James had a visit yesterday afternoon with his Bio-Mom and a visit two weeks ago with his Bio Mom and and dog. It's awkward to say here, but before the visit he talked constantly about seeing his dog at the visit or about getting to toss the football with his Social Worker at the visit. Not so much about Mom. Hmmmm. I think he is releived of the burden of having to truly worry about her and parent her daily..now he can worry about her and miss her in more of am abstract way...I dunno.
Talked to James two weeks ago about the summer school letter I got from his guidance counselor in early June. I told him I'd rather do our own litle Summer School/Home School thing rather than sending him to summer school at the Junior High. He was excited and we talked about how that might look (reading the same book at the lake then asking each other questions... doing some math worksheets...going to the library and researching cool questions like he had just asked (does the moon move or does it stay right there all the time?)
I am certain we can accomplish more in a half an hour than he can do at the school in 3 hours with all the distractions of his peers. Plus if we are not tied to summer school, we can expose James to some "cultural opportunities" (translated: travel and go on vacation as a family)and more "positive influences" (in other words, avoid the teen punks he follows in school and gets in trouble with). We already talked to the Social Worker about this (and the Guidance Counselor, School Adjustment Counselor, Special Ed teacher and Math teacher). We were given the "go-ahead" and a nice workbook from the Math techer at his IEP last week. James hasn't "seen" it yet although it sits on the kitchen counter in plain view....
Let me say I am in AWE of homeschooling Moms and am in no way pretending I can do homeschooling...I am confident, however, that I can do the remedial worksheets on the Dept of Ed website. I have a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Ed and a Master's degree in Ed. I've spent 10 years working Special Ed in Elementary and High School. Junior High School Math worksheets can't be that hard to do...
The question is ....can I do them WITH James????
I'll keep you posted.
I am an AWESOME homeschooling mom. With select children. Others I would never attempt to homeschool. And some I homeschool and it happens, but it is not awesome. But it is better than public school would be. What is the old saying? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them learn anything? Yeah.
ReplyDeleteYou know I think this is a great idea. It will help bring you closer, honestly. Not that he doesn't seem happy there. (g) But he is going to get continual reinforcement about appropriate people to go to with questions--IMHO eventually that then translates to overwriting the old habit of asking peers or following peers etc. Also other kids at the school won't know about the homegrown summer school so he isn't labelled as one of the 'dumb kids' when traditional school starts back up. Even when Rob was in regular school we did reinforcement stuff over the summer. That old expression of use it or lose it is so, so true!
ReplyDeleteI homeschooled Alex for a grand total of seven months...and, I'm a certified elementary teacher who was teaching fifth grade curriculum,sort of. Problem was, the boy might have been a fifth grader on paper but IRL, he was all over the map. That's what happens when you spend the lion's share of your classroom days working like a dog to get kicked out. I only homeschooled him in order to keep him out of juvie. Oy, like you, I was great at working those worksheets and online activities but then he came in...
ReplyDeleteIf you've got his ARD or can get some of the grade level equivalencies off of it, I'd do that to see exactly where he's at for each subject. Just my .02
I think that if I were to homeschool Fudge one of us would not come out alive, actually let me rephrase that I KNOW one of us would not come out alive. Good luck
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