Sunday, January 6, 2013

A Year of Changes!

It's been over a year since I was able to post to this blog.  I want to change that as the blog really helps me in figuring some things out while sharing with others the challenges and joys of raising twice exceptional kids.  I thought now was a good time to get recharged as we will be starting homeschooling with both of the kids starting this week.  This has been something we have thought about for a long time, but really never had the means to do and thought the kids needed to have peer interaction in a school environment.  I will cover this more later.  Today I want to talk about what has happened in the last year to bring us to this decision.

Pat retired from the military and got a new job in NM.  We had never planned to leave CO, I had lived there my entire life and had no desire to live anywhere else.  His job requires a good amount of travel and when he is home we wanted to be able to see him some.  He started looking at places and found a small town (population about 900) and a property with 44 acres off a river.  It is what we have always dreamed about since the day we met.  We put in an offer and I packed up and moved the kids and I while Pat was overseas.  

At first things were going okay, until the kids got into school.  Hunter did well with the smaller class sizes but Shana struggled with trying to fit into a school where everyone knows everyone and she was not doing well.  The schools were trying to do what is best for the kids but they have very limited resources and have not ever worked with kids like them before.  The schools are also very, very focused on sports and testing.  This was hard as neither play sports and Shana felt pressured to join (she finally said she didn't want to) and is constantly asked why she isn't on the team.  Shana was also devastated when they cut art and music for the middle school kids because the schools standardized test scores were so low that they are doing more "test prep" classes.  

This is when we realized that our kids need something different.  They are both bright, creative, inquisitive, and really excited to learn.  However, we have seen for the last few years that the schools are trying to squish our unique shaped polygons into a square hole.  They can't expand on topics or skip sections that they have already learned.  There was no support in helping Shana with executive functioning to be able to remember to turn in homework, or prioritize work.  Hunter struggled with being in the class when they were singing songs that he felt were for preschoolers.  We also had struggles with make-up work when we took our family vacation.  We take it during the time that Pat is home from trips and these don't always coincide with school breaks.  

It just wasn't working.  

In early October I decided that starting in January we would begin homeschooling the kids.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I am excited and looking forward to seeing the spark in their eyes as they begin to enjoy learning again for the love of learning, not the test.  I'm nervous that I don't know enough or won't be good enough to teach them well.  I am looking forward to the Biblical curriculum that spans all subjects (even the math word problems are a Christian perspective).  I'm dreading not ever having a break from them and worried that will cause too much stress.  I'm happy to get to spend such a wonderful time of their lives learning and growing with them.  

I don't know exactly where this path will lead us, but I know in my heart that we are making the best decision for our kids.  

Next post I will talk about how the school is working with us to provide wonderful resources for the kids and I while homeschooling.  

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