DS since he is always up really, really early and is literally bursting with energy. Literally bursting at the seams to exercise, at any time of day.

Reasons that school is good right now:

1. Nice community! I see so many nice moms at drop-off, and feel for the first time like we are part of our community. It rocks. HSing was so isolating. I hated driving all the time for them to see kids, and half the time we wouldn't see any kids anyway, not until swim practice every afternoon.

2. Time to myself for the first time in 12 years. I mean, I still have the two little ones at home, but that is OK. I don't think I could go "cold turkey" to zero kids right now, LOL! I might implode or something. But anyway, it's quiet in the house now, and the little ones are just happy to do whatever, and don't have a freakin agenda like the older ones always did. It's relaxing to walk on the beach and hang out at the library and coffee shop. SO MUCH EASIER.

3. The kids get a break from each other and from me, and from their birth order (in the words of Linda on the Move.) No more fighting and bickering. It's good for everyone to break the habit of fighting all the time, and to have home be a haven again instead of them seeing it as a battleground because they're so sick of each other.

4. For the first time, we might get to actually save money. PS is free, unlike the myriad of activities we did every month as HSers. Not to mention, all the gas money we will save. Not only is PS free, but they are so happy to go! Can't beat that!!

5. For me, there is SO MUCH less stress, and this will really help my mental health. The stress of having five kids together (and bickering) all the time was bad for them and bad for me. It was getting really bad, like where I was considering anti-anxiety meds or anti-depressants. When all I really needed was a break from the little buggers. (Still thinking about meds though.)

6. They might actually LEARN some stuff, academically speaking, without my having to teach them. We are unschoolish anyway, which I love, but the older kids were getting pretty remedial in math and writing.


OK, time to go grab a shower. I don't want to spend all day in my PJs.

Take care mammas!! The weekend is coming, and we'll soon all be able to be together with our cubs again as families! I love the weekends now and actually treasure being with them, because now I miss them. I'm jealously guarding nearly every moment of family time on the weekends. Anyone else feel like that?

OK, time to go grab a shower. I don't want to spend all day in my PJs.


Some hs habits die hard. :wink :lol:

I think the hardest thing for me as a former HS'er is that I don't think of school as 'necessary' KWIM?

While school may not be necessary, I believe that it is the best place for my kids right now.

So my advice is to get clear in your own head about whether or not it is the best place for her, and then go confidently in that direction (which ever direction you believe that to be).

I WANT to say, "hey, you don't feel like going, don't then." but my DH works in PS's and said (not in this exact way) that I was wrong to react the way I did...Oh well.

If the reality is that she is going to go to school, then visualize her overcoming this. Help her find her strength. My DH is always so much better at this than me -- I want to jump in with how my kids feel in the moment and just get stuck there with them, but he has this way of letting them feel the way they feel while being totally confident in their ability to move forward. He can look them in the eye and say something like, "you are a strong person and you are ready for this." Rather than ever feeling shut down, they feel believed in.

Like I said, I'm no good at that at all, but it's really great for my kids that they have one parent who is!!:wink

UPDATE ON US

I'm having a hard time feeling both validated for the years that I spent homeschooling and for the choice to have them in school now. When non-homeschooling people say good things about the kids being in school, it always sounds like they are putting down homeschooling. And homeschooling was a great thing for us for many, many years.

I really enjoyed all the time we spent together when they were little, the lazy days on making playdough in our jammies. Five in Row was highlight of our homeschool experience.

It just that none of what we did really worked well as they got older, and we now live where there isn't any support for secular homeschooling. And I'm really ready for nice quiet days with no hormonal adolescents. Homeschooling was wonderful for them and me for a long time, and then for a while we homeschooled and it wasn't really working for any of us, so now we are doing something different.

Yes Linda, it is the same for me! lack of validation for all the years we invested, and only validation from schooled friends for putting them in school. I kind of expected this though. We also live iin an area where there are very few secular supports for HSing. Do we live in parallel universes? So many of your posts, I could write them myself. My DH is also like you describe, better at looking at the kids objectively and supporting them than I am. And HSing as the kids got older.....same here....I still was happy doing it, but they weren't, and even trying to mix it up a bit, didn't help.

How old are your kids, mammas? Mine are 6 months, 3, 6, 9 and 11.

It's so interesting to see the word "isolating" come up so many times. I've used that word many times in the past few months, too. I made the decision that things were going to change in April of this year and have been working toward that since then. When people asked why, "isolating" was often on the list. I love my kids and I have more friends who homeschool than not, but the fact is that we ALL needed something outside of the house and my friends didn't seem to feel that way, so we'd be looking to go somewhere and do something 2-3 days a week and everyone else would be wanting to go somewhere and do something like...once every couple of months? I was mind-numbing isolation. I felt so very alone, like it was me and my kids against the world. Then I found out I was pregnant and I knew I couldn't do it anymore! It had to change.

Things I'm happy with:
1. DS is adjusting so well and appears to genuinely like being in school and surrounded by kids. I'm thrilled about that.
2. Having a schedule imposed on us is a good thing. They are both getting better about hygiene, tooth brushing, bathing, clean clothes, etc.
3. DS is totally at or above grade level, "in spite of" my really laid back, almost unschooly attitude toward homeschooling
4. I really enjoy not having to plan his school work and I'm not resentful of the homework at all. It's usually very practical, simple, easy-to-do work that reinforces what they've done during the day
5. DS2 is getting to where he can see that he's missing out on something, which is exactly what I'd hoped for him this year. I really think next year he'll be itching to get in on the experience.

All of that said, DS2 is making me CRAZY at home and I really, really do not want to have to "do school" with him. I'm so jealous of those of you who have alone time right now. I keep thinking "if he were in school, I'd only have the little one while I do XXX." Next year, I'll have my hands full with two little ones. So I do really wish that I had some time with just the baby at home while he's still the baby :(.

And I'm soooo tired. The kids are fine. It's me that is just wiped out. Yes, I'm pregnant, and only 14w pregnant, so I know that's a lot of it, but I am taking at least an hour nap every day when the baby naps, going to bed at 8:30 to 9:00 (7:30 the other night!), and waking up at the very last possible minute. It's not that I'm not a morning person, it's just that I'm sooooo tired!! I worry about what it's going to be like getting four kids ready to go out the door every morning by 7:30. I guess the littles won't have to be dressed (nor will I, for that matter), but ack...it's gonna take some getting used to!

It's so interesting to see the word "isolating" come up so many times. I've used that word many times in the past few months, too. I made the decision that things were going to change in April of this year and have been working toward that since then. When people asked why, "isolating" was often on the list. I love my kids and I have more friends who homeschool than not, but the fact is that we ALL needed something outside of the house and my friends didn't seem to feel that way, so we'd be looking to go somewhere and do something 2-3 days a week and everyone else would be wanting to go somewhere and do something like...once every couple of months? I was mind-numbing isolation. I felt so very alone, like it was me and my kids against the world.

yes! yes! yes!

Whats up with this?

Freestyler, I totally got your meaning so no offense. It was a good reality check however for me to realize how hard it would've been for me to go to a traditional PS.....it helped me validate my choice and 'chose' it again, with renewed conviction. :thumb

Linda on the Move-thank you for the thoughtful reply. I didn't read it til post-school but I ended up doing most of what you suggested.

quote:
"So my advice is to get clear in your own head about whether or not it is the best place for her, and then go confidently in that direction (which ever direction you believe that to be)."

I think the thing for me about the above statement that I"m really coming to terms with, is that either way, I do believe the program is a great place for her in general. The biggest change/challenge for ME is that after years of doing really only "whatever is best for the kids", I am going back to school, for my own interest but mostly for securing more income for our family, long-term. So for me, there is a lot of guilt when I realize, for example, that I have more duties I have chosen and that I am no longer ONLY considering her needs. Which is HUGE for me. And though logically, I think best for our family, it's still fraught with complex feelings for me. So when I read this, I realized though I do believe it's a fine place for her to be, that whether or not she's completely ready, she's going to go. Now of course if it became blatantly obvious that it wasn't working, we'd reconsider.

And I totally agree that I do the same thing you mentioned, getting stuck where they are now rather than having confidence in them.

Re:validation. Though I feel very very done now with hs'ing, I haven't gotten a ton of feedback from anyone really. Though it does irk me (and I do clarify) when people make assumptions I feel are faulty about HS...What is shocking to me, is how passionately I felt about HS'ing and how I almost feel the exact opposite now. Anyone else experiencing this? I don't miss it at all.

Oh, and my kids are almost 11, 8.5 and 5.

smooth schooling mamas. :love

I am loving this thread. :joy::joy::joy:

Hi...just butting in here. I have kids in public school and I want to throw in some ideas, particularly for Freestyler. And hey stranger!

I have no problem keeping a child home if they are super tired or letting them be late if it's been a rough night.

If you are concerned about exercise find out what their exact daily schedule is and take them to an "appt". during a down time(like the class right after a test might be light while preparing for the next test)take them out for that hour for pure exercise and take them back. You may excuse your child from class for health appts after all :wink Alternate so they are missing different classes and alternate which child you take out.

If a child needs a day off, keep them home, call the school, ask for notes/homework and let them rest.

Take note of your daughter's explosions on a calendar to see if there is a cycle(which happened for both my older daughters before they ever got a period, I believe their bodies were gearing up but not ovulating as early as 9)and make sure she gets extra sleep or even keep her home if you have to on days you can pinpoint she might need some extra rest or exercise.

Also, for your daughter...the oldest...I just encountered someone in real life who had a very explosive child. In therapy it was discovered that while he was very social she also had introverted qualities in that she needed down time alone, space and quiet to recharge from highly social situations. They gave her a room of her own to retreat to and things changed drastically once she had a place to recoup. I dont' know if this applies at all but thought I would toss that out there...my friends' daughter would never had been thought to be introverted because many people think it means shy.

That's all I have. I find school goes better when it's balanced and kids are allowed to not burn out on it.

freestyler, I loved post #69--very similar thoughts in my own head. Glad to see the conversation is still going strong. :)

We just had our Meet & Greet with the teachers today at the elementary and my middle schooler picked up her schedule. The teachers finally signed a contract and the first day of school was pushed back one day, so now we start Sept. 9.

My 6yo is starting to say things like, "I'm really going to like school but I'm not going to be any good at it." My 9yo is worried she'll be behind in math--we used Math-U-See Gamma, so she'll actually be ahead in some areas, but will need to get a review course in division since MUS doesn't introduce that til the next book. My 11yo is thrilled to be going to the middle school even though not a single one of her good friends are in any of her classes--just one yucky boy we know through church LOL (he's actually a good kid, but sort of a mischief maker and maybe shy).

My husband is still not too thrilled about the kids not being homeschooled this year. This was definitely my decision. I am really looking forward to the break though and hopefully he'll come around to see that this decision was in the best interests of the family.

Still working on getting the kiddos up at the proper hour. I need to make *myself* get to bed earlier! I'm such an introvert though, I love that quiet time to myself at the end of the day when everyone else is asleep. Hard to shorten that time.

I am sort of dreading the first behavior incident at school--you know, the sort of thing that administrators or teaching staff will attribute to us being former homeschoolers. My 6yo especially is very independent minded and curious. What mischief will she get into? I can only imagine.

I need some advice on my 3 yr old. I never even thought I would send a chhild that young to school ut she seemed so "schooly" I thought she would LOVE it.

Turns out its too much for her. the day is too long, we dont have any option to shorten it, (headstart) Its just too much. I am encouraging her as much as I can but she is just nonstop mean the whole time we are together in the AM and PM. And add that to the fact that they have "rest" time so her bedtime is pushed back at least an hour and I have to deal with her anger that much longer.

I cannot pull her because I may be working soon and it wont make up for childcare I have to pay for. $$

She is very homesick. :(

We are only a week in...My dh kind of freaked on me that I even mentioned pulling her out because I think he has been waiting for me to get burnt out so I would send the kids to "real school" anyways.

I kind of wonder how long to give it before I give up. I am thinking a month. ???

:help

My former-HS son will start 1st grade on Wednesday. We got his teacher assignment and looked at his class' website. I'm pretty excited about it but he says he's not going to like it and he's going to quit. We'll take it one week at a time.
I am worried that math will be too easy for him based on what the website says about the curriculum, he's pretty good at math and that was a problem we had when we tried school last year (for a month). I think the reading will be fine, although I'm worried about his awful handwriting and complete lack of spelling/sight words. With homeschooling, of course, we moved at his pace in every subject so he's advanced in some and behind in others. I hope his teacher doesn't judge him or me based on that.

Hotmama---I think we all have worried to some extent about our kids' "levels" academically. I know in my case, that worry ended up being unfounded. After 12 years of unschooling, and I mean total unschooling, my 3 school kids are ahead in almost everything in their grades---and this is a "Blue Ribbon School" that is supposed to be so advanced, blah blah blah. In other words, I think half of what is done in schools tends to move at a VERY SLOW pace. I was really surprised by that, and also somewhat relieved. My kids have lousy handwriting, that's all, but their teachers don't seem to care. At all. So try not to worry---I'm sure the levels will work themselves out fine.

Hey Allgirls!! Nice to see you!! Did you know we had a fifth baby? He's gorgeous. :love:joy: And thank you for the advice. Yep, our oldest is still pretty explosive. Sometimes I think something is wrong with her. But otherwise, she is healthy and normal and great with other kids. Parenting.....sigh....why don't people tell us it's gonna be this hard?

Well ladies, have a good day!!

Transformed, I'm sorry your DD is having a hard time. I'm really not sure what to say because while I had a 3yo in school 5 days a week a couple of years ago, he loved it. It was also a half-day program, though. :(

I'm supposed to be cleaning today for DS3s birthday party tomorrow (he turned ONE yesterday!!). I cleaned my entire bedroom and started working on the "front room" which is supposed to be a living area, but is really just a catch-all...it has a pool table in it, which has GOT TO GO because we never play because it's too loud with littles in the house and because we're going to be converting our "back room" (currently our living room) into a 3rd bathroom and 5th bedroom before little one #4 is here. ANYWAY...the front room also ended up being our landing zone for school stuff. I'm not getting rid of everything because DS2 is still at home and because I love having lots of educational books around, but WOW, did it feel good to toss the math and LA workbooks from DS1 and to consolidate all of the crayons, markers, glue, and pencils into a small pencil box for each of them. I'm not sad about that at all, which surprises me a little bit! :joy::joy:

I'm looking forward to it looking less and less like we homeschool. I always strived for it not to look like we homeschooled (no timelines posted up around the dining room or anything!), but I had given in to a school-ish area of the house and honestly, the biggest clue that we homeschooled was the constant mess because the kids were always here. So yeah, I'm looking forward to getting things cleaned up a little more each week :).

And I meant to say the other day that ITA on the validation thing. I homeschooled for three years. My kid is one of the brightest in his very upscale private school class. Give me some credit for that, would you? I mean, just because we're no longer doing it doesn't mean that you can laugh and tell me how silly of an idea that was (not that anyone has done THAT specifically, but I really get that feeling, like people think "oh, she came to her senses" when I say that we used to homeschool). I guess I do need to admit that it wasn't working and move on, but I do think I'd like for someone (besides DS, who has said it in a letter he had to write to last year's teacher :love) to admit that we did a pretty darn good job, ya know!?

I am sort of dreading the first behavior incident at school--you know, the sort of thing that administrators or teaching staff will attribute to us being former homeschoolers.

This is my 11 year olds second year in school and nothing like that ever came up. The staff was always great. DD had a few times where she didn't realize what was expected of her, but her teacher would told her nicely, and it was never a big deal.

It's not like the other children are perfect.

The biggest change/challenge for ME is that after years of doing really only "whatever is best for the kids",

It sounds like you believe her being in school and you continueing your education IS what's best for her. There has been a change in my parenting of always defining "what make my child happy in the moment" as being the same as "what is best for my child." I used to think they were the same thing, now I don't.

It still feels funky when it comes up, but I'm not in the same space I was.


Though it does irk me (and I do clarify) when people make assumptions I feel are faulty about HS...What is shocking to me, is how passionately I felt about HS'ing and how I almost feel the exact opposite now. Anyone else experiencing this? I don't miss it at all.

I totally relate. :love

I'm looking forward to it looking less and less like we homeschool.

:D I love coming home after dropping them off, picking up the breakfast dishes, wiping off the counters, and knowing they will stay looking just like that until 3:30!!!!! This makes me feel unbelievably happy.

I guess I do need to admit that it wasn't working and move on, but I do think I'd like for someone (besides DS, who has said it in a letter he had to write to last year's teacher :love) to admit that we did a pretty darn good job, ya know!?

:thumb My DH has told me.

And I meant to say the other day that ITA on the validation thing. I homeschooled for three years. My kid is one of the brightest in his very upscale private school class. Give me some credit for that, would you? I mean, just because we're no longer doing it doesn't mean that you can laugh and tell me how silly of an idea that was (not that anyone has done THAT specifically, but I really get that feeling, like people think "oh, she came to her senses" when I say that we used to homeschool). I guess I do need to admit that it wasn't working and move on, but I do think I'd like for someone (besides DS, who has said it in a letter he had to write to last year's teacher :love) to admit that we did a pretty darn good job, ya know!?

It sounds like you did a great job :love- and gave your kids what they needed when they needed it!

Things I'm happy with:

1. DD seems so happy every time she talks about going to school again this year and being in 1st grade.

2. Our public school is wonderful. She had a caring K teacher.

3.Having free time to sew without trying to keep a eye on the kids or only sew at night after they are in bed.

4.Her attitude has made my 3 yr old excited about going to preschool for 2hours each morning 5days a week.

5.That i will get more one on one time with my 3 yr old

SoCaliMommy---What kind of sewing do you enjoy? I make quilts. There are a lot of quilters up in Long Beach, I think.

My first grader likes her school too. :joy:

so, i haven't finished reading the whole thread yet, but will keep reading as i can :) we homeschooled pre-k, k and most of first grade. my dd went to school for the last six weeks last year. i wasn't highly impressed, but hey is was the last six weeks, so there were many areas i thought would be better this year if we didn't switch to homeschooling.

now were in 2nd grade (by we i mean she :) ) and i'm not impressed. it's ok, i'm glad she's getting to be around other kids and have school friends. since the beginning of homeschooling we've moved often and it had been difficult to get involved with a group or in classes (which can also be out of our budget sometimes) so i had struggled with feeling like my kiddo wasn't getting enough other kid time, esp. since she is a social kid. so really that's the only benefit i see for her. i look at the material that comes home and the lack of communication ( that's how i see it, i'm used to being involved in every aspect of her education) and i wonder what they do all day. :p

another aspect of her attending school is it has been very good for me. i am at home with a ds who is 3. since marrying my hubby almost 9 yrs ago we've moved a ton and i've been pretty bad about being overwhelmed with the responsibility of caring for my family and home. dd going to school has taken the pressure of schooling away (which was probably uneccessary stress i was giving myself) and i feel it allows more freedom to work on organizing life. oh, i'm also a singer and songwriter, not employed, but those are my passions, along with learning guitar and keys, and i feel like i have more time for that as well.

so . . . some good some bad, but i think overall it's where we need to be right now. i'm hoping that as i try to find balance in life i'll get to where i feel able to homeschool her again though i am feeling strongly that my unbalanced homeschooling crazy moving around life was a much better education. oh, and we may move again soon. i hope to know in two weeks if we'll go to hawaii or not . . . if we do i'm thinking i'll try homeschooling the rest of second grade.

well, i'm not sure i went anywhere with all that, but thanks for letting me share. i look forward to reading the posts i didn't get to yet. :love

I think I enjoy the counter staying clean longer too, as someone else mentioned!! ANd that ONE meal of the day, I don't personally hear about. We try to do healthy but also fun foods, so I pack it in the a.m., and they eat it. Can't believe how much easier that is than getting 'feedback' on ALL the meals I feed them as well as the constant "Mom, I'm hungry" chant that happens all day.

How is everyone feeling? This is our first 'down' weekend. We really went gungho and usually have Sat. music classes, then our spiritual center on Sun. so that leaves no relaxed mornings...but this weekend, it's a three day one, we don't have music cuz of the holiday so since we traveled all last weekend, this is my first breather, though I start school Tues.

I feel, well, just drained. ALso realized between my itty bitty sister getting married last weekend, I am feeling a bit adrift....kinda like everything is changing so fast and big.....trying to give myself some time and space to absorb all this even if only to get through all the stuff we now do! :wink

enjoy the weekend mamas....

This thread has been so great to read. I don't qualify as a former hs'er--my oldest, a 5.5 yr old, started All day public school K this year. But my HEART was homeschooling/unschooling since he was born. Back then I was 110% sure he wouldn't go to K, but we'd take it year by year after that. So I was in hs'ing groups bigtime starting when he was 3, our circle of friends was almost exclusively hs'ers or alternative schoolers, and my dh and I even went to many board meetings for a Sudbury model school that opened last year, thinking if we went school at all, it would be unschooling for sure. But then ds's personality emerged, and I guess it was strong enough that we couldnt' ignore it...the thing is, *I* loved school. why am I so surprised he wanted to go? why didn't he love the sudbury model school (when we visited)? He BEGGED to be in a big school, ride the bus, have homework even!!, etc. I know loads of hs'ing families that either successfully diverted their kids ideas about wanting to go to school, or their kids never asked, or the kids always loved what they were doing from the start. MY kid was always begging to be surrounded by other kids, not at home. he craves routine and even following directions, doing dittos! after his first week of ps, I asked him, so do you like it? NO mom, he says, I LOVE It. He wouldn't even let me follow him (in my car) to school on the first day when he rode the bus, so I could be there when he got off it, and walk him to his classroom. NO mom, he says, I'll be fine. (So instead I stalked him and watched him from my car...I am only human!)

Anyway, I really needed to share. And read your stories, some of you have hs'ed for years. I talk to my hs'er/unschooler friends and feel such a tug at my heart when I hear the cool things they do. But my dh reminds me, things could be SO much worse!! My son loves school!! Really, its ok ;)

Sande

Hello, new faces! Yes, I think we all feel that school is where we need to be right now, for whatever reason. I agree that it is hard to process all the changes that are happening. It's a bit much.

Interesting thread - glad to see it!

We start 2nd grade tomorrow. DS seems fine so far...we were there a few times last week volunteering to get classrooms ready and shelving books in the library. So he knows his way around and has met several kids who'll be in his class, so that is good.

I'll have our 4 yr old son with me during the day so its not like this is a break for me exactly - in fact, sort of the opposite since they keep each other occupied, for better or worse. But I am looking forward to some one-on-one time with our youngest since he's never had much of that.

I think the school will be good. There are things of course that will really rub me the wrong way and I'm expecting that, but in general I expect it to be a good move for him. I dunno. It is public school but is constructivist in nature and kind of alternative-y, and I did my homework before signing him up. Seems like a good fit, but not homeschooling is a real transition for me identity-wise.

Will keep you posted!

Today was my son's 1st day of 1st grade! He told me he had a headache in the night and couldn't sleep. I know a lot of moms with kids at his new school, though, and supposedly his teacher is fantastic. She seemed very nice and energetic, and has been teaching since 1992.
Also, this is my first day at work since we got back from summer vacation, and my husband starts teaching again tomorrow (college) and my little one starts his 2nd yr. of preschool on Monday. It's a big week for us!

Tomorrow is the big day! Starting to get some last minute jitters here but once we get into the routine, it should all be fine. Early bedtimes tonight and lunch-packing. My husband is staying home tomorrow morning until they are all off and to make sure our middle schooler gets to her bus stop alright. It's the first year the bus stop will be out of sight of our house, several blocks away. She can also walk to school, it's just one mile, but the school recommends riding the bus for the first couple weeks to get to know the route better.

Planning on a barrage of paperwork tomorrow night. A dvd and a glass of wine (or mug of hot tea) should get me through it. :)

Also, I guess I should be planning on a schedule of after-school snacks and dinner for the rest of the week to keep me from going crazy with the "what's to eat?" questions after school. Time to get in gear!

Hidden Life---Did I mention before, our kids are exactly the same age. Plus we have a baby now---so three girls and two boys. Busy, isn't it? I think I used to see you in the HSing forum! Welcome here!!

How's the week going, everyone? I'm enjoying the peace and quiet and no bickering. Gads, just the intensity of my oldest, even just the hour between when she wakes up and when she goes to school.....man, HOW did I last so long HSing?? Being around her is freakin exhausting. And she's a terrific person, very smart and enthusiastic and cool, loads of friends and a very, very loyal person. But she can also be a real challenge. I'm glad she's enjoying school----whew!

peace. and. quiet. :meditate

well...

except for :flyby1

freestyler~ just sewing clothes,purses mainly, would love to get into quilting.


Yikes this week has flown by Alex starts 1st grade on Thursday. I need to remind dh about it so he can hopefully take the morning off or all day like he did last year.

ANd that ONE meal of the day, I don't personally hear about.

:p For breakfast I'm making things they can grab and just eat (they won't sit down in the mornings, so I've let go of my image of perfect breakfast). This morning was turkey bacon and slices of apple. At least they eat something.
Lunch they either pack the night before or buy at school. I make a nice dinner.

But meals are so much easier!!! I'm no longer a short order cook and my kids are going into the kitchen getting random things to eat at random times, and leaving messes!

I really like having a schedule. :thumb

I feel so much more focused when I'm with my kids.

..trying to give myself some time and space to absorb all this even if only to get through all the stuff we now do! :wink


yeah, things are different. I'm still just unwinding. My house is getting tidier and I'm finally organizing years and years of photos. I feel weird (and a little guilty). Yesterday I sat on my back patio and read and drank coffee. My DH says that this is fine -- I've really earned a break. :love

Linda, I totally relate. :) Today I made one breakfast, not six different ones, and they all survived (ha ha). It did take me quite a long time to pack lunches last night--six lunches and three snacks!--I figured I might as well pack my own and my 3yo's lunches while I was at it. But at least it is all done and now I can relax with my little one until 3 pm. Ahhhh. The table is clear (except for the Hot Wheels), the beds are made, lunch is ready, house is pretty quiet (Dinosaur Train, thank you!) and now I can put my feet up for a bit. I got up at 5:15 am as I couldn't sleep and spent some time labelling all the coats and bags that I'd forgotten to label. I also made some cute back-to-school cards for the kids that I put under the clear vinyl we have covering the dining table. They really liked them. I made bacon and eggs and tea, read my email and got them all off to school. Now I'm ready for a nap! Funny to think my 11yo is in her second period class already!

Have a great day, ladies! I have plans for so many things I want to get done around the house this year.

ETA: first day of school photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=316912&id=731220690&l=857ef8d075

From post #1 to post #98, finally back to school! :)

you list many, many positive things about how this is working out for your Dd, and yet your post is overall negative in tone.

If homeschooling had been working well, she wouldn't be in school right now. It really sounds like she's thriving.


Sorry to be so late responding, but major computer issues have kept me off for awhile.

You are right, most things are great, but the day I wrote that I was in a funk and needed a place to vent. I figured here was a much better choice than to my dd or to the school! :o

Dd is still enjoying school, although she is also enjoying only a 4 day week this week. She's learning a lot in her classes - not all academic but that is a good thing as well. She feels comfortable with her peers but has not really made any friends yet. One of the downsides to being part-time and accelerated - you just aren't around the kids closest to your age very much. She did have an 11th grader seek her out for math help at lunch though. :D

I'll post more later, just wanted to acknowledge that I knew I was being a bit whiney last time and I do want to focus on the positive.

Dd is looking forward to parent/faculty/scholar conferences next week. How geeky is that. LOL

My boy's first day went great, the second day, not so much. He wants to quit. :(
He had a total meltdown on the way home because he had to go to the bathroom (we were walking, so it wasn't like we could just stop somewhere). Then he cried and cried over pretty much nothing when we got home. I hope he goes to sleep easily tonight and feels more rested tomorrow. He's a very emotionally fragile person and I think he is overwhelmed by school and also having a hard time sleeping which compounds it.

OH, hugs to your little boy and to you, Hottmama!! I'm sure he's tired with all the commotion. It's a lot, isn't it!
Remember that it does not have to be permanent. That thought keeps me sane sometimes. Hugs to you!!

How is it going, everyone?

Aw, hope it gets better hottmama. My kids are definitely tired and weepy still and we're on week 4!

quick check in here:

everyone's doing okay. My 8 yo DS said "Today was awesome! I didn't want to leave!" which is huge praise from him since he's kinda an Eeyore. And oldest 10 yo dd said that she is having fun too. Got an email from her teacher saying they're going to get them soon in their level of math which I am thrilled for since she LOVES math and has been really really bored in it....my kindie is doing better, well.

The biggest thing is that I now am at school til about 1. I have to have someone else (that I don't know well either to top it off....) drop them off and so far, so good, though they've been bribed to behave okay for this poor man. :shy Who only has ONE kid so has never probably seen how ugly it can get KWIM? :eyesroll And while my class is a real snoozer, we are getting out earlier and some other details that make it so that I"m feeling way more relaxed about the whole thing.....

One thing I"m thinking about is that my youngest DD seems to be really tired and weepy when I pick her up and they do have an early release option...but I'd have to jet there after my class gets out...then have NO time to either rest, do errands, or whatever.....

debating and not sure I could always get there right on time so might talk to her teacher soon....cuz am wondering if I should do it?? It would shave 2 hours off her day and really cut up mine....since I need to be back to PU the others? opinions?

hoping all is well mamas! :joy:

My 6 yr old is doing fine...my 3 yr old HATES school and I have to wake her at 6:30 AM (which is insane cause she now naps at school and doesnt sleep at night till like 9:30 PM)

My MIL offered to send her to a half day at a private program as lon as its christian. :rolleyes: I am not sure where to o with that. Its her money. Its my kid. Would you say "Uh, no thank you?" I really want to move her to a half day! LOL.

Alex starts 1st grade today. She had been awake since 3:30 which is when she woke dh up telling him she wanted to watch cartoons in our room. She will be dragging by the end of the day for sure since she had to been in school til 2:30.

She is so happy about school.

We'll see how the day goes.

Transformed---Oh, DUH. I just saw your post here, where you said your MIL is wanting to help send her to the half-day program. So it's not MIL's school. Like I said in the other post, I'd take her up on the offer. Get a smile on DD's face!! Some of the Bible songs are cute, LOL. :thumb Read my other post.

Transformed---Oh, DUH. I just saw your post here, where you said your MIL is wanting to help send her to the half-day program. So it's not MIL's school. Like I said in the other post, I'd take her up on the offer. Get a smile on DD's face!! Some of the Bible songs are cute, LOL. :thumb Read my other post.

:)

my 22 mo old wont nap on her own so here I am for 2 hours. Crap. I have lots to do!

hey, SoCalimommy, where are you in Socal? We're in NM now and love it but spent the first over 25 yrs of my life living in Huntington Beach, followed by a huge amt of moves all over Socal once I married DH (San Diego--various places, Ojai, and back to HB for a bit) . Just being nosey....Miss the ocean and my socal family and friends....:love

indigolilybear~ near Long Beach.

Alex loved school today. She did freak out a little when we walked to the front of the school saying she wanted to go home but as soon as she realized she had a few friends from last year in her class this year it was okay.

I was slightly shocked that a little girl that went to the school last year was having a hard time leaving her moms side when class started, they arrived late and the mom didn't seem to speak any english at all, another parent was able to talk to her and find out for the teachers that her daughter went to the school last year for K.

Is anyone else super uncomfortable with the idea of grades?? I hate that my kids are being told they got a "bad grade" in something, just because they are new to it all and it's all still foreign to them. What about effort? Doesn't that count for something?

I hate grades. Grades are for eggs. Grades are not for children. This really bugs me. See my post in the forum.

Is anyone else super uncomfortable with the idea of grades?? I hate that my kids are being told they got a "bad grade" in something, just because they are new to it all and it's all still foreign to them. What about effort? Doesn't that count for something?

I hate grades. Grades are for eggs. Grades are not for children. This really bugs me. See my post in the forum.
:lol:

Is anyone else super uncomfortable with the idea of grades?? I hate that my kids are being told they got a "bad grade" in something, just because they are new to it all and it's all still foreign to them. What about effort? Doesn't that count for something?

I hate grades. Grades are for eggs. Grades are not for children. This really bugs me. See my post in the forum.

I think the only thing worse than individual grades are group project grades. We just got to experience this for the first time. It is difficult when you can't get half of your group to bother doing the project until the night before. It is hard enough to be responsible for your own stuff, but to feel obligated to influence others as well is real pressure!

The presentation comments were less than helpful as well. Plenty of generalities about what was wrong but no specific advice on how to improve it. Sigh.....overall the class is very good, but this stuff really bugs me. Fortunately it does not bug dd, so overall things are still going fine.

How is everyone settling in to school? We're getting ready for our first parent/faculty/scholar conference next week. Dd is soooo excited. LOL

Well, so far all the kids have brought home is head lice :irked::irked: and worksheets. It is BAD. I'm not feeling the school love. Not at all.

well, so far all the kids have brought home is head lice :irked::irked: And worksheets. It is bad. I'm not feeling the school love. Not at all.

oh god.

How is everyone settling in to school? We're getting ready for our first parent/faculty/scholar conference next week. Dd is soooo excited. LOL

We've only got three DAYS under our belts, but it's going well. Ask me again in a month. :) We don't have conferences until late October. I am very curious to hear the teachers' remarks on my "former students." I am just visualizing that it will all be good stuff like, "Wow, your children are so ahead academically and well behaved. You were a great homeschooler!"

Oh, head lice! Bummer! We still haven't brought that one home yet. We've had flu of course and "fifth's disease"--I am sort of dreading the swine flu panic this fall. Well, you take the good with the bad, I guess.

Can I come in? :shy We're former homeschoolers at private school. My older dc is in 8th grade-- the last time he was in a classroom, he was 6. My almost 5 year old had never been to school.

The little one is loving school-- his teacher is fabulous. The older is enjoying/tolerating school. He is shy and anxious, but dealing surprisingly well. His classmates have been friendly to him, but he hasn't actually made any friends, yet.

I'm back in the classroom, too-- teaching 2nd grade. I enjoy it, and love the kids already. But, even though the school's a good one, I still feel uneasy being THE TEACHER and putting them through their paces. Oh well. All I can do is the best job I can, right?

I'm back in the classroom, too-- teaching 2nd grade. I enjoy it, and love the kids already. But, even though the school's a good one, I still feel uneasy being THE TEACHER and putting them through their paces. Oh well. All I can do is the best job I can, right?

I may apply to sub at my daughter's school. I can't do anything full-time yet, with her still half-time homeschooling.

I bet you are doing a great job!

Well, so far all the kids have brought home is head lice :irked::irked: and worksheets. It is BAD. I'm not feeling the school love. Not at all.

We just got the notice of the first confirmed case of swine flu at dd's school. The school is waiting to renovate space this summer so it is currently overcrowded - oh boy.

The head lice thing would just send me over the edge. My friend was so freaked by her daughter and her getting them that she shaved her head - well to less than an inch anyway. She didn't make her daughter buzz her hair though.:innocent

freestyler~ Yikes on the lice.

mom2ponygirl~ Yikes on the swine flu at the school.


Tomorrow will be day 3 of 1st grade and so far Alex has came home telling me someone she thought was a friend told her " I don't want to play with you,your stupid" and " i hate you, i'm not your friend" :(:(:(

Ryker starts preschool tomorrow so that should be interesting.

Well, last week went AMAZINGLY well. DS seems totally in the swing of things and its just been a super easy transition. Though I must say the school he's at, while still public, is a constructivist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(learning_theory)) school with an alternative, hands-on approach and a very very involved parent community. So far no worksheets or anything like that. At this point I really feel great about it, much better that I thought I would. I think we were all ready for a change!

One big help was that two of his friends (not the closest friends but ones he's known since he was three) also transferred in to this school this year. They weren't homeschooling like we'd been but still, they are new there too and he sees them all the time. One is in his class.

Anyhow, we'll see how this week goes.

all of a sudden my 6 yr old wants to watch the news to see how many people are dyin of swine flu :irked: :lol

Today is my 3 yr olds first day of her new 3 hour preK and we are excited. The 7 hour thingg wasn't working.

Transformed---I'm not thrilled with the seven hour plan for little kids either. My 6 YO is exhausted and homesick a lot of the time. I think ultimately I will pull her out. I'm really glad your little one is doing a shorter day now. Much better!

My two older kids are swamped and behind in math. They are in 4th and 6th grade and both are at 3rd grade level in math. What can I say? We always unschooled. Anyway, the teachers seem completely freaked out by this and think it's even more weird that I would want to take an active role in getting them up to speed. Like they feel threatened that I am trying to take over their jobs or something. Our oldest simply CANNOT succeed at 6th grade math without even knowing her multiplication and division. The teacher thinks extra worksheets are the solution. Of course, that won't help!! And ditto for the fourth grader, ugh. I am really not not not sure we are doing the right thing having them in school. For many reasons. But mainly, I have yet to see ONE SINGLE useful, enriching or creative paper come home from school. It's all worksheets, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, busywork JUNK. It's a total waste of their time and energy. A total waste. But hanging around and fighting with your siblings and having a tension-filled day was horrible too!! I simply could NOT get them to stop their frickin bickering. It was bad bad bad bad.

So I don't know which is worse. Both are rotten options. And I'm not wanting to be with the kids all day every day, or shuttle them around to park days and junk. Boring with a capital B. There are so few homeschoolers here---I always worried that the lack of support would be the undoing of our HSing career.

I'm all torn up about this whole thing. WHY is it so hard? DH just says, "Aw, just leave em in school. As long as they're pretty happy, who cares?" Well, they are still wasting their time and energy doing busywork seven hours a day and they are learning to hate learning. I DO care about that.

I love reading this thread! :thumb

We're on week two of public school after 3.5 years of homeschooling dd and 2.5 for ds. So far they seem happy, esp. dd, who is 12, in 7th and a social butterfly. She has some learning issues though and I signed consent to have the school test her, so far they have been excellent about it. I meet with her team teachers tomorrow along with her counselor, to let them know she's in the middle of being evaluated and will probably have an IEP in a month. Word is out that she hs'ed and today she said her social studies teacher (who she loves!) said he'd help her out with whatever she needed.

Ds isn't as happy as dd, but he wasn't about hs'ing either. He complains a bit about the bedtime and the hours spent at school, but he seems happy going and when he gets home. So...I'd say it's going well so far.

My five things:

1. I love that our school district is small and well funded. The community support is top notch.

2. I love having a schedule!

3. I love that my kids are not as isolated as they were when at home. I always felt like we weren't doing enough because of lack of money, distance, not fitting in well with the HS'ers, etc. etc.

4. I love the peace and quiet. Bickering was getting so bad around here.

5. I am starting to feel more relaxed, my house is getting cleaner and more organized, and it's good for my mental and emotional health to have some time for myself. I was a relaxed hs'er, unschoolish....but the chaos always bothered me, the constant eating, staying up til 11pm or later, the endless video games (ds) little or no structure.

We're doing this now mostly because of the finances (i'll be looking for work soon, hope to get in as asst. teacher for para pros) and it's hard to let go of homeschooling in some ways. Esp. for my oldest. She's very behind due to her being dyslexic and I really felt that being at home on her own timetable was best for her. So, now I just have to make the best of the resources available to her for FREE from the school. It's going to be OK, I'm pretty sure anyway :)

Help me decide...

Whats better - going to school and not being allowed to talk for 7 hours (well, except for the 15 min recess - for kindergarten. :bigeyes:

or

being home schooled and sheltered at home fighting with sister/getting yelled at by mom.

:eyesroll


I am soooooo good at being positive today! :lol

Well, we've gone back to homeschooling. :o :innocent

We're all happy with the decision.

Well, we've gone back to homeschooling. :o :innocent

We're all happy with the decision.

:lol

I totally do not blame you. :wink

freestyler, how do you know they're just doing busywork all day? I worry about this too, but I found that it isn't really true. My 7th grader was outside for science today writing down observations and being aware of the environment. That's stuff we did homeschooling.

I'm meeting with her teacher tomorrow, along with the counselor. I'll find out more what it's like. So far, she told me her social studies teacher is really cool and even told the class if it were up to him, he'd do away with grades, that he hates grading!

I think you should give it more time. I had a similar situation at home too and it's miserable at times.

Hugs.

Thanks Sneezykids. I am going to give it more time. Definitely. Hearing them fight all day was NOT FUN and I don't want to do that anymore. I really want to try to make school work. I like my son's teacher. (Even if he did mention Ritalin to me once. :angry )

Thanks Sneezykids. I am going to give it more time. Definitely. Hearing them fight all day was NOT FUN and I don't want to do that anymore. I really want to try to make school work. I like my son's teacher. ([B]Even if he did mention Ritalin to me once. :angry )

:rotflmao

Day 4 and Alex had a bathroom accident:(, i had to get Ryker early and then run to the school and pick her up. I had the nurse try and scold me because I said i was taking her home. It was just easier for me to take her home. Sorry but i don't carry spare clothes and shoes for my 6yr old who usually only has a accident when she's sick. She made a comment about how important it is for her to be at school:eyesroll

educational neglect :tsk:

I am leaving lurkdom to say I wish I had this thread when 10 yo dd started school in February. She loves every moment and every detail excelling at everything. It has been tortuous for me (except for the part where I get to take credit for her being awesome :lol). Our reasons were/are many and varied.

I hope I am not intruding here at this late date. :)

<It has been tortuous for me (except for the part where I get to take credit for her being awesome ). >

You should be proud that she is doing so well! I, OTOH, have a 12 year old who is behind and needs special ed now. Thankfully, when she gets the IEP, sp/ed is all integrated into the classrooms now :thumb at least, for her it is looking that way. Still, I met with most of her teachers today. Imagine me walking into a room of teacher eyes on me waiting to hear what I had to say. THe counselor set it up so they could hear from me that this is a girl who had tons of early intervention in ps before, homeschooled in a rich learning environment but is still 'behind' by no fault of HS'ing. I am so grateful for the counselors support and later in his office, he took a half hour to talk more with me about dd and said I did great in the meeting. Whew!

I also love my ds's teacher. She is really sweet!

I have to admit, I feel alot of weight off my shoulders. It's hard enough being a mom most days, let alone everything else when you're homeschooling. :o It's nice that my kids are getting the support they need and deserve! And, mostly, I am forever grateful for the years I was able to homeschool them :love

Freestyler - Hang in there. My ds has been having alot of anger and meltdowns after school. Tired I'm sure. It's a big change for everyone.

So DD1 and DD2 have been in school since last Wednesday, well, really since Thursday since Wednesday was only a half day. Last year I had them both home, and before that DD1 was in private school (dual curriculum and more time at school) and DD2 has been homeschooled since 5th grade.

I feel like I'm still homeschooling them! :dizzy: DD1 is home at 2:00 PM every day- she's still HOME more than half the day! And DD2 is spending almost all the time after school doing homework. I have to rush to do all of DS' schoolwork during the time the girls are in school, because once DD2 is home I have to spend hours helping her with homework.

Part of it is because she's never been in school before and she needs help navigating some of the work. Specifically she's "behind" on writing- it's something she struggled with before I pulled her out of school, and I never pushed it when she was home with me. So now, she's in 8th grade and hasn't written an essay in over 3 years. I had to help her organize her thougths for an essay for English last year (the subject was a short story read out loud in class that wasn't available for me to read), plus she's got this week-long Social Studies writing assignment she's been working on each day. And she gets daily math homework- so I'm still "teaching" math because I'm there to answer any questions that come up during math homework.

I spent LESS time on academics last year when I was facilitating all subjects than I do now, helping with homework!

As for the whole concept of grades- ITA that they're rediculous for little kids. But I've got one in high school, and one in 8th grade and taking two high school level courses (Alegebra and Earth Science), and I really feel that grades are appropriate at this stage.

I feel kinda like I don't belong on this thread since I still have DS home with me- but honestly, I don't see how I'd ever have time for him if all three were in school. DD2 has been needing me available for 3+ hours of homework a night!

nak

hi mamas,

i am struggling right now with the decision of where and how to school my kids, particularly my oldest, Noah. we started out last year hs'ing for 1st grade. it was going really well, but then just before Thanksgiving we got a call that they had a spot for him at a charter school we had applied for the spring before. i said "no, thank you" and hung up. but then i called dh and told him and we decided to call back and give it a try. the main reason we did was b/c it was kind of a "now or never" type of decision. the school is partial greek immersion and you cannot start after 2nd grade. anyway, long story short, we tried it and it went pretty well.

there are a lot of really good things about the school, but noah would really rather be home. he has a lot of anxiety that we are working on it, but he is still very anxious about school. he does very well there but i know it is a struggle for him. i am fairly sure that i want him to be home too, even though i do wonder how tough it would be with our new baby, 2yo, and almost 5yo along with noah.

dh does NOT want me to pull him out though, for a variety of reasons, so here we are. this is week 3, i think of 2nd grade in the charter school.

there are definite plus's to the whole situation, but definite minus's too. i'm not sure which will prevail in the end.

Welcome, Mommajb, Chrissy and Ruthla!! Am I forgetting anyone? It's awesome to see you all! How are ya doing?

Oh, SoCaliMommy, I'm sorry you had to deal with a potty accident. That's no fun for a little child. :( For spare clothes, I keep a huge set tucked into the car trunk, and I keep the clothes clean and updated and ready for each kid just in case. I have shorts and t-shirts and underwear, and even some long-sleeved t-shirts. This stash gets used every single week, for one reason or another. Like one of the kids getting food all over a shirt, or having a little pee leak, or whatever. This clothing stash is SO AWESOME. There's even a shirt in there for DH and for me. In case someone barfs on us or something. It's a pretty big stash, as we have five kids. :p

I registered dd1 in K only a few days before school started last week. It was in the news that our local elementary failed they AYP 2 years in a row, and since they are also a title 1 school, they are required to offer students a transfer to another "better" school and provide transportation. We had been on a waiting list for a hs program that offeres classes 2 days a week, and by the end of august, we were still on the list.... so we thought trying out ps at a "better" school for 1/2 day K would be OK. She enjoyed her first day. Was sick for day 2 and yesterday was day 3, again seemed to have fun. its nice to have one on one time w/ dd2. I have a huge weight lifted off my sholders as far as the social aspects go. Like many of you, we just weren't clicking with the local hsers. Not that we met them all though.... I'm just taking this one year at a time for now. When its time for 1st grade, I know I will be uncomfortable w/ dd1 in FT school.

Ruthla, so much of what you said rings true for me. Only my 2nd child of 5 is in school right now. I would willingly send more but dh is not behind me. He says he is but actions speak louder than words. Things like he scheduled ds1's piano lesson for 11:00 AM on Mondays right after we discussed putting him in school and he left it up to me. :irked: If I mention a benefit to school for ds or me he points out a shortcoming/dilemma/scheduling snafu or something negative.

Dd1 does not struggle with the work but with time management. She is very, very slow at everything. She also believes that if she ignores a problem it will go away. I have to get my day's work done before she gets home so that I can cajole her through it all. She runs out of time and then I end up doing things for her, mostly chores, and rushing her about. This isn't really okay with me lifestyle-wise and because I think she should be learning how to do things around the house. I need the help and she needs the skills but we don't need the stress.

nak

hi mamas,

i am struggling right now with the decision of where and how to school my kids, particularly my oldest, Noah. we started out last year hs'ing for 1st grade. it was going really well, but then just before Thanksgiving we got a call that they had a spot for him at a charter school we had applied for the spring before. i said "no, thank you" and hung up. but then i called dh and told him and we decided to call back and give it a try. the main reason we did was b/c it was kind of a "now or never" type of decision. the school is partial greek immersion and you cannot start after 2nd grade. anyway, long story short, we tried it and it went pretty well.

there are a lot of really good things about the school, but noah would really rather be home. he has a lot of anxiety that we are working on it, but he is still very anxious about school. he does very well there but i know it is a struggle for him. i am fairly sure that i want him to be home too, even though i do wonder how tough it would be with our new baby, 2yo, and almost 5yo along with noah. So he's in 2nd grade, in a Greek immersion class, with kids who have been doing the Greek immersion for a year or two already? It makes sense that he's struggling a little bit- he's "behind" on Greek compared to many of his classmates. I'm sure the school is aware of this, and has some kind of plan in place to help the "newbies" handle the transition, but it's still going to be stressful for him for at least a month or two, until he gets a better grasp of Greek. Or am I misreading you- did he start the school in the middle of last year? If so, I'd think he'd be pretty much caught up at this point, and any lingering issues are due to the actual workload and classroom organization.

Dd1 does not struggle with the work but with time management. She is very, very slow at everything. She also believes that if she ignores a problem it will go away. I have to get my day's work done before she gets home so that I can cajole her through it all. She runs out of time and then I end up doing things for her, mostly chores, and rushing her about. This isn't really okay with me lifestyle-wise and because I think she should be learning how to do things around the house. I need the help and she needs the skills but we don't need the stress. I've temporarily suspended most chores until we're into the school rhythm. Their jobs after school are to do their homework and get themselves ready for the next school day. I'm not insisting on them washing dishes, preparing food, putting away laundry, etc. They're still responsible for putting away their own clothing, but I let that pile up until the weekend if necessary, or they can live out of laundry baskets, etc. It's their choice. DD2 also puts out trash and recycling, as those arent' very time-consuming and don't interfere with homework.

I give gentle reminders on homework and packing lunch, but no "cajoling." My attitude is that, if they miss a homework assignment, they can deal with the consequences in school the next day. It's their responsibility, not mine. I help with homework when asked, even when it means basically teaching her how to do it, but I only help when she specifically asks for it and has, all on her own, started the homework.

I would pack lunches for them if it was absolutely necessary, but so far it hasn't been, and both girls like having control over their meals (I might end up spreading the cream cheese too thick or too thin for their liking, for example.)

I'm confident that both of my girls already have the basic home making skills they need, and it's OK if they get less practice with that while adjusting to school. And when the Jewish holidays are over, they'll have Sundays to do chores around the house.

I'm back to this thread, I posted earlier when it started.

We pulled ds1 out of kinder halfway through last yr bc he hated school (but loved prek btw) and then he wanted to go back to school for 1st grade. Prob bc he was bored at home w/no kids his own age to play w/ and only little bro to fight w/. He is a very social kid.

Anyway, he has been doing really well so far (we are about 4 wks in) and seems to really like school. He gets frustrated sometimes but overall he is liking it.

Got his first progress report yesterday and his teacher says he is behind in reading and math. :( I feel bad about this bc I felt like we didn't spend much time on those things, but I was instead trying to find fun learning things to do so that he wouldn't hate learning. I was trying to undo the neg feelings he had from 6 mo of public school. I also wasn't planning on sending him back to ps this yr so didn't feel like we had to be at a certain pt by now. He begged to go back 2 days before school started so I was caught off guard.

I feel bad, but am trying to come up w/a plan to help him catch up in those areas.

I really understand what you are all feeling when you talk about conflicting emotions and going back and forth in your minds. I am having a hard time but I really think it's better. I am just not very good at hs (partly bc I was working from home until July but am not anymore) and I too was tired of all the bickering and cabin fever.

Good to get some support here. :thumb

So he's in 2nd grade, in a Greek immersion class, with kids who have been doing the Greek immersion for a year or two already? It makes sense that he's struggling a little bit- he's "behind" on Greek compared to many of his classmates. I'm sure the school is aware of this, and has some kind of plan in place to help the "newbies" handle the transition, but it's still going to be stressful for him for at least a month or two, until he gets a better grasp of Greek. Or am I misreading you- did he start the school in the middle of last year? If so, I'd think he'd be pretty much caught up at this point, and any lingering issues are due to the actual workload and classroom organization.



sorry if my post was confusing! he started last year (1st grade) just after Thanksgiving. he was a bit behind, understandably, but had tutoring one morning/week last year. i think his issues now have nothing to do with the greek, or any other subjects, but more to do with his anxiety issues and his general preference for being home.

but then, today he said he had a great day and that he wasn't scared at all. who knows what tomorrow will bring.

freestyler~ I think i will start storing spare clothes for her in the van just in case.


Negative about school~ Today because my daughter's school gets out at 1:30 on Wed, my 3yr old didn't get in a very good nap because he feel asleep not long before we had to leave to go pick her up.:irked:

:hug That is one of the things that I really hate about school. Even worse though, for me, than the breaking up of our day and screwing with the littler ones naps, is how much of our day is spent in the car. My almost 5yo is going to preschool 4 mornings/week, so we have another drop off and pick up too. Our day goes like this:
8:00- leave house, drop Noah off at school (usually Laney cries/screams in car).
8:25- arrive at preschool where we have to figure out something to do for 30 minutes before it starts.
9:00- leave preschool, drive home (again, Laney screams in car).
9:15- arrive home.
11:40- leave home to go pick up from preschool (yet again, Laney screams in car).
12:00- arrive at preschool and pick up, drive home ("")
12:15- arrive home.
3:00- leave home to pick Noah up from school ("")
3:10- arrive at Noah's school, wait in carpool line (hold Laney and try not to pull out all my hair and/or yell at Rowan and Lilah for climbing all over the car, fighting, pushing buttons while parked in carpool line in school parking lot.
4:00- arrive home, thankful to not have to get back into the car... until the morning.

I'm so thankful that I never had to deal with school transportation interfering with naps! When DD1 was in preschool, she had morning session and DD2 didn't nap until the afternoon. They they were both in preschool/daycare and on the same school schedule- some years they were in daycare, others a shorter-day preschool, but they were both on the same exact schedule for a few years. Then I had one year when DD1 was in kindergarten and DD2 in preschool, but DD1 had a bus so I only had to drive DD2. And DS wasn't born until DD2 was in kindergarten, and the school bus stopped in front of the house at that time, so I didn't need to go outside to meet the bus if he was sleeping.

Since DS started kindergarten, I haven't had to drive anybody to school unless they missed the bus.

So Noah seems happy at the school? It sounds like having him there is a fairly large strain on the whole family since there's no bus transportation available Really, your whole day would go a lot smoother if you only had to drive to preschool instead of to both schools. Is the benefit to Noah worth it?

Julian (6.5) is liking school better now, but he said he and 2 other kids, who are also new, have been taken out of the class 3 times now. I have no idea what that's about, or what it means, but I don't know how to ask his teacher without seeming like a pest. Conferences are coming up soon, so I might just wait, but don't like not knowing. At drop-off and pick-up parents are discouraged from entering the school, so I hardly ever see her, and she doesn't send notes home or anything. I feel like she is very busy and is not interested in communicating with parents.

So Noah seems happy at the school? It sounds like having him there is a fairly large strain on the whole family since there's no bus transportation available Really, your whole day would go a lot smoother if you only had to drive to preschool instead of to both schools. Is the benefit to Noah worth it?

If we pull Noah out of school, I'll pull the others out of preschool too. Is Noah happy? I think he's as happy as he could be at a school, at least any school that I know of. He'd prefer to be home, but we decided this was the best choice for all of us. Now, I'm starting to really rethink that whole thing.

Anywho...

hottmama, it's weird to have so little communication with someone who spends so much time with your child, huh?

We had our first P/T conference today. Both of dd's teachers said she was doing extremely well, one of their top students, and fitting into the classroom just fine. I thought she would be academically fine, but it is a relief to hear she is blending in well also.

So, after a little excitement her first week with people asking - 'how old are you?!?' She seems to be accepted well now. She has a regular group of 8th grade boys she sits with at lunch, and several older girls from her classes that say hello and seem pleased to see her. She has not made any close friends at school, and still considers her homeschool group the place for friends. But, she is comfortable and happy with a fairly radical acceleration and I'm pretty happy that she isn't looking to fit in socially with her classmates just yet.

We've got to rethink her book bag and notebook arrangement. She's having trouble with quickly packing up to switch classes, so this weekend we will be brainstorming ways to streamline that effort.

Overall things are great with her. I'm a little stressed with the driving schedule of school and homeschool co-ops, field trips, etc. Fitting in my part-time job is difficult as well but that's a whole other topic!

I am happy to find this thread.

My kids are 11 and almost 8 and we have been HSing for 7 years now. I am not exactly tired of HSing, but I'm ready to move on with *my* life.

I'm an RN and right now I work nights, which is fine and I like nights, but I don't want to do it forever. My DH is going to be an elementary school teacher and I would like to be a school RN. So I want my kids in school so we can all enjoy similar schedules, and I won't have to work nights forever :)

My kids are ok with going to public school. They really love HSing, but it is also getting to be VERY isolating. There are no secular HS groups here, or the few people who do meet for park days, etc I am sleeping because I work full time ya know?

So next year they are both going to public school and really, I am ready for it (well as ready as I can be).

It also gives us a whole school year to get ready, my oldest needs time to work on her math skills and maybe some grammar, thats about it. They both NEED friends. Our friends have all moved away and there is just no one at ALL in our neighborhood, NO friends at all. It doesn't seem to both my kids much (but it is starting to with my 11 year old, Ive asked her about it and she says she is fine, but sometimes wishes she had a friend). We get together with cousins etc pretty often, but it's not the same as having a close group of friends, or even just one really great friend.

So, anyways, I'm happy to have found this group! We will be in public school next year, but I'll be following along and listening to your experiences.

Anything you wish you would have done differently to prepare them for school?

Marilynmamma---Welcome! I hope you will enjoy getting some time to yourself next year and some much-deserved rest, after your long and good stretch of HSing. It's awesome you did it as long as you did. And to answer your question: I wish I had better prepared mine for PS by doing a couple of things:

1) Getting them UP TO SPEED on math, no matter what it took. Computer-based program, hiring a tutor, whatever. My older ones are realy struggling because of being behind in math. And it sucks.

2) Getting them up to speed in handwriting and composition. My 9 YO boy cannot write his way out of a paper bag, even though he is a voracious and enthusiastic reader. It stresses him out not to be able to do any of the quick-writes or other written things at school. It also would increase his confidence in class to be able to write as well as his peers.

Just my two cents. Otherwise, no suggestions.

<Anything you wish you would have done differently to prepare them for school? >

I wished I would've pushed the writing more. My dd is slow at writing, but also because she is dysgraphic, she has a hard time processing info and getting it out. Often when she writes, she still reverses numbers/letters/whole words, and/or drops words/plurals entirely from sentences. Her capitalization and punctuation is improving. But her writing is not at all where it should be. It was always the biggest struggle when HS'ing. To push or not to push. I wish I would have required it more. That said, I think the pace of 7th grade is forcing her to quickly adapt. She has some trouble copying the notes in the time given, but I know she's giving it her best effort too.

I was also so focused on math and reading still with her that she has some gaps in other subjects. She loves history. But in social studies they had to draw a map of the U.S. from memory, and just fill out as much as they could. She was only able to fill out 3 states (ours (michigan) Calif. and Florida) sigh. She had others in there but couldn't label them because she was afraid to spell them wrong, or didn't know the names.

So, all those years doing puzzles of the U.S. didn't seem to help, the maps ont he wall, the Leappad globe game. None of it seemed to help. She thought Alaska was south of the U.S. :(

I thought those things she would just pick up naturally from the above statement. But, no.

Now I'm trying to catch her up on the weekends and after school. I got Kumon math books for both my kids. I also think because my dd's dyslexic, the best way for her to really get it cemented in the brain, is to actually overteach things (and her tutor told me this too, but I've seen it's true) lots of drill and rote learning, over and over and over.

Blech.

So far though, both kids still seem happy. Ds is at a friends house today, the boy called him over to play :joy I was so happy! His first real school friend!

Julian (6.5) is liking school better now, but he said he and 2 other kids, who are also new, have been taken out of the class 3 times now. I have no idea what that's about, or what it means, but I don't know how to ask his teacher without seeming like a pest. Conferences are coming up soon, so I might just wait, but don't like not knowing. At drop-off and pick-up parents are discouraged from entering the school, so I hardly ever see her, and she doesn't send notes home or anything. I feel like she is very busy and is not interested in communicating with parents.

The school dd1 attends doesn't have transportation, the kids walk or parents drive. For K parents need to drop off and pick up AT THE CLASS DOOR. I would freak out if my K dd1 was pulled out of class w/ o an immediate reason given to me either via a phone call that day or a note when I pick her up. One of the horror stories I heard from a hs parent was how the school tried to put their 7 yr old dd on ADD medication w/o the parents consent.

So, ds12 realized he is the youngest kid in his class-- 2 classmates turned 14 this week. He mentioned it to me, but I'm not sure what significance (if any) he attaches to this.

He got an "A" on his first test (Geography), and thinks he did well on his math test. That really helped his confidence-- which is good, because I think he'll need that self-esteem when he sees his English grades. :innocent

He was supposed to write a 5 paragraph essay, and didn't even write 5 sentences before the time was up. Eek. I think his longer writing projects will be fine, but he has NO experience or skill in timed writing. With his anxiety, I never asked him to do it.

I saw his entry testing results-- his vocab and comprehension were at end of 12th grade level; his writing sample was 4th grade, and his handwriting is not much different than my 2nd graders'! English will probably be his most "interesting" class. :p

darien, how long did you hs? DD got an A- on her lang. arts poem, a big boost of esteem!

We've told her to not worry about the grades, however, you know how hard that is. My dd has a lot of anxiety too (both my kids do).

So, ds12 realized he is the youngest kid in his class-- 2 classmates turned 14 this week. He mentioned it to me, but I'm not sure what significance (if any) he attaches to this.
:p

I have another young for grade kid. Dd told me the first day, ' Uh, Mom, I think I am the only girl in Biology who doesn't wear makeup. Not that I want to or anything!' :innocent She had a brief spell the first week where everyone came and asked her age and some wild rumors flew around. It appears to have settled down now. When I spoke to her teachers it appeared both had forgotten how young she was. The first I reminded, but the other I just decided to let them keep thinking she was older. :wink

Did your son have any school experience before this year, or is it all new to him?

hottmama Yikes on the lack of communication from the teacher. My daughters teachers * combo teaching* sent home a paper on the 1st day of school with both of their email adresses and how they let the other teacher know of any concerns you have if you happen to email one teacher and not the other.


chrissy~ :hug to you too wow is that a long day and lots of time in the car. If i trusted Alex more she would probably be okay walking home, we are roughly a 5min walk from the school.

Well, how is everyone settling into the new "school routine?" I have to say, I'm starting to LIKE not having the three school kids home during the week. God is it ever easier!! I still have my 7-month-old and the 3-year-old, so I can't sip coffee and work on quilts all day. *Sigh.* But it is actually FUN and not too much hard work to be with them. They don't ever have an Agenda. If you know what I mean. My 3 yo dd is a joy, and just is happy doing Whatever. Mostly swimming! And eating! And how hard is that?

Even with some occasional homework stress, even the most stressful school day is easier than the easiest HS day. Honestly. Five kids is just a lot. Mommy needs some rest sometimes. And when the two little ones nap at the same time, that is just Pure Gold. So I have to say, I'm really, really glad the others are in school. They are loving it and well, so am I. DH thinks I've finally come to my senses, LOL. :wink

Thanks for the replies about my "what would have you done differently" questions. I appreciate your experience as HSers---PSers.

I'm afraid we too, are behind in math and writing. I am really kicking myself in the butt about it now. We have always been such laid back HSers. I don't regret it, because my kids really had a lot of fun learning and just being kids, but that isn't going to fly in the public school system....lol. I'm glad we have a year to work on all this though :)

Anything you wish you would have done differently to prepare them for school? I'm not really sure. The only things DD2 is "behind" on are those things she was struggling with even when she was still in school. Had I pushed the writing when she was at home with me, I'm not sure it would have done any good whatosever. I think that having a break from the pressure allowed her to grow and mature, so that now she's capable of pushing herself to do the writing.

I do feel bad specifically about cursive writing though. She informed me in 5th or 6th grade that she'd never learned it (in spite of it being "taught" in 3rd grade) and I printed out worksheets for her. Over the summer she practiced some more, doing copy-writing out of "Flat Stanley." I thought she'd mastered this, but now she's telling me how she's still taking notes in print and doesnt' really know how to write in cursive. I might give her the "school zone" cursive workbook I bought for DS and let her use that, and then buy another (better, probably "Handwriting without tears") one for DS to use. He probably won't be ready for it this year anyway.

Well, how is everyone settling into the new "school routine?" I have to say, I'm starting to LIKE not having the three school kids home during the week. God is it ever easier!! I still have my 7-month-old and the 3-year-old, so I can't sip coffee and work on quilts all day. *Sigh.* But it is actually FUN and not too much hard work to be with them. They don't ever have an Agenda. If you know what I mean. My 3 yo dd is a joy, and just is happy doing Whatever. Mostly swimming! And eating! And how hard is that? We're hardly settling in at all. :(

Occasional homework stress? Oh my goodness, every night DD2 needs my help for 2-3 hours to focus her thougths on the writing stuff. She had a social studies assignment that DD1 could have done in 45 minutes; DD2 spent 1-3 hours a night on it every night last week. Or maybe it was only 1-2 hours on that project, and another hour on other subjects. :dizzy: In any case, it's more time and energy than we used to spend on academics when we were homeschooling, and back then I could do the academics in the morning when I have more energy.

Plus we had Rosh Hashonna this weekend, so we had to rush to get the schoolwork (plus housework, cooking, etc) before the weekend, and she couldn't work on homework over the weekend at all. And today's a fast day, so they're going to be super-cranky after school and maybe not capable of much in the way of homework. It was REALLY hard for me that they couldnt' help me with cooking and cleaning for the holiday. DD2 mismanaged her time on Friday afternoon and that made more work for me- I was helping with homework when I should have been doing last-minute preparations.

Socially it was wonderful- she invited a new classmate over on Sunday afternoon (and an old friend/new classmate on Saturday afternoon). Finally, DD2 has "her own friends" and isn't "tagging along with DD1's friends" all the time!

I doubt the schedule will REALLY settle down until the Jewish holidays are over and we have Sundays available for random housework, taking them shopping, etc.

Ruthla---Have a sweet and wonderful new year!! I'm sorry the homework stress is getting you down. It sounds really hard. I guess it's different, because my kids are all younger (oldest one is 11.) Sixth grade is less intense. And my fourth grader seems to be getting his homework done before his swim practice. And the first grader, well, not much homework stress there. I hope things settle down for you!!! It must have been hard doing all the holiday prep by yourself. I hope you still had a wonderful weekend. And got some time for quiet and introspection.

My kids are VERY motivated to do well in their classes, because they SO do not want to return to HSing! I'm not getting very involved in their homework issues, because to be honest, I need a BREAK from dealing with them and their learning. I'm trying hard to stay on the periphery unless I am really needed. Which, thankfully, I am not very often.

I'm hoping to move away from helping her with her homework so much, but frankly she's just not ready yet. I'm able to do other things (cook dinner, put away laundry, etc) while she does homework, but I need to be "on call" to answer questions as they come up.

I'm also going to start being a lot firmer about when I'm not available to help her, especially on Friday afternoons. Plus I've decided not to do any more errands after school. Last week I took DD1 out to buy gym clothes, and DD2 wasn't able to do a lot of homework in my abscence because she had questions and I couldn't answer them (and it didn't occur to her to ask her grandmother who was right downstairs at the time, or to put it aside and do another subject until I got home.) So I'm going to be there for homework help right after school, and hopefully we won't have any homework stress late at night, or right before Shabbos this week.

I don't know that I would have done much differently. On one hand, my kids *could* have had better writting skills when they started school, but frankly, I'm not sure that I would give up our years of mellow homeschooling. They are old enough to understand that their education was different than most kids up til now, so some things are a bit more work for them. It still seems a pity to me to spend years learning something that once they are really motivated they can pick up in a couple of months. Being in school was the first thing that ever really motivated them to work on their writing!

Their reading skills were ahead of their peers (which helps with the content subjects like science) and their math skills were fine. I was a little concerned about math because we played a lot of games, but the other kids aren't rocket scientists and my kids are doing just fine with it.

My dd who started last year tended to bring home ALL her work for the day and do it at home with either me or her dad sitting next to her. She really lacked confidence. My Dd who started this year is very independent and doesn't even want us to look over her work. Go figure.

I'm keeping after school time very mellow -- I try to get my stuff done during the day so I'm available as needed. My kids also currently have almost no chores while they adjust. They were used to a lot of down time, so keeping *some* down time in seems important to me for mental health.

Over all, things are going well here. Both the kids seem happy, they are both learning, and they have more friends than they did homeschooling. I really like the school. It's a nice mix of solid instruction in core subjects and really fun things like art, PE, etc.

I'm happy, and I'm enjoying my well deserved break. I had breakfast with a friend today after dropping off our kids, and I hit a yoga class this afternoon. Nice day!

I don't know that I would have done much differently. On one hand, my kids *could* have had better writting skills when they started school, but frankly, I'm not sure that I would give up our years of mellow homeschooling. They are old enough to understand that their education was different than most kids up til now, so some things are a bit more work for them. It still seems a pity to me to spend years learning something that once they are really motivated they can pick up in a couple of months. Being in school was the first thing that ever really motivated them to work on their writing!

I felt the same way. But it's just harder for us right now, this month, because now is the time when DD2 is "learning how to write essays and other formal school writing" that all her teachers simply expect the students to already know. Plus it's just a super-busy month anyway with all the Jewish holidays. She IS keeping up with all the work, but she's spending more time on homework than any of her peers.

darien, how long did you hs? DD got an A- on her lang. arts poem, a big boost of esteem!

We've told her to not worry about the grades, however, you know how hard that is. My dd has a lot of anxiety too (both my kids do).

Congrats to your dd! I told ds12 not to worry about grades, either, but I was pleased when he got a good grade on his test!

We hs'd for 5 years, and the year before that, ds12 was in a Sudbury school. He went to a traditional school for preschool and kindergarten.

Sigh... Alex brought home a paper from school today that had " :( Not Neat Work " :irked her penmenship on it doesn't look that bad and its readable.
another had "Work On Neatness with Alex" and another paper had " Work on # writing at home " :(


Alex likes school, and it's nice to get a break but i honestly don't think they should be grading penmenship so harshly in 1st grade :(

Alex likes school, and it's nice to get a break but i honestly don't think they should be grading penmenship so harshly in 1st grade :(




If they can read the writing at all, you'd think they'd be pretty happy with it in 1st!

If they can read the writing at all, you'd think they'd be pretty happy with it in 1st!



I agree totally.

I felt the same way. But it's just harder for us right now, this month, because now is the time when DD2 is "learning how to write essays and other formal school writing" that all her teachers simply expect the students to already know. Plus it's just a super-busy month anyway with all the Jewish holidays. She IS keeping up with all the work, but she's spending more time on homework than any of her peers.

I'm sorry that it's tough for you all right now. Hopefully, this phase will pass quickly. :Hug

Alex is on day 8 of school and came home with a paper today that was completed at school with another copy of the same paper stapled to it with a note on top saying " please re-do for homework and return to school"
this is the paper in question (http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs241.snc1/8820_1209966339546_1540377621_30576128_4054992_n.j pg)

Alex is on day 8 of school and came home with a paper today that was completed at school with another copy of the same paper stapled to it with a note on top saying " please re-do for homework and return to school"
this is the paper in question (http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs241.snc1/8820_1209966339546_1540377621_30576128_4054992_n.j pg)



I'd be tempted to paste a note back saying you opted to allow her to work on fine motor skills with alternative projects in order to help her improve her handwriting. You know, play with clay, pinprick art, and other arts and crafts projects.
Unless she likes doing handwriting pages, then I'd just let her. Otherwise, let the teacher know you are on the same page - you both want her handwriting to improve. You just were able to substitute other fine motor activities so that handwriting wouldn't develop negative associations for her.
:D

I ended up having her do the paper but she didn't do it like they really wanted it done:wink so it looks similar to the picture i posted earlier with only 3 big N's and 1 little n. A few O's and a few P's. she got p happy and wrote 3 backwards so i erased them and said it was okay and she was done.

I plan on talking with dh tonight about it when he gets home and go from there on writing a not to send with it.

:hug That stinks. I really don't think her penmanship is bad at all for 6.

I went to "curriculum night" tonight at my son's school. I am still processing it all. There were some really good things, some just okay, a few things that concerned me a little. The only bad thing was another parent (well, a few really) who was super obnoxious, but there were several really nice ones as well.

I am thinking of giving myself until Halloween, or maybe Thanksgiving to make a final decision about whether he'll stay in or not. It really is a good school, and I am so grateful for that.

Her penmanship is fine!! Goodness, what do they expect----professional calligraphers?? Ridiculous. Sounds like you are handling it well.

Hugs Chrissie, hope you find your niche. I'm glad the school is good!!

Ruthla---good luck surviving all the holidays and keeping things low key. Save your energy for the really important things and let the rest slide, you know?

Sheesh, who would have thought school would require so much energy? But it's STILL easier a thousand times than HSing with five kids at home was. ugh,. shudder.

Freestyler ~ I honestly think they expect penmanship to look perfect like the bolded letters they are ment to practice:irked

chrissy~ Thanks for the :hugs, not sure if it matters but she is a young 6. she turned 6 the start of Aug.

Hey SoCaliMommy---You want me to send you a sample of my DS writing? He is nine. You want to see REALLY bad handwriting? :eyesroll Your DD is doing FINE! My DS's writing is kinda like hers, but he is NINE, and I'm just barely starting to nag him about it. He's starting to clean up his act; his 4th grade teacher is encouraging lots of writing.

Gotta go drop off the kids at school! :joy :joy :joy:joy

I do think it's appropriate for them to care about handwriting- I mean, that IS what they're teaching in first grade, right? But to make a child re-do work they've already done in class seems like over-kill to me. Is it a matter of not having the physical ability to write neatly yet, or is it about "not understanding instructions" about where to place the letters on the lines and stuff like that? If it's the latter, then somebody (like the teacher?) needs to sit down with Alex and explain what's expected. (BTW, is Alex a boy or a girl? I don't want to use the wrong pronoun!)

Things came to a head with DD2 last night, and then she seemed to reach a milestone. I lost my temper when she was being all dramatic about starting a writing assignment and not taking any of my suggestions, plus she'd already played for over an hour and I was getting ready to get DS to bed by the time she asked for homework help. Plus she'd had a snack and left me the dishes to wash! I snapped at her, she started crying, I started yelling about not being able to do everything around the house, and then I left her alone to calm down while I took a shower (also to calm down) and then we had a calm talk afterwards.

First I told her that, if she really can't handle the volume of writing, we need to talk to the school about it. Maybe move her to a less challenging class (even though she can keep up with the reading and classwork), maybe get her an IEP if she has some disability with writing in particular. She didn't like the thought of "being too stupid to stay in honors classes" and seemed motivated to change her approach.

Then I explained to her that she needs to learn how to "do things fast to get them over with" and not put a whole lot of energy into making everything perfect. Some assignments are just NOT worth the effort- and she's not finishing all her work because she's simply spending too much time on small assignments that are intended to be quick and easy.

Last night she got the rest of her social studies assignment done much more quickly and efficiently than she'd been doing up until now. She basically completed it in about the length of time it would have taken DD1 to do a similar assignment. This morning, she told me that my "blow up" kind of shocked her into reality, and motivated her to do the work herself instead of expecting me to do it all with her. She was proud of herself for how efficiently she got work done last night, and confident in her ability to do the rest of her homework in a timely fashion (leaving her time for things like weekly tennis lessons.)

I know she'll need help with her English assignment this afternoon: a book report in "friendly letter" format, but now I'm confident that I'll be able to guide her and not have to "practically write it for her". I anticipate helping her get started and then being able to let her work alone.

Ruthla, I wish I could bring myself to make that work. Dd1 is plenty slow and I snap plenty often; it just isn't productive for us. :(


ETA: I don't think you did it on purpose, I don't even think you are suggesting we "try this at home" as I am sure you wish everybody was always smiling aand gentle. I simply wish that I could have snapped my own dd out of her perfectionism and slowness.

mamajb- how old is your DD?

I wasn't suggesting you "try this at home"- just sharing what's going on with me, that hopefully, maybe, DD2 has gotten herself adjusted to the homework demands and my life just might be a little bit easier now.

She is 11 and the only one in school just yet. Ds1 is 13 in a few days, others are 6, 4, and 2.

Ruthla~ Alex is a girl, her name is actually Alexandria but she only gets that when she's in trouble or i really need to get her attention. I'm thinking it's a little about both, but yesterday paper seemed mainly like it was sent home as a re-do because it wasn't perfect :irked.

I have yet to check her backpack yet today. I'm letting the kids play in the small pool in our backyard before heading back inside. She did say she had homework again tonight :irked

:irked:irked:irked

Day 9 and she brought home yesterday work again with another copy of the same paper and another not on the top saying " Please sit with Alex and help her form her letters. This is not acceptable.We know she can do better"

edited to add a paper she did today in class that must have been acceptable since it had a star on it.

had a star on it (http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs261.snc1/8820_1210665997037_1540377621_30578109_3080745_n.j pg)

:irked:irked:irked

Day 9 and she brought home yesterday work again with another copy of the same paper and another not on the top saying " Please sit with Alex and help her form her letters. This is not acceptable.We know she can do better"

edited to add a paper she did today in class that must have been acceptable since it had a star on it.

had a star on it (http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs261.snc1/8820_1210665997037_1540377621_30578109_3080745_n.j pg)



OKay - I have not said anything because I do not belong on this thread (but I lurk because it is such a supportive, honest thread!) but the penmanship thing is bugging me.

Personally, I think her penmanship is fine for her age. Absolutely fine. Moreover, I am really concerned about messages around perfectionism that might be sent to your DD with repeated requests to improve something that is not wrong, per se.

I think we need to balance the need to practice stuff with the need to not go down the perfectonism path. I am not sure the teacher is in the right on this.

While you may (or may not) be able to influence the teacher with your concerns, you can certainly carefully pick your responses at home.

"I know your teacher wants you to redo it - and you can if you want to, and I will help you if you need it. I, however,think your writing looks fine for your age" ...or some such thing in line with your beliefs:)

Kathy

Thanks for the input Kathy :)

This is a picture of the work she sent to school this morning the do over of 9/22 (http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs261.snc1/8820_1210695677779_1540377621_30578175_2745582_n.j pg) that had a 3rd copy attached and the not saying it wasn't acceptable work and pretty much how the paper she will return to school tomorrow looks :wink i didn't push her to write it perfectly which is what they want.

Looks awesome to me.
The teacher knows that reversals are normal for kids up to age 8 or so, right? That's the only thing I could see from her earlier papers.

This is a picture of the work she sent to school this morning the do over of 9/22 (http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs261.snc1/8820_1210695677779_1540377621_30578175_2745582_n.j pg) that had a 3rd copy attached and the not saying it wasn't acceptable work and pretty much how the paper she will return to school tomorrow looks :wink i didn't push her to write it perfectly which is what they want.



I do think that the handwriting on the "star" paper you linked is much better than the handwriting on the first handwriting picture you linked. If she's capable of that level of handwriting, then it does seem that the handwriting paper wasn't her best effort. Which may be fine for you, but in school the teacher will pretty much expect consistent effort.

When I was teaching, I found that reducing the number of letters a child needed to right often got better results for kids who struggled with handwriting. It seems like Alex did better the third time she did the handwriting paper, and she also made fewer repetitions.

My daughter is in school this year, after ten years of unschooling. Granted she's in Russia, so it's a little different... but interesting. Her biggest complaint has been that she's wasting so much time in school that it's hard to cram in all of the things she wants to do (art classes, choir, French class, etc.) in her out of school time. Well, that and the early mornings... and pages of boring handwriting homework.

She's enjoying one of her Russian classes but not her long one, and she's the teaching assistant for an American Lit/American History class, which she likes a lot.

Dar~ Thanks for the inside. When i had her re do it to turn in this morning she only wrote each letter 3 times. So today should be interesting to see if she brings home another note and that same paper again.

If she does bring home the same paper again, I think it's time for you to write a note to the teacher. This whole "we know she can do better" line means that the teacher thinks that you and her (him?) are on the same page. Let the teacher know that Alex is only capable of so much handwriting a day before her hands get tired and she's just not able to write as neatly anymore. Suggest fewer repetitions, rather than more, if "neat" is the goal.

DD2 still isn't quite done with the homework drama. Yesterday she had a very time-consuming Spanish homework, that she wasn't even sure if she was supposed to do the whole thing or part of. She did the whole thing and then had no time for English or Social Studies homework. She woudln't have minded so much if it was "learning how to learn" (learning a skill that her schooled peers already mastered) but IHO (in her opinion) this was mostly busywork and didn't actually teach much. She had to go through the Spanish-English dictionary and select a noun that starts with each letter of the alphabet and then draw a picture of it.

She got up early this morning and tried to work on her English essay, but there just wasn't enough time. She plans to use the computer for that later. Again, she's struggling with the format. It's supposed to be a "friendly letter" format but the inside is really an essay/book report. DD1 suggested that DD2 address the letter to her. But then DD2 was confused: if she was REALLY writing a letter to DD1 about a book, she wouldn't say much more than "I think you'll love this book" and not want to give any spoilers. But a book report generally includes plot details. DD2 really need to learn how to "play along" with these kinds of writing assignments and not take them TOO literally.

At least she's mastered the technique of the social studies homework, and hopefully that won't take her too long to complete.

Ruthla~ Thankfully she didn't come home with any notes :)

Well my dd is still loving school, this is her second year. She has been dropped to the bottom math group, so we are looking to supplement math at home to help her catch up. She did not do so well on spellings as her teacher quick fires the words and my dd is so slow at writing she couldn't keep up even though she could spell the words correctly grrr!:irked

DS is not hating it but not loving it, his anxiety in the morning drop off is getting worse and he asks for loads of hugs before I peel myself off him. I don't actually know if he is enjoying school.

But to homeschool would mean he would just have me for company and only meet homeschoolers a few times a month and he is so very shy and gentle.

It is hard when your mindset has been homeschooling for so long, when you can see they are not hapy to go to school, I want to wrap him up and take my baby home. It is hard to know what to do. I spent over 8 years reading about how bad schools are for children, it is hard to now see them as a really good place for my children to be!

But to homeschool would mean he would just have me for company and only meet homeschoolers a few times a month and he is so very shy and gentle.

It is hard when your mindset has been homeschooling for so long, when you can see they are not hapy to go to school, I want to wrap him up and take my baby home. It is hard to know what to do. I spent over 8 years reading about how bad schools are for children, it is hard to now see them as a really good place for my children to be!

Your last paragraph is so true! Dd1 is there and loving it. I am ready for ds1 to go to school but he and dh are not really on board. they are throwing all my own arguments back at me. It doesn't help that ds1 is older than dd and would have to navigate jr high. I f we hold out just another year it will be high school and they both think that is a better place than junior high.

As to your shy and gentle ds, was he unhappy homeschooling? has he asked for a change again or just reassurance in the mornings? I don't see having fewer people around one as inherently bad. Loneliness is bad but not a small social circle in and of itself. It sounds like you really care, I am just trying to understand. :shy

Your last paragraph is so true! Dd1 is there and loving it. I am ready for ds1 to go to school but he and dh are not really on board. they are throwing all my own arguments back at me. It doesn't help that ds1 is older than dd and would have to navigate jr high. I f we hold out just another year it will be high school and they both think that is a better place than junior high.

As to your shy and gentle ds, was he unhappy homeschooling? has he asked for a change again or just reassurance in the mornings? I don't see having fewer people around one as inherently bad. Loneliness is bad but not a small social circle in and of itself. It sounds like you really care, I am just trying to understand. :shy

He would be happy at home, he was never given the choice about homeschool, we sent him because we were worried about him being lonely for friends. He seems genuinely sad when I leave him in the mornings, he juts doesn't want to be there. *sigh*

My daughter said she had the best day ever today! It was her birthday. Her first period teacher mentioned her birthday and the whole Biology class sang, Happy Birthday to her. Then at lunch she had the whole school sing to her and to the other birthday girl. She was so happy, had tons of kids coming up and talking to her, etc. She told me on the way home that her school was filled with amiable kids. LOL

I try to look at what my kids want and need, and not to project my own wants and needs onto them. If your DS is happy being with just you all day, and doesnt' actually crave peer socialization, then he might NOT be benefitting from that aspect of school. He might simply not be ready to be away from you all day.

Being in school and around other kids is NOT a guarantee of making friends. I can think of several years of school when I literally had one or two friends, and neither of them went to my school. This happened in 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th grades. In 1st and 2nd, and again in 5th and 6th I was in special ed and had friends in the classroom. I think I had more friends in kindergarten because I hadn't yet alienated my friends from preschool, but I didn't make a single friend in school. By high school I was ready and I had a good social life.

DS started out 2nd grade with friends in school, but by the time the school year ended, he didn't consider any of them his friends anymore due to bullying and teasing. I'm not convinced DS was only the victim with the bullying- it seems he bullied back as well. My sweet, sensitive little boy turned into a rude, violent bully. :( He's getting better, being home with me, but he's still not fully healed from his school experience.

As for the whole "start school in jr high vs starting in high school"- it does sound logical. High school was when I was finally ready to be in a school environment (after 9 years of being miserable in public schools) and I figured it would be the same for DD2, if she chose to go to school at all. But then she wanted to go for 8th grade. Overall, I do think it's working out better than if she'd waited another year. She's got a full year to "learn how to learn in a school environment" before she's in high school. Most of her classes won't count on her high school transcript. The only two that will (Algebra and Earth Science- 8th grade honors doing 9th grade work) she has the option of dropping out of (into 8th grade regular) if she's really struggling.

Overall, she's doing fairly well and she's DEFINITELY happy there. But it's still stressful and she can be so dramatic when she's having trouble with homework. I'm looking forward to the time when DD2 can do her homework independently, with only the occasional question (say, a math topic she's confused about) instead of me having to sit with her and "teach her how to learn" with almost all of her homework.

My daughter said she had the best day ever today! It was her birthday. Her first period teacher mentioned her birthday and the whole Biology class sang, Happy Birthday to her. Then at lunch she had the whole school sing to her and to the other birthday girl. She was so happy, had tons of kids coming up and talking to her, etc. She told me on the way home that her school was filled with amiable kids. LOL
You posted this while I was typing up my novel. ;)

That's so sweet of her classmates and teacher!

We had curriculum night at the elementary on Tuesday and at the middle school on Thursday. I'm really happy with both my girls' elementary teachers. Great ladies that are really on top of things. The math curriculum (new this year--Math Expressions) is very similar to what we used and loved while homeschooling (Math-U-See), so that's great. They are both having a great time enjoying being with friends, going to PE and music, etc.

My middle schooler is also loving school; there is a strong focus on developing study skills and keeping an agenda, being organized, etc. She has five teachers: three seem very good, sharp folks, one is just like the drama teacher in High School Musical (I swear!)--sequins, fluffy hair, bright clothing and very nurturing, hilarious--and the social studies teacher is a nice guy but you can see history isn't his passion.

Turns out he was formerly the wrestling coach and will be their 2nd semester PE teacher! Hilarious! You would think as a homeschooler this would bother me, but no, it just strikes me as funny. I suggested he could link the two and teach the kids Graeco-Roman wrestling (they are doing a survey of ancient history--which is what I already taught her last year--oh well!).

A lot of budget cuts in various areas of the school district office have pushed administrators, coaches and specialists back into the classroom with interesting results. I've noticed, and the district has confirmed, a spike in public school enrollment this year. Most of it is due to families pulling their kids out of expensive private schools to save money. The upside of this is that some teachers who were laid off due to budget cuts are getting rehired to meet new enrollment needs. My 6th grader's science teacher was at the mid-high for the last two years and was just brought in as a science/math teacher for the middle school three weeks into the school year.

The most annoying things about public school so far:

1) Being on a tighter schedule in the afternoon/evenings. Two days a week we have music lessons and those days are a bit crazier with the knowledge that I have to get the kids to bed on time, get chores done, check off any homework--there's no sleeping in any more!

2) Getting cell phone calls from my kids using their friends' phones during lunch or on the bus. My kids don't have phones. I don't think they should be using them during the day to arrange playdates or what not. Kids' cell phones should be for emergencies! Just about stopped my heart the first time my daughter was calling me from school--I was worried she had been called into the office or had a medical problem or something.

3) Paperwork/keeping track of fundraisers/deadlines. No surprise there!

[QUOTE=SoCaliMommy;14422014][color=teal] Alex is on day 8 of school and came home with a paper today that was completed at school with another copy of the same paper stapled to it with a note on top saying " please re-do for homework and return to school"
[QUOTE]

I was just curious--did the teacher correct the work her/himself or was it corrected by a parent volunteer perhaps being too zealous? Is there more to the story?

Ruthla, you got to it and said it better than I probably would have regarding school/social life/friends. We have a rich social life as homeschoolers (those of us still at home). Dd1 did not feel this way. School has really helped her blossom; it could also help that at 10.5 yo she was ready to be separate more.

Thank you for the comments regarding jr high vs. high school. I agree that any level of maturity can help one to navigate school. I like hearing it from someone other than dh sometimes. :wink

The Hidden Life ~ It was the teacher.

I had DD2's Curriculum Night on Thursday. The worst part about it was that I had to be away for 2 hours in the evening when DD2 really needed me around for homework help, and instead I came home at 9:00 PM (half an hour after DS should have been in bed) and started with HIS bedtime routine.

I like all of DD2's teachers except for her Spanish teacher, who seems to be on a power trip. :( I was especially impressed with her Earth Science teacher, who seems to share my philosophy about "no busywork" and "learn CONCEPTS, don't waste time copying over notes."

I'm a little concerned about DD's ability to keep up in math (Algebra, high school level), as it seems the teacher is "reviewing" material that DD is learning for the first time. As a result, "15-20 minutes' worth of homework" is taking her about an hour. But we'll see how it goes. The pace of "school math" (vs how we handled it at home- skimming through pages and only stopping long enough at each page to understand a concept) may be enough for her to fully learn the material even though it's supposed to be review. If she does well on the tests, she'll probably stay in this class.

Let the homework struggle begin

Alex brought home the 1st homework packet today, I could had sworn they wouldn't be starting it til after back to school night.

Monday is ~
Laguage Arts- Copy spelling words and dictation sentence.
there are 10 spelling words she has to copy each 3 times plus write the sentence 2 times.
Memorize Poem for poetry test on friday
A-P-P-L-E
There was an orchard with a tree,
And apples grew upon it.
A-P-P-L-E, A-P-P-L-E,A-P-P-L-E,
And apples grew upon it.
(Tune: B-I-N-G-O)

Math pages 3 &4
each page has 10 problems total

Read "Tam The Cat" and another book for 15mins
Tam The Cat consists of :
Mat
Tam Cat Sat
Tam Cat sat,sat,sat

mark off how many minutes read and parent signs off when they finish that days homework.

ugh. that seems like way too much homework to me.

i know that schools vary widely on how much homework is given. the school noah goes to had almost no homework in first grade. they had a couple of projects over the course of the year that they were given about a week or so to complete. they weren't big deals at all, more fun than anything, and that was it. i was pleased with that. now, in second grade, he is given a little bit more, but not much. so far it has just been one assignment per night, if that. even that feels like too much sometimes b/c he doesn't even get home until 4pm.

how do you feel kami? how does your dd feel about it?

SoCaliMommy---And that homework isn't for the whole week? When my DD brings home her 1st grade homework packet, it's for the whole week. She gets it on Friday and it's due the next Thursday. It is about the amount of HW you listed. For one day, that would be, uhhh, OPPRESSIVE to say the least.

Here, my kids just entered a 3-week break, because it's a year-round school and started in July. (Weird.) Honestly, I'm feeling a wee bit panicky about how to fill the three weeks. But today we went to the Long Beach Aquarium and it was actually FUN to be with the kids. We all actually ENJOYED it, OMG, it was like the old days before we were SO burned out on HSing and each other. SoCaliMommy---Have you been to the Aquarium? The new shark lagoon is way cool. But anyway, I'm enjoying the kids, because I know that it's only for three weeks, not the eternity of a whole relatively empty (un)school year stretching out ahead. Funny, how school is making me enjoy my kids again because we get a break from each other. :love

Now, if only I could get a break from the little two once in a while......:eyesroll

Ruthla---I hope the homework stress eases up for you soon! I really feel for you. We have a much easier situation. Do you think it's getting any easier now, or it the same, or getting harder? Do you ever think about hiring a school-based tutor to help your kids get more of their work done at school? Are there any free periods for doing homework? By the way, I hope you have had a wonderful and contemplative Yom Kippur.

Gosh that is a lot, my dd aged 9 brings that much home!

My ds aged 5 brings home some sounds and words to learn and a reading book that is wordless that he is to read through twice with me- takes about 10 minutes in total. I am not sure how much he will be bringing home when he is 6 but I don't think it will be too much (I hope)

Let the homework struggle begin

Alex brought home the 1st homework packet today, I could had sworn they wouldn't be starting it til after back to school night.

Monday is ~
Laguage Arts- Copy spelling words and dictation sentence.
there are 10 spelling words she has to copy each 3 times plus write the sentence 2 times.
Memorize Poem for poetry test on friday
A-P-P-L-E
There was an orchard with a tree,
And apples grew upon it.
A-P-P-L-E, A-P-P-L-E,A-P-P-L-E,
And apples grew upon it.
(Tune: B-I-N-G-O)

Math pages 3 &4
each page has 10 problems total

Read "Tam The Cat" and another book for 15mins
Tam The Cat consists of :
Mat
Tam Cat Sat
Tam Cat sat,sat,sat

mark off how many minutes read and parent signs off when they finish that days homework.

The reading sounds like a reasonable amount to have each day. PITA to fill out reading logs, but 15 minutes a day for 1st graders does sound reasonable. Memorizing the little poem doesn't sound too bad either.

But that sounds like WAY too much handwriting to do all that LA plus all that math! I know DS would have struggled with that, especially after a whole day of school.

Ruthla---I hope the homework stress eases up for you soon! I really feel for you. We have a much easier situation. Do you think it's getting any easier now, or it the same, or getting harder? Do you ever think about hiring a school-based tutor to help your kids get more of their work done at school? Are there any free periods for doing homework? By the way, I hope you have had a wonderful and contemplative Yom Kippur.

The homeworks seems to be getting easier for DD2. She still needs me around when doing the work, but she's doing more on her own and needing less help for each little thing. She's definitely gotten the social studies work down- it's still fairly time consuming, but the teacher gives the whole week's assingment at once so she can organize her time fairly well. She's frustrated knowing that her classmates have all weekend to work on it, but she has to fit it in during the school week due to all the holidays.

Math is still a lot of work because her class is "reviewing" what she's learning for the first time. So I basically have to teach algebra every night. My guess is that things will get easier in another month or so when they finish "reviewing" and go onto new material- then the pace should slow down. Alternatively, she'll do poorly on the first few exams and drop down to easier math. Either way, things should get easier in another month or so. Plus, she'll be less pressed for time after the holidays end.

She can stay 9th period to do homework with the teacher available to help, but she doesn't like that. She wants to do work at home, with me to help her. And I'm capable of helping her, as long as I organize my time so I'm available.

Both girls were incredibly grumpy about having to get up early for school today after fasting yesterday. DD1 was especially upset about it, seeing how, had she gone to a Jewish school this year, she might have had today off.

ETA: I just checked the online school calendar for one of the local Jewish schools. She would have had school today anyway. :shrug

freestyler~ Alex brings home her homework packet on Mondays and turns it in Friday. That was just one days worth of homework.

chrissy~ I thought it was a little much. She struggled with writing the words 3x each and copying the sentence 2times, so much so that we both got frustrated and i had her only do 3 spelling words and dh got home and helped her with the rest of the spelling words.

All that writing would have annoyed Noah too, maybe not as much this year (2nd grade), but last year he would have absolutely hated it.

Today was a strange day for me. For the past few weeks I have been really really wanting to homeschool- spending a lot of time thinking about it, reading about it online, talking about it with friends, bringing it up with dh, and just generally really really being excited about the idea. But then today I really was grateful for school. This morning nobody fussed about going- even Rowan, who is just going 2 mornings a week from 9-12, didn't complain. Then I had a nice break. I enjoyed the quiet. Hmmmmm. I guess that's why I'm giving this decision a while.

The school dd1 attends doesn't have transportation, the kids walk or parents drive. For K parents need to drop off and pick up AT THE CLASS DOOR. I would freak out if my K dd1 was pulled out of class w/ o an immediate reason given to me either via a phone call that day or a note when I pick her up. One of the horror stories I heard from a hs parent was how the school tried to put their 7 yr old dd on ADD medication w/o the parents consent.
that could never ever ever in a million years ever ever happen. The school nurse can't even give TYLENOL without it being in a prescribed bottle, with dosage from a pharmacy.

When did things become so danged SERIOUS? When I was growing up, the school nurse could give out Tylenol and stuff, like if you had cramps and junk. Sheesh. :eyesroll

Kids also cannot take over the counter medication with them to school. Even my 13 year old can't have something for cramps with her. Sure this policy makes sense for a 5 year old, but a 13 year old?

In other goofy news, my 11 year old (6th grader) is getting ready to start a Basic Abstinence Program. I have so many problems with this that I could write a novel, and explained them to her. However, I left the final choice up to her (as is in line with my parenting values) and she wants to go because there is a party at the end. The only good thing about it so far is they will send home sheets that she and I *must* discuss and then I have to sign, so I will have lots of opportunities to share my views.

I really hate the idea of sex being presented as something scary that will kill you, so that only penis/vigina counts as sex, or that sex is only OK in marriage (which just seems like religion dressed up as science). Or that there are two options -- no sex or lots of stupid sex -- I really think there is a middle path.

I'm not worried about sex ed in school. I figure I've already covered most of what they're going to teach in school, and probably MORE than they're teaching, with my own values instilled. If DD2 has some interesting tidbits from her "health class" (which so far has covered "financial health" and then she had to make up a poster about "healthy decisions"- she chose exercise) we can discuss them together. We've already covered "This is what the Torah says to do; if you choose otherwise then here's how to keep yourself safe."

DD2 seems to be settling in nicely. She's having no trouble in math- when they had some time to do homework in class, she was as fast as her classmates. I think part of the problem at home is dawdling, stopping to chat about random stuff, etc, not actual difficulty doing the work itself. Last night she got 2/3 of her weekly Social Studies done. The same project that took her about 2-3 hours a night to do a little bit the first week, she got nearly done in about 3 focused hours. It's a short week, due to all the holidays (no school Monday, and then she can't do any homework over the weekend because it's Succos) but it looks like she has things under control.

And, for the first time this year, DD1 forgot her lunch. I dropped it off at her school after driving DD2 to the middle school.

I'm an RN and I have worked some in the public schools. It may seem trivial for an RN to not be able to give out Tylenol (or some other otc med), but you really have to understand some of these parents and students, I have worked with so many parents that keep their kids doped up constantly on Benedryl all day long, among other things. I worked in a pediatric ICU for 2 years and I can't TELL you have many times I saw OTC drugs kill or seriously injure children or parents or children abuse them (cough syrups, a kid bleed out from a dose of motrin, some of these parents will seriously shock your socks off with what they do, and these are parents you would NEVER suspect---upper to middle class or "rich" people, etc).

So no, I won't just give a child some Tylenol (or whatever), especially without knowing their past medical history, etc. I am not going to put myself and my license on the line for even "Tylenol" to a child I really don't know (how do I know when they last took a dose and how much was it)--people are too sue happy. I have seen too much, too many horror stories, involving just "simple" otc drugs anymore.

I know it kinda seems silly and stuff, but I didn't realize some of these issues until I had experienced them. And then if, say, my dd bring tylenol to school for cramps and gives some to another girl who has already taken some or whatever and has ANY rxt (which happens more than you realize)....then it comes back onto the parent and also the school. I hope that kinda makes sense why it's all so strict anymore.

And no, no school is going to just put some child on ADD/ADHD meds, or ANY meds for that reason...I don't believe that for a second. Schools don't just have a pharmacy off in the corner or a doctor lurking the halls giving out prescriptions, those meds require a MD/NP/PA prescription. That is some some made up hs'ing horror story we all have probably heard sometime.

Not to mention that some kids react to "inert" ingredients in OTC meds. If you'd given DD2 or DS bright red liquid Tylenol, they'd be bouncing off the walls for at least a few hours, if not days. I only have the dye-free kind at home.

What's funny is how private schools are different than public schools in this regard. The private school DS used to go to had a waiver I could sign to give the school nurse permission to medicate him (and a list to check off which meds I was OK with her giving him.) I didn't sign it, mainly because of the "inert" ingredient issue. But there was one time when she called me saying DS "is a little under the weather" and gave me a choice: I could come pick him up, or she could give him a dose of Motrin and send him back to class. :jaw I picked him up!

The only thing about the "zero tolerance drug policies" that really bothers me is the fact that a teenager can't bring medication to school for personal use. I used to keep motrin in my purse for menstrual cramps when I was in high school. So far my daughters haven't needed that (DD1 doesn't really get cramps and DD2 hasn't gotten AF yet) but what if they did? I can't just write a note for the school nurse: I have to get a doctor to write a note for the school nurse, even for OTC meds! Now, THAT I think is rediculous. I don't see why it's not enough for me to supply a bottle of motrin or alleve and a signed note, and leave the meds and note with the school nurse.

I am, however, allowed to go to the school, sign DD out, give her a dose of medication, then sign her right back in. :dizzy: Not that either child has called from the nurse's office requesting this, but that's permitted under the school rules.

Anyone else's child already sick?

Alex has been in school 2wks and is starting to get a cough :(

Anyone else's child already sick?

Alex has been in school 2wks and is starting to get a cough :(



No, but dh came home from a business trip sick and now I think I am getting it. I hope dd gets through all her tests this week before she does!

DD1 and DD2 seem healthy enough, but DS is just getting over a mild virus and I have it now. Unless it's just my fibromyalgia acting up and not a virus at all. Who knows? All I know is I've been tired and achey and dizzy.

Kids and I have all been sick.

My 12 year old isn't adjusting to school very well. She has sensory issues and is just overwhelmed. The work itself isn't a problem and now she's figured out how to keep it all organized, but the press of people and the noise are getting to her. I'm not sure what would be best for her, as homeschooling here is super isolating.

My 11 year old loves and school and just made cheerleader! They just cheer for basketball (little 6th grade girls cheering for little 6th grades boys, while the feminist in me is in shock, I think it's going to be very cute!). She's also in the service club, chess club, and girl scouts.

I'm happy to know that the kids both do fine accademically after only being homeschooled and I'm suprized how much their basic personalities are showing up in how well they cope with school.

My 12 year old isn't adjusting to school very well. She has sensory issues and is just overwhelmed. The work itself isn't a problem and now she's figured out how to keep it all organized, but the press of people and the noise are getting to her. I'm not sure what would be best for her, as homeschooling here is super isolating.

My now 11! yr old has similar issues with the crowds at school. That is one of several reasons that we homeschool half-time and she only goes to school for a half-day. She loves school but still tells me - Mom, I couldn't stand to be there all day. I don't know if part-time is an option for you, since policies vary so much from place to place. But it might be something to look into if your dd doesn't seem to adapt soon.

Does your dd get overwhelmed at amusement parks too? Mine loves to go but is always ready to leave by lunch time! LOL

Does your dd get overwhelmed at amusement parks too? Mine loves to go but is always ready to leave by lunch time! LOL

My DD likes Sea World, but amusements parks that focus on rides just don't work for her.:o

The only thing about the "zero tolerance drug policies" that really bothers me is the fact that a teenager can't bring medication to school for personal use. I used to keep motrin in my purse for menstrual cramps when I was in high school.


Ya I totally get ya. What I plan to do (especially for things like cramps and headaches) is go see our Dr before the school year starts and just have her write a scrip for some motrin and leave that in the nurses office (cheaper than buying it otc as well). A lot of parents do this and it works well.

Ya I totally get ya. What I plan to do (especially for things like cramps and headaches) is go see our Dr before the school year starts and just have her write a scrip for some motrin and leave that in the nurses office (cheaper than buying it otc as well). A lot of parents do this and it works well.

Where we live kids have to have a school physical, so getting a script at the same time would make sense as long as parents remember to do so.

I talked to the school social worker today about my 12 year old. She's going to touch bases with all of my DD's teachers and see how they think things are going, and try to facilitate some friendships for my DD.

I also put a call into the only private school in the area that isn't religious. I have resevations about it, though. It is an 8 hour day and I've heard that it's very competitive accademically. Even though it would be smaller and quieter, I don't know that it would lower her stress level.

Another option I've though of is a new tutoring center that has opened this year. If we go back to homeschooling, I'm thinking of having DD do all the subjects there that they tutor, and just do the other subjects at home. (I'm very burned out on homeschoooling).

Kids and I have all been sick.

My 12 year old isn't adjusting to school very well. She has sensory issues and is just overwhelmed. The work itself isn't a problem and now she's figured out how to keep it all organized, but the press of people and the noise are getting to her. I'm not sure what would be best for her, as homeschooling here is super isolating.

.

:hug to you and your DD

Maybe she needs more time to adjust?

Can you and she problem solve with the school counsellor/a sympathetic teacheron how to decrease some the overstimulation? It could be tricky, though, how to decrease noise - but not single yourself out. (i.e she may be able to leave class early or sit somewhere quiet for lunch - but she may not be game with that).

Gifted children often have sensory issues. Even if she is not "gifted" posting on that subforum may help - they may have btdt.

Lastly - could she HS part time? She may get the socialising she needs, but in more manageable chunks.

Good luck!

Kathy

edited to add: just read the later posts - great minds think alike! If you return to HSing - could cyber school work? Some cyber options included the online teacher doing everything....it may be cheaper than tutoring.

Okay, I have a small dilemma. I have a small problem with dd's geometry teacher. I think he is basically a nice guy and smart. However, he is very disorganized and seems to have some trouble with classroom control. For example, several boys were talking and he couldn't get them to stop so he assigned the whole class extra problems for homework - long proofs. I really dislike it when the kids who are trying hard to pay attention get punished along with the troublemakers. He is extremely slow in returning any homework. Often they have not had homework back before they are tested over the material. He is often vague about when tests will be or what is required on assignments. He'll say stuff like maybe we'll have the test tomorrow, or maybe the next day, or maybe next week. They have to keep a portfolio of theorems, postulates, formulas, etc. The assignment sheet states they should be organized by category (theorem, postulate,etc.) or by chapter. My dd did it by category and organized them within each category in a way that made sense to her. He evidently wanted them to be in order they appear in the book, but it was never specified. So she worked hours programming pretty diagrams and organizing 50 pages of this stuff. Then she gets docked for not doing them in order. I read the assignment, it didn't state that they should be. I've emailed him twice very politely asking about homework, and stating that although my dd really enjoys his class she is a bit anxious because she is having difficulty understanding what he wants and when exams will be. He has never answered. Dd has no difficulties in her other class - she's always on top of what is going on. I've tried to catch him before school but he tends to get there right as school starts so I can't hold him up.

So, dd still has a good grade in the class should I just blow this off? She is a little frustrated and anxious because she is never quite sure she is doing the assignment correctly (she gets the concept just unsure of the format he wants) or if she has a test coming up. They have a online grade book where both completed and upcoming assignments and tests are supposed to be posted. This teacher only posts graded assignments (which are few). The end of the first half of this course (block schedule) is next Friday.

It is definitely not a crisis situation, just annoying. The guy has potential of being a good teacher, this is only his second year. So, do I say anything or just let it ride?

Oh, that sounds REALLY aggravating and stressful about her geometry teacher! I would be getting pretty :irked by this point. Since you asked, I would definitely NOT let it ride. I would ask for a parent-teacher-principal conference, and do it ASAP. I would have the three adults there, not your DD, and hash out exactly what is bugging you and your DD. For the first conference, I would avoid bringing your DD because you wouldn't want her to feel she is being singled out or attacked and made to be uncomfortable. But behind the scenes, you can work your butt off to make sure this teacher gets more accountable (hence the principal there) and more organized. He sounds, quite frankly, useless. But like you said, maybe there is hope for the guy. Anyway, that is how I would handle it, and I wish you all the luck in the world.

Where we live kids have to have a school physical, so getting a script at the same time would make sense as long as parents remember to do so. But it was kind of awkward to say "I know DD isn't menstruating yet, but could you write her a script for menstrual cramps just in case?" Besides, we got into a huge arguement about vaccines and everything else I intended to ask her about was completely forgotten.

Okay, I have a small dilemma. I have a small problem with dd's geometry teacher. You've tried to contact him directly, and he hasn't responded. I think it's time to go over his head. Let the principal know what's going on. I'm not sure you definitely need to schedule a 3 way conference at this point, but definitely call or email the principal with your concerns and go from there.

You've tried to contact him directly, and he hasn't responded. I think it's time to go over his head. Let the principal know what's going on. I'm not sure you definitely need to schedule a 3 way conference at this point, but definitely call or email the principal with your concerns and go from there.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try and talk to him after school this afternoon - one last ditch attempt at dealing with him directly. I'll also set up a little talk with the principal. He needs to know about the teacher not using the online system like it is intended. He can then be alert for further problems.

On a side note, I'm fighting a rotten cold. Perhaps I shouldn't go talk to him today but you know if he'd ever answered a single email he wouldn't have to face me and my virus! :irked

I asked dd if she wanted me to speak to her teacher and she gave me an earth shattering, YES! so I guess I better get off my butt and do it.

Any luck with the geometry teacher? I'm guessing not.

My kids are all home on a 3-week break. It SUCKS. It was fine for the first week, but now the second week, I am ready to ship them all off. The fighting and bickering, and my son bored off his butt and plaguing the crap out of everyone. It all SUCKS and I definitely remember, oh BOY do I remember, why I stopped homeschooling. MAN am I hating this. Two more weeks. Crap. They are on year-round and there are three week breaks every so often. I wish there were no breaks. At all. There are already 52 weekends a year.....isn't that ENOUGH together time??

Heh heh, look what happens when HSers go over to the Dark Side!!

My kids are all home on a 3-week break. It SUCKS. It was fine for the first week, but now the second week, I am ready to ship them all off. The fighting and bickering, and my son bored off his butt and plaguing the crap out of everyone. It all SUCKS and I definitely remember, oh BOY do I remember, why I stopped homeschooling. MAN am I hating this. Two more weeks. Crap. They are on year-round and there are three week breaks every so often. I wish there were no breaks. At all. There are already 52 weekends a year.....isn't that ENOUGH together time??

Heh heh, look what happens when HSers go over to the Dark Side!!



LOL

I'm feeling the oposite ugg this dang homework:irked I'm ready to pull her out now. heck homework for tonight one of the ?'s on the math paper was
"Use Markers
Show ways to make 8
Write the number sentence."
then it has 6 lines that show ___ +___
and it shows a chart with greyed out markers it shows 8 and to spots that are blank. :irked

and down the paper more it has "Hailey used counters to make 4. She uses white,black,black,black. Is she correct? Explain why or why not "
Umm how the heck do they expect a 1st grader to explain that.:irked
heck i'm not even sure how to explain that:scratch

LOL

I'm feeling the oposite ugg this dang homework:irked I'm ready to pull her out now. heck homework for tonight one of the ?'s on the math paper was
"Use Markers
Show ways to make 8
Write the number sentence."
then it has 6 lines that show ___ +___
and it shows a chart with greyed out markers it shows 8 and to spots that are blank. :irked

and down the paper more it has "Hailey used counters to make 4. She uses white,black,black,black. Is she correct? Explain why or why not "
Umm how the heck do they expect a 1st grader to explain that.:irked
heck i'm not even sure how to explain that:scratch


Yes, she was correct because one white markers and three black markers makes 4 markers altogether.

It makes it all very concrete, and very real, instead of cramming math facts to memorize down their throats.

Yes, she was correct because one white markers and three black markers makes 4 markers altogether.

It makes it all very concrete, and very real, instead of cramming math facts to memorize down their throats.



Okay yeah that does make sense.

Some news: DD got her progress report today...She's in 7th in ps.

Soc Studies A- (three graded assignments)
Lang Arts B
Math Enrichment B+ (this is a kind of remedial math class that is referral only)
Pre Algebra E
Science E

The pre algebra was just two points away from a D. We knew it was coming and figured the science was low too. But, she is missing 5 homework assignments in Pre Alg. She doesn't know why or what it was.

Just an update too, my dd has some LD's (by definition, we didn't say this when homeschooling) and the school is still testing her. We have an IEP meeting in two weeks. I'm pretty sure they will need to help her get organized (missing homework) since she is NOT.

Overall though, she (and we, LOL) were pretty happy about her other grades. The best thing is though, even with the E's she still loves school. She hates algebra though. And why are they even teaching it now in Jr. High? This is high school level math, same with her science. The algebra is what we had in 9th grade in the 1980's. And there is no other option! I do hate that part. Alot.

Emotionally, I've been pining a bit. My youngest was home today with suspected chicken pox. I miss the relaxed pace. Somedays I just keep rolling it over in my mind, hmmm, I hope we are doing the right thing here...

Sneezykids~ Too bad we aren't closer, i'd love to expose my 3yr old to the chicken pox.

:( Alex pretty much failed her 1st spelling test/math review/poem recitation last week.:(
When asked why she only wrote down 5 of the 10spelling words she said she didn't get enough time, she also had only 2 words of the sentence they were also expected to write down done. The 5 words she did do on the top of the paper it says the teacher helped her write them. On reciting the poem she got a 2 (partially proficiant-sometimes meets standards) for memorization and eye contact.She got a 3(proficient- grade level standard performance) for Posture, and a 1(not proficient-below grade level standard) for Voice. :(:(:(

I have a feeling this weeks test will be worse especially for the poem test since this weeks poem is way way longer than last weeks.

Ugh, recitation and stuff. THAT kind of thing makes me want to still HS. Does that kind of thing really help us learn? Besides rote learning, that is?

I'm glad everyone is hanging in there, albeit with some stresses it sounds like. School....who would have thought we'd all be doing this now?

I don't think it helps at all. And especially the way they are grading kids for memorizing stuff.

I'm trying to hold out til December since that was my dh's compromise to my wanting to homeschool Alex, was that she start 1st grade in public school and go til December when we will re evaluate on if we are going to pull her out. She struggled so much in public school K last year.

And why are they even teaching it now in Jr. High? This is high school level math, same with her science. The algebra is what we had in 9th grade in the 1980's. And there is no other option! I do hate that part. Alot. It's strange that there's no other option. DD2 (8th grade) is in honors classes for math and science, and so is doing the same thing that DD1 is doing in 9th grade. She has the option of switching to regular 8th grade classes if these are too hard for her (but she's doing fine.)

Ugh, recitation and stuff. THAT kind of thing makes me want to still HS. Does that kind of thing really help us learn? Besides rote learning, that is? It works for some kids. Otherwise, who would have ever thought to teach kids this way? There actually ARE kids whose innate learning style is to memorize stuff and parrot it out, building up stores of trivia in their minds that they then sort out and make meaning of when they're older.

But that's only some kids. The vast majority of kids find that rote memorization gets in the way of exploring the world and creating the neural connections that lead to REAL learning. Not to mention the effect on self-esteem when they do poorly because they learn best in another method.

But it really sounds like Alex is being penalized for writing slowly- she didn't have time to write down all the words and the teacher didn't wait for her? This must be terribly confusing to her- on the one hand, she needs to write neatly or the teacher will make her redo the work. OTOH, if she writes slowly and carefully, she won't finish in time. Is the teacher TRYING to make Alex write quickly and sloppily? I really think you need to talk to her teacher about this- how on earth can Alex learn if she's not given a chance to copy down the information she needs to study?

If Alex stays in school, you may need to deal with special ed evaluations and an IEP- it really sounds to me like she's simply not capable of doing the writing they're expecting her to do. Her little fingers just aren't ready, and if the only way they can accomodate her needs is to label her "learning delayed" then you may need to go that route.

DD2 is really doing well and is happy in school. She got an 82 on her Algebra test, and I went over it with her. She lost 8 points (2.5 problems) for sloppy mistakes (mixing up signs and adding where she should have subtracted or vice versa) and 10 points (2 problems) because she didn't understand mathmatical notation- she didn't realize that 2X^2 (two ex squared) meant to square the X and THEN multiply by two, she thought that it meant to multiply by two and then square all of it. If you want to square both of them, then you'd write (2X)^2 instead. This is a fairly simple concept that she "missed" by not taking pre-algebra. But now that I've explained it to her, she understands it and isn't likely to make that mistake again.

It's also fairly irritating that she had less homework this week, and as a result she was less organized. I don't mind doing extra housework when she's busy with homework, but it really pissed me off to do all the dishes myself while she was playing on the computer. And then she forgot to "do her lunch homework" last night and barely had time to make her lunch this morning before school- I think she ended up being a few minutes late to school.

Ruthla~ I plan on talking with her teachers. I know Alex for sure has problems with her attention span. I think if the spelling/math part of the test was time, it shouldn't have been. Since they were expected to copy 10 words, write a full sentence that was probably printed on the whiteboard also, and 2 pages of math to also complete.

:( Alex pretty much failed her 1st spelling test/math review/poem recitation last week.:(
When asked why she only wrote down 5 of the 10spelling words she said she didn't get enough time, she also had only 2 words of the sentence they were also expected to write down done. The 5 words she did do on the top of the paper it says the teacher helped her write them.

Does it matter? My dd who started school last year in 5th grade bombed pretty much every spelling test she took, but she got As on all her spelling homework and a B in spelling. Even aside from the "it all averages out" thing, does it really matter what she gets in spelling?

I'm noticing a common theme than kids in school do far more writing than kids who are homeschooled, so when formerly homeschooled kids start school, they write slower. Eventually they catch up because they get so much practice at it, but in the mean time, can you and your DD just not let the grade matter to either of you?

On reciting the poem she got a 2 (partially proficiant-sometimes meets standards) for memorization and eye contact.She got a 3(proficient- grade level standard performance) for Posture, and a 1(not proficient-below grade level standard) for Voice. :(:(:(

Unless your school gives grades of F and your child recieves one, they haven't failed squat. It's a really big leap to go from a child getting 3 marks on an assignment, one of which was "proficient," to saying they failed. And even if you didn't say it to her, the fact that you feel that she failed will show up in your attitude.

Did she not speak up? Is that what "voice" means?

Reciting a poem is the begining of learning to speak in public. There really is a lot to get out of the exercise. Since they do it every week, she'll get far more comfortable speaking up for herself, which can only be a good thing.

Does it matter? My dd who started school last year in 5th grade bombed pretty much every spelling test she took, but she got As on all her spelling homework and a B in spelling. Even aside from the "it all averages out" thing, does it really matter what she gets in spelling?

It does since the school seems like they are already putting pressure on them to get a good %, as shown by having the parents read over the packet with the spelling test/poem test/math test. and then having the parents sign the paper and return it to school.

Did she not speak up? Is that what "voice" means?
I'm assuming she didn't and that is what "voice means'"

Reciting a poem is the begining of learning to speak in public. There really is a lot to get out of the exercise. Since they do it every week, she'll get far more comfortable speaking up for herself, which can only be a good thing.



She can be very outgoing and has no problems talking to strangers so i was kinda shocked she had problems not speaking up with the poem from last week

It does since the school seems like they are already putting pressure on them to get a good %, as shown by having the parents read over the packet with the spelling test/poem test/math test. and then having the parents sign the paper and return it to school.

Everything from my child's school that they want to make sure the parents see must be signed and returned. It doesn't mean anything. It's just to make sure that you see it.

Both my dc are still happy at school (a pleasant shock!). Ds5 is in preK, so it's fun by design, and his teacher is one of the best I've seen. :joy

Ds12 still hasn't made friends, but is on "good terms" with everyone, AFAIK, and doesn't seem bothered. He's not having any trouble in classes, except for English. He's great at reading, spelling, and vocab. Writing and grammar rules are a challenge, though. I never saw much point in teaching children grammar rules, myself!

This made me :rolleyes-- I was walking down the hall with ds12 (Taro) after school, and his English teacher was coming from the other direction. He and I said "Hi" to her. She said, to me, "Do you have a relationship with Taro?"

:confused I was like, WTF? I said "Of course I have a relationship with him; he's my best friend!" :innocent She, without bothering with any pleasantries, started in on him about how he hadn't been asking questions in class, even though he obviously had questions, because he hadn't finished the work.

She's addressing this to him, not me, and not bothering to explain to me what she's talking about (I found out later it was grammar worksheets). She told him (reasonably) that he needed to ASK if he didn't understand. Then she said that since it was group work, the other students in his group's grades would suffer if he didn't do a better job. :irked She told him that he needed to ask his groupmates questions, because their class was "one of her largest classes," and that she couldn't possibly answer every question. The class has EIGHTEEN kids! I'd hate to see how she'd deal with a real big class!

She was very condescending to him, and really rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't have a great opinion of her in the first place, and that exchange didn't improve it any! :nono02

Urgh. I have to wonder why people like that are teaching middle school. If you don't like adolescents, and won't treat them with respect, why work with them all day?


OTOH, this is a good opportunity for Taro to learn how to deal with unpleasant people. In the working world, not all bosses and co-workers are easy to get along with. (BTW, I wouldn't make this kind of comment for a younger child- dealing with unpleasant people at age 12 is a lot different from learning to deal with them at age 7! Plus, this is only ONE of his teachers, not the sole adult in charge all day.)

We are joining the group! My boys start at the local ps on Monday. We have homeschooled for the last 3 yrs. and always said that when it wasn't working for everyone that we would make a change. It stopped working for my boys so we have enrolled them. I am excited for both of them as I think they will love it and do well but at the same time I am sad. In a way for me it is the loss of a dream. I always thought we would be one of those families where the kids all homeschooled and were thoughtful, intelligent, confident and community involved. We would explore together and learn together. It is not that with the kids in ps that we can't do this it is just that now I have to re-frame what it will look like. Sigh...

Anyway, thank you for this thread. Prior to reading it I was feeling a bit like a failure on the hs front.

Welcome welcome welcome Runnerbrit!!!

First grade is going well for Julian, now. He's in reading intervention with several of his classmates who are behind in reading and he's catching up very quickly, has been reading stuff all over the place and actually reading books for fun! Math, science, and social studies are easy for him and his spelling and writing seem to be fine. He's made a lot of friends and has started walking to and from school by himself, which he's proud of. He's playing afterschool flag football. We have almost no conflict now that we aren't homeschooling. We have all been sick, but we've restarted our winter echinacea/acidophilus/multivitamin regimen so hopefully we're past that.

So, mid-quarter academic warnings were supposed to go out last week, and ds12 didn't get one for English, so I thought we were in the clear... guess what I got on Friday? :faint Ds12 is failing English. The "good" news is that it's only by 2 points, mostly it was due to his not turning in homework, and the teacher is giving the class a bit of amnesty. Apparently, lots of students had missing homework. It's against her official policy to take late work, but she gave them the weekend to make it up.

Guess what ds spent this weekend doing? I think he'll think twice before blowing off his homework again, given how much time he spent on it this weekend, and how much I yelled. :o

I wouldn't have been mad if he'd failed "honestly," but slacking on assignments and letting me think he'd turned them in is just NOT on. I asked ds WTF, and he was fairly incoherent. What I gather is that he didn't understand the assignments, felt anxious, and instead of asking for help, decided to play "If I close my eyes, you can't see me!" :eyesroll

We have to all conference with the teacher, the principal, and the guidance counselor. :crap Bleh. It's especially embarassing, because not only do I work at his school, but everyone knows I'm a former English teacher!

On a more pleasant note, ds5 started Saturday morning by saying, "Thank you for taking me to school, Mommy-- I love it!" Woo hoo for untraumatized 5 year olds!

Welcome Runnerbrit!

Thank you!

Day 2 and so far all is well. They have 1/2 day all week so the boys are able to gradually get used to the longer school day. The both think the idea of "speed tests" is pretty funny. My 5th grader said "Mom what is the point of doing them fast if you get them all wrong?" Apparently he only finished 1/2 of the problems in the allotted time but got them all right; the rest of the class finished all of the problems, but got most of them wrong. My 3rd grader was happy that his seat mate got a retainer yesterday so that today the little boy could not talk so ds got to do his work "in peace".

Homework - still a novelty - I wonder how long that will last?

Did public schools just begin this week, or did your kids start after the school year began?

If it did just start, do you mind sharing what general part of the world you live in? I thought that Long Islanders were among the latest to start schools, and we've been at it a month already!

Ruthla - We started the year homeschooling so they are jumping in late.

Anyone here know anything about the GATE program?

GATE programs vary greatly from place to place. When done well it can be a great place for kids to stretch their imaginations and creativity. When done poorly it can be seen as extra work you have to do because someone decided you were a bright kid. It can be of social benefit and help in finding kids with similar interests.

My dd's school had the PSAT this morning. They encouraged 8th graders to take it for practice. They did a practice PSAT a few weeks ago and it freaked out a bunch of the 8th graders. So, yesterday they said they had come up with an alternate plan for the 8th graders while the rest of the school, except seniors, took the test. If an 8th grader wanted to take the test they could. Well my dd's classes would not be held because they were during the PSAT, so I offered her the chance to stay home. She didn't want to stay home, she wanted to go take the test. So, off to school she went. Of all the 8th graders, there were 3 who chose to take the test. They were all homeschoolers until this year! LOL