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When your plans go out the window

Well, we’ve had a very eventful summer already and NOTHING has gone as planned.  Well I shouldn’t say nothing, but pretty much my plans thus far have all been changed.

Life really does get turned upside-down in the blink of an eye, epsecially when Mommy is involved.  We had been running “Mommy’s Summer School/Camp” just as planned when I ended up going to the dr one evening at dinner time and not going home, for 3 days.  It ends up that I needed to have emergency surgery.  This means, all the kids were now attending “Daddy’s House of Fun”.  Our Community stepped up big time and the 4 older kids were invited to attend 3 days of Camp Gan Izzy while Daddy was back and forth with the youngest visiting me in the hospital and supervising naptime.  I have to say that I was glad to get home, but am still trying to recover in time to disappear for a week with the youngest.

“SO that;s just a few days” you say.  Yes, that was.  But the 4 older kids got lucky and “Daddy’s House of Fun” has been extended for yet another week (even though Daddy is now back at work).  As life does happen, they are now attending another week at CGI and Mommy is working on healing as fast as humanly possible in order to travel out of the country in 5.5 days.  This means, another week lost for “Mommy’s Summer School/Camp”.

For most kids, a couple weeks off is nothing.  It’s well deserved and usually they will get back into the swing of things easily and thats it. But my special child is not “most kids”.  Each week off is another week we lose on either catching up or retaining what has been learned already.  Its a struggle to keep the momentum and the change of routine can be a killer for everyone.  All I can say is “Thank G-d” we haven’t had too much trouble.  This time around.

To sum things up thus far, my kids are hitting the jackpot this summer and are getting 2.5 straight weeks of total fun while they attend 1.5 weeks at CGI followed by ANOTHER week at karate camp (while mommy disappears for a week).

Last night, while at a function, my husband was cornered by some administrators from the school we sent our son to this past year.  You know they are desperate when……..  We still haven’t told them a definate answer about returning next year.  They really want to work with us on some things but we still aren’t sure about other things.  The behind the scene problems are not enough to change our mind, yet.  So once again, we are back to talking about either keeping our son home, or sending him to school.  Until then, I will keep on working with him on the curriculim that we did buy already and keeping tabs on what he is doing right now.  I would hate to stop what we have already done at home.  We’ve already submitted 2 math tests for marking and are finishing up a grade 1 workbook before moving on to grade 2 stuff.  After we hashed some things out for 20 minutes I had said boy running to grab his workbook and complete some pages (I actually sent him to get his reader since we missed a few reading sessions together, but he came back with this on his own instead).  Oh, and we found out that he didn’t learn the concept we were working on!  How can I send him back when I see that he hasn’t learned what other kids did learn in other schools?  My lovely husband says we should humour the school and talk with them together and bring up all of our concerns.  I am not sure how much I want to talk and listen at this point seeing as anytime I did talk to them last year, amounted to nothing.  I am not a fan of people trying to talk you into something you already made a decision about.  I HATE second guessing myself and decisions!  What I can definatly say is after observing my son working with me, one on one, he is one smart cookie who just needs that right person to dig it all out.  He may seem like he isn’t paying attention but he really is.

So what have we learned the last 2 weeks?  When life throws you lemons, make lemonade!

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End of the year rap up

Well, we’ve officially come to the end of our trial year at school.  I must say, it was NOT what I was expecting!  We had a lot of down’s though we also had some ups.

So let’s start with the positive things.  My son made some great friends who accepted him for who he is.  Infact, whenever we went to weekend events he was “attacked” and greeted with big smiles by all his classmates.  If he wasn’t around right away they always asked us where he was!  It melts any parents heart to know their child is accepted by society even with “flaws”.   The other positive thing was all the Judaics that he got.  He REALLY wants to be a Rabbi.  He takes that seriously and really paid attention to all the beautiful Torah stories for parsha, Halacha (laws/rules) for the holidays as well as his Davening (praying).  Infact, I think he is more advanced in some areas then his older brother!  I hope that everything he has soaked up this last year he will keep with him and only grow.

Now, for some negative things.  We had a REALLY tough time with the fact that he is “special needs”.  I tried to talk with the teachers at various times in the year.  We would come up with plans but nothing ever came of it.  They just weren’t set up to deal with any child who needed more attention than other students.  I sent in aids for the classroom for him to use to find out they sat in his cubby the entire year.  I was and still am disappointed that they couldn’t stick to simple plans that would make EVERYONES life simpler.  The other issue I am encountering is that he is behind in his secular studies.  Part of this is due to the fact that he has been attending a montessouri style school.  There is no standard and therefore nothing stating what the minimum standards are for the year.  And should I get started on carpool?  What an INSANE thing!  We carpooled with 2 other families and even though I only ended up with 1 full carpool trip (I did one pick up for just my child on Mondays, for Karate’s sake!), that 1 trip was dreaded EVERY SINGLE WEEK!!!!  A full van of kids and me. I had the privilage of dragging my 4 other kids with me to pick up 3 more kids and then battle the freeway praying I beat the beginning of rush hour.   (I wont bore you with the trouble I had with some of the kids…..)

So what is our final decision on our school trial for our “special” child?  Our very special son is going to be returning to “Mommy’s School” and we are going to ADD his younger brother to the mix this coming year.  I am very excited to be able to get rid of 3rd party people and just beable to focus on my children alone.  Its going to be an interesting year forsure.  And I am sure that once I finally get used to it, their younger sister will be done Pre-K and ready to start “Mommy’s School” as well!

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Another Homeschooling Blog… With a Twist!

Hi.  My name is Melissa and I am privilaged to be a mom to 5 wonderful children.  Oh, and I homeschool.

Every family has their own reason for homeschooling.  We have what I like to call a “blended” family.  This means some of our kids go to school, while others stay home.   Come January of each year we gear our selves up to either register for a school or to keep them home the following year.  I am proud to say that we have been a homeschool family for 4 years now.  My oldest is 2 grade levels ahead of his peers and is thriving at home.

Last year, my 2nd son was lucky to join his brother for “Mommy’s School”.  He completed a 3 year program at a wonderful preschool/Pre-k program and was ready for kindergarten.  On the surface one might have looked at us learning all over town (yes, homeschool children also get field trips!) and seen 2 happy children (with their new baby sister in tow).   On the outside this special kindergartener seemed like your average child.  You would never guess that truthfully, he is a special needs child.

“But that’s all good!”  you might say.  Of course its good, but what you wont see right away is our son has Sensory Intergration Disorder.  This means his senses are extra sensative and therefore doesn’t function or learn in the same matter as other children.  We’ve been through the whole therapy scene and have since moved on with a plan of action.

Being an observant Jewish family, the decision to homeschool vs sending to school can be a tough one.  You want them to get a great secular education (math, science, language arts, social studies) as well as a great judaic education.  Of course living the life style is a great way to learn HOW to do things, but it doesnt always teach WHY.  For our son we decided that getting strong building blocks for his secular education first would be the best thing for him.  Over time, we would encourage him to explore the judaics.  I have to be honest, our plan backfired when he announced to us that he want to be “A Rabbi and a Daddy!”.  I guess a dual curriculim is a MUST for him!

So whats the purpose of writing my ups and downs on paper and sharing with the world?   There are many people who think that a child who is special needs can’t learn, or wont be able to keep up with the rest of us.  I think its important to educate these people.  But there are also other families that have fallen in this trap of what to do with their own “special”  child.  Life is not easy for us, but we can definatly make it all worth it.