Last Day of PUBLIC School

So today is the kids last day of PUBLIC school...   I thought about letting them just stay home, but I also have this need to make sure that they do what they are suppose to. 

Calahan is finishing up his Sophomore year, which he completely and utterly failed. 

Why did he fail?

1. He didn't turn in work.
2. He has a lot of trouble asking for help.
3. He has major anxiety.
4. The School was not following his I.E.P. 
5. He stopped caring.
6. He was uncomfortable at school
7. There was some bullying. 
8. He had a lot of absences

So yeah, there are a lot of reasons - some in his control, some not.  Regardless - my biggest concern is that they aren't following his IEP.  I brought it up - and the first thing out of the counselors mouth was "are you reminding your teachers?"

I realize that a lot is piled on top of teachers these days... they are over worked, over stressed, and have to use a lot of their own money to make sure their classes are fun and interesting.... 

But since when is it the CHILD'S responsibility to make sure their I.E.P. is followed??? 

So we are certain we're going to allow Calahan to Homeschool/On-line School this coming fall.

Noah did really well this year... 

He "finished" 4th Grade, and by finished, I mean he made it through the school year.  He is at a 1st or 2nd grade level academically and they just keep pushing him forward even though I don't feel it's doing any good.  I have asked repeatedly that they hold him back a year.  I was told "no, we feel it's more important to keep him with his peers then giving him the stigma of being held back" .... Thanks No Child Left Behind Act ..... but let me ask you this....  How do you think it makes him feel to be pulled out of the class and exposed to the fact that he isn't at the same academic level as the other students in his class? 

When we moved here and decided to give the school district a try here ... I asked them to hold him back a year then, to make things a little easier on him.  They wouldn't.   So this past year, he was pulled out of class a lot, he couldn't work with his classmates because he wasn't at their level...  he was allowed to not do work because he couldn't... because it wasn't at his level.  When things were too hard in class, he had a folder of work (at his level) he could do ...  so he would pull that out and work on that while the class worked on something else.  Which is great, he showed initiative on pulling out work he could do... but ...  I don't think it's fair to him.  What exactly is he learning by this?

And then, he expressed to me one day - he doesn't feel smart because he can't do the same work as the other kids.

This broke my heart....

............ broke it....

So DB and I discussed it - and we're going to give it a chance through the summer and see if he'll listen to me and do his work, if he does - we're going to homeschool him, if he doesn't ... then I have no choice but to put him back in public school next year.  

Noah is a whiner - he whines at me all the time not to do stuff.  I still make him do it but it's a chore and hard  ... he doesn't act like this at school.  He listens, he's good, he's behaved....  I wish I had that Noah more often. 

In addition to that - we found out that Noah has Dyslexia - which I suspected and Calahan has something called Dysgraphia.   I actually wrote a blog about the Dysgraphia recently ...  check it out. 

I'm giving both kids a week off - one because it's my birthday on Monday - ha ha - and I don't want to start then.  But I think we're going to start the following week, on July 2nd.   That'll give me some time to get a plan in place. 

As for the babies ..... we'll see.  Nathan *hates* going to school - he cries everyday.   Kaedyn LOVES going to school ...    Nathan gets services through school like Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy ...  which are important.  And he needs to be exposed to a structured social environment right now, due to his Autism.  So we feel it is important to at least *try* to get him to like school.  He's starting a new school next year, and Kaedyn will be returning to the same pre-school.  We have no idea how this is going to go over since they were in school together this past year, and next year, they aren't even at the same school.  

So we're going to start off with the older two, and see how it goes with the younger ones..I'm excited!!