Well as many of you know I pulled Adam from public school this week (only Adam), we (yes Tyler too) felt like this was the best decision for Adam and his education. As many know Adam has ADHD but he functions very well on his medication, but he still has moments of being disorganized, and rushing through work. Math has been a huge struggle for him for a couple years, of course he loves reading and that's always been his favorite part of school. This year started off with him at Middle School 1, (I will withhold the name of the school but if you really want to know just ask through private message) he was pretty overwhelmed but we were hopeful he would adjust to the changes of switching classes. He had accommodations for ADHD in place and we worked with the school to update them which was a struggle. Math continued to be hard and we began discussing homeschool after the 1st quarter when grades were not where they should be, we started in the 2nd quarter making him attend tutoring until 430 4 nights a week in hopes this would help. He was still getting terrible grades even with tutoring, something was not right. We met with teachers several times and got no answers other than he needs to work harder. We even asked if teachers would email us homework assignement at the beginning of the week so that we would know what to look for everyday, they quickly said no we don't have the time to "worry" about every child. So Christmas rolled around and we were moving to a new house on Fort Hood in hopes of a house that would work out better for our family in many ways.
He began at middle school 2 after break where they called to get his accommodation plans because they were never loaded in the computer, I was furious at this point. Are you kidding me they didn't even make the effort to follow or hand out his plan to his teachers, how can a school do this? School 2 was academically much further ahead even though it was the same district, we knew there was a huge chance that Adam might struggle, but we are going to see how it goes. Mid way through quarter 3 Adam was staying for tutoring daily and struggling in math to the point of failing. We met with his teacher several times and she would email us and basically tell us how awful he was doing, we made several suggestions at which we would get attitude like "he's failing anyway so why bother". Shortly after Tyler left for Korea it was time to meet with his new school to sign off on the same accommodation plan being transferred (finally). We talked about ways to help him but they said well he basically is beyond help because he "took the whole first semester off". Ok so this is not going to be easy.... Weeks go by again and he's not only failing math but now social studies as well because they are so far ahead of him academically at school 2. A decision had to be made soon so I spoke with the school and they said its now impossible for him to pass the 6th grade because of math unless he got a 98% in 4th quarter which they assured me would not happen. I went home discouraged because why should he go sit at school everyday to fail? Our option for him at this point would be to attend summer school but they made it very clear that was no guarantee he would pass, hmm is it worth it? I kept not feeling ok with the situation. I was at lunch with a friend when I got a email from his math teacher yet again stating that he was pretty much hopeless and even if he tried she was sure it wouldn't be good enough because he lacked skills and motivation. He had also been told the same thing at school at this point he was becoming very discouraged. I began thinking more about homeschooling. All the sudden I was like why no, what will it hurt. I knew that he was a smart boy, capable, and in need of 1 on 1 time. I talked to Tyler about it and of course Adam, and Adam got so happy and said he would love it.
So now comes the planning part, I had already done tons of research and decided the perfect program for him would be Time 4 learning. So last weekend I enrolled him and he asked to start his work, well of course I said yes. I planned on doing paperwork this week to disenroll him and he was very excited to get it started so I did the paperwork Monday and today was day 1 of homeschooling. It went great! I have done tons of planning, setup, and organizing this week but I feel like it's well under control and I have no doubt that we made the perfect decision for him! I've had many questions which I will address below....
Why would you only home school 1 child instead of all 3?
I feel like every child is different and we will look of each of our children's needs when making decisions. If someday Allanah or Cam have a need that is not being met by public schools, or they want to be homeschooled we will look at all the factors to make the appropriate decision.
How will he get interaction with other kids?
We play outside as a family every evening and have many friends we spend time with. He also enjoys church and the youth center so he will have plenty of "human interaction".
Why would you pull him so late in the year?
Why not, what is he going to miss? He would not be passing 6th grade in public schools so he would have been wasting his time attending at this point.
Will he actually do work (yes I got this question)?
Why yes he will do work and lots of it. I planned out a full year of 6th grade lessons plus extra worksheets and he will finish the 6th grade June 15 working about 30 hours a week.
Those were he main questions. I am not asking everyone to be approve of our decision, but I ask that everyone respect it. I feel like we are 100% doing what is best for Adam. I am very happy with the fact that I get 1 on 1 time with him and I feel like I am qualified to teach him what he needs to learn with the help of our amazing curriculum. I know we will have days that will seem hard but I know we will get through those and look back someday and realize what an awesome opportunity and hidden blessing that God gave us. Yes I believe this is by all means a blessing!
Anyway I will update soon how the curriculum works out, and if anyone decides to join Time 4 learning for summer or for full time let me know and I will refer you so that you get a free trial and we get a free month. Hope I was able to answer some questions.
Adams desk.
