as school starts...
All of my high schoolers get a bit nervous when school is about to start. One of them blew last night. We should have seen it coming and done something proactively, but she hadn't had a real live kicking and screaming tantrum for over a year and were caught off guard.Holly was a wonder - coming downstairs from her sickbed, figuring out the problem and choosing a way to deal with it. She is really good at it. I kept my cool and didn't show any anger, which Holly said was enough. Well, it was my best at the time. The positive side was that, bad as it was, all was resolved and everyone in bed within an hour.
Holly is going to propose homeschooling S in English and Social Studies at her ARD today. I really understand why she wants to home school S, but S is not easy to teach. She is actually pretty difficult even to be around for extended periods of time. Well, Holly certainly will teach more than her teachers have so far this year in those subjects. Her English teacher has had her 'desyllabify' words ALL SEMESTER. For over three months, S broke down words into their respective syllables. I'm pretty sure that English is supposed to involve more than that, and I think the class would have been more exciting for S if they'd read and written more. Her Social Studies teacher considered that S had successfully completely a chapter of work if she finished the worksheet/test at the end of the chapter. So, S picked key words from each question, found it in the chapter (the word was usually bolded) and wrote whatever it said. She doesn't have a clue what any of it actually means, but she's totally 'caught up' in that class.
S is considered Special Ed legitimately, but that doesn't mean she's stupid. Her IQ is normal, possibly even high-normal. She has the capability to learn and understand lots of stuff, but they won't or can't take the time to help her actually learn it. Then they pass her, which they have to do because they can't fail her unless they prove to Holly that they've followed her set learning/behavior plans, which they don't. The first year with S we were more concerned with managing her behavior at school than how well she learned because one has to be able to function in society to survive. Now, despite what happened last night, we are concerned that she have a reasonable education. It looks like the only way she might get it is for Holly to try, which could drive us all crazy.
posted by cebii @ 7:09 AM
3 Comments:
Homeschooling is scary.
Honest, I know that and then it can often become something wonderful.
I had a child whose ipp said things like
"will make eye contact"
-which didn't do a lot for me. I wanted the kid to make eye contact but I also wanted them to read and have could comprehension and understand about current affairs and see math's wider implications besides on a worksheet.
It took a while but we are there now.
Good luck to you all!
BTW thank you so much for your comment on my post about my daughter's pet bird. I have been reading the comments out to her and it really does bring her comfort!
Well I am actually very pro homeschooling because as a dislexic with a very high IQ I know how the system failed me. I know about being in the special ed. classes (I was severly dislexic) and being totally out of my mind bored because I was sooooooo far ahead if I even made half the effort to be but I saw no point in making the effort.
I donno..... I read Loinmom's post.... it sounds really horrible what happened. It sounds like S. is so desprate......and so alone in her own head. Wish I knew how to help that...... wish I had that looking glass that would give you guys the key. But if my own experance is telling at all ... the keys are still in S.'s hands and her choices are still unmade.... I don't know if someone can choose to be sane, but I am pretty sure that someone CAN choose life, love, and joy. So that even in the darkness they are fighting for those things.... does that make sense?
The homeschooling sounds like a big responsibility, but it sounds like the school really isn't doing a proper job giving S an education. It sounds like if the homeschooling went well even a quarter of the time it would be more stimulating and condusive to learning than what S is doing now. I hope it goes well. You guys are amazingly dedicated parents.
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