Homeschool

A week ago yesterday, Boo started going full day school for a 5th grade social studies unit about government. They make a small town where everyone has jobs and it's supposed to be really fun.

This past week I've had lots of extra time. I need not remind you what I spend most of my extra time on.

Wednesday Boo had violin lessons. They didn't go so good. At one point, her teacher turned to me and said, "I'm losing her. What can I do?" I explained that she had been going to school full time and her teacher immediately understood.

It reminded me of an experience I had when I was teaching 2nd grade. I had a cute little boy in my class who had been adopted when he was a baby along with his biological brother. Seems like there was drug usage from the mother, among other things.

This little boy- Bryson, was so smart. And he was well behaved. A great kid to have in class. His mom told me at PTC that he was on Ritalin for ADHD. I was very surprised because he was so good and didn't seem to exhibit any of the signs that other children with ADHD had.

Some time later, he had a horrible day. He couldn't focus. He was being disruptive. Everything went wrong. So after school I called his mom to talk to her about what had happened. She said to me, "I didn't give Bryson his medication today. I did it on purpose. I needed to see if it was doing him any good. I'm so sorry you and he had to have such a rough day. But I had to do it."

That's when I knew that Ritalin did *in certain cases* make a positive difference. I had had several kids who were on Ritalin and you couldn't tell if they were on it or not. In fact, no other child that was on Ritalin, or any other similar medicine, was so well behaved and did so good while on the medicine.


So back to my experience with Boo. The rest of the week was rough at home. She just can't seem to handle being in school all day. I call it "over-stimulation". She has been prone to be over-stimulated since she was born. When she gets over stimulated, it's like she withers up like a dried up flower.

We have been contemplating what to do next year for her for school. We will be moving to a different state. And in this state it is harder to do the 1/2 day homeschool. I would like Boo to have good (and otherwise awkward) experiences that every pre-teen must have. But not at the expence of seeing her spirit die. And, I would love to have 7-8 hours of time to do stuff I want to do each day, including spending much more time with Sweet Pea. But there are consequences to this. We have told Boo that she gets to make the decision about whether or not she wants to be home schooled. I know the best option for her, but she has to make the choice.

PS. The designer I'm on a CT for is on the left of my blog- Gettin' Scrappy with Britt. She blogged yesterday to introduce her CT team. I was very surprised to find that of the 7 of us, I'm the only newbie. And, most of the other CT members are designers themselves. WOW!