Another letter to Becca,
Hi there…
I was looking at my calendar and realized you are well into your 4th
month and have an ultrasound coming up! Just think, if all goes well,
you will know if it’s pink or blue in less than a week! Woohoo!
(Sheesh… I’m busy with the exclamation points.)
I thought you would be interested to know that we had an official sit
down (or IZ did) with Boy Wonder’s teacher today where he was informed
that the curriculum isn’t going to get any more advanced. She told IZ that Boy Wonder is working way beyond his grade level. She said the tests
would come back soon–but IZ and I have decided not to wait until
then to move. Our options are a bit limited. We can keep him in 3rd
grade and let him be bored, advance him to 4th grade to run with the
4-6th grade crowd, or we can enroll him into a home-based program.
Obviously, they all come with downsides!
We’ll take door number three, Chuck! At least for this year. We have
decided (and had been considering this all summer, but wanted to give
the school a try first!) to enroll Boy Wonder into the Connections
Academy, which is an online charter school. It’s actually public
school, so the state still keeps track of your kid and tests. But your
child is allowed to go at their own pace as long as they make progress
and show that they are actually learning. I have NO issues with anyone
looking over my shoulder, since I have nothing to hide and a program
that requires that much accountability out of you means you can’t slip
up and let things slide. It is totally free, you don’t have to buy any
special books. The most we might have to do is purchase a P.C. to run
the programs on if our Macs run too slowly with the conversion
package. So, as soon as the paperwork is final, he will take a
placement exam and then they will ship our books etc… to us. We
should be up and running before October.
I have to say, I never thought we would homeschool. But, I just don’t
see what we can do. The homework he is bringing home is stuff he did
in first grade. He is already breezing through the 4th grade material
we have for his computer and demanding more stuff. Jack bought him a
science kit on electricity and the kid is building his own circuitry.
There is talk of a building a generator. I’d like to think otherwise,
but my kid is a science dweeb and the program here just isn’t capable
of challenging him. And how can they with 30+ students in a class?
So, your prayers are most wanted. If this doesn’t work out, we can
always enroll him in 4th grade next year–but my guess is, he will do
just fine. I am, on the other hand, a completely different story! I
don’t like the idea of him being present 24/7 but IZ and I agree that
he needs a better opportunity. I don’t think he can hang with the 4th
graders this year and at the rate he is moving, assuming it stays the
same, he would need to skip another grade again at the end of "4th".
NO WAY IN HELL am I letting my 9 year old hang out next year with those Juvenile
Delinquents they call middle schoolers. 🙂 Alone time, for the moment
at least, is going to have to be creative. Needless to say, we will be
looking for sitters soon! 🙂
We are getting him involved in Cub Scouts and starting him in swim
lessons at the end of the month–so hopefully he will make friends
there! And then there is always church… (ha ha ha ha *snort*) As
sad and frustrated as I am about my internship, it is probably a really
good idea that I’m home and not occupied with anything at the moment.
You know? Who knows, maybe we will all get on a neat and orderly
schedule and all my J tendencies will be unleashed.
Or not.
See, this is what happens when you move to Oregon. If I start planting
vegetables in my back yard and stop shaving my pits, could you please
just shoot me? 🙂 Thanks.
Hope you are well. . . I’ll keep you in my prayers this evening!
Wen
P.S. As usual, I’m too lazy to create content for my website so I’ll
probably be posting this (edited of course) on my site. Tsk, tsk, I
know. 🙂
